The 24 Hours of Le Mans, runs this weekend

O'Connell ready for endurance test
By RICK MINTER
Cox News Service
Friday, June 13, 2008

ATLANTA — The world's most prestigious endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, runs this weekend on France's Circuit de la Sarthe, and Johnny O'Connell of Flowery Branch, Ga., is among the favorites for a class victory.

O'Connell drives for Corvette Racing, and his bright yellow No. 63, which he co-drives with Ron Fellows and Jan Magnussen in the GT1 class, consistently has been atop the speed charts in preliminary runs and in qualifying.

O'Connell is a three-time Le Mans winner, and his Corvette team has won in five of the past seven years. He said this week in a phone interview that his Corvette C6.R has just the right combination of horsepower and handling to be fast on the 8.5-mile road course, which is a combination of race track and adjacent country roads. He said that of the two speed factors, his team focuses most on handling.

"Where the Corvette shines is in braking ability and our ability to go through the fast corners a little quicker," he said. "We place an emphasis on the handling of the car and its durability. The amazing thing is that only once, in all our tries, have both cars not finished."

O'Connell said that while he spends most of the year running the American Le Mans Series at tracks such as Road Atlanta, the race in France matters most.

"This really is the biggest race as far as the attention it receives around the world," he said. "That's the main reason the Chevrolet Corvette racing program exists. The ALMS is an amazing challenge, but really it's to keep us tuned up for this place.

"This is it."

Keselowski wins at Nashville

What a difference a year — and a better team — made for Brad Keselowski as he returned to Nashville Superspeedway last week for the Federated Auto Parts 300. In last year's 300, he drove Keith Coleman's underfunded Chevrolet to a 40th-place finish, dropping out after 23 laps with handling problems. His team folded after that, and Keselowski sat out four races before being picked up by car owner Dale Earnhardt Jr.

This year, he bolted past Clint Bowyer with six laps to go and scored his career-first Nationwide Series victory.

Afterward, he reflected on his improved fortunes with reporters at Nashville, saying his experiences last year were "about as bad as you could get."

"We brought a road-course car," he said. "It broke down about five times. I was afraid I was going to knock the wall down and get myself hurt it was so bad. That was one of those low points where you ask yourself, 'Why am I doing this? I need to get out of here before I get myself hurt.'

"The team folded up right after that, and I was left without a job. The rest was kind of history of how I got with Dale."

Rick Minter writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.