"I decided that I will go to the American CART series next year. Obviously I've got to sign a contract for a drive but that's what I want to do next year."

Johnny's name was linked with several teams, including some of the top ones, for a possible drive in the CART championship in 2001 and rumours circulated for months. Eventually, it seemed likely that he would end up with a new team formed by long time CART franchisee, Gerry Forsythe, and one time F1 team principal Peter Zakowski. In December 2000, Johnny was still expecting it to happen:

"I had heard that everything was going along nicely and I was convinced that it was going to happen. I received a phone call at the beginning of December saying that we had a sponsor, they were coming over in the next 10 days and it was all done. I haven't heard anything since and no-one phoned to say it hasn't come off."

But the deal fell through, reportedly because lack of sponsorship.

Back to F1?

In February 2001, still without a race seat for the year, Johnny decided to take up Tom Walkinshaw's offer of a test drive for the Arrows F1 team. He told Autosport why:

"My situation changed from the end of last season when I was convinced I would be doing the Champ Car series. This is a great situation for me because I've got no pressure to perform and it will be good to be driving an F1 car again. I've got the freedom to do other things."

On joining Arrows, Johnny said that his aim was still to enter both the Indy 500 and Le Mans 24-Hour races in 2001 and he confirmed that his F1 testing duties would not interfere with those plans:

"Nothing has changed with my plans to race at Indy and Le Mans. I've got two options to drive in Le Mans and everything with Arrows will work around both projects."

In his first outing in the Arrows at Silverstone, Johnny was quickest, in front of a Benetton, a Williams and both Jaguars. Johnny also tested for the team at Barcelona, Magny-Cours and Valencia early in the season but, after Le Mans, concentrated on racing in the ALMS series.

Still a chance for a CART drive?

In May, the stories about a drive in the US Champ Car series resurfaced and Johnny looked set to test the Sigma team's car with a view to racing for the team. When Johnny visited the team at Long Beach and sat in the car, Sigma's MD, Paul Cherry, said:

"Johnny had never ever been in a Champcar seat before so it certainly made sense to show him what it was like. I am pleased to report that it fits just fine thank you! He is looking forward to giving it a go.

"Sigma is serious about giving Johnny a test and at this moment we are aiming at a midsummer date. We wanted to do this sooner but we are working hard to make it happen. I have known Johnny for most of his career and am extremely excited about having him on the Sigma team. Just do a little research into his career and you find a remarkably strong man who not only has obvious open-wheel talent but a lot of heart!

The promised test never took place and Johnny's hopes of a Champ Car drive in 2001 faded away. Rumours linking Johnny with Sigma resurfaced in early 2002 but again came to nothing.

Le Mans 24 Hours

The hoped for Indy 500 seat also failed to materialise, at least for 2001 (see 2002), but in April Johnny landed a plum seat with the North American ALMS team, Champion Racing, for the Le Mans 24 Hours. His team-mates in the "privateer" Audi R8 for the endurance classic were Ralf Kelleners and Didier Theys.

"We wanted to add more Le Mans experience to our driver line-up," said Champion team boss Dave Maraj. "Johnny was available and his addition to the team will give us a very strong driver roster for the legendary race."

In May, Johnny tested Champion's Audi R8 for the first time, the car ending up the day second quickest behind one of the works Audis. The 36-year-old averaged almost 140mph around the 8.45-mile circuit on his maiden drive for the German manufacturer.

The 1991 Le Mans winner consistently set top-five times before his Champion Racing co-driver Ralf Kelleners marginally went quicker near the end.

"I'm very happy," confirmed Johnny. "The car is very easy to drive and is consistent which will be a huge bonus in a race lasting 24 hours. I literally had a seat fitting for the car on Saturday morning and drove it for the very first time today and to be so competitive after such a limited amount of mileage is very satisfying."

In qualifying, the Champion car was quickest behind the two works Audis, stopping the clock at 3min 34.349secs in the four hour time trial that concluded at midnight. Johnny and his team-mates lined up third on the grid and he was pleased:

"I'm very happy to be starting my first Le Mans for nine years from the second row," confirmed Johnny. "Third position is great and we've got ourselves an excellent racecar - it's a joy to drive. It would have been nice to get more time behind the wheel but I reckon I'll get that opportunity over the weekend!"

Soon after the race got under way, it was blighted by atrocious wet conditions and a series of torrential downpours caused havoc. One caught out Champion's Ralf Kelleners who spun early in the race and resumed in 27th place after a pit stop.

"Ralf did well and clawed his way back up the leaderboard to the extent that when he handed over to me we were third," said team-mate Johnny. "The weather conditions were diabolical with a river of water running across the track in places making it extremely difficult to keep the car under control even on the straights."  

Johnny's spectacular driving during a marathon stint of three hours and 45 minutes in the rain as darkness fell was one of the highlights of the race. He was blinded by rain blowing off the bonnet of his Audi R8 and into his visor and discovered the only way to see was to push his left leg on to the footrest and raise himself above the cockpit at 200mph and in the dark to spot the white marker lines on the track. The effort left him with a spasm in his back and a sore hip but nothing else to show for all the effort. The Champion Racing Audi R8 retired with a transmission problem late on Saturday evening, just after Johnny handed over to team-mate Didier Theys:

"Didier was half way around the lap when the car lost drive," remarked Johnny.  "He spent over an hour attempting to fix the fault with our mechanics talking to him from the pits by radio but to no avail."

The retirement marked Audi's first-ever mechanical enforced race withdrawal since the German manufacturer's 220mph R8 made its motor racing debut 18 months ago.

American Le Mans Series

Though the early exit at La Sarthe was a disappointment, Johnny had impressed many people, including Champion Racing's Dave Maraj. He got his just rewards after Le Mans when he signed to campaign the remainder of the ALMS schedule with the team, alongside British Sportscar ace, Andy Wallace.

"I think it will be great, this is a good opportunity to work with Champion and take it to the works cars," Johnny said. "I think the ALMS is a great series. I am also looking forward to working with Andy. Although I have not driven any of the tracks that are coming up on the schedule, I am looking at that as a great challenge and I will be studying them beforehand."

The foundations for a successful partnership between Johnny and Andy Wallace were laid at Sears Point in California on 23rd July when they steered their Audi to fourth place on their ALMS début together. Johnny enthused:

"It was so relaxing and enjoyable - just like motor racing should be. It will be hard to beat the factory Audis because they have the very latest modifications but we stand a very good chance especially when we've all gelled together a bit more."

In their second race ALMS race together, at Portland on 5th August, Johnny and Andy went one better and climbed on to the bottom step of the podium.

"I'm delighted," confirmed Herbert. "Fourth two weeks ago and now on to the rostrum - I'm now aiming for the top step. It was good to make a competitive pass on one of the factory Audis - its shows they're not invincible. We were able to keep pace with the front of the pack and take advantage of their mistakes, while we didn't make any."

Two weeks later at Mosport, it looked like the dynamic British duo would improve again, but they were cruelly robbed of a certain second place -and possible victory - when Johnny crashed his Audi in the closing stages of a dramatic race. Johnny's Audi was a mere 2.6secs behind leader Emanuele Pirro with just 15 minutes left of the 165-minute race, hunting the Italian down in what had been a dramatic race from start to finish.

"I needed to get past two back-markers so that I could keep the pressure on Emanuele who was only 2.6secs ahead," confirmed Johnny. "But we went into Turn 2 three abreast and I got on to the rubber 'marbles', lost grip, slid on to the grass and almost caught the slide but it got away from me again and I hit the tyre wall hard.

"A great shame, Andy had driven very well and the Audi was running superbly and I felt confident I could have beaten Pirro."

After increasing competitiveness in the series, it was disappointing to finish only 5th in the next race at Mid-Ohio on the 25th August. Johnny told us by e-mail how the race went:

"Well another race and another unlucky day.

"After qualifying 4th again, the team decided that Andy would start the race and I would do the last leg as they hoped that I could repeat my storming race in Mosport. Andy unfortunately had a car that was lacking grip and so dropped back to 6th.

"I took over under a full course yellow but, as I left the pits, the speed button had turned itself off and so my speed was over the limit. So a stop and go penalty was given to me. Three or so laps later, I then had another stop and go because Andy had a coming together with the Saleen car and the officials thought that the pass and eventual contact was a driving error.

"To add to this we also had a misfire and the power was extremely bad and we had to change the ECU plus the injectors because it was not known which was causing the problem. This was very strange as it happened during the driver change and only seemed to stop working when the ignition was switched off and but did not work when I switched it back on.

"So, during all this, we went a lap and half down but I was not just going drive round slowly - I gave it my all. After I rejoined the track that was under a yellow, I started my race with the engine working again and off I went. Although not racing for a podium position, what was good for me was that I passed Audi no:2, then late in the race I passed Audi no:1, and on the last but one lap I passed the no:2 Panoz, also taking the 3rd placed Dyson car. So again I raced to another strong finish, ending up 5th with the 2nd fastest lap of the race."

Johnny and Andy Wallace just failed to claim their first ALMS victory at Laguna Seca two weeks later, after a time penalty cruelly deprived the British pair of their maiden win. They duly recorded second place in their "privateer" Audi R8, just 1.6 seconds behind race winner Emanuele Pirro in a dramatic 165-minute race which gives the Italian "factory" Audi driver the series lead with just one race remaining.

Three-time Formula One race winner Herbert started sixth on the grid but quickly moved in to third place and then in to the lead at mid-distance. Herbert made his final scheduled pit-stop with 65 minutes remaining and handed over to Wallace, who was forced to sit stationary for an extra 20-seconds, a time penalty having been imposed for an earlier indiscretion when Herbert and Jan Magnussen (Panoz) made contact fighting for second.

Herbert remarked: "The start was hectic with cars touching each other at the first corner and further around the opening lap but I survived. The decision to penalise me was very harsh."

But the result remained in doubt until the chequered flag unfurled after 120 thrilling laps around the undulating 2.24-mile circuit, Wallace reducing Pirro's advantage from 40 seconds in the final 30 minutes.

On 6th October, Johnny and Andy Wallace brought their first season as team-mates to a successful close by finishing third at Road Atlanta. The British duo swept their "privateer" Audi R8 sportscar home six laps behind the 1,000-mile race winning Audi of Emanuele Pirro, who claimed the ALMS Driver's title, and Frank Biela after over nine hours of hard racing in front of a 60,000 crowd. Herbert began the race from the third row of the 41-car grid but had forced his way in to the lead after 90 minutes.

Johnny remarked: "I had enjoyed a pretty steady race until 50 minutes from the end when I lost the rear brakes. The car had been superb until that point and we looked good for a solid second - there was nothing we could do about the leading Pirro/Biela Audi, they were just too fast."

In its November review of the 2001 ALMS season, Autosport magazine rated the top 10 drivers of the year as follows (scores out of 30 maximum):

1 Tom Kristensen (29 points)
2= David Brabham (26)
2= Jan Magnussen (26)
4 Rinaldo Capello (25)
5 Emanuele Pirro (24)
6 Johnny Herbert (23)
7 Stefan Johansson (22)
8 James Weaver (21)
9 Frank Biela (20)
10 Emmanuel Collard (19)

Johnny was given 9 out of 10 for speed, as were Brabham and Magnussen (Kristensen was the only driver given a 10), and scored 7 for both racecraft and consistency.

This is how the score was explained: "Difficult to put Herbert higher even though he worked wonders with the Champion team's old-style Audi. His Mosport shunt resulted from a rash overtaking move and his contretemps with Magnussen was probably avoidable. Both incidents cost him likely wins."

In the same edition of the magazine, Andy Wallace had this to say about his Champion team-mate:

"It was really refreshing to drive with Johnny. Firstly to share with someone who is as fast and professional as he is, but also because he's such a nice guy. He's not someone who's 'me, me, me' all the time, which you'd expect from a driver coming from F1 where you're conditioned to be selfish.

"Johnny's a recognised quick guy, so it gave me a chance to reaffirm how fast I am. We were pretty well matched in most sessions, although there were some races, such as mid-Ohio, where Johnny was quicker. But there were reasons for that."

A testing year - Rockingham oval debut

In addition to testing for Arrows and competing for Champion Racing, Johnny undertook a couple of very important tests in 2001. In July, he tried a Champ Car and an oval racing circuit for the first time when he tested at Rockingham, the brand new British oval.

Johnny ran a 2000-spec Dale Coyne Racing Lola-Ford on the 1.5-mile Northamptonshire track. After limited lapping, he set times quicker than Champ Car regular Alex Barron had run in the early part of the day. Running the same configuration as Barron, Johnny posted a 198.5mph (27.242s) lap, compared to Barron's 195mph (27.690s) benchmark, comfortably breaking the previous lap record of 163mph set by Nigel Mansell in a demonstration run in a Champ Car in the early days of the circuit.

Barron set his time on a dirtier track, running data accumulation laps, but is confident that speeds in the region of 203mph will be possible in September. After his first run, Herbert told Autosport.com:

"It's not as scary as everyone says it is. The nice thing is that you don't have to do the work - the banking does it for you. On the whole, I have to say it wasn't that bad. It's not so much the classic style of getting the car into the corner, because the car will do the work for you here."

Coyne was obviously impressed, though certainly not surprised, by Johnny's performance and said he would like nothing better than to field a car for the Briton in the Rockingham race.

"He did a good job," said Coyne. "He'd never been in a Champ Car before, never been in a car that heavy with that amount of horsepower, never been on an oval, so to go as fast as he did as quickly as he did showed his versatility. He said he'd always liked fast corners, so he was in his element!"

The drive at Rockingham, or anywhere else in the CART series, never happened - the funds were not available.

Second oval test - an IRL car in Kentucky

In August, Johnny had another test on an oval - this time for the Heritage team in the rival Indy Racing League series - at the Kentucky Speedway. Not only did he do well, he was over 200mph within three laps in an Infiniti-powered GForce and posted a top speed of 214mph, which would have put him the front row for yesterday’s race. Not bad for only your second time on an oval.

"I'm very happy with the test today," Johnny said. "I bit into this weekend's pole speed. With this ride, I could have qualified on the front row for yesterday's race."

Johnny was favourably impressed with his first taste of the IRL chassis/engine combination.

"This is a very driveable engine," he enthused. "It's very powerful in the right places on the track. It provides a very interesting drive, which I enjoyed. I was able to keep the momentum up all the way around the oval."

Despite a very limited amount of time on ovals, Johnny says he’s enjoying the learning process.

"I've only accumulated about a day's worth of experience on the oval tracks, but I've thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities," he said. "Winning the Indy 500 is my last major challenge, and I'm doing all I can to get there. This was a great package to run with, and I really hope I'm competing here next year."

Johnny had his second test for the Heritage team at the Texas Motor Speedway in September and sent us the following e-mail from his flight to San Francisco enthusing about the experience:

"Hi y'all

"24° of banking is the most I've driven on since I was a boy on my Scalextric!

"I had a good feeling straight away and posted a 213.1mph on my first run. We then tried different set ups trying to make the car less bound up, as this is where time is lost and won.

"As time went on we did hook the front up a lot better and this produced my best lap of 214.1mph which I was happy with, especially as this was in lap time with Jacques Lazier, last week's Chicago IRL race winner, who was testing as well yesterday.

"I learnt a lot at the test it's amazing how having the feeling of understeer & oversteer makes a big difference in lap time. I hope to be racing next weekend in the Texas IRL race and will have talks before the week is out, to see if a deal can be put together."

Due to the tragic events on 11 September, the Texas race was cancelled and Johnny's expected oval race debut never took place.

In October, Johnny faced the biggest oval challenge of them all - the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In 2000, Johnny was the first to cross the famous yard of bricks in a modern F1 car when he was driving for Jaguar. But that was the "wrong" way round the circuit and the F1 cars don't use most of the oval. Blasting around all four turns at over 200mph didn't faze him at all though, and he was quicker than the 2000 winner, Helio Castroneves, second quickest overall, in the first couple of days:

"I got off to a good start and did a couple of laps in the 220's - the car handles well and is very swift which is important," was Johnny's first reaction. "The car works very well it is good to be on the speedway and I get a good feeling from it especially after only 49 laps today and 10 yesterday a total of 60 laps.

"I feel at home and very positive, I have settled in easily and quickly which is very important. I have received offers of a drive in IRL and CART next year, which I am considering. My goal for 2002 is to win the Indy 500 and compete in a competitive series with a well funded team. I enjoyed working with Heritage and I would like to thank G-force and Infiniti for making the best possible."

On the third day of the test, Johnny posted the quickest lap of the day, a 222.366 mph, in the No. 35 Heritage Motorsports Firestone Menards G Force/Infiniti/Firestone. He was itching to race in the famous 500 mile race:

"It's just good being able to get on the Speedway like this, getting the real feeling for what it's all about, what the 500 is all about and Indianapolis Speedway. It's been very interesting, for one, but very enjoyable at the same time.

"I'm looking forward to getting it together for next year. It's one of the those things that when I was a kid I wanted to do. Formula One, which I've done, I won three races in that. I wanted to do Le Mans, and I've won Le Mans.

"It's the 500. It's a different type of challenge. It's like nothing else I've done before, and because that challenge is there, I want to attack it. It's something completely different than I've ever done before and a big, big challenge. And that's what important as a driver, to have a challenge. And this, for sure, gives you a big challenge."

2002 - a busy year

Johnny kept busy throughout 2001, but 2002 looked set to be an even busier year, with a full season of ALMS, a works Audi drive at both Sebring and Le Mans and that long-awaited first attempt on the Indy 500. For more information, see the 2002 biography page...

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Last updated 21st April 2002.
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