At first, I was really confused about how Le Mans is celebrating its centenary when this is only the 91st running of the race.
And then I remembered there was that little thing called WWII that interrupted the race for a few years.
Photograph Courtesy NASCAR
Over 60 teams from around the world are currently gearing up to compete in one of the most iconic endurance races to ever exist, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The green flag for the 91st running of the race drops at 4:00 p.m. local time (10:00 a.m. Eastern) on June 10. Then it’s a competition of survival until the checkered flag waves on 4:00 p.m. the next day.
Sure, the hybrid Hypercars are the stars of the show, but many are just as eager to see how the Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 handles 24 grueling hours of hard driving on the Circuit de la Sarthe.
[NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports to pursue 2023 Le Mans entry]
Click here for a full schedule of events, and click here for the complete team and driver entry list.
For those in the United States and Canada, all 24 hours of the race is only available on MotorTrend TV, with coverage of practice sessions and live on-board cameras from various teams available on MotorTrend+.
Follow this space for live updates–and feel free to add your own updates, too.
At first, I was really confused about how Le Mans is celebrating its centenary when this is only the 91st running of the race.
And then I remembered there was that little thing called WWII that interrupted the race for a few years.
At some point they're going to admit they should've used a wing.
In reply to j_tso :
Jenson Button said as much in a video interview with Marshal Preuett.
Garage 56 Jenson Button on the First Outing at Le Mans in the NASCAR Chevy Camaro ZL1 Cup Car
He says the car is quick but hits a wall on the straight and the other GT cars go past.
Last I checked the NASCAR machine was more than 5 seconds faster than the fastest GTE car. Honestly I expected it to do well, given the big power and considerable diet, but I'm not sure I expected a non-tunnel car to outrun heavily-aeroed cars by quite that much. Pretty impressive how fast you can throw a brick.
JG Pasterjak said:Last I checked the NASCAR machine was more than 5 seconds faster than the fastest GTE car. Honestly I expected it to do well, given the big power and considerable diet, but I'm not sure I expected a non-tunnel car to outrun heavily-aeroed cars by quite that much. Pretty impressive how fast you can throw a brick.
I don't think of La Sarthe as being a track with a lot of high speed corners (at least not as a percentage of the total track length), which is where high downforce cars really shine.
It makes 750 hp vs, what, 500 in a GTE car? I'm not surprised it's faster. :)
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
Button did mention that the car really needs more brakes. I would expect as the race progresses it will start to fall behind the GTE cars.
I think they are having a Parade lap of old LeMans cars from the last 100 years ,
Any idea when that will be ?
Edit , seems the Vintage parade laps are in a couple weeks at LeMans Classic and not this weekend.
Edit #2. There is a " museum" type display set-up for the past winners , hopefully someone will do a YouTube video on that display.
Anyone watching Hyperpole? Wow.
It's a shame that this isn't being televised on any of the 100s of stations that I already pay for every month. I expected that NBC would offer some coverage since they do IMSA with the rest showing up on Peacock but I guess not. Would love to watch some of it but I'm not going to subscribe to another service just for this race. I used to stay up watching this on Speedvision (aka Speed, aka FS1) back in the day.
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