Le Mans: Karun Chandhok is set to become India’s first driver to start the historic Le Mans 24-Hour race at the La Sarthe circuit this weekend.
The Le Mans 24-Hour race is part of the FIA World Endurance Championship and also widely regarded as part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport along with the F1 Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500.
This will be a first not only for Chandhok, but also for his JRM Team who are making their debut in the Le Mans 24-Hour race and will enter their Honda HPD ARX-03a in the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) class.
Chandhok will team up with former winner David Brabham and Peter Dumbreck. While Brabham will be racing here for the 18th time, Dumbreck will have his fifth attempt at the famous venue. Each team comprises of three drivers who will share duty over the race duration.
After doing just 10 laps around the circuit last week, Chandhok said: "It's such an amazing circuit here. I was expecting something special after driving the simulator and watching the videos, but they don't do it justice!"
"This is certainly one of the highlights of any driver's career and a big box to tick on your CV. There are some circuits that you just have to race at in your career to make it complete - places like Monaco, Macau, Silverstone, Spa, Le Mans and Monza, and I'm very excited to finish this particular set."
"The fans here come as if it's a pilgrimage. I met so many people who were camping in the cold, wet fields all week that said they've been coming here for the last 15 or 20 years. To see 250,000 people here for the race is going to be pretty amazing I think."
The circuit is 13.6 km long with cars touching top speeds of 330 kmph. The three drivers will share driving duties over the 24 hours. Practice and qualifying will take place Thursday night for the drivers to get accustomed to driving at night.
Chandhok added: "We're doing close to 330 kmph not just on one straight but on four different parts of the track. There are some very fast flowing corners as well as chicanes which are very tricky when trying to slow down from such high speeds."
"The circuit is almost twice the length of Spa which is the longest circuit in F1 and it's crazy to think that over the course of 24 hours, we'll cover the same distance as 18 F1 races!"
"Driving at night is going to be one of the biggest challenges with such a high speed circuit and I'm looking forward to getting a feel of that late tonight." (IANS)
