The 24 Hours of Le Mans
Jun. 28th, 2005 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beige_alertThe 24 Hours of Le Mans is a really, really long race. To give you some idea how long this race is, I recorded the race, which took place on June 18 and 19, and just finally finished watching it today, on the 28th. Imagine how long it must seem to the drivers, or the people who have to try (repeatedly) to frantically fix the cars when they break. Sure, the real fanatics stay up all night watching Speed TV, but I have a life, and I’ve just been watching a bit now and then in between eating, sleeping, going to work, making love with my girlfriend, and that sort of I-have-a-life activity.
Endurance racing is different. In a normal race, if the car breaks, unless it can be fixed in under a minute, you’re just out of luck. In a twenty-four-hour race, major repairs can be undertaken. Even if a car spends twenty minutes in the pits, you never know how many problems the other teams will have. A lot can go wrong in 24 hours. Even if the drivers (three per team) manage not to crash into anything, if a really light car with a really big engine is driven as fast as humanly possible for 24 hours straight, something will probably break.
Endurance racing is different. In a normal race, if the car breaks, unless it can be fixed in under a minute, you’re just out of luck. In a twenty-four-hour race, major repairs can be undertaken. Even if a car spends twenty minutes in the pits, you never know how many problems the other teams will have. A lot can go wrong in 24 hours. Even if the drivers (three per team) manage not to crash into anything, if a really light car with a really big engine is driven as fast as humanly possible for 24 hours straight, something will probably break.
