LE MANS 24-HOURS
24 HOURS... AND COUNTING
WORDS ALANIS KING
ILLUSTRATION HUCKELBERRY MOUNTAIN
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Le Mans 24-Hour Race – you may have heard of it – an endurance event held on an 8.4-mile track in the French countryside. Its venue, Circuit de la Sarthe, combines public roads and private track that weave through the woods on the outskirts of town, and the race features prototypes and sports cars – vehicles with huge speed differentials, all fighting to win their respective classes while dodging each other day and night.
Le Mans is a big deal. This year, 62 cars and 186 drivers signed up. They’ll swap in and out of cars for the next 24 hours, resting in-between to stay alert. Some will crash. Some will have mechanical failures. Some will win.
But that’s a discussion for later. Right now, everyone is fresh and new. The race will begin soon. We’ve decided to stay awake the whole time, not to document what’s happening on track – you can look up race recaps on topgear.com for that. I, an American raised on a diet of NASCAR and a Le Mans newbie, want to find out what it’s really like to be here, to soak in every sight and sound... and we want to take you along for the ride.
Tick tock.
Most amazing part of the weekend was when these vintage racers appeared in a puff of smoke...
The hours before Le Mans
Le Mans doesn’t start until 4pm local time, allowing for a huge buildup but also keeping everyone awake an extra six to eight hours before the countdown clock begins. I wake up at 8am on Saturday and get to the track around 10. We pull into the parking lot, and the significance of the race starts to set in.
16:00
The grid walk – which is less of a ‘walk’ and more of a mob of people – is over. The track is clear. The cars peel off for the parade lap, while basketball star LeBron James prepares to wave the start flag.
High above are planes with streams of blue, white, and red smoke trailing behind, forming a hazy French flag. At our level, the prelude to Strauss’ ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ – cemented in popular culture by its use in 2001: A Space Odyssey – blasts on the speakers. The music picks up as the cars approach the start.