Le Mans 2012

The world of endurance racing has been waiting for almost a year for this weekend, for when the clock strikes three o'clock on Saturday afternoon, the 80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will commence.

To get a taste of the grand daddy of endurance racing, please view the short video below.



In a nutshell, the "24 hours of Le Mans" technical regulations allows for two major car types: The "Prototypes" and "Grand Touring", each of which is again split into two parts. Needless to say, each category fights rigorously for victory in its class.

PROTOTYPES:
This category refers to cars exclusively developed for competition on track and must meet the technical regulations of the Automobile Club de l"Ouest, the regulating body organizing the race.
The category can be further split into LMP1 and LMP2. Click on each for more information.

GRAND TOURING:
This category refers to cars derived from models homologated for road use and which can be purchased. A minimum of 100 road cars must be built by the major can manufacturers and a minimum of 25 for smaller makes.
This category can be further divided into LM GTE Pro and LM GTE Am. Click on each for more information.

For a virtual visit to Le Mans, please click here. For the latest info on the race, click here. For the entry list, click here.

Test Day for 24 hrs of Le Mans: June 3.

Race days for the 24 hrs of Le mans: June 16-17

Here is a video of Tom Kristensen qualifying the hybrid Audi R18 e-tron Quattro at night. Just amazing this car's pace!



A while back I wrote a piece about Audi at Le Mans and featured the video: "A day in the life of an Audi driver". There is also this one of when I visited Le mans in 1998. And this one about hybrids competing at this year's race.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Le Mans.org, Wikipedia, Audi.