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24 hours of Le Mans is a famous sports car endurance race held at a course near Le Mans, France, near river La Sarthe, usually in early to mid June. The first race was in 1923 and has been run annually ever since, cancelled only in 1936 and from 1940 to 1948.
The race is a non-permanent track with is over 13 km long, using mostly normal roads, a part of the permanent Bugatti track which surrounds the facilities at start/finish, plus the Porsche Curves section which bypasses the former Maison Blanche. Usually 46 cars race simultaneously in a number of different classes, from dedicated prototypes to street cars, the overall winner being the car that has covered the greatest distance in 24 hours of continuous racing. This rule sounds obvious, but the 1966 race saw a surprise winner, despite two Fords crossing the line nearly next to each other in a staged finish. The latter of the two was pronouced the winner, as it had started behind on the grid and thus covered a bigger distance in the same time.
Nowadys, each car has a team of three drivers. Prior to the early 1980s, two drivers shared a car, while it was even allowed to do it all alone in the early decades. In 1952, Frenchman Pierre Levegh competed and nearly won the race alone, making a mistake in the final hour which handed victory to a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL.
The race is sadly known for the worst accident in the history of motor racing. In 1955, Pierre Levegh was allowed to drive a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR after his excellent previous efforts. He was chasing Mike Hawthorn, when the Jaguar passed a slower Austin-Healey and then suddenly entered the pits on the right, forcing the Austin-Healey to move over to the left were the faster Mercedes was approaching with high speed. It ran into the back of the Austin-Healey, got got catapulted upwards and crashed into the crowd, disintegrating into parts, killing the driver and 80 spectators, while injuring many others. The race was continued to prevent leaving spectators from crowding the roads which would have slowed down ambulances.
Mike Hawthorn and the Jaguar team continued and won the race while the remaining Mercedes cars (driven by Fangio, Moss and others) were withdrawn from the race as a sign of respect to the victims. At the end of the season, having won World Championships in Formula One and Sports Cars, Mercedes withdrew from motor racing generally, and did not return until 1987. That today's DaimlerChrysler Corporation, owner of the Mercedes marque, is still aware of and sensitive to this incident was evidenced by their re-withdrawal from sportscar racing in 1999 after their CLR sports prototypes caught air and backflipped three times at Le Mans. Similar accidents happened to a Porsche and an BMW while racing in the USA, and had happened in the 1980s. Aerodynamic modifications made to the #4 car after a practice crash couldn't prevent it from becoming airborne again during the warm-up, this time at a different section of the track. The remaining two slightly different cars started the race, but the #5 car took off like an air plane and somersaulted into the forest, in front of a live TV audience. Luckily, driver Peter Dumbreck escaped without injury, just like Mark Webber did twice before.
Levegh's accident also prompted the government of Switzerland to ban circuit automobile racing, a ban which still remains in place. Several other races were cancelled in 1955.
The 24 hours of Le Mans was also famously featured in a 1972 movie, titled simply Le Mans, produced by and starring Steve McQueen. This film remains a classic which is still appreciated by racing fans. It was filmed on the circuit using genuine racing cars of the day, and one Porsche equipped with heavy movie cameras competed and finished the race, providing actual racing footage from the track.
"Le Mans start"
The races used to begin with what became known as the "Le Mans start": cars are lined up on one side of the track, drivers on the other, with the drivers running across the track to their cars as the race commences. This became risky after the introduction of safety belt harnessess, which should be properly strappd by mechanics. Jacky Ickx made a pointed demonstration of the danger of this start in 1969, when instead of running across the track to his machine, he slowly walked, then entered in his car and locked the safety belt. Despite this delay, he managed to win the race by only 100 meters later on. The practice was discontinued in 1970, when the drivers started while being seated.
The Le Mans start is also the reason why Porsche street cars continue to have their ignition switches on the left of the steering column rather than the more customary location on the right — this was easier to reach and enabled the driver to start the car more quickly.
The circuit
The Le Mans Circuit de la Sarthe itself has undergone many modifications over the years. It is most famous for its long straight, known locally as Ligne Droite des Hunaudières, or in English as the Mulsanne Straight.
Unlike many other races where the speed in curves is more important than top speed, top speed was a critical parameter for being competitive in Le Mans. This led to special body designs like the "Long Tail" bodies pioneered by Charles Deustch and Robert Choulet. Braking at the end of the straight is also critical; the first use of disc brakes on a car was in a Jaguars racing in Le Mans.
The cars were reaching impressive speed in the straight, in 1971, during night practice, a Porsche 917 LH reached a top speed of 396.004 km/h.
During the 1970s top speeds decreased after new rules reduced the size and power of the engines while the evolution of aerodynamics allowed the engineers to improve the speed on a lap by increasing speed in curves and reducing top speed. This evolution was also favored by the drivers because it made the car easier to drive, giving to less violent in acceleration and braking and require less attention in the straight, this also bring less stress on the car. On 24 hours these are important benefits.
But by the late 1980s the fastest cars were reaching speeds of approximately 400 km/h (250 mph) again in the straight, and the FIA felt that it had grown unsafe. Two chicanes were consequently put in place in time for the 1990 race to lower speeds. Near the end of this straight was an infamous hump, which gave flight to one of the Mercedes CLR mentioned previously. This hump was lowered during the winter before the 2001 race, again in the interest of safety. Although the hump remains, it is greatly diminished from what it was.
Other changes have included the replacement of the Maison Blanche ("white house") section with today's Porsche Curves, and the introduction of a new chicane in the Dunlop curve for 2002.
Marques
The most successful marque in the history of the 24 hour race is Porsche, with 16 overall victories (including seven in a row, from 1981 to 1987), followed by Ferrari with nine (including six in a row, from 1960 to 1965). The early years were dominated by Bentley, with four consecutive wins from 1927 to 1930.
In a personal spat between the two companies' owners, Ford won the race four times (1966-1969) with its GT40, built for the express purpose of defeating Ferrari, after founder Enzo Ferrari backed out of a deal to sell his company to Ford.
The only Japanese company to win the race so far has been Mazda, which won the 59th race in 1991 with its rotary-enginedd 787B prototype.
2002
The 2002 edition, held on June 15 and 16, was won by Audi Sport Team Joest, with riders Frank Biela (Germany), Tom Kristensen (Denmark) and Emanuele Pirro (Italy). The same team and the same drivers had already won the race in 2000 and 2001, making for a unique hat-trick.
The top 10:
- Biela/Kristensen/Pirro - Audi - 375 laps
- Capello/Herbert/Pescatori - Audi - 374 laps
- Krumm/Peter/Werner - Audi - 372 laps
- Wallace/Leitzinger/Van De Poele - Bentley - 362 laps
- Beretta/Lamy/Comas - Dallara Judd - 359 laps
- Sarrazin/Montagny/Minassian - Dallara Judd - 359 laps
- Ara/Dalmas/Katoh - Audi - 358 laps
- Lammers/Hillebrand/Coronel - Dome Judd - 351 laps
- Taylor/Angelelli/Tinseau - Cadillac - 344 laps
- Boullion/Lagorce/Bourdais - Courage Peugeot - 343 laps
2003
Bentley won its first Le Mans title since 1930 and Danish driver Tom Kristensen set a record with his fourth straight victory in the 24-hour endurance race. The Bentley team of David Brabham, Mark Blundell and Johnny Herbert finished second.
Winners
External Links
