The attraction of the 24 Hours of Le Mans

North Bend, WA -- There are a number of things that attract one to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

First the race itself is most interesting both from the standpoint of the technology that is involved in the cars that are raced there, and also from the strategy that the various teams use during the course of the race.
Having covered a wide range of racing events in a "previous life" the 24 Hours of Le Mans is something that I had been aware of, but since I was more focused on boat racing, it stayed in the back of my mind. The movie with Steve McQueen (seen at left from the movie) by the same name that came out in 1971 certainly brought a great deal of atttention to the race.

Although there is a great story to the making of the movie (check out Speed Channel as every so often -- you can catch it there around Le Mans time), but I think that the quote of the movie is: "Racing is life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting", which the McQueen character says in response to the question why risk your life racing cars. For many racers this is a truism that explains their need not just to go fast but to control a machine at speed.

I think of the likes boat racing greats Bill Muncey, Billy Seebold, and Chip Hanauer when I hear that quote in the movie.

While attributed by many to Steve McQueen -- and it certainly sounds like something that McQueen would say, others have attributed thie saying to French driving legend, Maurice Trintignant, who won Le Mans in 1954 and also had a driving career in Formula One that lasted 14 years. A complete history of Trintignant can be found here.

For me, however, it was not until Audi got involved in the event that I really started to pay regular attention to Le Mans. This is because the aforementioned son had become a devotee of the Audi brand and so we watched goodly portions of the event on the Speed Channel live.

I recall watching the end of the first LeMans where Audi won -- I believe it was a one, two, three sweep -- early one Sunday morning with my son.

Those are the moments that bind us together -- along with other racing moments -- and I am sure that so will our time together covering the 75th 24 hours of Le Mans.