Audi R18 (2016) #8 (Audi Sport Team Joest), Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval, Oliver Jarvis in action at Le Mans 2016.

While Steve McQueen’s 1971 romanticised movie Le Mans is said to accurately depict the action of the circuit in that period, the glamour still trickles down to present day.

With the unexpected decision by Audi to end its strong performance at the World Endurance Championship (WEC) from 2017, we were rather fortunate to have caught Audi’s R18s in their final action at Le Mans.

The German manufacturer will still walk tall as the brand with the second most wins (13 wins) in Le Mans as it pursues new challenges in electric vehicle racing series.



The 24-hour Le Mans is more than an all-day, all-night marathon or long-distance motor sport event; it commands awe and respect for its historic significance while its star-studded carnival-like atmosphere is a magnet for regular motor sport fans and those out to have some fun.

It reminded us somewhat of the Nismo Festival in Japan except that there was an actual race taking place over 24 hours, involving four categories of participants, the more significant of which are the LMP1 and LMP2 categories (LMP stands for Le Mans Prototypes).

The first category sees four-wheel drive cars, mostly with turbo-hybrid power, and the second category involves “conventional” engine turbo power and rear-wheel drives.

The 24-hour Le Mans is one of nine races in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) calendar and the oldest, having been run annually since 1923, except during World War II.



Due to its prestigious and historic standing, the points earned by the respective category winners are doubled over that achieved in each of the other eight WEC races.

This endurance race is a lot more demanding on the cars and drivers (three of them take turns to drive at regular intervals) and at the end of the 24-hour marathon, the top cars would cover almost 390 laps or more than 5,230km around the 13.629km circuit; that distance is what the F1 cars would cover in almost its full race calendar year.

Understandably, many participating teams looked forward to doing well at the 24-hour Le Mans and the colourful and exciting array of cars draw many to partake in the event at the Circuit de la Sarthe; it comprises a mix of closed public roads and a dedicated circuit.

We were guests of Audi at the 84th edition of the event and were witness to a few historic events.



Firstly, it saw a record grid of 60 cars (previously 50 and below).

As for the race, our attention switched from Audi to Toyota as the German team ran into its share of problems.

The first car had turbo problem early in the race and the second team suffered a water pump hiccup; both took time to fix and one of the teams fell many laps behind.

Toyota’s best achievement was being runner-up three years ago and it has participated in the Le Mans for more than 30 years.

One of its two cars was going strong, keeping the leading Porsche (also a two-car team) comfortably at bay; as the event entered the final hour, it appeared that the Japanese brand was going to emulate Mazda in winning the Le Mans.



But the gods at Le Mans had decreed that it was not to be and just as the Toyota Gazoo Racing car with Kazuki Nakajima at the wheel was starting the final lap, the car cruised to a stop right before us as we watched from the Audi Bar, one of its many guest venues.

It had lost power apparently due to a turbo problem; the car got going again after several agonising seconds but at such a slow pace that it was to be its downfall; it couldn’t complete the entire lap within the required six minutes and was listed as DNF (did not finish).

This was considered historic in the sense that although leading car failures were known to occur in the last hour of the event, this was the first time that a team suffered this misfortune on the very last lap.

That promoted the best Audi Sport Team Joest finisher, which was 12 laps behind at the flag, to third position, celebrating its continuous streak of podiums from the time it got involved in this event in 1999.



Meanwhile, the Porsche Team with its 919 Hybrid was gifted the win to chalk up its 18th Le Mans victory and establish its standing as the one with the most triumphs.

The celebration, however, was low key as most participants had felt deeply for Toyota’s loss; for sure, Porsche would rather win by beating its rival to the flag and not in this manner.

Toyota had the consolation of a runner-up spot again with the second car, which was three laps adrift having encountered its share of minor mechanical problems and race skirmishes.

Racing aside, the experience at the Le Mans 24 hours also gave us an insight into other aspects of the event. Le Mans is a small town with a population of under 350,000 and is an hour’s ride by the TGV fast train from Paris.



It obviously is proud of its association with this sport as seen in the tourist brochures and town sculptural works, but it also comes alive with other motor sport events that come its way.

Le Mans saw Brad Pitt flagging off the race, even though it was started behind the safety car because it was raining and racing only got under way about 10 laps later.

Among the many celebrities that we could recognise were Jackie Chan, who was involved in one of the teams from Hong Kong participating in the GTE category, Jason Statham and Keanu Reeves.

We got within “selfie” distance of Jason during the grid walk before race and were chased away from seats in the town centre reserved for Jackie Chan fans during the event parade (involving race participants) that was held a day before the race.



We also missed our Audi pick-up point after the parade and chose to walk back to the race circuit, where our “hotel” was. It would have been a nice 7km walk, enjoying the cool and low humidity ambience had it not rained heavily, forcing us to take shelter under the canopy of a shop that was closed for the day.

Many car companies involved in the event have “hotels” to accommodate their respective guests from all over the world and Audi has two of them. These are not hotels as we know them but temporary arrangements that comprise rooms big enough to accommodate a bed and a small table snugly.

Toilet and baths are unisex and we were rather appalled at a female guest from China who used one of the wash basins where many would brush their teeth to wash her legs!

Audi has at least six guest centres to watch the race from and we checked out all of them, from the one above the pits to the place where we enjoyed a delicious dinner.



There are events all night long at these guest venues and if one so wish, he could follow the race right through the night at any of these places.

We also took part in a karting event and had the pleasure of being rammed into by quicker karters wanting to get ahead and having to brake hard a few times to avoid ramming into participants who spun in front of us.

A member of our group was selected for the grand finale the following day, which was won by someone from India who swept all the prizes at hand; race winner, fastest lap time and pole position.

While a few of us got up at 3am to check out the scenario at that hour of the night, we chose to enjoy our sleep uninterrupted as the “hotel” was reasonably far away from the race action.



We were told that the spectators had thinned out at night, with many retiring to their campsites or elsewhere unlike the huge day crowd that were checking out the side events and stalls selling a variety of items.

It was also normal for those following the race to move from place to place around the circuit perimeter to watch the action, unless one had bought tickets for the respective spectator stands.

The Le Mans 24-hour is definitely an unusual experience, even if you are not much of a motor sport fan, for its carnival-like atmosphere, colourful attractions, side events and unique charm.

Keywords