Le Mans, one of the greatest spectacles in motorsports, just concluded and man oh man what a race it was. For me personally, I have never really been big into watching races of any kind for an extended period of time but over the last few years I have found myself viewing more and more. It started with the Corvette battle at the 2016 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and kind of morphed into this past weekend where I watched probably 17 hours of the 24 hour race, including the final hour and a half battles to the finish.
Note: I would like to thank Mike and Chrissy Crutchfield for their hospitality and generosity in hosting this years viewing party. This was our first attempt at a viewing party and I think we will definitely have more to come in the future.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect or how to prepare for an endurance race viewing party. Would I stay awake the whole time? What would I need to accomplish such a feat? what do the writers on Jalopnik recommend? Can I get that “Spunk” Clarkson had when he drove the Mercedes SLR in the Oslo challenge? Mind you, this is all completely trivial and pointless because I wasn’t in the race, I was literally preparing to sit on my butt for 24 hours and try to keep my eyes open, how hard could it be? I ultimately opted for no preparation. I acted as I normally do and just eventually went to sleep when I was tired. Typical Saturday fare.
The race itself was quite interesting at times with all of the drama and story lines centered around Porsche’s potential exit from future races and Toyota’s epic collapse last year on the final lap. Then they added the excitement of the “amateur” racers in the LMP2 class. Those drivers, wow… they made so many mistakes and caused so many accidents and incidents I wouldn’t have been surprised if Le Mans officials pulled them all off the track for a Time Out. From the very first lap until the very last the race was not without its drama. A prototype (not sure if LMP1 or LMP2) almost wrecked on the 4th(?) turn of the race! My guess is all of the excitement and adrenaline got to him? And then after that there were numerous cases of LMP2 cars hunting down and attacking the lower classed cars for seemingly no reason at all. There were passes on the shoulders and in the dirt, rear end collisions, wall destruction and an obliterated Risi Ferrari, and all within the first few hours of the race.
Once night time fell the drivers settled down a bit. However, the long hours of running at full tilt began to wear on the cars themselves. Toyota was leading the race and then their cars broke. Porsche took over and then their car broke. Aston Martin had a suicidal tire attempt to take their class leader off the board. fenders, wings, tires, bent Armco, and pride were all left out on the track under the darkness of night. After many hours of concentrating and focusing on watching grown men drive fast machines in basically an 8 mile circle, I decided to go to sleep around 11:00pm. With 10 hours left in the race I made a joke about an LMP2 car possibly winning the race because of all the carnage in the LMP1 class. Also I was upset that Team Corvette wasn’t doing very well. I went to bed.
Fast Forward to 7:30am when I rolled downstairs and something had changed. The number #1 Porsche wasn’t in the lead anymore, the #1 Porsche wasn’t even on the track anymore. Instead, a plucky little LMP2 car owned by Jackie Chan DC racing… (I will pause here for a moment so you can re-read that… yes, I said Jackie Chan… JACKIE FREAKIN’ CHAN!) was leading the entire field. the only LMP1 cars left were the #2 Porsche and #8 Toyota, both of which spent significant time in the pits much earlier in the race. Corvette Racing had taken the lead in GTE Pro class and the Ferraris were all over GTE AM. But something was happening, the race was becoming very exciting, which is customary for the last hour of a marathon like this. There was a chase for the top spot, thanks to a #2 Porsche that just refused to give up. With roughly an hour to go that #2 car ran down, caught, and passed the Jackie Chan car for the overall lead (where it would stay). It was so exciting watching that car and driver fight so hard to take that spot back. I was rooting for Jackie Chan racing but I can’t be mad at the effort put forth by the Porsche team in the 23rd hour. This now brings me to the events that broke my heart. Corvette Racing had a driver change and put in Jordan Taylor to finish the race and hopefully bring home the class victory. However, Aston Martin, who had been leading the class for most of the race, was hot on Taylor’s heels. with only a few laps to go, the Aston Martin was basically pushing the Corvette down the track, biding their time until they could make a move. And then it happened, the Aston took to the inside for a pass, broke too hard, shot right passed the Corvette and into the dirt. Taylor in the ‘Vette took the lead back but there was contact and damage was done. Eventually Taylor had car troubles and on the final turn heading into the final lap, Aston did it. They took the class lead and held it through the finish. Taylor eventually ended up third in class and broke the hearts of all Corvette Racing fans, worldwide. The final moments of the race were very heartbreaking but they were also very exciting and well worth the wait and the watch.
So, why am I telling you all things you already know from reading articles by actual journalists who covered the race? Because I am hear to tell you all that watching this race, though uneventful at times, was completely worth the time I invested in sitting on my butt and doing nothing. Not only was the racing exciting, but hanging out with good friends made the event even better. GTM hopes more of you can make it out to the next viewing party so we can hopefully turn this in to an annual club event!
What’s next for me? Well I will be attending my first actual race live in October (American Grand Prix in Austin) with a few members of GTM leadership. I will be sure to write again about my experiences. Wish me luck!
