The 24 Hours of Le Mans

The world's oldest active sports car race in endurance racing, takes place this weekend. Showing on Eurosport from 1345 Saturday 16th June. Kick off 1400.

The event is effectively 4 races in one with 4 separate classes of car competing. Each car has three drivers sharing the task. Over 24 hours the cars can cover a race distance equivalent to 18 F1 Grand Prix.

For Brit watchers there are 10 British teams out of 55 entrants and 26 British drivers. There are also about 9 ex F1 drivers.

If you have never witnessed the event then try a couple of hours. Wake yourself up at 2 AM Sunday morning and enjoy the night time spectacle.

http://www.lemans.org/en/races/24h/update.html

The 4 classes consist of

LMP1 Category (white headlights, white number on red background) – a test bed for new technologies (P for Prototype). All ideas are welcome: front or rear engines, petrol or diesel, turbocharged or atmospheric ... But the big trend right now is the emergence of systems for kinetic energy recovery (KERS). Storage batteries or flywheel, returns energy to front or rear wheels.

LMP2 Category (white headlights, white number on blue background) - A stepping stone to the top class. The LM P2 class has characteristics similar to LM P1 (carbon fibre monocoque chassis) while adhering to strict cost criteria: chassis price capped at €355,000; engine price capped at €75,000.

LM GTE Pro Category (yellow headlights, White number on green) - remains the preserve of sports car manufacturers. Chevrolet, Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin.

LM GTE Am (amateur) Category (yellow headlights, White number on orange) - the class for "gentlemen drivers". Technically, the cars meet the same regulations as the GTE Pro, but the cars must have had at least one year of existence. Thus, they can not benefit from the latest developments (eg width of GTE Pro increased by 5 inches in 2012).