Jonny Kane could never have imagined that biofuel testing for the short-lived A1 Grand Prix World Cup of Motorsport might provide the origins of his favourite team-mate partnership. But a fruitful collaboration with Danny Watts that is best remembered for a famous Le Mans 24 Hours class victory with their Strakka Racing HPD in 2010 actually began several years before, when the duo had been team-mates of sorts pounding around away from the public eye. Over the course of 35 race starts between 2010 and 2016 together with Strakka boss Nick Leventis, Kane and Watts also became the first LMP2 crew ever to win a Le Mans Series race outright at the Hungaroring in 2010, joined Audi on an outright World Endurance Championship podium in 2012 and led the unofficial privateers class at Le Mans in 2013.
What Kane describes as “a really good working relationship” that would yo-yo between the top and secondary classes of prototype racing only ended when Watts called time on his driving career after the 2016 edition of Le Mans. “We never had an issue with sharing what we were doing,” he says. “We were both very open with techniques and doing corners certain ways.
It made us a strong combination, because there was absolutely no secrets at all.” The little-known story of how the elder brother to British Touring Car Championship race winner Steven first became acquainted with Watts in 2007 owes much to the late John Wickham . Kane had been given the opportunity to revive a single-se.