Le Mans (2023) dir. Eduardo Freitas

The 24 Heures du Mans. The race to end all races, one of the most revered motor-races in the world. A race that anyone who has attended will tell you that you must go, seriously, it’s life changing! A race that I’ve always been slightly sceptical of. A race that can’t be that good, can it? A race that, this year, I attended. A race that you must go to, seriously, it’s life changing!

One of the things that struck me most upon arriving in Le Mans was just how much the city embraced the event. You’d think a city of 150,000 people being flooded with 300,000 extra people for a week once a year would start to cause resentment or frustration at the added stress on infrastructure or the noise and pollution. But everyone I spoke to was so genuinely enthusiastic and happy to have the race on, it was wonderful to see. From our accommodation hosts who had been doing to the race every year for 40 years, to the older lady on the tram who showed us the picture she’d got with Tom Kristensen earlier in the week, the level of enthusiasm the whole city had was very refreshing and it only made the race even more enjoyable. 

The race itself was absolutely mega in endurance racing terms. From Hypercars going four-wide down the Mulsanne to rain-fuelled chaos – this race had everything.

As we walked down the circuit from the Dunlop curves to the pit lane there were three garages with queues for photos, and they all had very different reasons.  

Honse

Ferrari returned officially to Le Mans for the first time in half a century this year, with the usual fanfare, passion, and attention that follows anything to do with il Scuderia. Assisted by the Balance of Performance changes before the race that slowed Toyota down towards Ferrari (and sped everyone else up towards Ferrari, relatively), the 499Ps swept the front row in fairly dominant fashion changing the narrative from “Toyota are going to run away with this,” to “They’ve slowed Toyota down too much, Ferrari are going to run away with this.” Somehow, this is still the BOP change that has annoyed the fewest people. 

Both Ferraris survived the difficult wet-dry conditions early in the race and held on to the back of the leading Toyota (and Peugeots!) before taking advantage of the night-chaos to take advantage of the 7 Toyota and 93 Peugeot being involved in accidents overnight. They had their own share of drama, though, with the 51 Ferrari getting itself beached at the first Mulsanne chicane while trying to avoid an accident ahead of it, dropping the 51 from the lead to 4^th.

But, in the end, the 51 would survive multiple starter motor issues and having to re-overtake the 7 Toyota twice to take the Scuderia’s first outright Le Mans victory in half a century. It’s understandable why they had such a big crowd around their two garages at the end of the race, but the other two might surprise you.

A Fucking NASCAR wins Le Mans

This year’s Garage 56 entry had two intentions and one question for the racing world: Raise Hell, Praise Dale, and What The Fuck Is A Kilometre?

In one of the most ‘dudes rock’ things motorsport has seen since the time Villeneuve, Giacomelli, and Patrese, raced their F1 cars against fighter jets, NASCAR and Chevrolet conspired to send a (heavily modified) Cup Series car to race the full 24 Hours of Le Mans in the innovative car spot. And to rock just that bit harder, they got 7x NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, and F1 World Champion (and guy we all would) Jenson Button to drive it.

The initial reaction to the All-American Invasion was sceptical at best, with many people questioning why it was happening and if it could even last 24 hours – let alone set competitive times. However, most of those fell silent as the Camaro rose… the opposite of silent. With an engine note that sounded like the Star-Spangled Banner, Free Bird, American Pie (Madonna’s version) all playing at once and cranked up way past 11. But it was when it got out on track that the public began to adore the Chevy.

There were many alterations that were made to the Camaro – for starters the ‘stickers’ were switched with proper headlights. It was also put on intense weight-loss regime including switching from steel to carbon brakes, many of the aluminium body panels being switched to carbon fibre, lighter wheels, and a lighter (and somehow and the same time more durable) engine which all meant that, despite the larger fuel cell, the car ended up weighing 240 pounds (108.9kg in freedomless units) less than in standard Cup formation. However, the added aerodynamic devices were what really gained it time – they knew they’d be quick in a straight line, but they were much faster through the corners than even their own predictions – leading to a situation where the Stock Car was faster over a lap than the entire GTE Am class. This forced the ACO to change the starting order to put it ahead of the GTE field and avoid the embarrassing sight of some of Europe’s finest GT cars being made to look positively slow by an American muscle car being driven by 3 men who at the youngest turn 40 this year. That would have encapsulated the true American Dream more than anything.

I can’t overstate how different this car was to the others when experiencing it in person. It was twice as loud and twice as tall as any of the other cars on the circuit; and seriously, the noise of this thing is a religious experience! You can hear it two seconds before you see it and you can see it from half a mile away, it’s an absolute beast.

Of course, being the Garage 56 entry, they were never racing for silverware, so their only objectives were to go fast, make it to the end, and look good doing it. Three objectives that they succeeded in, despite spending an hour and a half in the garage with a drive line issue, with 285 laps completed, finishing 39^th of 63, and a whole lot of beautiful photographs taken of them. Raise hell, Praise Dale.

I’ve got quite a lot to say about the final garage, so they’ll get their own article.

I’ve seen many forms of motorsport in person: Formula 1, BTCC, Historic Racing, Formula E, Formula Ford with an ex-F1 driver, even the Festival of Speed, and they’re all amazing experiences, but none of them have an atmosphere anything like Le Mans. I don’t know whether it was that it’s the start of a new era in sportscar racing, just how excited *everyone* was for the race, or plain and simple sleep deprivation, but the passion and excitement at every moment of the race was beautiful to see. I got to see some good friends, meet some new ones, and watch some incredible racing. What more could you ask for?