The 24 Hours of Le Mans - the ultimate sports car test
This Saturday morning the green flag will drop on the 77th edition of the 24 hours of Le Mans. Can Corvette recapture victory and win their 6th crown in nine years? The most successful American Le Mans team in history has already won the historic race 5 times in the last 8 years.
Which Corvette do you think will win? A factory car from Corvette Racing-
Drivers: Magnussen, O'Connell & Garcia
Drivers: Gavin, Beretta & Fassler
Or one of the French Corvettes from Luc Alphand Adventures-
Drivers: Alphand, Goueslard & Gregoire
Drivers: Clairay, Maasen & Jousse
From the Corvette Racing website-
Corvette Racing has unfinished business at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The most successful team in American Le Mans Series history has won its class five times in the classic 24-hour French endurance race (2001-02, 2004-06), establishing Corvette as a global performance icon. Now after runner-up finishes in Le Mans in 2007 and 2008, Corvette Racing is focused on winning its sixth Le Mans title at the immense Circuit des 24 Heures on June 13-14.
This year's edition of the world's most prestigious sports car race has special significance for Corvette Racing. The team's Corvette C6.Rs will make their final run in the GT1 category before Corvette Racing begins its transition to a global GT class in 2010 that is chiefly based on current GT2 regulations.
"From Corvette Racing's inception, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has always been our objective," said program manager Doug Fehan. "GM leadership shared that vision, and Le Mans became the cornerstone of our program for two important reasons."
"First, Corvette is the tip of GM's technological spear, so racing production-based Corvettes was the most expedient way to accelerate the transfer of technology from racing to production," Fehan said. "Second, we knew that Corvette was going to become a global brand. If Corvette was going to compete successfully in the marketplace with Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, and other prestigious marques, then we had to transform the image of Corvette in the eyes of the world. Corvette's performance credentials were already well established in North America, but we had to nurture a new respect for Corvette in the rest of the world. Le Mans provided the arena to accomplish that, and the results have far exceeded our expectations."
Le Mans offers a little bit for everyone, the ladies will likely recognize one of the Ferrari drivers, Patrick Dempsey from Grey's Anatomy.
Practice for the world's most prestigious sports car race will take place from 6 p.m. to midnight on June 10 and qualifying from 7 p.m. to midnight on June 11. The 77th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. CET (10 a.m. EDT) on Saturday, June 13 and finish at 3 p.m. CET (10 a.m. EDT) on Sunday, June 14. SPEED will provide live television coverage in the U.S. from 8:30 a.m. to noon ET Saturday and 11 p.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. ET Sunday. Flag-to-flag coverage of the race, qualifying and practice will be available at radiolemans.com.
If I am bleary-eyed at Lake Afton Sunday morning, it is because I have been up for 24 hours solid - it is a tradition.