Page 24 - On the Prowl: The Definitive History of the Walkinshaw Jaguar Sports Car Team

ON THE PROWL
1990: The Americans Take on Le Mans
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By the end of qualifying on Thursday evening, it had become clear
that Salazar was putting much more wear on the gearbox than his co-
drivers. Dowe confirmed his suspicions by talking to other team principals
who had run the Chilean in the past, receiving reports of their own
transmission internals looking decidedly abused from heavy-handed
shifting.
Nielsen was the car’s driver captain and therefore had some say in
how the race should be run. “Salazar was very quick, but he was very
hard on the gearbox. I said to Tom in the pre-brief that I didn’t want
Salazar in the car unless it’s absolutely necessary.”„2
The solution, which was approved by Tom Walkinshaw, was to keep
Salazar out of the car until Sunday morning. By that point, if one of the
other cars had retired, they could pull a faster driver from that car into
#3, and place Salazar elsewhere. It gave the team some flexibility but
would require Nielsen and Cobb to shoulder the significant load of up
to sixteen hours of driving between them. Walkinshaw was especially
pleased because he had one particular driver in mind, Martin Brundle.
Here was a chance for Walkinshaw to help get Brundle the Le Mans win
he so desperately wanted. Brundle describes the conversation:
“Tom’s plan was for us to drive flat out and draw the Porsches out.
There were so many, so he was like, ‘You go like hell and we’ll try and
break them.’ Then he said, ‘And if your car breaks, I’m gonna keep your
spot in the other car.’”
The final challenge was tires. The US team had run a softer compound
at Daytona and knew that they wouldn’t last for two stints, favoring a
harder 600 compound instead. But when they arrived in France, the 600s
were nowhere to be found. Dowe quickly put a call in to their US distributor
who arranged for a shipment of the favored tires to be delivered quickly.
When they arrived, tire technician Ken Szymanski hid them away, out of
sight of the Kidlington team, hoping to keep it a secret. Once the race
began, and #3 was successfully double-stinting tires when no one else
could, the gig was up, and Walkinshaw forced Dowe to hand over some
of the special tires.
The sports car circus descended once again onto Le Mans, upending
the daily lives of the insurance workers and Renault factory technicians
who called the ancient city home.
For weeks, the advanced publicity had been circulating, posters and
billboards that clearly demonstrated which manufacturer wanted the
headlines. Everything was Nissan. The Japanese marque had decided
to go all out, not just with media buys, but on the sporting side too. The
factory teams from the WSPC had two entries, NPTI’s IMSA outfit two, and
the Japanese championship team brought one, with special bespoke
bodywork.
Nissan would not be Jaguar’s only major concern. Even though
Mercedes was absent, there was the other German rival that still needed
to be watched. Although Porsche’s fortunes had faded in both IMSA and
VWinston Bush (second from right) stands next to his “baby,” chassis #1090, at scrutineering for the 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans. This is before Tony
Dowe and Allan Scott’s piece of subterfuge (that guaranteed an engine change after qualifying) played out. (Christian Vignon)
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