The new book, "Tom K & LeMans" has just become available. Author Nils Finderup is receiving accolades on his latest book, the follow up to the Danish only release "Tom Kristensen, The Life of a LeMans Winner" (2001). The latest release is available through the Tom Kristensen website and Nils is looking for an American distributor so any direction there will be appreciated. Tom Kristensen is heading for the position of the greatest sports car driver ever. The Dane had his début at the worlds best known race, Le Mans, in 1997 and has won the French classic five times out of seven. This book describes Tom Kristensens magical seven races, using words and fantastic pictures, some of which have never been published before. Many of the best photographers within the sport have caught the highlights, the clever angles, the anecdotes and even the rare glimpses of defeat. Through the photographers lenses the readers get a unique insight into the race of legends and a driver that already has become a living legend. http://www.tomkristensen.com BHW
While I agree that Tom is one of the best off the current crop of sports car drivers he can't even begin to be considered with the best until he faces some competition. LeMans has become a automanufactuer's marketing dream as there is little or no competition and they all take turns beating the sh*t out of underfunded underdriven privateer teams. Not since the mid 90's have seen factory efforts go head to head like Jaguar, Merc, Porsche, Nissan, Mazda, Toyota, and the rest. Derek Bell won it 4 times against major factory competition, Jacky Icxx won it six times against major factory efforts from Porsche, Ferrari and Ford. LeMans has become a joke in the past couple of years. The Audi and Bentley efforts spent on the order of $10+ million each season to win LeMans while most of the competition in LMP class spent 1/10th that. Who did Bentley and Audi beat........Dome, Courage, Panoz, ......... Not what I would call stalwarts of endurance racing. Don't get me wrong Tom is a world class driver but he didn't have to face near the talent and factory support that many of the greats did so I am not ready to put him up there with the greatest sports car drivers like Mark Donohue, Bell, and others. Regards, Jon P. Kofod 1995 F355 Challenge #23 www.flatoutracing.net
I rather tend to think that in seven appearances, Tom Kristensen has scored five victories in the most important race in the world. In the first case, Kristensen joined the TWR/Joest team less than a week before the 1997 24 Hours of LeMans to team with former Ferrari F-1 drivers Stefan Johansson and Michele Alboreto. Despite the fact that Kristensen had zero testing time in the car and had never seen the LeMans circuit previously, set the three fastest laps of the race en route to the team victory and being named "Man of the Race". These things simply dont just happen. As Tom's American P.R. representative, I could go on and on but suffice to say that had Eddie Irvine not blocked Tom's entry to the Ferrari F-1 team when Schmuacher broke his leg, Ferrari fans may be singing quite a different tune as when Kristensen and Irvine were team mates in the Japanese Group C series, Tom was regularly faster than Irvine in the same car. BHW
