The Le Mans 24 hours race takes place at the Circuit de la Sarthe this weekend (15-16 June 2022). We managed to stay invested watching from home in 2020 and 2021 and 2022. But last year, we experience the utter joy of attending the centenary in person in 2023. That’s it now, the boys are hooked and we’ll probably be there every year barring exams.
I’m posting this on race day but I’ll update it at the finish with how our picks did.
How to Watch Le Mans 2024
You can watch from home using the Eurosport Player app or on Discovery Plus with their own commentary. Hover, himself prefers the WEC commentary and if we get really frustrated we’ll switch to Radio Le Mans.
In 2020, the wonderful Eve Hewitt and the Radio Le Mans Twitter team helped us persuade Alexa to play Radio Le Mans. So you can have John Hindhaugh’s dulcit tones accompanying the Eurosport player’s pictures and that trick still works.
We’ll be tuning in to Radio Le Mans trackside on 91.2 FM.
Our Picks
Before the race, we printed out a Spotters Guide by @GrosiakMateuz – it’s just not Le Mans without a list of runners to cross out as they fall foul of the demands of such an endurance race. You can get something similar from the official ACO site too.
We each picked one or two cars in each class to cheer for and follow over the weekend.
Here are our picks by class:
LMH (Hypercar)
- Himself: Porsche Penske Motorsport #6 Porsche 963 driven by Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor
- Small boy: he is incapable of choosing one team or even one manufacturer, so:
- BMW M Team WRT #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 driven by Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann, and #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 driven by Sheldon van der Linde, Robin Frijns and René Rast
- Ferrari AF Corse #50 Ferrari 499 driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, and #51 Ferrari 499 driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi
- Large boy: Porsche Penske Motorsport #4 Porsche 963 driven by Mathieu Jaminet, Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy
- Me: Lamborghini Iron Lynx #19 Lamborghini SC63 driven by Romain Grosjean, Andrea Caldarelli and Matteo Cairoli
LMP2
- Himself: AO by TF #14 Oreca 07 – Gibson driven by PJ Hyett, Louis Delétraz and Alex Quinn
- Small boy:
- Cool Racing #37 Oreca 07 – Gibson driven by Lorenzo Fluxa, Malthe Jakobsen and Ritomo Miyata
- Proton Competition #9 Oreca 07 – Gibson driven by Jonas Ried, Maceo Capietto and Bent Viscaal
- Large boy: AO by TF #14 Oreca 07 – Gibson driven by PJ Hyett, Louis Delétraz and Alex Quinn
- Me: DKR Engineering #33 Oreca 07 – Gibson driven by Alexander Mattschull, Rene Binder and Laurents Horr
LMGT3
- Himself: Vista AF Corse #54 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 driven by Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci and Davide Rigon
- Small boy:
- Team WRT #31 BMW M4 LMGT3 driven by Darren Leung, Sean Gelael and Augusto Farfus, and #46 BMW M4 LMGT3 driven by
- Iron Dames #85 Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 Evo2 driven by Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey
- Large boy: TF Sport #81 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R driven by Tom Van Rompuy, Rui Andrade and Charlie Eastwood
- Me: Iron Dames #85 Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 Evo2 driven by Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey
The Experience
We left home on Wednesday after work and drove down to Kent, where we stayed overnight before an early LeShuttle train (first car on! long drive inside the train, resisted temptation to set a speed record for driving a truck on a train).
We’re staying at the fabulous Camping Le Pont Romain again, cheekily booking a little chalet instead of tents this year. We don’t mind camping, and it’s a very far cry from the true Le Mans experience of a double decker bus parking 3 feet from your head at 5am on the Friday on Beausejour followed by fireworks inside gazebos on a Sunday night. But, we’ll go back to slumming it when the kids are a bit older and capable of coping with the absolute chaos of trackside camping.
Himself is dreaming of the day he can bring his Focus RS with the truck as his support vehicle. Meanwhile, large boy wants to bring a friend in a few years.
I’m writing this next bit before we leave.
Once we’re settled at the chalet/campsite, we’ll pop to the supermarket for any essentials and then head down to the track for night qualifying on Thursday.
The plan is then for a trip up to the track on Friday morning to see some support stuff, then town for the drivers parade in the afternoon and watching the Scotland vs Germany football in the evening. We’ll be using trams as much as possible, but driving to park and rides where needed. The boys aren’t quite ready for cycling round French roads in the dark at 11pm just yet.
Saturday, we’ll be parking at Arnage (didn’t get a parking pass for the lovely Expo car park this year) and getting the little train to the village where we’ll spend the day and watch the start, then get something to eat in the evening and head back to Arnage for the evening.
We’ll head back to the campsite at some stage to get a bit of sleep, then be back at the track Sunday morning. We’ll probably go to Mulsanne at some point, maybe the village too, and watch the end of the race from Arnage.
Sunday night, we plan to have a treat at the all you can eat Chinese buffet on the edge of a retail part on the North side of Le Mans, then sleep.
Monday will be an early start as we’re coming all the way home to Cheshire in one go… and we have work/school the next day.
Sadly, the children will be suffering from terrible D&V from Thursday morning to Saturday night, meaning they can’t go to school at all until 48 hours after it stops (that is, Tuesday morning, what a coincidence).
Results
I’ll add these once we’re home, probably.
Smelly Socks and Garden Peas 