Le Mans 24 Hours 2021: Our Picks

The delayed Le Mans 24 hours race takes place at the Circuit de la Sarthe this weekend (21-22 August 2021). We missed it in June and the experience watching from home is rather odd – no crowds, no smoke from the campsite barbecues wafting around, and of course much more racing in darkness in August compared to almost midsummer. We managed to get invested last year and hopefully we’ll be the same this time.

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 2021

We’re using the Eurosport Player app on our TV with their own commentary, himself prefers the WEC commentary and if we get really frustrated we’ll switch to Radio Le Mans.

The wonderful Eve Hewitt and the Radio Le Mans Twitter team helped us persuade Alexa to play Radio Le Mans last you, so we can have John Hindhaugh’s dulcit tones accompanying the Eurosport player’s pictures and that trick still works.

Success! We asked for "Radio Luh Mannz" – she doesn't understand an even vague accurate French pronunciation.

Please ask lovely John to say Hi to Smelly Socks and Garden Peas – long time listeners on site at Le Mans and from a distance.

— Smelly Socks and Garden Peas (@AndSmelly) September 17, 2020

Our Picks

Before the race, we printed out a Spotters Guide by @GrosiakMateuz – its just not Le Mans without a list of runners to cross out as they fall foul of the demands of such an endurance race.

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: #36 Alpine Elf Matmut (Nicolas Lappiear, ANdre Negrao, Matthieu Vaxiviere) in an Alpine A480
• Small boy: #7 Toyota Gazoo (Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez) in a Toyota GR010 Hybrid
• Large boy: #8 Toyota Gazoo (Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Kazuki Nakajima) in a Toyota GR010 Hybrid
• Me: #709 Glickenhaus (Ryan Briscoe, Romain Dumas, Richard Westbrook) in a Glickenhaus 007 LMH

LMP2

• Himself: #23 United Autosports (Wayne Boyd, Alex Lynn, Paul di Resta) in an Oreca O7-Gibson
• Small boy: #38 Jota Sport (Anthony Davidson, Antonio Felix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez) in an Oreca O7-Gibson – small boy chose totally randomly but somehow picked one of the favourites out of a field of 24 entries
• Large boy: #65 Panis Racing (James Allen, Julien Canal, Will Stevens) in an Oreca O7-Gibson
• Me: #29 Racing Team Nederland aka Jumbo (Frits ven Eerd, Giedo van der Garde, Job van Uitert) in an Oreca O7-Gibson

GTE Pro

• Himself: #51 AF Corse (James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi, Come Ledogar) in a Ferrari 488 GTE EVO
• Small boy: #91 Porsche GT (Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz, Frederic Makowiecki) in a Porsche 911 RSR-19
• Large boy: #64 Corvette (Tommy Milner, Alexander Sims, Nick Tandy) in a Chevrolet Corvette C8.R
• Me: #79 Weathertech (Earl Bamber, Cooper MacNeil, Laurence Vanthoor) in a Porsche 911 RSR-19

GTE Am

• Himself: #80 Iron Lynx (Matteo Cressoni, Callum Ilott, Rino Mastronardi) in a Ferrari 488 GTE EVO
• Small boy: #777 D’Station (Tomonobu Fuji, Satoshi Hoshino, Andrew Watson) in an Astom Martin Vantage AMR
• Large boy: #88 Dempsey-Proton (Julien Andlauer, Lance David Arnold, Dominique Bastien) in a Porsche 911 RSR-19
• Me: #77 Dempsey-Proton (Matt Campbell, Jason Evans, Christian Ried) in a Porsche 911 RSR-19

Qualifications

LMH (Hypercar)

• #36 Alpine Elf Matmut (himself): 3rd on grid
• #7 Toyota Gazoo (small boy): 1st on grid
• #8 Toyota Gazoo (large boy): 2nd on grid
• #709 Glickenhaus (me): 5th on grid

LMP2

• #23 United Autosports (himself): 11th on grid (6th in class)
• #38 Jota Sport (small boy): 6th on grid (1st in class)
• #65 Panis Racing (large boy): 8th on grid (3rd in class)
• #29 Racing Team Nederland aka Jumbo (me): 21st on grid (16th in class)

GTE Pro

• #51 AF Corse (himself): 34th on grid (4th in class)
• #91 Porsche GT (small boy): 35th on grid (5th in class)
• #64 Corvette (large boy): 33rd on grid (3rd in class)
• #79 Weathertech (me): 37th on grid (7th in class)

GTE Am

• #80 Iron Lynx (himself): 45th on grid (7th in class)
• #777 D’Station (small boy): 57th on grid (18th in class)
• #88 Dempsey-Proton (large boy): 39th on grid (1st in class)
• #77 Dempsey-Proton (me): 50th on grid (12th in class)

The Race

I’ll add more here as the race progresses…

The first couple of laps were lead by the safety car because of rain and lots of spray, once they got going on lap three there was an immediate coming together of a Glickenhaus and a Toyota – drama and spins galore through the whole field from the beginning.

Yeah, sorry. I went out drinking with the girls and forgot to make any updates.

The Results

LMH (Hypercar)

• #36 Alpine Elf Matmut (himself): 3rd overall
• #7 Toyota Gazoo (small boy): 1st overall
• #8 Toyota Gazoo (large boy): 2nd overall
• #709 Glickenhaus (me): 5th overall

LMP2

• #23 United Autosports (himself): 9th overall (4th in class)
• #38 Jota Sport (small boy): 13th overall (8th in class)
• #65 Panis Racing (large boy): 8th overall (3rd in class)
• #29 Racing Team Nederland aka Jumbo (me): 16th overall (11th in class)

GTE Pro

• #51 AF Corse (himself): 20th overall (1st in class)
• #91 Porsche GT (small boy): 23rd overall (4th in class)
• #64 Corvette (large boy): 44th overall (5th in class)
• #79 Weathertech (me): retired

GTE Am

• #80 Iron Lynx (himself): 27th overall (3rd in class)
• #777 D’Station (small boy): 33rd overall (6th in class)
• #88 Dempsey-Proton (large boy): 42nd overall (13th in class)
• #77 Dempsey-Proton (me): 31st overall (5th in class)

So out of all out 16 family picks, only my #79 Weathertech car retired after a crash overnight. Himself had his usual amazing choices and small boy surprised us all with his random selections doing so well. Onwards to next year and hopefully a full family on site attendance in 2023.