KCMG enjoyed a near-flawless week at the Le Mans 24 Hours that culminated in a commanding LMP2 class victory ahead of Jota Sport and G-Drive Racing. Not only was it the first win for a Hong Kong team at Le Mans but also the maiden triumph for ORECA’s all-new 05 coupe.
Richard Bradley - who recorded the pole lap in qualifying spoke to eRacing on his first win alonside Matt Howson and Nicolas Lapierre.
A 48 second advantage over Jota is quite
an effort considering your drive-through penalty and minor excursion towards the end of the race. Was Greg Wheeler keeping things calm back at base?
He was doing his best to keep things calm, as you can imagine with it being such a big win with massive pressure then it's always hard to keep calm! However one of the great things about Greg is his ability to keep calm on the radio and I was talking to
him non-stop during the final stint to monitor the gap, the pace and the rain and
he was exceptional during this whole process.
The car came off at the same spot as one of the Nissan’s, was there a change in track conditions?
I believe that the Nissan actually leaked oil at Arnage which is why a couple of cars overshot then and after they needed a fire extinguisher on the Nissan.
You had a bit of fun with Sam Bird during the opening laps, did you wonder who was going to blink first?
This is the first battle I have ever had with Sam Bird. I do research on all my competitors so I know what to expect in battle but of course it's always different when you first do it with a different driver. However we had a very fun hard but fair battle, and he drove very well, especially when I passed him on the outside of Indianapolis. As we had set the car to come on during the 2nd stint, it was tough to keep him behind at first but then as the car came to me I was able to pull a gap.
How did you adjust to racing without floodlights?
The lights on the cars are so bright now that it isn't so difficult in terms of what you see ahead. A couple of strange corners that are banked such as Indy are difficult as the lights are just looking ahead so you actually turn into the corner blind without seeing where you are aiming for, but the hardest thing is when an LMP1 comes behind and the lights from them reflect off your mirrors and makes them impossible to look at. However after a few laps you get used to it.
You’re now defending a slender 4 point lead over G-Drive. A very different position to last year where the Ligier seemed unstoppable. How have you adapted to the new Oreca in a short space of time?
The Oreca 05 was released a lot later than the Ligier, so we were a bit behind at the start of the season. However with more laps and a great relationship with Oreca we have been able to make massive progress with the car, and I still personally feel that we will make more progress.
WEC is a very hard championship to win, especially in the ultra-competitive nature of LMP2, but leading after Le Mans is very good and something we will be doing our best to keep.
LMP2
KCMG finally cracks La Sarthe