Dumbreck stays grounded at Le Mansposted in F115 | 06 | 2012
FIFER PETER DUMBRECK will return to prototype racing at Le Mans this weekend for the first since he miraculously walked away from his 'flying Mercedes' (watch video of Peter Dumbreck's 1999 'flying Mercedes').
In 1999, the then 25-year-old became instantly famous for his role in of one of the most famous sequences in the history of motor racing.
Easing his silver Mercedes CLR prototype past 200mph on the Mulsanne Straight, the air flowing under his car caused it to take off like an aeroplane wing.
Helpless behind the wheel of the Mercedes, and with a windscreen full of French blue sky, Dumbreck's car somersaulted five times before nosediving 90ft down into a forest.
The Scot then astonished rescuers by clambering from the wrecked car with hardly a scratch. If you've never seen the crash, you can check it out on YouTube.
Though Dumbreck returned to race in the famous 24-Hours race at Le Mans in 2006, it was in a lesser-powered GT car.
This year is his first time back in a prototype. The natural question is: does he have any fears?
"It's not something I really think about," the Kirkcaldy racer, who will partner Aussie David Brabham and Indian F1 driver Karun Chandhok in the JRM Honda HPD ARX, admitted today.
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"I’ve been back to the Le Mans 24-Hours three times in a GT car since I had the accident in 1999, and it’s not really something that’s on my mind.
"I remember the first time I went back in 2006 I gave it a brief thought, but for me it’s very black and white: I need to drive as well and as fast as I can and whatever happens on track, happens."
But Dumbreck, who has carved a successful racing career for himself in single-seaters, the FIA GT Championship, DTM, Japanese Super GT and the Le Mans Series, can still vividly remember the day: Saturday, June 12, 1999.
A few hours before his incident, the identical Mercedes driven by team-mate, and current Red Bull Formula One racer Mark Webber, had become airborne for the second time, though not on the scale of what was about to happen to Dumbreck.
"Before the race, I had premonitions", the quiet Scot, whose eventual crash was witnessed by millions on TV, continued. "I just sensed something was coming that day at Le Mans.
"After Mark's incident, the team told the drivers not follow too close behind opponents. I wondered how close I could approach without being disturbed by the airflow?
At 8.48pm local time on the sun-kissed Saturday evening, he discovered as he caught up to a Toyota approaching Mulsanne corner.
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"The Toyota pulled away in acceleration," Dumbreck, who was battling for second place at the time, described, "and I thought I would be far enough back not to have to lift."
Approaching the turn at Indianapolis on the 8.45-mile circuit, which uses long stretches of closed-off public roads normally used by trucks, buses and farm vehicles, he suddenly sensed the imminent take-off.
"One second I was focused intensely on the road on a very fast bend, the next I was hurtling though the air," he remembered.
"I had my eyes open during the take-off and I could see the sky but then I just put my arms to my head, waiting for the impact.
"There was no time to think. It is impossible to see anything as you are spinning over and over, just a blur of black, white and green.
"Then the car landed and I was conscious and able to move. My next memory is of looking up in the ambulance and thinking I had survived.
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"Funnily enough, I also remember being tested for alcohol. I thought they were crazy. But French law stipulates that all victims of accidents on public roads, including the Le Mans circuit, must be tested! "
Thirteen years later, he's back behind the wheel of the privately-entered Honda, and he's quietly confident the JRM team can finish top petrol-powered privateer.
"I think we are really up there and should be fighting for the highest petrol car honours come race week," Dumbreck, who clocked a fastest time of 3mins 37.358secs in his 21 laps of official testing, said.
"Without the traffic we would easily have been faster. We made improvements all the way through the day and the last batch of improvements were pretty good.
"It’s our first Le Mans as the team and we’ve had a few issues here and there, but if we take where we got to at the end of the test, and where we want to be in next week's race, we should be fine."
And after his experience in 1999, "fine" would be a positive and reassuring result.
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Jim McGill