24 Hours of Le Mans Starts Today!

c Side Line Sports Photography
My 911 racer did not race at Le Mans, but it's engine did!

Yes one of the world's great automobile races starts this morning, actually 3:00 this afternoon in France. The Sarthe Circuit is made up of public roads and specialty race tracks strung together in an 8+ mile loop through the French countryside. Last year the class leading Porsche 911 GTR broke down at the far end of the course from the pits and lost first place because the driver did not have a cell phone with him. At Le Mans the driver must fix the car on the circuit if he (she) can't get back to the pits, so some members of the pit crew had to go out, find the car and instruct the driver on the needed repairs while first place sped by in a Panoz; see here and here. My contemporaneous comment was, "Yep, spend $1 million plus and get stuck on the circuit without a device that is given away for free." If you've ever forgotten your cell phone at an important time you know how that driver felt.

See the race live on Speed.