24 Hours of Le Mans introduction

Borrowing in part, words from the great Sam Posey to introduce this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.  Sam, ever the eloquent speaker and writer in addition to his world class racing career.  Part of this intro is from his introduction narration to the 2000 event here at Le Mans which was the first of a myriad of wins for the Audi brand in the great race.  

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"It starts in the afternoon, moves through the long summer twilight, into a night, filled with whirling lights.  It reaches halfway at dawn.  Finally, after a long morning, the afternoon comes around once more, and the full day's cycle is complete.  It is the great race, who's name joins time with place, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  To race here is to be drawn into a maelstrom of speed, spiraling around the track, as if geared invisibly to the finish line clock.   It is a world of calculation, and of nerve, of careful engineering, and moments when everything goes wrong.  

Through the decades, each Le Mans has been won in a different way.  Chinetti drove all but 20 minutes for the first Ferrari win in 1949, with Peter Mitchell-Thomson.  In 1958, Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien waited patiently for others to break.  A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney took their big Ford and crushed the opposition, in 1967.  Porsche dominated the '80s through sheer weight and numbers.  Audi, did very much the same in the 2000s with innovative, reliable machines that could run at a metronomic pace, and do so extremely reliably.  Some years, the race is won on the drawing board.  Others by team tactics.  Sometimes, by a stroke of last minute luck, and once, in 1969, in the closest finish in history, it came to sheer desperation.'  

Go check out the 1969 battle to the finish between Hans Herman and Gerard Larrousse in their Porsche 908 and Jacky Ickx and Jacky Oliver in their Ford GT40 and you will see that, personified.  'What shape will the race take this year?  One team's journey is about to begin.  A journey from day to night, and back, from being one of many, to being the one.  The winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans."  This year, who will be the one?  We just don't know.  With the new Hypercar class, showing fragility in their first test for 24 hours, could we see a Toyota, a Glickenhaus, or an Alpine emerge on top?  Or, could we see an all out, earth shaking upset and see an LMP2 car win the overall?

Who will be the one, this year at the 24 Hours of Le Mans?  Come with me, now, for the next 24 hours, and we shall find out together.