The Madness of the 24 Hour of Le Mans
For those of you who are not motorsport fans, then a quick lesson on Le Mans 24 Hour. The Le Mans 24 Hour is one of the most prestigious races in motorsport and is an endurance race for sports cars and along with the Monaco F1 Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 form The Triple Crown of Motorsport. 2024 is the 92nd running of the race.
In the 2024 Le Mans race there are 3 classes, Hypercar – the fastest class, is made up of sport prototypes with entries from manufacturers such as Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche, Cadillac, BMW, Lamborghini, Alpine and Peugeot and entries from private teams such Hertz Team Jota & Proton Competition in a Porsches. Next there is LMP2 – which are again prototype sports cars, made from a selection of bespoke race car manufacturers, these are entered only by privateer teams rather than manufacturers and they all have the same V8 engine manufactured by British firm Gibson Technology. Finally the LMGT3 cars, which are based on production road car models, such as the Aston Martin Vantage, BMW M4, Ford Mustang, Ferrari 296, McLaren 720S, Lamborghini Huracan, Lexus RC F and Chevrolet Corvette Z06.
Before the race, there is lot of build up both on and off the track with driver parades, practice sessions and qualifying sessions. The race starts at 4pm on the Saturday and finishes at 4 pm on the Sunday. Each car has 3 drivers plus a team of pit crew, mechanics, engineers and support staff. Very little sleep is had by anyone working at Le Mans. For them it is not just 24 hours, it is more like 40 hours!
We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and set up our pitch, making sure we had left room for our two friends, Nik & Paul who would be joining us on Thursday afternoon.
The race circuit is 8 miles long and consists of race track and road sections. The area around the start/finish and famed Dunlop Bridge has huge viewing areas and grandstands, along with bars, restaurants, food stands, exhibits and shops by all the major manufacturers. There is a gaming zone, kids zone, and a concert arena where on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights there is music from about 8 pm to midnight. Simple Minds are the top act on Saturday night followed by a firework display.
After we set up we took the opportunity to quickly meet up with Olly, our son, a Systems Engineer, who works for Multimatic who provide support to the private teams that run Porsches and Mustangs. At this race he was supporting Hertz Team Jota’s 2 Porsches and Proton Competition’s Porsche. We had a ten minute catch up before that afternoon’s practice sessions got underway. which we watched from the Grandstand above the pits.
Unfortunately the no 12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche had a major accident during the night practice on Wednesday and the car needed a new chassis. It usually takes 3 weeks to build a car from the chassis up and Jota’s team had to have it rebuilt and ready by 4 pm on Saturday afternoon to take part in the race.
On Thursday we spent time at the circuit watching more of the practice and qualifying runs and then went back to meet Nik & Paul who arrived in the early evening. After a couple of beers and some food, we made our way back to the circuit to watch the night practice from the Grandstand above the pits.
Friday is quiet day on track as the drivers attend a huge parade in old cars in the Le Mans town centre, so we took the opportunity to visit the Le Mans Museum and meet up with Olly for an hour to catch up on all the news from the inside! There was also the opportunity to get out onto the track and into pit lane, which was open to the public. It was just as we were making our way to the pits, that we got a message from Olly to say that Jota had, by the miracle of hard work and determination, had got to the car ready enough to fire up the engine. We quick marched it through the crowds to get there just as the engine roared into life. Huge cheers all round from the crowd and the Jota team. Jota had permission to take the car that night to the neighbouring airfield to give the car a ‘shakedown’, just to make sure everything was working.
That night we went back into the circuit for a few drinks and then headed back to our camp, for a couple more drinks and late night snack whilst listening to the music coming from the concert area. Trust me, we were close enough to hear and didn’t miss out on anything apart from getting wet, as we sat in our comfy chairs, under the awning out of the rain. We knew Saturday was going to be a long day, so we went to bed sometime after midnight, as the concert was ending, however the campsite had other ideas. The campsite had a couple of competing DJ’s who tried to outdo each other with the bass and volume, plus fireworks, and engines revving. One set of fireworks were set off 3ft from my motorhome windows, they were not bright, sparkly fireworks, they were more like heavy artillery, the ground shook, bits of firework/earth fell on the roof. Paul was watching out of his window and some poor guy in a campervan, shot out of his van looking stunned and dazed as we reckon he was about 1 foot away from the launch zone. Quiet fell over the campsite around 4 am which didn’t last long as the first helicopter hovered overhead around 6 am on its way to the airport. The helicopter was the first of what seemed like a thousand.
It was an easy start on Saturday, a large cooked breakfast for the boys and then it was time to load up with camping chairs, smuggled beer and snacks to find our place to watch the first few hours of the race. The weather was changeable, dark clouds, blue skies and sunshine… the rain held off for most of the day.
Zinedine Zidane was the man chosen to wave the start flag, after it had been delivered by an abseiling French soldier from a helicopter and after the PAF (French Red Arrows) had screamed overhead trailing blue, white and red smoke. Then the 62 car grid started its formation lap to arrive for a rolling start at 4 pm! As Zidane waved the flag, 62 cars screamed over the start line and the race was on….
The race had thrills and spills, it had boring bits, where there were long periods of safety car. We watched for a few hours and then went back to the camp for some food, then as darkness fell along with some light rain, we walked out to Tertres Rouge and to the Essess to watch. There was racing, then an accident which required the arnco to be repaired so a long safety car stint, exacerbated by a loose dog on the track. The rain got heavier and it got colder. The race started again but then more drama, another slow zone and the rain got heavier. Sometime in the early hours we headed back to the campsite and to a lovely night’s sleep. The campsite was quiet, the rain which was now really heavy had dampened the party spirits. During the night due to the extreme weather, there was a 4-hour safety car session, so we were glad we went to bed.
The next morning was Charlie’s birthday so we had a slow morning, whilst Nik & Paul went out to watch more racing. We caught up with them around 11.30 am, after having booked a table at a circuit restaurant to celebrate Charlie’s birthday. As the morning progressed into afternoon, the clouds gathered and the rain started again.
We had lunch booked for 2 pm and as we arrived to sit down at our table, the heavens opened. Due to a couple of bottles of wine and the ability to get the race coverage live on my phone, we watched the last 2 hours from the comfort of the restaurant, where we could hear the action but were in the dry with wine!
Congratulations to Ferrari for winning for the 2nd year running and huge congrats to Hertz Team Jota who came 8th and 9th, not the result they wanted but an amazing result for the no 12, as it had been put back together in record time and completed the most grueling road race in the world.
Following the race the circuit began to shut down, bars were shut, stalls were being dismantled, teams started packing up their garages and the weary but happy fans made their way back to their campsites, some having packed up in the morning to start the long drive home, others to collapse in a bed for good night’s sleep before travelling the next day.
On Monday morning we said goodbye to Nik & Paul as they headed for the Channel Tunnel, whilst we had a leisurely morning, feeding some stray puppies that appeared out of nearby woods and then drove into Le Mans town centre to pick up Olly from his hotel. We were heading home on Wednesday but on the Monday afternoon and Tuesday were returning to Normandy with Olly to visit some of the D-Day sites. Olly had a couple of days off with us, then we were dropping him at Ashford to collect his car to drive home so he could do a quick turnaround before heading out to Spa in Belgium on Monday 24 June for another 24 hour race.
So that is the end of our motorhome adventure and by a miracle, both of us have come back, speaking to each other.
All that’s left to say is a bientôt.
RoundandAbout 