June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Leo Hindery Jr., who left his job as chief executive officer of Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network in April 2004 to pursue his racing hobby, won the GT2 category at France's Le Mans 24-hour race yesterday.

Hindery, 57, was at the wheel of the Alex Job team's Porsche 911 GT3 RSR when the BAM!-sponsored outfit from Tavares, Florida, edged defending champion White Lightning Racing by a single lap at the racetrack in northwestern France.

``This means everything,'' Hindery said in an e-mail just after completing his four-year quest to capture the top prize.

At a May lunch at his usual table at New York's Four Seasons restaurant, Hindery promised that this year would be his last attempt to win the world's premier sports car endurance test. ``Four Le Mans outings and I'm still walking,'' he laughed. ``The bones are starting to hurt, just a little bit.'' The restaurant is one of the sponsors of the three-man Alex Job team.

Hindery and fellow drivers Mike Rockenfeller and Marc Lieb completed 232 laps before a record crowd of 230,000 at the 8.48- mile (13.65-kilometer) circuit. Hindery, whose broadcast deals at companies including AT&T Broadband Corp. have exceeded $100 billion, finished in second place in 2003.

This year Hindery shaved 14 seconds off his previous fastest lap times, according to his team. Last year, engine problems forced him out of the race.

46-year-old Beginner

The former communications executive began his racing career at the age of 46 in 1994, after signing up for the Richard Petty Driving Experience Challenge at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina. By May 1995, Hindery qualified for his first Nascar race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, finishing 13th in a field of 43.

In his career, Hindery has driven in more than 75 professional races. He survived near-fatal crashes into track walls in both 1996 and 2000. At the same time, he continued his broadcasting career at TCI Communications Inc., AT&T Broadband and the YES Network. He now is chairman of buyout firm InterMedia Advisors LLC in New York. His employers tolerated his racing career, requiring only that Hindery have ``key-man'' life insurance policies to cover his hobby.

``Le Mans is the only experience where in such a short amount of time a man can compress together all the emotions that make up his entire life,'' Hindery said at Le Mans last year.

Also at Le Mans yesterday, Denmark's Tom Kristensen became the first driver to win seven titles when his Champion Racing team finished the LM1 category first in an Audi R8, completing 270 laps.

Nascar Democrat

Hindery, a supporter of Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry's presidential campaign, considered running for the position of chairman of the Democratic Party last December. He withdrew to concentrate on fundraising for the Democrats, clearing the way for former Vermont Governor Howard Dean to take the position.

New York-based U.S. cable television company YES Network cablecasts New York Yankees baseball and New Jersey Nets basketball. Hindery said in an interview before the race last year that the thrill of racing eclipsed the buzz of brokering more than 200 broadcast industry deals.

``You can distract yourself in business and at worst lose a deal,'' Hindery said. ``If you distract yourself in here you are dead. I find that exhilarating.''

Hindery says Le Mans will probably be his last professional race. Now he faces one final task: getting a tattoo of the track inscribed on his right shoulder. Tradition dictates that first, second and third-place finishers get a tattoo of the track etched on their bodies. Hindery's left shoulder already has a tattoo celebrating his 2003 second-place finish.

``I'm going for it,'' he says.

To contact the reporter on this story: Grant Clark in Singapore at gclark@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 20, 2005 13:04 EDT