INTERVIEW: Al Qubaisi hoping for trouble-free Le Mans

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  • Ambition: Khaled Al Qubaisi.

    Three years ago, Khaled Al Qubaisi made history for the UAE when he became the first Emirati to compete at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France.

    This weekend, the Abu Dhabi-native will be making his fourth appearance at the fabled Circuit de la Sarthe, and he admittedly feels miles away from the anxious debutant he was at Le Mans in 2013.

    “This is my fourth year now and it was apparent from last week when I was at the test day, the way I started with a lot of confidence, and not that much pressure that I used to have before, so a lot of comfort and I was able to perform quite well compared to my colleagues and competitors,” Al Qubaisi told Sport360 ahead of the 84th edition of the race, scheduled for Saturday.

    “It’s much much more different now, I’m much more relaxed, I feel much more in place, I feel like I belong here, and I’m here to do well. It’s a much better feeling and a place to be.

    “My first participation was in 2013 and I was very anxious and stressed because it was my first time and the track, not only is the track so difficult and it’s such a high-speed track, but also the competition is high.

    “The other cars are very fast, the prototypes… it’s very, very tough to come and – even if you’re an experienced race driver – to come and race at Le Mans. It’s very, very stressful. I know some of the most experienced drivers who come here for the first time and they are really stressed about it.”

    The Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing man will be behind a Porsche 911 RSR which will be shared in driving duties by Al Qubaisi, David Heinemeier Hansson of Denmark and American Patrick Long. Since 2012, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been part of the World Endurance Championship and this year it serves as the third leg of the competition following opening sixhour races in Silverstone and Spa.

    Al Qubaisi and his crew have had a rough start to the season, suffering late setbacks in the first two races and he hopes Le Mans will witness a change in their fortunes.

    “We haven’t been very lucky recently,” admits the 40-year-old. “At Silverstone we were running first and we had a suspension problem half an hour before the end of the race. In Spa, we were running second and 13 minutes to go we were hit by another car.

    “Here (in Le Mans) to be honest we just want to stay out of trouble, finish the race and hopefully that gives us the result we want.

    “Targeting a victory is like a double-edged sword because when you come to win it, you might get disappointed because you’re coming here to win but there’s a lot of things that go into that, not just capability.

    “Whenever I had the full ability to win a race, it rarely happened because of other things that affected our race, an incident, a technical problem… you come here, you do your best and whatever your best results in, you accept it.

    Al Qubaisi in recent action at Silverstone.

    Al Qubaisi in recent action at Silverstone.

    “And if there’s something that’s out of your control, don’t stress out, it’s out of your control, just get onto the next race. What we’re here to do is basically do our best and we know our best can get us the win and hopefully lady luck is on our side.”

    Al Qubaisi’s journey in the world of motorsport officially started seven years ago and within that period, his rise has been as fast-paced as his driving. He didn’t follow the traditional path of making it through the karting ranks before transitioning to race cars.

    “I’ve always loved cars, ever since I can remember. My mum tells me I had thousands and thousands of small matchbox cars filling up the house,” he recalls. “I first drove a car when I was eight years old, on my own. So I’ve always liked cars, I liked going fast, I started out on motorbikes, in the desert, on jet skis in the sea, and also I started driving regularly when I was 14 years old.

    “It’s always been there but I didn’t have the right channel to push it towards professional motorsport and karting, where people usually start.”

    Al Qubaisi did dabble in karting but his real start came in 2009 around the inaugural Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix.

    “Just before the F1, we had (retired Italian driver) Luca Badoer who was in town promoting the event and we did a kart race with him and I beat him,” said Al Qubaisi. “At that time I figured I definitely had to do something about it. So I got in touch with the people running Yas Marina Circuit and they told me there was a Porsche SuperCup support race and I can take part but the problem was I had never been in a race car ever.”

    He had just three months to get an international race licence from the FIA, get used to driving the car, and get ready to compete in an elite championship. He pulled it off and has never looked back. He won the Dunlop 24 Hours of Dubai twice and became the first Arab to get onto the podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMGTE AM in 2014.

    He’ll be looking for a repeat this weekend at a place which holds a special place in his heart.

    “The history and heritage that comes with Le Mans, it’s been going on for over 90 years now, and just the whole event has its own flavour,” says Al Qubaisi. “The build up for this race is different than any other race. It has much more weight to it, importance, attention, also spectators from all around the world.

    “Last year we got over 250,000 spectators and in the 80’ and 90’s they used to get close to 500,000 spectators for the race.

    “It’s like the gladiator events of the Romans; it’s basically what it is for our era. We feel very excited for this weekend because it’s a big race, it’s the biggest motorsport event and the highlight of our season and we’ve been waiting for it ever since last year’s event concluded.

    “We actually didn’t have a good race at that time, our engine blew up after just four hours and we couldn’t do anything. All we had was to look forward to this event and obviously aim to make up for that.”

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