43 Facts About Tom Kristensen

Tom Kristensen was born on 7 July 1967 and is a Danish former racing driver.

Tom Kristensen holds the record for the most wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with nine, six of which were consecutive.

In 1997, he won the race with the Joest Racing team, driving a Tom Walkinshaw Racing-designed and Porsche-powered WSC95, after being a late inclusion in the team following Davy Jones' accident that eventually ruled him out of the race.

In both 1999 and 2007 Tom Kristensen's team crashed out of comfortable leads in the closing hours of the race.

Tom Kristensen is considered by many to be the greatest driver ever to have raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Elsewhere, Tom Kristensen holds the record for most wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring with a total of six.

Tom Kristensen's career began in 1984, whereafter he won several karting titles, including the 1985 Nordic Formula A series where he beat Mika Hakkinen.

Subsequently, Tom Kristensen relocated his racing career to Japan, where he drove concurrently in Japanese Formula 3 and the Japanese Touring Car Championship; he would score his maiden win in the latter at Suzuka and finished second in the teams' standings.

Tom Kristensen made his Japanese Formula 3000 debut during 1992.

In 1994, driving for Toyota Team Cerumo, Tom Kristensen won at Sugo, twice at Suzuka, and twice at Aida to place second in the JTCC .

Tom Kristensen lost out on the title to Masanori Sekiya by a single point.

Additionally, Tom Kristensen finished ninth in his first full-time season of Japanese Formula 3000, driving for Navi Connection Racing.

Tom Kristensen returned to Europe in 1996, entering the International F3000 Championship with Shannon Racing.

However, following just two rounds which included a pole at the Pau Grand Prix, which ended in a mid-race accident, Tom Kristensen left the team.

Tom Kristensen contested five of the remaining eight rounds with Edenbridge Racing, finishing second at Silverstone and scoring third at Spa-Francorchamps after another pole position; this left him seventh in the standings.

At the opening round in Silverstone, Tom Kristensen finished second but inherited the win after a disqualification for Ricardo Zonta.

Tom Kristensen finished second at the next event in Pau but retired from an attrition-filled race in Helsinki.

Tom Kristensen was outscored by teammate Gabriele Tarquini and only scored a sole podium, third at Wunstorf, on his way to 11th overall.

In 1999, Tom Kristensen returned to the Super Tourenwagen Cup and improved his results, winning two races at the Nurburgring and one at Hockenheim to finish third in the standings, narrowly ahead of teammate Tarquini.

Tom Kristensen's touring car exploits continued in 2000, when Kristensen entered the British Touring Car Championship with the Honda factory team.

Tom Kristensen was a Michelin test driver in 2000 as they prepared their F1 tyres using an older Williams car as well as a year-old Stewart car on European circuits.

Parallel to his touring car career, Tom Kristensen entered multiple endurance events in 1999 and 2000.

Tom Kristensen continued his Le Mans success story that year, claiming pole and winning for Team Bentley with Capello and Guy Smith.

In 2004, Tom Kristensen joined Abt Sportsline in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.

At the seventh round in Oschersleben, Kristensen beat fellow Audi driver Martin Tomczyk to claim his maiden DTM win.

Tom Kristensen scored another podium in Brno to finish fourth in the standings.

Tom Kristensen scored a pair of pole positions at Oschersleben and the Norisring thereafter, before finishing second at the Nurburgring.

At the start of 2006, Tom Kristensen repeated his victory at Sebring together with Capello and Allan McNish in the new Audi R10 TDI, making it the first win for a diesel-powered car in a major sports car race.

However, a non-score at the next race in Barcelona proved to be a setback, and despite two third places in the final two rounds Tom Kristensen dropped to third in the standings, in what turned out to be his most successful DTM season.

Tom Kristensen entered the DTM in 2007, but suffered a heavy accident at the season opener in Hockenheim after a collision with Alexandre Premat.

The crash resulted in a long break from training for Tom Kristensen, who missed three rounds of the season as a result.

Tom Kristensen began 2008 by finishing third at Sebring, being beaten by two Porsche Spyder LMP2 entries.

In what he announced to be his final campaign in the DTM, Tom Kristensen finished eighth overall again, having inherited a victory at the season opener in Hockenheim after a puncture for leader Ekstrom.

In 2011, Tom Kristensen drove in all seven races of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, which included another third place at Spa, an early retirement at Le Mans due to a dramatic accident by McNish, and further non-finishes at Petit Le Mans and Zhuhai.

In 2013, Tom Kristensen returned to the WEC, partnering McNish and Loic Duval.

Second in Brazil came before victory number three at the Circuit of the Americas, where Tom Kristensen took the lead from Sarrazin during the second hour.

On 19 November 2014, Tom Kristensen announced at a press conference in Copenhagen that he was retiring from motorsport at the end of the current WEC season.

At the season finale in Sao Paulo, Tom Kristensen capped off his career with a podium finish.

Tom Kristensen drove for BMW the two following years, but retired early in 1998 before experiencing drama in 1999, where the team led going into the final hours but a heavy crash for teammate JJ Lehto caused by a stuck throttle put them out of the event.

Tom Kristensen returned to drive the Audi R8 in 2004, this time partnering Capello and Seiji Ara at Team Goh.

In winning, Tom Kristensen equalled Jacky Ickx's record of six Le Mans victories.

Tom Kristensen broke the record in 2005, cruising to victory with a two-lap advantage in a Champion Racing-fielded R8 together with Lehto and Marco Werner.

The 2006 race saw Tom Kristensen finishing in third place in the new diesel-powered Audi R10, with a change of the car's fuel injectors in the first hours and further problems dropping him and teammates Allan McNish and Capello out of contention early.