PastImperfect:Le-Mans 24-hour race
The famous Le-Mans 24-hour race is, together with the Indianapolis 500, the most famous motor race on the planet. Each year in excess of one million spectators make their way to the Sarthe circuit, in France, to witness some of the world's fastest cars in action. Yet, this extraordinary race, held over a circuit which includes long sections of public road, came about almost by chance.
The origin of Les Vingt-Quatre Heures du Mans can be traced back to the famous French motoring writer Charles Faroux and his friend George Durand and the years immediately following the first World War when several great international motor races were established. Faroux and Durand had for some time been discussing the possibility of creating an endurance race which would be confined to production touring cars.
At the same time, Emile Coquille, who had introduced the Rudge wheel to France, offered the Automobile Club de l'Ouest a prize of 100,000 francs if they could establish a novel race which would capture the imagination of the public.
The Automobile Club de l'Ouest was based at the town of Le Mans in the Department of Sarthe. Le Mans was a town with a long association with motor racing. Speed trials had been held there as early as 1896 and the first Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France was held over a 64-mile circuit to the east of the town in 1906. In 1921 the Grand Prix returned to Le Mans.
Faroux heard of the prize fund and approached the Automobile Club de l'Ouest with his proposal for an endurance race which would continue through the night. Twenty-four hour races were not entirely new, several having taken place in America, but all of these had been on well-lit dirt and board tracks. Faroux and Durand's proposal was for a race which would be a severe test of the reliability of production cars and their components. The night portion of the race would not be illuminated and this would test the far from perfect lighting systems then in use.
All parties concerned accepted that the proposal fulfilled the requirement by Coquille for a unique contest and the initial race, which was held over the 1921 Grand Prix circuit, was run in May 1923. At first the race formed part of a Triennial Cup, but in 1928 the organising club bowed to the inevitable by declaring an outright winner to each race.
The first races were contested by a predominantly French field but it was the participation by British Bentleys which did more than anything else to assure the success of the race in the 1920s and which established it as an important international contest. Additionally, American cars and drivers have always figured prominently in the race, adding to its international character.
Today's winners at Le Mans do so at speeds Faroux and Durand could hardly have imagined, while neither of the originators of this race could possibly have conceived of how famous and important their race would become.