Tommy Kendall: A Full‑Circle Journey Through Le Mans

This Evening With A Legend welcomes road racing standout Tommy Kendall tracing his long path to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Tommy recounts early racing beginnings, limited U.S.-Europe crossover in his prime, and how a secret pre-Saleen S7 plan led to his 2000 Le Mans debut in a Franz Konrad Porsche, including a spoof “Fumfour” story published during the race.

He describes Le Mans’ unmatched speed, endurance-race sleep discipline, international pageantry, and the shift to relentless modern pace. Kendall then details his 2013 return with the factory SRT Viper GTS-R amid heavy rain, long cautions, a fatal early accident, a risky slick-tire stint without traction control, and a right-rear failure that made it his worst stint. He also discusses Corvette-Viper rivalry, broadcasting Le Mans remotely, Daytona vs. Le Mans demands, dream cars, and possible Le Mans Classic interest.

• You got started in racing at a very young age, your debut after Karting, was in IMSA – 1985 in an RX-7 (at the age of 18), was it always a dream to race at Le Mans?
• What do you remember most vividly about your first experience at Le Mans in 2000. 
• What happened between 2000 and 2013 – why such a long break between LeMans attempts?
• How did it feel to return to Le Mans nearly a decade and a half later in 2013, and how had the race—and you as a driver—changed in that time?
• Can you describe the atmosphere and energy of the Le Mans paddock during your first appearance compared to your second?
  
• Let’s talk about the SRT Viper GTS-R in 2013 at LeMans, what was it like to drive? Let’s say compared to other Trans-AM cars you’d campaigned, was it similar in a way (big power, big torque) – both in technology and race strategy?
• In the mid 2010s you found yourself commentating on a bunch of the long format races; what about LeMans? 
• What lessons did you take from your early Le Mans experience that helped you throughout your career in Trans-Am, IMSA, and beyond?
  
• What moments from your two Le Mans races stand out as defining or personally meaningful to you? What did LM teach you?

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] Evening With a Legend is a series of presentations exclusive to legends of the famous 24 hours of lamont giving us an opportunity to bring a piece of LAMA to you. By sharing stories and highlights of the big event, you get a chance to become part of the Legend of Lama with guests from different eras of over 100 years of racing.

Crew Chief Eric: Tonight we have an opportunity to bring a piece of LAMA to you sharing in the Legend of Lama with guests from different eras of over 100 years of racing. And as your host, I’m delighted to introduce Tommy Kendall, one of America’s most versatile and accomplished road racers who first attempted to take on the 24 hours of LAMA in 2000, driving a Franz Conrad GT two Porsche.

Nearly a decade and a half later, Tommy made a celebrated return to LAMA in [00:01:00] 2013 driving the SRT Viper GTSR with the factory backed team in GTE Pro. Together, Tommy’s two Lama’s appearances illustrate a remarkable full circle journey defined by skill, resilience, and a genuine love for racing at the highest level.

And with that, I’m your host crew chief Eric from the Motor Inc Podcast Network. Welcoming everyone to this evening with the legend. So Tommy, welcome to the show.

Tommy Kendall: Wow, thank you. That was quite the intro. I appreciate that. And then actually, I, I gotta show you my t-shirt, which is, I won’t butcher it in French, but it basically says open 24 hours.

Clever t-shirt. This was the next t-shirt on my stack in the closet today. So it was, uh, lined up well, I said, or nearly, I’d put a, maybe a collared shirt on. I said, you know what, this is appropriate, so. Wearing a little Lamar merch.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, we’re gonna crank up the way back machine, which is eventually gonna get us to how you got that shirt.

But you got started in racing at a very young age. Your debut after carting was in IMSA in 1985 and an RX seven, which if I recall, your dad got you into at the ripe [00:02:00] young age of 18. So at that time, was it on your mind? Was it a dream to race at Lama?

Tommy Kendall: Well, actually it goes even before that I found a loophole.

Back then you couldn’t get an SCCA or an EMS a license until you’re 18, but I found out that the Jim Russell School series would let you in if you were 16 as long as you’d been through their school. So I ran the Jim Russell school series. The year before when I was 17, but on some level I had these grandiose dreams that included everything, formula One, et cetera.

My connection to everything back then was basically Autoweek and On Track Magazine. It’s hard for people, even people that lived through it, to really remember what it was like then. There was no cable tv, there was no internet. And so the coverage was so much different. You had three channels, network channels that had maybe two races a year on Daytona and Indie tape delayed, and the magazines came out with a huge lag from what was live or you know, so they weren’t even really news related.

They’d have a little blurb on LA Mall three months later [00:03:00] on Track and Auto Week were my connection. Once my dad started doing some racing, I was. 13, 14 years old and I was just a sponge, and so I literally read those cover to cover. So that was my only exposure to the European scene. But I remember, you know, when Mario went with, uh, with Harley Clarkston and that garage and, uh, or Mirage, and they got sent away at the last second.

And so all the drama. So it was on my radar as, you know, one of the greater races. But it was, pardon the pun, it was so foreign. I mean, I, I couldn’t really even imagine or, or grasp what it was like.

Crew Chief Eric: So what’s fun about your story is started in 85 and we have 15 years until your first attempt at Lamont, and then we got almost 15 years, your second attempt at Lamont.

So in that gap in the first 15 years, a lot of folks know Tommy Kendall. It’s a name that is. Synonymous with Trans Am racing in the United States, and then unfortunately there was the crash at the Glen in 91. We don’t have to go there if you don’t want to, but let’s talk about your road to Lama from 85 [00:04:00] to 2000.

How did you put the deal together? Why did it take so long to get there As such a superstar in American racing

Tommy Kendall: now things are so good in terms of the US and Europe and Lamar all being well integrated. And commonality of platforms and all that. It was exactly the opposite for basically my whole career.

And so 2000 is really after my career. My career was 86 to 97, the serious part of my career where I was a factory guy and just doing all kinds of stuff. That whole era, there was very little American participation or involvement, either as a team or a driver because they’re just, they didn’t intersect from a tech platform standpoint, any of that stuff.

They diverged virtually completely. It’s sort of, I don’t know if regrets, I guess it is a regret. I don’t like to have regrets, so I think things work out for a reason. But you know, if things were different, you know, I was one of the main factory guys here, so if there was any factory programs, I’d have been over there.

And so, you know, when I was with Chevrolet, that was always on her. [00:05:00] Officials radar. He was trying to figure out how to get to Lamont ’cause he held it in the highest regard, uh, right there up with all the big races of the world. And so he was trying to figure it out when I was there. And it eventually turned into the Cadillac program with, uh, Riley did, and then the Corvette program also herb’s doing so for me, it literally just wasn’t really an option.

You could always say it’s on my list and I’m gonna. Go outside of my sphere of influence and try to make something happen over there. You had guys racing at Bering when it wasn’t on anyone’s radar, so you can do whatever you want, but my focus was here. All my opportunities were here, so, and that’s kind of how it was.

So kind of a bummer in that regard. It underscores how good things are right now, and I know it took a long time to get there, but I remember. Ironically, I was at Baltimore racing the Viper in 2012 when they first announced that top class at IMSA and Lamar Europe were gonna converge. And Robin Miller came up to me and said, what do you think?

I said, this is so great because it’s [00:06:00] like we race in parallel and uh, everyone wants to see everybody the best go at it and full representation. And so what’s happened since then has been. Been really awesome to watch. So my career basically ended in 97. I won my fourth, I guess, TransAm championship. That was the year we won 11 races in a row, almost swept the table.

And then Ford was getting out of TransAm. So that wasn’t really an option anymore. I was being pushed towards nascar. I wasn’t. Uh, I, I, I actually had agreed to a deal to go to NASCAR racing with Roush, and then they changed their mind at the last second, right before it got signed, and ironically signed Greg Biffle.

And so, uh, worked out well for him and, and it worked out well for me, even though it was the end of my serious race days. So the 2000 thing, there’s a really interesting story about how I ended up there. I guess it was in 19 end of 99, maybe. I had signed a deal with Celine to drive the new S seven, and the deal hadn’t been announced yet.

They said, we want you to get some LAMA experience before we go back with the S [00:07:00] seven, but it hasn’t been announced, so you can’t tell anyone why. So they actually arranged the ride in the Conrad Porsche. So I showed up there four years after retiring, just in a plain white suit. I couldn’t tell anyone why I was there, so it was like, uh.

Well, I just thought I’d come rent a ride at LA Mall, and so it’s really, it was really unusual. There were a few people that know there was a dinner the night before with Mark Coghlan who was with Valvoline, and then he was the one that kind of broker the deal to get me into that Celine car. He went on to.

Big things, brokering the sprint deal for NASCAR and so forth. And then Paul fan from Racer also was there, and he knew, but they were sworn to secrecy. And so that night they each indulged in plenty of wine. I didn’t the night before the race, but I crafted this story. I said, you know what? I’ve always wanted to do this story about, uh, an imaginary persona and adopt that and go racing and just totally off the wall.

And it, we just kept spitballing and it turned into. That I was gonna change my name to Fum [00:08:00] four, who was this Salvadorian racer that used to race at ims. And I always thought it was so funny that his name showed up as one name, like Madonna, on all the grid sheets. It was Fum four. I said, I’m gonna relaunch as FM four, and I’m not gonna speak a word, I’m never gonna talk to anyone, and it’s gonna be called the Falmour Silent, that Deadly Tour.

And I’m gonna have beautiful girls on either side of me, and whenever I’m interviewed, I’m just gonna make a hand motion, one of four hand motions, and they’re gonna answer the question for me. So this whole spitball thing happened. Paul fan wrote this up into a story and released it on the Racer website as real in the middle of the Laval race.

It was up for a handful of hours, so just idol minds do fun things.

Crew Chief Eric: How do you feel being the inspiration for Franz Herman?

Tommy Kendall: There you go. And I mean, John Winter is a great story. Lou Krauss, who I raced with in GTP, his family didn’t want him racing and he couldn’t tell. So he entered under the nom to drive, I guess you would say.

Crew Chief Eric: So let’s talk a little bit more about 2000. We’ll get deeper into the details of the race [00:09:00] itself. But up until that point, you really hadn’t done too much long format racing, especially 24 hours at a track like lama, which is a whole nother level of endurance racing out there. So when you got there and you, you’re turning your first laps, you’re learning the track, obviously there was a probably a ton of preparation or maybe there wasn’t.

How did it compare to what you were used to here? Stateside?

Tommy Kendall: Well, you said. I hadn’t raced on a track like Lamar. Let me stop, stop you right there. There is no track like Lamar, it’s, it’s its own league. And that was the biggest impression. And the way I explain it to people is obviously racing is speed and it’s fast.

So we’ve got some fast tracks, but it’s like Lamont, everything is just. That much faster. Everything is a gear higher, and so the medium speed corners are are just faster medium speed corners. The fast corners are faster than the fast corners, and so it’s really impressive and daunting. Now, I’d been out of a car for four years, three years I guess.

I wasn’t razor sharp. I never drove the car before I showed up and never got a chance to. I never raced a [00:10:00] Porsche, never raced a range. It was not ideal. It’s not how I like to go about those kinds of things. You know, my whole career was kind of a study in the opposite, total preparation, giving myself every advantage and so forth.

So, I mean, that was my first takeaway was just how fast the track was and how daunting now. If I had been there when I was super, super sharp, like in 97 and in a car I knew and it was the only variable, it probably wouldn’t have been as daunting, but to be not as sharp as I was used to being in a car that I had never driven before in a configuration rear engine that I’d never driven before.

Obviously I was still only. 30 something years old, young, and you know, I hadn’t forgotten a lot, but just wasn’t as practice. So I felt good, but I didn’t feel, I was used to feeling like in full command of everything and the guy to beat. I didn’t feel that way there. It turns out that year, the, the vets and the vipers had sort of proceeded beyond where that Porsche was.

It was a little longer [00:11:00] than the tooth, but it was, it was the perfect way to learn. The car ran well. We had a little bit of an overheating problem. Had to back the revs down at one point. But we really had pretty much a trouble free run and I think we fin, we finished either seventh or eighth in class.

And so that was a shock too because, uh, the last time I had run at Daytona in the big V eight cars, I mean a decade, yeah, not quite even a decade, but either was still a very much an element of pacing. And saving the equipment somewhat. And so that was the transition into the era where the cars were really getting bulletproof and you could really drive ’em hard the whole time to have a trouble free run and not be on the podium, I thought.

And that was a, that was an eyeopener to me. And we were, we were seventh or eight. Those were the main takeaways that year.

Crew Chief Eric: Coming from TransAm, which is considered sprint racing, even though it’s probably maybe the longest sprint race format that there is almost, you know, nowadays it’s almost a two hour race.

What was the physical demands like coming from that type of format or even from NASCAR into lama where you, [00:12:00] you’re doing two, three hour stints, but it drags on for the whole day and you gotta be up and be in the team and get the notes and be in sync with the other drivers. What was that like?

Tommy Kendall: Fortunately, that aspect wasn’t that foreign to me because 85, I did several showroom stock, 24 hour races, and I did Daytona, the Rolex. I did that I guess five times, and so that element wasn’t that foreign. One thing I learned early on after my first. Uh, Rolex was you don’t want to miss anything and you wanna keep track of everything.

And, and as the driver, you don’t have to do that. That’s not your job. And so to learn to leave that to other people and go get your rest and go do everything you need to do, I learned thankfully early in my career. And so that’s, that’s a really important part that maybe a lot of people don’t fully appreciate.

There’s like this part where you’re like, if I close my eyes, the world’s gonna fall apart. You know, I need to watch to make sure nothing happens. You can’t do anything about it, and you’re not the guy that works on the car anyways, but it’s just get really good at the mental discipline of shutting down.

Getting your rest so that [00:13:00] you’re sharp. That’s what’s so cool about those types of races. Even if you do all that stuff, you’re still short on sleep because you know, with three drivers in Lamont, you’re limited to three drivers. At Diona, you can have four. What you don’t realize is say you’re out of the car.

If everyone’s doing two hour stints, that means you’re gonna be out of the car for four. Well, of that four, there’s 30 minutes. You get out, you’re cooling down, you’re debriefing a little bit, you’re going to get something to eat. You’re getting outta your wet stuff, and then you can’t just show up right when the car comes in.

You’ve gotta be there ahead of time because if a yellow comes out, might put them into too long. So the reality is. Even if you do it perfectly in that situation, you might be getting an hour and a half of sleep sometimes. I had some teammates before at Im SA, like Mark Martin was my favorite teammate.

Even people say, well, he’s a NASCAR guy. I said, yeah, but that guy has no problem driving three and a half hours. I would drive three and a half hours. The limit was four. If you could get one more guy like that, now you’re talking seven hours out of the car. So you clip an hour or two on either end. You get some real sleep.

That’s a, [00:14:00] an element that I don’t think people fully appreciate how hard that is and why you’re so drained. And then Lamar also one thing because it started later in the day. You kind of have almost a full day before the race starts when it had a 3:00 PM start. And so you’re tired and so forth. So it really is like a day and a half deal, which just exacerbates it, you know, it, it really is an amazing challenge and that’s why.

Even finishing there ordinarily, it’s all about winning. Even finishing there really, really does have a sense of accomplishment. You really feel like you’ve been through the wars and you’ve done something special, and there’s a sense of bonding whenever you go some through something really, really hard with a group of people.

It’s, it’s unlike anything else.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s funny you say that, you know, talking about the war aspect of it. One of our previous legends referred to LAMA as a British race on French soil and kept referred to as a battle at LAMA between all the different teams. And so what was that like for you coming over? I mean, there’s been Americans that have gone to lama, but it’s.

Always sprinkled over its history. You were fortunate on the, [00:15:00] the France Conrad team to be partnered with Charles Slatter, who’s also an American, and then you had a German co-driver as well. So how were you guys received? You know, had you met each other beforehand? How did the team dynamics and chemistry work?

Tommy Kendall: We hadn’t met each other before, so you have to form that rapport. And that’s one of the funny things is you, once the race starts, you don’t. Get a lot of time to hang out ’cause everyone’s focused on getting their your sleep. And so you have this quick exchange when you’re getting into that car. There was no weirdness at all about being foreign.

It’s such an international thing. And I do remember explicitly that 2000 drivers meeting. I sat by McKay Reto and I remember just looking around at this incredible gathering of veterans like him that have been through Formula One and now we’re running. Lama youngsters, guys like me that were somewhere in the middle and you have a lot of drivers.

That many 54 cars with three drivers. What’s that? 162 drivers. So it really is pretty cool in in that regard and it’s my favorite part of LAMA has to do [00:16:00] with that. They play the full national anthem, not a stiff, the full national anthem of every country where there’s a driver from. And so, needless to say, this takes an hour, at least before in the runup.

And obviously the French anthem is the last one. And uh, it’s just, it’s so cool. It pageantry. And that’s the kind of thing, maybe when they did it, at first people thought, oh, this is hokey. I don’t know. When, whenever someone starts new things, you’re like, what’s the point of this? Well, that’s, those are the things that become.

Such a part of the fabric, whether it’s, you know, the seventh inning stretch in a baseball game, or you know, all these things with a hundred years, a hundred plus years of history now. At LA Mall. All those things are just really cherished rituals, and so the parade is unlike anything else, and you can explain it to people that they can’t understand what it’s like the parade through the town of Lamar.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, I’m glad you bring up the patriotism part of this, and I keep going back to the year 2000. Because it’s important. A lot of things happened that year. Those are the years of the big reigns. You had Audi coming on the scene and [00:17:00] kind of dominating and taking over, but at the same time, we had a previous legend on here name that is familiar to a lot of people running for Team Corvette.

We had Andy Pilgrim up on the podium representing the United States representing gm. How did that make you feel to see that you’re out there in a nine 11 watching Andy, you know, in the Corvette

Tommy Kendall: and that team was also comprised the guys when I retired and left Roush. The bulk of those guys. They did Craftsman Truck for a little while, but by 2000 they were overrunning The Corvette team from Doug Feehan, Dan Binks, Brian Hoy, Jim Durbin, Ross Jeffries, on and on and on.

All those guys. And I’ve always been really patriotic. My dad was that way and uh, passed it along to me. And so that aspect of it. I like healthy, patriotic rivalry, you know, and so I have an appreciation for all the different ones. But there, there is an element A, the American stuff, the cars were just different, you know, the big thunder and so forth and so on.

And I remember when my dad was racing, uh, Billy Hagen took the strata craft Camaro over there. [00:18:00] And it was just, it seemed like it was unlike anything they’d seen before. Obviously if I’d thought about it at the time, I would’ve realized there had been other big ground pounding cars before, but just the American V eight aspect and it, it’s sort of unapologetically American for better or worse.

And it’s funny. So there seems to be mostly good natured, but a little bit of a love hate with American stuff, you know? Parodies of Americans, I’m, I’m kind of that, you know, Ricky, Bobby, big hairy, American winning machine, you know? Um, and so, but that just adds to the cool part of it. And Americans were definitely underrepresented, very well represented now.

Very well represented now. And that’s a function of, like I said, how they’ve gotten, everything’s worked out where the. Technical specs are well aligned, the classes, and it just really supercharges the involvement for everyone. It just makes it a lot easier to be involved.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, you said Cabra, which opens the door for a one word or maybe two word question.

Garage 56.

Tommy Kendall: Oh, yeah. Uh, you know what, I have to [00:19:00] say, I was, uh, very pleasantly surprised. I know the Hendrick, a lot of the Hendrick guys, especially the special project guys that, that fell under. Jimmy Johnson’s a, a very old good friend of mine as well. So I have to admit, when they first started down that road and I said they’re gonna use a a cup chassis and weight is the enemy in cup racing, everyone weighs the same.

So no one notices. And it’s kind of an element of why the racing, I think is as different as it is, is is that weight. But I said if they go over there and they don’t really do some work to get a big chunk of that weight out, everything else could be the same. I said it, it could turn out really not like they.

Think it will, you can always pour power to it and get lap time, but if all the time was coming on the straightaway and you’re just like a jam car in the corners, I said, you’re not gonna make any friends and you’re not gonna also have the effect from, but they nailed it because, I mean, has there ever been a more popular program?

I mean, the reaction to that and they, they did a great [00:20:00] job in terms of how, how they, the guys that drove it was a big piece of it. So it really was. A flawlessly executed from a marketing standpoint and from a product and technical standpoint, it was pretty damn cool.

Crew Chief Eric: So you mentioned before the nine 11 was uncharted territory.

You were basically building the airplane while you were in flight when it comes to experience with that car, and you had mentioned. Would’ve been more comfortable if it was something that you knew. So if you could have taken any one of your TransAm cars, the Beretta, the Ford, whatever it is, and gone to Lamont, if they could have made the full 24 hours, which one would you have chosen?

Tommy Kendall: I mean, the all sport TransAm car, that was the longest I was in in one place. Ever in my career. Whenever you get to do that, you kind of get a level of refinement where you just understand what you’re doing better. Everybody knows their role and you just get better and better at optimizing, you know, that car and the beauty of the TransAm one, when you don’t share a seat with anyone, being a big guy tall like me.

It supported me really well. There were [00:21:00] never any aches and pains after races, which always happened for me when I shared a seat with anyone. So, and that would be the one, and that car was literally like an extension of me. I didn’t have to think about controlling it at all. I had to think about what are we trying to do here, uh, what technique and what, what’s gonna try to optimize and what can do to adjust the car to the track?

So that would, that’d be the one without a doubt.

Crew Chief Eric: So sticking with 2000. Before we move on, what was the big maybe oops, moment or eye-opening experience or something that happened that left a lasting impression on you after you came away from Lamont?

Tommy Kendall: Well, there wasn’t a, anything huge in that one that’s been that same question after the 20 th 2013 race, because there was, I will, I’ll, I’ll tease it a little bit.

The worst stint of my life. So other than the one where I had my big crash in the GTP car. But the, yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, let’s sort of fast forward our audience there. So you were retired in 97. [00:22:00] You come back and make this all star cameo appearance at LAMA in the Conrad Porsche. And then the year 2001 happens in 2002 and 2003.

So what happened between 2000 and your next return to Lamont? Yeah, 2013. Did you go back into retirement? Did you do some more racing? How’d you get the itch? How’d you get the call?

Tommy Kendall: Interesting thing. Well, let’s talk about 2001. ’cause that’s sort of the, you know, I buried the lead there. I, you know, I was supposed to drive the factory saline, S seven.

And I didn’t. I drove it in its debut race at Laguna Seka at the end of 2000 after it had been announced and so forth. But then the deal fell apart before Sebring. You know, I won’t get into all the details on that, but basically there ended up not being a full factory car. It ended up being a privateer factory assisted privateer car with Franz would’ve been fun in certain ways, but it was not what was sold to me on the front end.

And so. I did that to prepare for 2001, and then 2001 [00:23:00] never happened back into retirement. I got coaxed to drive. I drove the JAG in TransAm in oh four, so a full season, but all my racing post 97 kind of fell in my lap. I didn’t pursue anything the Celine program did, and that was supposed to be a proper.

Double throw down, go for it. Program, the TransAm one. TransAm. There was not a lot of factory support by 2004, but I enjoyed it a lot. It was fun to, in that, in my natural habitat, if you will, that I knew so well, but, so I was basically retired. And then two th the way the Viper deal came about is Brian Vickers, who’s a good friend of mine, was racing in nascar and he’d had a series of issues.

First it was a health scare where he had, he had blood clots and then open heart surgery as a result of that. Then he came back and then he was driving for the Red Bull team and Red Bull shut their operation down last minute and all the seats were taken. Everyone was pushing him to get into a, not a great car in nascar, ’cause that’s all that was available.

And he asked me what I thought. I said, I wouldn’t do it. He said, well, you’re the [00:24:00] only person telling me that. I said, well. I said, you’ve won in both cars, you’ve raced. I said, it’s not like you’re trying to prove you can do it. I said, if you were still trying to prove that, knock yourself out. But I said, chances are you’ll only look worse, and if you’re committed to this, when the good cars come available, you’ll be committed to the bad one.

And so he’s like, oh, well that makes a lot. He said, well, what do I do? I said, you should do what? Every NASCAR friend of mine always says they wish they could do, which is race, all the other stuff that they never have time to race. I said, you could do a cool program. I’m gonna try to run indie. I’m gonna try to run Baja.

I’m gonna do road racing. I’m gonna run Daytona. I’m gonna run Lamont. He said, oh my God, that sounds awesome. He started working on all this stuff, and so I had heard that the Viper program was coming. I was in New York with him. I said, let’s go to the New York Auto Show. I’ll introduce you to all the executives.

And so I took him there, introduced him around to all the Dodge executives, to Bill Riley and so forth, and he ended up doing a deal with Rob Kaufman to race in a, in a Ferrari. And then three, four weeks later, bill Riley called, he says, what about you? I said, what do you mean? He said, you. I said, what do you mean me?

He says, [00:25:00] you wanna drive? I said, me. I said, I’m 46 years old. I’m outta shape. I haven’t driven in, you know what? I guess that was eight years since Strand Am. He says, yeah. I said, well, it’s funny you say that, ’cause I never said I would never do it again, but my conditions for doing it were always such that it was not likely to happen.

Proper team, proper funding, all this stuff. And that was all that I said, well, I can give it a shot. And so he says, well, everyone has to test for this program. That was kind of an interesting deal that they did at SRT, I won’t say the name, there was a Formula one world Champion that called, his agent called and said, Hey.

So-and-so would like to do this, and they said, great. Have him come test. And they said, well, what do you mean test? He does, he won’t test. They said, well, everyone’s testing. And he says he won’t test. They said, well, then he’s not driving. It was kind of a Bill Riley filter for, is this person gonna be a team player?

And, and so maybe it’s not a perfect deal, but for him it was a go no go thing. So Ryan, hunter Ray, who was in that car, 8,500 winner, he had no problem testing. I said, I’ll go to the test. And so I went to the test. And long story [00:26:00] short got offered the deal and away we went.

Crew Chief Eric: You returned to Lama nearly a decade and a half later.

What was the first thing you noticed? What had changed since you had been there in 2000?

Tommy Kendall: Everything was getting bigger. I mean, this was an era of, it had been around for a long time, but I mean, it was now that you were getting American participation, it was much bigger in America. You had good TV coverage in America.

And it was just as big everywhere else and bigger, you know, because this, you had the guys, the Audi run was going on, which was getting so much attention and it just, there was a lot of focus. So it’s just how much bigger everything was, all the efforts, you know, to go behind the garage area and see the setups, you know, that primarily Audi at the time, the number of people, the, all the spares, the semis, the sleeping pods, the hospitality, the chefs, you know, it was just, it was, it was.

You know, it become not just big racing events as big a sporting event as you could have.

Crew Chief Eric: So when you left Lama the first time, you were a mid [00:27:00] Corvette’s journey to dominance, right? The C five Rs were kicking butt and taking names. You jump back in, the C six Rs are kicking butt and taking names. So it’s sort of interesting because there was a Viper Corvette rivalry for a very long time and it, it seemed very real on tv, whether it was placated by the broadcasters or otherwise, you were there battling with them.

Was the Corvette Viper rivalry still a thing at that time, or were they just running away with it?

Tommy Kendall: We weren’t really on their level yet. So, I mean there there was, there was a lot of talk about it, you know, just because it’s a natural rivalry, cross town stuff. My experience, you know, Detroit is a small town and they’re all there.

So when I was with Chevy Racing Ford, that was the most important thing, was beating the Fords. And when I was with Ford racing Chevy, same thing. Viper Corvette. So it’s, it’s just sort of the cross town rivalry, the bragging rights, literally I think executives that would run in each other around town. It was as simple as that.

They’re human and they, they wanted to be able to [00:28:00] brag. But Corvette was kinda like we were in TransAm. They were a finely oiled machine. You know, even the best, you don’t win all the time, but you’re always in the hunt. And again, my crew Chief Danny was now firmly ensconced. I, at that point, I don’t know how many wins they’d had, but they’d had a bunch of wins in all the big races.

And so they were really the benchmark that particular year. Ended up being Porsche’s year in gt. You know, it’s, it’s funny, I’m not a huge fan of BOP. You’re not allowed to talk about it now. I think you’re in, you’re literally not allowed to talk about it, but I’m not there. So I can talk about it a little bit.

I get why you have it, and everyone’s doing the best job they can, and it’s still really, really hard to win. But it’s almost like. The thing rotates and they never get it perfect, and so you just want to be ready when it’s in your favor. When I got there, I saw the back of all the grandstands had these huge Porsche banners and I think it was the 50th year anniversary of the nine 11, and I’m like, oh, this is the big Porsche year.

I said, [00:29:00] I’m pretty sure al one of those guys have been working overtime to make sure that they’re at least. Even on the BOP. And so the reality is, as a team, we weren’t ready to win the race yet. So even if we had gotten the ideal BOP, I don’t know if we could have executed every single aspect of it perfectly.

’cause even when you have that in your favor, you’re either a little bit ahead of everyone or you’re. Dead even with someone else. And then it, it comes down to all the things that win races and the margins have just gotten smaller and smaller and smaller in that regard. It used to be, like I said, if you did everything perfect in the s bell days, you’d win by five laps.

And that just doesn’t, it’s just a different era. ’cause you’re not babying anything. There’s pressure. Every single aspect of it, stretching stints on tires, the fuel windows, the pit stops of course are, are incredible now. So that, that’s the framing. And so we weren’t as strong as we would’ve liked to have been.

Both our side of it and the VOP side. [00:30:00] We, we also, or a little bit, but I mean, racers are racers. Even if you’re the only person out there, you’re racing really against yourselves and we all have pride in what we do. And so you’re all trying to figure out how can I get more outta myself? How can we get more out of this and so forth.

So that, that challenge remained, you know, again, after that race, the relief and the excitement and the celebration of Viper returning and being part of that. Him across some pictures the other day of all of us up on the wall. Here’s a bunch of guys that have been racing for a long time, myself, done kind of it all.

You’re jaded about a lot of things, but uh, Lamar is just, is just different and it’s special and so unfinished business would be getting on the podium there. It’s the best podium in sports, period. Monza, F1 and Lama are the two greatest podiums in sports. I never got to see the view from up there. There aren’t too many places I raced where I didn’t win, or at least get on the podium.

And safe to say, on the driver’s side, that’s, [00:31:00] I never say never. That’s probably not happening.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, I promise I won’t tell Mark Roff anything you said about BOP. All right. Let’s talk about the Viper a little bit more. Compared to your TransAm cars and other cars that you’ve campaigned, is the Viper similar in a way?

Is it still a little too much production car? I mean, it is much like the benzes of that era, big torque. And at that time they had big torque numbers in the Viper compared to everything else. Now by today’s hypercar standards, maybe not so much, but was it similar to what you were used to or just a leap away?

Tommy Kendall: Nothing like it. Nothing like it for a number of reasons. I mean, the, the TransAm cars on my ear were not actually production based at all. They were pure silhouette cars, full tube frame, little piece, a joke. It was the windshield and the taillights were the parts. Those were, and so the Viper. GT racing TransAm as well.

I mean, for a lot of these, originally they were production based, and then it got to where [00:32:00] so much was being thrown away. They’re like, well, why don’t we just make ’em look like it? And then sports, car racing has gone back big time where obviously, you know, the homologation and everything, you know, has to be, they’re allowed to move certain things with waivers.

But that’s one of the hard things is you, you don’t get to go clean sheet of paper with stuff and you gotta optimize every single piece that way. So it, it didn’t drive anything like it. Uh, like the TransAm car, the tire technology also totally different. You know, Michelin, uh, has, uh, become, they’ve kind of, I mean, there’s other people that still nibble around, but Michelin has done such a good job.

They’ve literally run everybody else out of town, and it’s, it’s not only do they grip, they rarely puncture. They don’t fall off. I mean, and now they keep challenging themselves. Again, they’re racing against themselves, but they’re still challenging themselves. How can we make it so. The teams use less tires, there’s less waste, they’re more sustainable, all, literally all the things that matter to the consumer as well and and so forth.

So whereas TransAm, you know, a [00:33:00] hundred mile race, if you tried to, you could cook the tires in 40 miles. Easy yet, you had to make a blast a hundred. Whereas the Michelins, within few exceptions, you could run the Michelins as hard as you wanted the whole time, and it would eventually start to fall off some, but it was just, that was the nature, the life.

It wasn’t anything that you were doing. They would just work.

Crew Chief Eric: So, did you like driving the Viper?

Tommy Kendall: I did. You know, it’s a different, totally. It was a totally different challenge. I never got, I, I shouldn’t say I, when I did well enough to shoot out, to get off the deal, I said to Bill Riley, I said, even though it looks like I’m super sharp, I said, I’m not.

The shootout kind of played to my strengths, where I was always a really good qualifier, especially when there wasn’t a lot of practice. I could ramp up fast. I said, I’m, I’m gonna need some time to get in race shape and racecraft. And he nodded. And the reality was in a multi driver setup and so forth, I never got the full rep.

So I did four races in [00:34:00] 2012. And I guess if we’re telling the full story, I actually wasn’t gonna drive in 2013. And then Ralph Gill said, you know, I, I went to Detroit. I thought I was gonna craft my separation agreement and what we were gonna announce. And he took me to dinner and he begged me. He said, please.

Come on, how bad can it be? We’re taking a Viper to Lamont. We really want you to part of this program. I said, oh, okay. And so, but part of that was because I wasn’t, as, you know, bottom line, I wasn’t as quick as I needed to be or wanted to be. And so they promoted Baer to the full-time slot and I was in the endurance slot.

And so exactly what I needed was more lapse. I was getting less, ’cause I was only doing the four endurance races for the year. I, uh, went to ‘EM mall that way, so I wasn’t, I was getting few laps leading up to it, and so it wasn’t my favorite memory because I just, I like being on top of things. I like having everything exactly how I want it.

I mean, I guess I’m kind of spoiled, but. Never in my career wa was I not with that. You know? And a lot [00:35:00] of probably really accomplished. Guys are probably li would listen to this and say, Ugh, that’s part of the deal. But I was, I was lucky that I had always been. In the right deals, at the right timing, with the right support and so forth.

And then I’d like to think I did my job well too, which helped put me in those positions. But the Viper program wasn’t really that. It was a big ask, and we might as well, I don’t know if you want to go into the, the stint that I’m talking about

Crew Chief Eric: and you teased us earlier, so might as well.

Tommy Kendall: Yeah. So, uh, that was the year.

Well. Oof. I mean that, this is intense because my wife wasn’t happy I was coming back. She also knew that I thought Lama is just next level fast and hairy. And so she wasn’t super stoked. But you know, once I was committed, we, we were doing it. So we’re there. That was the year Alan Simonson was killed on lap four.

And in our class we all heard about it. And so sucking it up there and my wife was, we didn’t even talk about it, but she looked at me and I just gave her a [00:36:00] look like, we’ll talk about this when it’s over. I said, I need. I, I’m not happy about it. So it was really intense in that regard. So now, so that’s the setup they got.

We had tons of rain in 13 tons of rain, uh, lots of guardrail, repairs, crashes that were knock on the, and they were long yellows and so forth. I got in the car in the middle of the night. It was probably 2:00 AM It was under one of these long yellows, which is actually kind of nice that you get in and you’re not having to go 10 tenths right now.

So your eyes are getting adjusted. You’re waking up, you’re doing all this, and you have a little bit of time. So we’re behind the pace car and they’re fixing a guardrail, and it had kind of dried out. Now it starts to sprinkle. And so I sat on the radio, I said, Hey, it’s starting to rain. And the answer came back everywhere.

I said, no, no, not everywhere. And they said, okay, let us know. Keep us posted. So pretty soon it’s, I said, eh. It’s raining everywhere now, and they’re like, hard. I’m like, [00:37:00] no, not hard. It’s not. No, no. They said, well, let us know if it starts raining harder. And so meanwhile, everyone in front of me and behind me is pitting for rains, including my teammate.

I said, it’s raining hard everywhere now. They’re like, okay. I said, are we gonna stop for rains? They’re like, well, do you think you can do it on slicks? And I’m like. You could do anything. I said, it’s a question of how fast you want to go and how much risk you want to take. And so I, I’m, I’m kind of like, what, what is, they say, well, we don’t have enough rain tires.

If it rains hard the rest of the way, that’s not the answer you want to hear. But it’s also, if you think about it, I mean, you could, you could blow your top. There aren’t enough tires on the property if it rains the whole race. For everyone. You just, logistically, you can’t bring enough tires for both wet and dry, all the compounds, all this stuff.

So part of me is thinking in my head, I [00:38:00] said, I don’t, I’m guessing this conversation has never happened with Alan McNich,

but now’s not the time to litigate that So. Anyways, I said, yeah. And so basically they said, well, you know, if you can. And then it kind of petered off a little bit and it was, but it was, it was wet, it was proper wet. And so at Lamar you’ve got the three pace cars because it lapsed so long. And so you’ve got three pack ups.

Well, now that everyone has stopped for rains, I’m at the front of my pack. I’m the car behind the thing. And then we had also been having some drive line vibration issues. And so they had made the decision going into the race to not run traction control. So we had no traction control. So I’m sitting here with a third of the field behind me on reigns.

I’m on slicks, I’m in the front of the deal. Talk about suboptimal. I’m just like, every time the, you know, wheels would spin up, you know, on the re, your heart just jumps. And so it was just not. A lot of fun. I mean, I don’t know how I was slow. I, I [00:39:00] expected to be slow. I don’t know if I was slower than I should have been, you know, but so huge chunks of time, but I didn’t go off, I didn’t wreck, I didn’t do any of these things, which you see a lot of, a lot of good guys and, and none of us are immune to it.

And the rain, all that stuff happens. So now it’s starting to get dry, dry line, so forth. And finally, so I’m starting to get in a rhythm, get going, lap time’s coming down. I’m feeling pretty good about things getting to the end of my stint. I think it’s literally. It’s a lap or two from when I’m getting called in, so I’m finally getting into the brake zones and so forth, and basically I lose a right rear, right as I touch the brakes heading into the Olson hairpin.

And so it’s doing a big tank slapper, and I’m thinking I’m crashing. No, I’m not. I’m going in the sand. No, I’m not. I got it. Yes. No, yes, no. Got into the sand, but not hard. Didn’t hit anything. I’m pulled out. There’s a yellow, I’m getting pulled out. Oh no, there was just a local yellow, they drug me out because I was out of the way and now I have to limp on a flat tire at night through the Porsche curves.

And so I’m going, and I, I feel like I’m going as slow as I [00:40:00] can go, but it was probably 40 miles an hour. And they’re like, you gotta go slow or you’re gonna rip the thing apart. The tire’s gonna, you gotta slow down. You gotta slow down. So now you’re going, whatever it is, it’s 20 miles an hour and I’m having to go through the Porsche curves.

It’s green. Just not what you want to do. And so thankfully I made it through. No one hit me, handed the car off, but that was the worst stint of my life. I, I’m bitching, I’m venting, whatever. These are the things with a little perspective, things like this underscore how hard it is. Yeah, how hairy it is, how many things have to go right.

All the stuff that you’re managing, and even when you’re in the middle of it, sometimes you don’t realize. How much you’re doing and how good you are at managing all this stuff. And that’s why you see grown men crying when they win that race, or it slips away at the end and so forth.

Crew Chief Eric: So would you say that’s a defining moment for you as a driver?

Because every legend that’s been on, we sort of ask them the variant of the same question. Lama, [00:41:00] is an education, it taught you something at that moment? Or was there a bigger takeaway for you?

Tommy Kendall: Well, I mean that whole race, the emotional rollercoaster literally, of a colleague dying. It’s the only sport that not only do they not stop it, they keep going and nobody questions that.

Or like, this is what we do, this is what we do. It’s why it matters. It’s why Hemingway said, you know, it’s one of the only three real sports. The rest are games. So I mean, that whole, that race is kind of everything in a microcosm. It’s, it’s like your whole life in a microcosm, you know, it’s just not exclusively a man thing, but men.

Live for testing themselves against each other and against themselves. And it’s one of these things everyone says, I don’t, you know, if I’m up by myself and there’s the rock, and I wanna see how close I can get to the edge of it. Like, well, that’s not smart. You’re like, no, it’s not. But that’s part of what makes you feel, you know, alive and, and you want to pursue mastery and all the, so it’s, it’s literally, you know, Laman McQueen movie talks about [00:42:00] it, and it, it’s real.

I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a microcosm for life. It’s as intense and experience as you can have. And so consequently. The lows are literally life and death and heartbreak, and the highs are the opposite, you know?

Crew Chief Eric: So after you finally stepped away from the steering wheel and behind the microphone, just like tonight, you found yourself commentating on a bunch of different racing series out there and some long format races as well.

Was there ever an opportunity, or was Lama on your radar to go into the booth and do commentating and return another time?

Tommy Kendall: Well, I did call, I don’t know how many I’d called with speed channel, but this was un this seems to be a, a trend. I get there right after the best days racing. I don’t feel that way racing.

I feel like I lived in one of the great eras, but in my TV stuff, when I did IndyCar, it was the year after. The huge budgets and the a thousand dollars bottle of wine dinners and the Four Seasons. I was there right after the cutbacks. [00:43:00] And so Laal was a little bit like that with Speed Channel, where I think the year I did it was the first year they didn’t send announcers to Laal.

So the only people on site were the pit reporters, which is why Justin, who everyone would rather work the booth. It’s usually a better gig, but Justin says the booth’s gonna be in Charlotte. I want to be in France, so I’m gonna be the pit lane guy here. Kind of a cool experience. They set up, it was almost like our own race.

We had this tent with chefs and so forth outside of the Fox Studios in Charlotte. You know, you had guys, literally one guy brought a little tent into his cubicle. One of the production guys, it was like a race team. Everyone was trying to figure out their snacks and their food and so forth. And so I did.

I did get to call the race, but it was. A little bit dissociated. In some ways that is actually better. You hate to admit it ’cause you want the executives to think they should always send you to the races, but in terms of everything being in one spot, logistics were a hell of a lot better. Everything was better in [00:44:00] terms of the conditions for doing it, but you weren’t there.

So it was to get your information. You know, you’re texting people on the other side of the world in the pits, you know guys that you know to get, you know, insight. But that, that’s no different than at Daytona. You’re detecting from the tower down to the pit lane. So I, you know, I’ve gotten to be a part of, I wanna say probably four or five Lamar broadcasts.

Crew Chief Eric: Kind of back to front, Tommy, when you, you’ve been following lamas since you were a kid, like you said, at the top of the conversation, and you’ve seen it evolve just like I have watching the movies and looking back even further than our time. What does that say about the popularity of endurance racing with lamont still going on after a hundred plus years with the 24 hours of Rolex going 24 hours of spa, all these big race endurance races around the world, what does that say?

Tommy Kendall: It, it says it matters. It says it has meaning, basically. Because if this world’s tough and if things are become sort of redundant or not special, they don’t last. And there’s a commonality with the ones you mentioned, spa, indie, Pikes Peak, [00:45:00] Lamar, I la Man, they’re, they’re all hairy. And you know, one of my sort of filters is when everybody in the stands says.

I could do that. You’ve lost some of the specialists. Now. There’s always people in every stance that say they, I could do that. But when a bunch of people, then the allure and the mystique and the aspiration of, man, those people are doing something I wouldn’t do. I think that’s a key part of it. In racing, I explains the appeal of UFC fights.

I mean, I watch those fights and I’m like, I mean, I’ve been hit in the face a couple times in my life. And so, you know, they might think I’m crazy for doing what I do. I think they’re crazy. So the fact that it’s been around for so long means that it, it has meaning and it, and it matters for all the reasons I talked about before.

Then also, when it’s existed for a long time, the layers of meaning get stacked on top of each other. You know, there’s the tradition which adds to it. All these, uh, generational things with fathers and sons, and then grandfathers and so forth. That it gets passed down like you have with Derek Bell and [00:46:00] Justin, all the rituals and so forth.

So I think it just means there’s a lot of meaning and the, and the longer it goes, the more layers of meaning there are. You gotta be careful because you know, marketing people get involved and marketing’s important, but if they start tweaking what the formula too much or they cut out. The reason for it, then it can disappear in a heartbeat.

So I feel glad that things seem to be in a really good spot in that regard. Um, they can always be better and, and you like racing every, you’re always tweaking the setup to try to make it better, and some work and some don’t. But generally speaking, you, you zigzag your way forward.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, Tommy, it looks like we do have a crowd question here.

Neil Smith writes, Daytona is coming up, and drivers who have done both Lama and Daytona have often said, Daytona is harder. What’s your opinion about that? And let’s throw Sebring into the mix. Is that harder than both of them?

Tommy Kendall: They’re different, they’re harder. I, I would say they’re harder physically, both of ’em.

Well. Sebring is comparable, but you know, the, the sleep deprivation adds an element at [00:47:00] Daytona and Lama that Sebring doesn’t have. That is the one thing about Lama because of the length of straightaway, there’s more rest, less time under load. You hear in workout time under load or strain is, and so that’s kind of the thing you deal with at Daytona.

Your body’s just under strained for longer, so even the banking. Because of the G load diagonally, it’s part vertical and part horizontal. It comes in lower back, hips, all that kind of stuff, uh, work on you more so physically, Daytona is, is harder, I think, but the other side of that, mentally because of the speed and because you’re threading the needle that much more in the really high risk spots, I would say the mental load at LAMA is higher than, than any of them, and it’s high everywhere.

But I would say a little bit higher at Lama.

Crew Chief Eric: Looking to the future, you said there will always be unfinished business for you at Lama, so if you could go back today behind the wheel of any of the cars of the last [00:48:00] couple years, what would you pick to drive?

Tommy Kendall: Oh boy. I would say dream, dream scenario, you know, the Audi 9 1 9 era is the pinnacle for me.

The 9 6 2 9 5 5 6 is, but knowing what I know now. I wouldn’t get in one of those. Just, uh, from a safety standpoint, we have it better safety wise now, for sure. Still risk, but we have it better. So I would, I would say that that would be an incredible challenge. You ride on board, and I remember the year, I think the first year, the 9 1 9 or the first year, they won one of those stints with Nick Tandy, uh, riding on board with him and just the commitment and the closing speed and all that stuff.

Challenging as it gets. And so that’s probably why it has the most appeal to me.

Crew Chief Eric: Would you consider a LAMA Classic Drive? Would you go back and do a vintage version of lama?

Tommy Kendall: I would. I would, yes. And there’s, there’s certain cars, I think one of my GTP cars. Was eligible even though it never raced there. It was the spice, but it was [00:49:00] of that era.

Yeah, I would, I wouldn’t drive everything there again, because of the risk, whenever there’s risk on the table, it’s like, okay, you can’t be totally safe or you’d never leave your house, but. I’m at the point where I’m in a different phase now, so generally speaking, I try to de-risk everything I do, whether it’s investing or not charging down the hill on a mountain bike, I tend to do more uphill stuff on a mountain bike for the fitness side of things.

So I’m long-winded here. So I, I would definitely, uh, consider a Lamont Classic ride

Crew Chief Eric: because that makes me wonder. So is that in the cards or is there something else? What’s next for Tommy Kendall?

Tommy Kendall: I, you know, it’s funny, I don’t know what’s next. Ever since I retired from driving my life has kind of been an exercise in serendipity.

Even my TV work, all of the TV stuff literally found me. There’s probably a middle ground there where you, but I, I find enjoyment, literally doing. Almost anything these days, and so, which is a nice place to be. I kind of say, let’s see what the [00:50:00] universe offers up. So I really don’t know what’s next.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, Tommy, before we sign off, I wanna pass the microphone to our A-C-O-U-S-A representative David Lowe for some parting thoughts.

David Lowe: Tommy, on behalf of the A CO. Endurance racing fans everywhere. And drivers. We’ve got Margie on tonight. I wanna thank you for a wonderful evening.

Tommy Kendall: Thank you. It was fun. Super fun. Cool thing you have going here.

Crew Chief Eric: And that wraps up this evening with a legend where we explored Tommy Kendall’s remarkable connection to the 24 hours of Lama, a story that began in 2000 and came full circle with his celebrated return in 2013.

From the raucous TransAm cars he piloted to victory to the thunderous roar of the SRT Viper GTSR. Tommy’s journey reflects not only his evolution as a driver, but also the enduring spirit of American endurance racing on the world stage. His perspective reminds us that passion, perseverance, and adaptability are timeless qualities that define true racers.

To keep up with Tommy Kendall, follow him on social [00:51:00] media. On Twitter or X and Instagram at Tommy Kendall 11 for news appearances and more. And with that, we hope you enjoyed this presentation and look forward to more evening with a legend throughout the season. And on behalf of everyone here, Tommy and those listening at home, thank you for sharing your evening with us.

Tommy Kendall: My.

Crew Chief Eric: This episode has been brought to you by the Automobile Club of the West and the A-C-O-U-S-A from the awe-inspiring speed demons that have graced the track to the courageous drivers who have pushed the limits of endurance. The 24 hours of the LAMA is an automotive spectacle like no other. For over a century the 24 hours LAMA has urged manufacturers to innovate for the benefit of future motorists, and it’s a celebration of the relentless pursuit of speed and excellence in the world of motorsports.

To learn more about or to become a member of the ACO USA, look [00:52:00] no further than www.laman.org, click on English in the upper right corner and then click on the a CO members tab for club offers. Once you’ve become a member, you can follow all the action on the Facebook group, A-C-O-U-S-A Members Club, and become part of the Legend with Future Evening with the legend meetups.

This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like The Exotic Car Marketplace, the Motoring Historian, break Fix, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsport and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www.patreon.com/gt Motorsports.

Please note that the content, opinions and materials presented and expressed in this episode are [00:53:00] those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode.

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

• 00:00 Meet Tommy Kendall
• 01:49 Early Racing Dreams
• 03:54 Why Le Mans Took Time and His Secret 2000 Entry
• 08:55 First Laps Reality Check
• 11:44 Endurance Sleep Strategy
• 14:51 Team Chemistry & Pageantry
• 16:49 American Pride in 2000 and Garage 56 Reaction
• 20:14 Dream TransAm Choice for Le Mans
• 21:54 Road Back to 2013 … the Viper Deal Comes Together
• 27:10 Viper Corvette Rivalry
• 30:15 Chasing Le Mans Podium
• 31:08 Viper versus TransAm?
• 35:27 The Worst Stint of Tommy’s Life: The Night Rain Tire Gamble
• 42:16 Calling Races From Afar
• 44:19 Why Endurance Matters
• 47:50 Dream Cars And Le Mans Classic
• 49:33 Whats Next? And Farewell

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All of our BEHIND THE SCENES (BTS) Break/Fix episodes are raw and unedited, and expressly shared with the permission and consent of our guests.

Evening With A Legend

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Evening With A Legend is a series of presentations exclusive to Legends of the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans giving us an opportunity to bring a piece of Le Mans to you. By sharing stories and highlights of the big event, you get a chance to become part of the Legend of Le Mans with guests from different eras of over 100 years of racing.