The 77th Le Mans 24 Hours kicks off next weekend (woo!) so before I get into who's in it, and who I'll be following for it, here's the schedule.


European time // UK time
Italicised times for other things at the circuit, not the 24 Heures du Mans
Provisional schedule , subject to the administrative authorisation

Monday 8 June
1430 - 1800 // 1330 - 1700: Sporting Checks and Scrutineering (Jacobins)

Tuesday 9 June
0830 - 1700 // 0730 - 1600: Sporting Checks and Scrutineering (Jacobins)

Wednesday 10 June
0900 - 1200 // 0800 - 1100: Sporting Checks and Scrutineering Formula Le Mans Cup (Circuit)
1000 // 0900: Team Managers’ briefing
1100 // 1000 : Drivers’ briefing 24 Heures du Mans
1500 // 1400 : Drivers’ briefing Formula Le Mans Cup
1800 - 2400 // 1700 - 1300: Free practice sessions 24 Heures du Mans

Thursday 11 June
0900 - 1300 // 0800 - 1200: Sporting Checks and Scrutineering Le Mans Legend (Circuit)
1400 - 1200 // 1300 - 1100: Drivers’ briefing Le Mans Legend
1600 - 1700 // 1500 - 1600: Qualifying practice sessions Le Mans Legend
1730 - 1830 // 1630 - 1730: Qualifying practice sessions Formula Le Mans Cup
1900 - 2100 // 1800 - 2000: Qualifying practice sessions 24 Heures du Mans
2200 - 2400 // 2100 - 2300: Qualifying practice sessions 24 Heures du Mans

Friday 12 June
1000 - 2000 // 0900 - 1900: Pit Walk
1800 - 1900 // 1700 - 1800: Drivers' parade (City centre)

Saturday 13 June
0830 - 0915 // 0730 - 0815: Warm-Up 24 Heures du Mans
0930 - 1015 // 0830 - 0915: Race of Le Mans Legend
1030 - 1130 // 0930 - 1030: Race of (12 tours) 1 tour de formation Formula Le Mans Cup
1422 // 1322: Beginning of starting procedure
1500 // 1400: Start of the 77th race of the 24 Heures du Mans

Sunday 14th June
1500 // 1400: Finish of the 77th Le Mans 24 Hours

Ok, so that's the schedule. Onto the teams now. Naturally I'll be following Christian in the 7 car, but there are some others I want to follow for various reasons.


Up at the top:
7 TEAM PEUGEOT TOTAL (FRA) MICHELIN PEUGEOT 908 (5500T)
N.MINASSIAN (GBR), P.LAMY (PRT), CH.KLIEN (AUT)

They're in LMP1. For those who are wondering, this is a Prototype car in class 1. There are 4 classes in Le Mans - LMP1 LMP2 GT1 GT2. Officially it's either LMP1 LMP2 LMGT1 LMGT2 or P1 P2 GT1 GT2 but you get the idea. We often mix the names, but we know what we mean.

Then, also in LMP1 we have:
8 TEAM PEUGEOT TOTAL (FRA) MICHELIN PEUGEOT 908 (5500T)
S.BOURDAIS (FRA), F.MONTAGNY (FRA), ST.SARRAZIN (FRA)

9 PEUGEOT SPORT TOTAL (FRA) MICHELIN PEUGEOT 908 (5500T)
D.BRABHAM (GBR), M.GENE (ESP), A.WURZ (AUT)

10 TEAM ORECA MATMUT AIM (FRA) MICHELIN ORECA 01 AIM (5496A)
B.SENNA (BRA), ST.ORTELLI (MCO), T.MONTEIRO (PRT)

008 ASTON MARTIN RACING (GBR) MICHELIN LOLA ASTON MARTIN (5993A)
A.DAVIDSON (GBR), D.TURNER (GBR), J.VERSTAPPEN (NLD)

16 PESCAROLO SPORT (FRA) MICHELIN PESCAROLO JUDD (5496A)
CH.TINSEAU (FRA), B.JOUANNY (FRA)

If you don't know why I'm going to keep a weather eye on these here's the explanation. Other than the obvious 7 car, the 8 and 9 cars are also Peugeot, and I kept an eye on them last year too, so that's ok. The 10 car has Bruno Senna in it, the 008 Aston has Ant (Little Ant) in it, and Liz has asked me to keep an eye on her Bruce in the 16 car.

LMP2
40 QUIFEL - ASM TEAM (PRT) DUNLOP GINETTA ZYTEK 09S (3396A)
M.AMARAL (PRT), O.PLA (FRA), G.SMITH (GBR)

Obviously following these guys cause Guy Smith is driving here :)

GT2
81 TEAM ADVANCED ENGINEERING (ITA) MICHELIN FERRARI F 430 GT (3996A)
D.KITCH Jr (USA), J.FOSTER (USA), P.DEMPSEY (USA)

As you see above there is the name P. Dempsey. Here you will find the one, the only Patrick Dempsey. This is Patrick Dempsey, actor. Patrick Dempsey of Grey's Anatomy fame. THE Patrick Dempsey. Yes, he is racing at Le Mans.
I'll also be keeping an eye on the JMW Motorsport car, because I follow them on Twitter.

I think that's them all. Well, all that I'll be looking out for, initially. Obviously I can't ignore everyone else in it, but there are 56 cars in the race, so just bear with me!

To conclude, for now
Schedule
Full Team list

Bring on Le Mans!!!