Mark Patterson already holds a record in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2013: "When I came to the Test Day on the 9th of June, I was told that I was the oldest driver in the 24 Hours this year, but someone corrected that by reporting that there was a driver aged 65 in a GT (it's Howard Blank in the Ferrari 458 No. 54, ed.) But, I am indeed the oldest prototype driver this year. If you want to play in the big leagues, this is the car you need. I drove an LM P1 at Petit Le Mans with Dyson Racing, and also an LM P2 with Stefan Johansson (winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1997, ed.) I arrived at Le Mans with Murphy Prototypes, with my team mate Brendon Hartley, with whom I shared the wheel of a GT at the 12 Hours of Bathurst, Australia, and he is very quick. He told Greg Murphy: "You should go and see this old crazy guy to see if he can do Le Mans with us. "That's it! The team also made me spend a lot of time in the car so I can understand the circuit. Brendon and Karun Chandhok are my teachers, and I learn from them. Le Mans, it is not easy, but it's magic. " 

Over a busy life, begun in Port Elizabeth and continued in the United States from 1976. He came to motor sport later on in the life. Mark Patterson:" I was born in South Africa and when I was young, I went to a Formula 1 Grand Prix which saw Stirling Moss. This is the only memory of motor sport of my youth, and I started racing at the age of 45, I have never having seen a kart of my life, because a friend of Wall Street said he wanted to take flying lessons! I did Formula Ford, Ferrari Challenge and the Grand Am Daytona Prototype for five years. Then moved to LM P2, LM P1 ... Currently, I am in British GT with Matthew Bell (brother of Rob Bell, driver of the Aston Martin Vantage GTE No. 99, ed.) "

In paddocks, Mark Patterson has quickly earned a reputation in his amazing talent as a cartoonist. "There are plenty of interesting faces, with funny beards enthuses Mark Patterson, who is a big fan of Asterix. The more face is strange, the more I want to draw. When I see a really special head, I ask to draw it. During the autograph session at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, I made a good thirty." Over a conversation punctuated with laughter, we go from one surprise to another ... to jazz and space tourism! "Yes, I am the Vice-President of the jazz department of the cultural center of Lincoln Center in New York, confirmed Mark Patterson. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis directs and produces concerts and a major awareness program in schools. Regarding space tourism, I rode the centrifuge. It makes you get the blood from the head to the body, it compresses the chest, more G than the Murphy Prototypes car on the circuit 24 hours, and it's fantastic! "

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Jean Philippe Doret / ACO

Translated by Dave Davies / ACO