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Steven r mcqueen and steve mcqueen7/26/2023 In 1970 the famous rivalry between Ford and Ferrari – fictionalized in the film Ford v Ferrari (2019) – had just ended, and the big fight at Le Mans was between Ferrari and Porsche, the German manufacturer who had finally taken the place abdicated by Mercedes-Benz after the 1955 Le Mans disaster. For manufacturers, the point of sponsorship in races like Le Mans is the old auto industry adage: "Race on Sunday, sell on Monday." When McQueen showed up at Le Mans to play Delaney, a driver for Gulf Porsche, teams fielded pairs of drivers in two or three cars spelling each other over the 24 hours today teams race with three drivers, and the sponsored teams – Cadillac Racing, Porsche Penske, Toyota Gazoo, Ferrari AF Corse and Peugeot Total Racing in 2023 – will usually field three cars. There's the Le Mans Prototype classes – experimental supercars featuring leading edge technology – and the Grand Touring classes – highly modified road vehicles, both split into "professional" and "amateur" divisions, with the pro teams comprised of well-funded factory teams and "privateers": small, often shoestring operations racing for glory and the rare chance of a place on the podium next to the sponsored teams. It also features several different classes of race cars – effectively four different races going on at the same time. A single day at Le Mans covers more distance than a whole year's worth of Formula One races. The winning cars cover a phenomenal distance: the record was an Audi R15+ in 2010, completing 5410 km over 397 laps. It also begins with a cramped field last year's race fielded 62 cars, the most ever entered, and this year's race is scheduled to begin with the same crowded track. Its grueling continuous day-long duration, through darkness and all weather, is among the longest endurance races in the world. Much of what makes the 24 Hours of Le Mans such an iconic motor race is simple quantity. Gendarmerie line up to receive their orders, and while rows of motorcycle cops start their bikes, one flic de moto struggles to kickstart his vehicle. A measured montage shows the city preparing for the race and filling up with spectators teams ease race cars off transporters, tent cities sit waiting for occupants, merchants set up stalls and trains empty crowds onto platforms. A series of impressionistic flashbacks rewinds to the year previous, and an accident at night between Delaney and a driver named Belgetti driving in a Ferrari that explodes in a fiery ball.ĭelaney drives into Le Mans, past the ancient cathedral, and sees Lisa Belgetti (Elga Anderson), the driver's widow, buying flowers at a stall. On his way into town he stops to stare at a conspicuously new section of guardrail by the side of the road. At the wheel is Michael Delaney (McQueen), a top-ranked American driver arriving early for the race. Le Mans begins quietly, with a long shot that picks out a brand-new Porsche 911 S driving down a country road, though keen eyes will quickly realize that the road is part of the de la Sarthe track, a nearly 14 km street circuit composed of roads open to regular traffic the rest of the year. Not least among the film's many problems was that there was no actual story, but that never seemed to worry McQueen. The summer of 1970 was when the actor, now the biggest movie star in the world after Bullitt, was finally able to make his passion project – the story of a driver at the famous 24-hour race. She made her way across the Atlantic to the filming aboard the SS France, on what was the final voyage of the grand ocean liner the French government was no longer willing to foot the bill for its upkeep. "The events that were to lead to the final disintegration of my marriage to Steve might have been averted had I not come to Le Mans that summer," wrote Neile McQueen in her 1986 memoir My Husband, My Friend, a remarkably forgiving account of her years as the first wife of Steve McQueen. But far, far down the balance sheet of losses at the Circuit de la Sarthe is the marriage of a major Hollywood star obsessed with the race. Twenty-two drivers have died on the track and countless injured, and over 80 spectators were killed in a single horrible day in 1955. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of the three most iconic car races in the world, along with the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix. If you're reading this column just after it was posted, the 91 st Le Mans endurance race will be approaching its halfway point.
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