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Audi Presents Petit Le Mans

06/10/2001

Andy Wallace

A Very Special Head On Those Shoulders

“It was Johnny’s turn to qualify this weekend. He is only one second away but he is in 5th place. The race is really long and after a few laps it’s not going to matter where you qualified. And we’ve got a really good balance in wet or dry. We are pretty happy with that.

“We have really good set ups for the car. We have them for cool weather and for warm but we haven’t found one for the rain. But we are really happy with the car in race trim. On one lap we may be a few tenths off but in race trim we seem to be really good in traffic and down the straights so we are really happy.

“We still have the same problem in that this will be a very heavy traffic race so we set the car up for traffic. And the factory Audis still have that direct injection engine so we are going to have to stop for fuel more often then them but we are looking OK though.

“I know that in the race we are going to be very strong.

“The factory cars run about 10% better on fuel. We’ve got 9 pit stops so it’s .9 of a pit stop if you work it out like that. In a long race you top off each time. You may put in less fuel in a shorter race.

“The car is good in the rain. It is really good in race trim.

Andy's Helmet

A driver can’t go out on track without his helmet and most drivers are readily identified by that piece of equipment that sits on their head. Andy Wallace’s helmet has had a distinctive AW design on it for as long as anyone can remember. Thinking some might like to know more about his helmet, I asked him to reveal the secrets in his head about the helmet on his head,

“I have used the same AW design since forever. I’m sponsored by Arai and we usually have to replace the helmet twice a year. Sometimes I use them for two or three years; it depends on the amount of racing I do in them. Once you do a 24-hour race, the helmet is not very nice again. Not only are they smelly and horrible, you wear them often enough they get a bit looser. When that happens we just send them back to the factory.

“When you get a new one it is nice and tight. When you go over a bump and it’s not tight, it works it’s way down and you have to push it back up again. A nice new one is good.

Wallace has that distinctive AW in red and blue against a white background, and for this race, he is adding stars to the design to compliment the American salute colors of the Champion Racing Audi R8. The car looks fabulous and now Wallace says, “and now I look good in the dark!”

The design on his helmet is the handiwork of a fellow Brit., Mike Fairholm. “He does a lot of work for ARAI. But my head is not a normal shape. I have a great nose. Arai does a lovely job they make them to measure. They start with an extra large shell because they have to get my head this way (turns head to show profile, front to back view) and they pack it closer this way (left and right of his head). I have got such a big nose that it would stick out the visor if they didn’t make it special.

“They do a lovely job! Every time you put a new one on it’s perfect. Before they send it to me, they send it to Mike and he paints them up.

“Arai offers a wide range of sizes anyway, but it’s just that I have an abnormal shaped head. Most people get away with a stock sizes. When I raced in Formula 3 in Japan in ’87, I hooked up with the guys there and they did a special scan of my head. And said, ‘We could use this for scientific purposes’. They couldn’t believe anyone could be that shape, so they decided to measure my head themselves.

Looking straight on at him, it does seem he must have had his ears boxed quite a bit as a child. “It’s true. It took me until I was four years old to realize my name wasn’t “Shut up!”