24 Hours of Le Mans

24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Heures du Mans, is the world's oldest sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since 1923 near the town of Le Mans, France. Commonly known as the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency, race teams have to balance speed against the cars' ability to run for 24 hours without sustaining mechanical damage to the car and manage the cars' consumables, primarily fuel, tyres and braking materials. The endurance of the drivers is likewise tested as drivers frequently spend stints of over two hours behind the wheel before stopping in the pits and allowing a relief driver to take over the driving duties. Drivers then grab what food and rest as they can before returning to drive another stint. Today it is mandated that three drivers share each competing vehicle.

The race is organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and runs on the Circuit de la Sarthe, a circuit containing a mix of closed public roads and specialist motor racing circuit that are meant not only to test a car and driver's ability to be quick, but also to last over a 24 hour period. The competing teams will race in groups called classes for cars of similar specification while at the same time competing for outright placing amongst all of the classes. Originally the race was held for cars as they were sold to the general public which were then called Sports Cars compared to the specialist racing cars used in Grands Prix. Over time the competing vehicles evolved away from their publicly-available road car roots and today the race is made of two classes specialised enclosed-bodywork two-seat Prototype sports cars and two classes of Grand Touring cars which bear much closer resemblance to high performance sports cars as sold to the public.

Competing teams have had a wide variety of organisation, ranging from competition departments of road car manufacturers who are eager to prove the supremacy of their products, to professional motor racing teams who represent their commercial backers, some of which are also road car manufacturers attempting to win without the expense of setting up their own teams, to amateur race teams, racing as much to compete in the famous race as to claim victory for their commercial partners.

The race is held near the height of the European summer in June, leading at times to very hot weather conditions for the drivers, particularly in closed roof vehicles whose cabins can heat up to uncomfortably hot temperatures with generally poor ventilation; rain, however, is not uncommon. The race begins in mid-afternoon, racing through the night and following morning before finishing at the same time the race started, the following day. Over the 24 hour period modern competitors will complete race distances well over 5000 kilometres. The present record is 5410 kilometres, recorded in the 2010 race. It is a distance over six times longer than the Indianapolis 500, or approximately 18 times longer than a Formula One Grand Prix.

The race has over the years inspired imitating races all over the globe, popularising the 24 Hour format at places like Daytona, Nurburgring, Spa-Francorchamps, Sebring and Mount Panorama. Presently the American Le Mans Series and the European based Le Mans Series of multi-event sports car championships have been spun off from 24 Hours of Le Mans regulations. Other races include the Le Mans Classic, a race for historic Le Mans race cars of years past held on the Circuit de la Sarthe, a motorcycle version of the race which is held on the shortened Bugatti version of the same circuit, a kart race (24 Heures Karting) and a truck race (24 Heures Camions).

Purpose

At a time when Grand Prix racing was the dominant form of motorsport throughout Europe, Le Mans was designed to present a different test. Instead of focusing on the ability of a car company to build the fastest machines, the 24 Hours of Le Mans would instead concentrate on the ability of manufacturers to build sporty yet reliable cars. This encouraged innovation in producing reliable and fuel-efficient vehicles, because the nature of endurance racing requires cars that last the distance and spend as little time in the pits as possible.

At the same time, due to the layout of the Le Mans track, a need was created for cars to have better aerodynamics and stability at high speeds. While this was shared with Grand Prix racing, few tracks in Europe had straights of a length comparable to the Mulsanne. The fact that the road is public and therefore not maintained to the same quality as some permanent racing circuits also put more of a strain on parts, putting greater emphasis on reliability.

The demand for fuel economy created by the oil crisis in the early 1970s led the race organisers to adopt a fuel economy formula known as Group C, in which the amount of fuel each car was allowed to use during the race was limited. Although Group C was abandoned when teams were able to master the fuel formulae, fuel economy was still important to some teams as alternative fuel sources appeared in the early 21st century, attempting to overcome time spent during pit stops.

These technological innovations have had a trickle-down effect, with technology used at Le Mans finding its way into production cars several years later. This has also led to faster and more exotic supercars due to manufacturers wishing to develop faster road cars for the purposes of developing them into even faster GT cars.

Unique rules and traditions

Although the 24 Hours of Le Mans was part of the World Sportscar Championship for most of its existence, it has regularly had rules which differed from those used in other series, partly due to the length of the event. Some rules are for safety reasons, while others are for the purposes of competition.

For many decades, cars were required to run at least an hour into the race before they were allowed to refill fluids for the car, such as oil or coolant, with the exception of fuel. This was an attempt by the ACO to help increase efficiency and reliability. Cars which could not last the first hour without having to replace lost fluids were disqualified.

Another rule that is unique to Le Mans is a requirement for cars to be shut off while they are being refueled in the pits. Based not only the notion that it is safer and less of a fire hazard to do so, this also allows for another test of reliability, because cars have to test their ability to restart many times under race conditions. Another element of this rule is that mechanics are not allowed to work on the car or its tyres while it is being refueled, which has led teams to adapt innovative ways in which to decrease the time of these lengthy pit stops. As an exception to this rule, drivers are allowed to get out of the car and be replaced by another driver during refueling.

At Le Mans there are various traditions. One of the longest lasting is the waving of the French tricolor to start the race. This is usually followed by a fly-over featuring jets trailing blue, white and red smoke. A similar flag tradition is the waving of safety flags during the final lap of the race by track marshals, congratulating the winners and other finishers.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans was the venue for the first known instance at a major race of a winning driver celebrating by spraying champagne instead of drinking it. When Dan Gurney won the 1967 race with co-driver A.J. Foyt, the two drivers mounted the victory stand and Gurney was handed a magnum of champagne. Looking down, he saw Ford CEO Henry Ford II, team owner Carroll Shelby and their wives, as well as several journalists who had predicted disaster for the high-profile duo. Gurney shook the bottle and sprayed everyone nearby, establishing a tradition re-enacted in victory celebrations the world over for the next 40+ years. Gurney, incidentally, autographed and gave the bottle of champagne to a LIFE magazine photographer, Flip Schulke, who used it as a lamp for many years. He recently returned the bottle to Gurney, who keeps it at his home in California.

Schedule

The first race was held on 26 and 27 May 1923 and has since been run annually in June with exceptions occurring in 1956, when the race was held in July and 1968, when it was held in September due to nationwide political turmoil earlier that year (see May 1968). The race has been cancelled twice: once in 1936 (Great Depression) and from 1940 to 1948 (World War II and its aftermath).

The race weekend also usually takes place on the second weekend of June, with qualifying and practice taking place on the Wednesday and Thursday before the race, following an administrative scrutinizing of the cars on Monday and Tuesday. Currently these sessions are held in the evening, with two separate two hour sessions held each night. A day of rest is scheduled on Friday, and includes a parade of all the drivers through the centre of the town of Le Mans.

A test day was also usually held prior to the event, traditionally at the end of April or beginning of May. These test days served as a pre-qualification for the event, with the slowest cars not being allowed to appear again at the proper qualifying. However, with the cost necessary to transport cars to Le Mans and then back to their respective series in between the test and race weeks, the test day was moved to the first weekend of June for 2005. The notion of pre-qualifying was also eliminated in 2000, when all competitors invited to the test would be allowed into the race.

The Le Mans Legend races have also been part of the schedule since 2001, usually running exhibition races during qualifying days, a few hours prior to the sessions for the Le Mans entrants.

Traditionally, the race starts at 16:00 on the Saturday, although in 1968 the race started at 14:00 due to the lateness of the race on the calendar. In both 1984 and 2007, the start time was moved ahead to 15:00 due to the conflicting French General Election. In 2006, the ACO scheduled a 17:00 start time on Saturday, 17 June in order to maximize television coverage in between the FIFA World Cup games. In 2009 the race took place over 13–14 June and started at 15:00 local time (13:00 GMT), and in 2010 the start is also scheduled for 15:00 local time on 12 June.

Cars

The total entry has usually consisted of approximately 50 competitors. Each car is required to have at least two seats, although in recent years only the ability to place a second seat in the cockpit has been required; the seat itself has not. No more than two doors are allowed; open cockpit cars do not require doors.

Although all cars compete at the same time, there are separate classes. A prize is awarded to the winner of each class, and to the overall winner.

The number of classes has varied over the years, but currently there are four. Custom-built Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) are the top two classes, LMP1 and LMP2, divided by speed, weight, and power output. From 2011, the next two classes are production-based grand tourer (GT) classes, GT Endurance Pro and GT Endurance AM. Both of these classes use GT2 cars, with older GT1 cars allowed to complete in GTE AM class in 2011 only. Although the top class is the most likely winner of the event, lower classes have won on occasion due to better reliability.

Drivers

Originally, there were no rules on the number of drivers of a car, or how long they could drive. Although almost all teams used two drivers in the early decades, some Le Mans drivers such as Pierre Levegh and Eddie Hall attempted to run the race solo, hoping to save time by not having to change drivers. This practice was later banned. Until the 1980s, there were teams in which only two drivers competed, but by the end of the decade the rules were changed to stipulate that at least three drivers must drive each car.

By the 1990s, due to the speeds of the cars and the strain it put on drivers, further rules were added to improve driver safety. Drivers could not drive more than four hours consecutively, and no one driver could run for more than fourteen hours in total. This reduced driver fatigue during the races.
See also: LeMans