Countdown to Le Mans
The countdown to Le Mans is on, with 3 days to go until the epic event, taking place in France at the circuit de la Sarthe. For those living in a black hole Le Mans is world’s oldest endurance race in motosport. The race is steeped in history with amazing drives, horrendous accidents, fantastic speeds, driver battles and traditions like the Le Mans start.
I went to the race for the first time in 2009 and the atmosphere was fantastic. The journey over to Le Mans itself was half the fun, seeing all the different cars liveried up, with Le Mans stickers and often sporting the traditional Gulf colours. The highlight last year was seeing the cars scream down the Mulsanne straight, at night, hard on the brakes lighting up the discs, then rounding the corner and bellowing away into the dark. It has to be seen (and heard) to be believed and is a memory I will cherish. Watching the sun come up in a serene near silent atmosphere at 5am with 50 other sleepy spectators nursing cups of tea, coats, and cameras, as the drivers near the end of the race was an experience in itself.
For the unintiated there are 4 classes of car racing on track at the same time, each class more focused and powerful than the last, making overtaking a common occurence.
LMP1 are dominated by the Peugeot and Audi Le Mans prototype cars and this year the Germans will be doing everything in their power to claim back the well coveted win from the French. Evo magazine have been talking to Audi driver Allan McNish before the race, read the interview here. This year also sees Nigel Mansell and his two sons racing a British-built LMP1 Ginetta Zytek. They are sportingly displaying the Pistonheads logo on their Ginetta, I would have liked to have seen this logo instead however, designed by a forum member!
LMP2 sees three British teams taking part, while GT1 sports some of the best looking and sounding supercars the world has to offer from Ferraris to Murcielagos. The GT2 class will be sporting Giancarlo Fisichella, and Jean Alesi both driving Ferraris this year.
For those of you not able to make the pilgramage this year Audi and Evo have produced an iPhone app to keep you up to date with news, weather, leaderboards, driver lists etc which you can download here.
Eurosport are showing the race live in HD and also online which I will be trying out.
Let the excitement begin!
