Duncan Ende has raced on a lot of circuits during his still-young career, but for the first time last weekend he found himself sad as he drove his ORECA FLM09 into pitlane.
“I would literally get sad every time I came off the track because I never wanted to stop driving it,” he said.
The track – which Ende described as ‘totally awe-inspiring’ – was the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe, during the June 3 Le Mans Test Day ahead of this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. With the test open to the Formula Le Mans class, which uses the same ORECA FLM09 chassis and Chevrolet V8 engine used in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón’s Prototype Challenge class, Ende was able to take part along with his ALMS teammate Henri Richard.
Ende, who regularly drives the No. 25 Dempsey / Silicon Tech Racing Prototype Challenge car in the ALMS, spent time preparing for the Le Mans test by driving the circuit on Forza Motorsport 4. However, as he says, nothing prepares you for the real thing.
“I practiced a ton on Forza 4 to learn the basics of the track,” said Ende. “It definitely helps you learn where to go, but the one thing that doesn’t really come across is how incredibly fast the track is. At four places on the track we are going faster than we are on the backstraight at Sebring. Every corner is fast. The chicanes are slow relative to the straight, but they are still third gear entries. Even the slow corners feel fast!”
Ende’s car, which he and Richard shared with European standout Steve Palette, finished the test fastest of the Formula Le Mans runners. Ende only had limited running on the track, but came away from the test wanting another shot.
“I don’t know what to say – but the track surpassed all my expectations, and that was just during the track walk,” said Ende. “It is totally unreal. It’s so big, the scale of it is insane. I came away from it thinking ‘How do I get back here?’”
In addition to enjoying the chance to drive the Le Mans circuit, Ende enjoyed his time off the track as well.
“There was a good number of fans there for the Test Day,” said Ende. “They are definitely hardcore fans, and the whole day was pretty low-key with a good ambiance. They had autograph books like I’ve never seen. They put the headshots of every driver in books, and they hunt down each driver to get the autographs. I’ve never seen anything like them.”
Ende, taking part in today’s ALMS Series test at VIR, will be back in action at the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park on July 6-7.