Plan B Forum

OK, I'll be the first to say it — those stands look mighty empty.  And whatever happened to the famed "Le Mans start", where the drivers sprinted across the tracks to get into the cars and buckle themselves in, etc. before firing up the engine, pulling out onto the track, and starting to race?


I can probably figure out the answer to the second one myself.  Since the cars are now so jam-packed with technology, safety equipment, communications equipment, and God alone knows what else, it takes a crew of three just to mate the driver to all the different interfaces.  So another quaint tradition bites the dust.

-"BB"-

The "Le Mans Start" went away with the advent of seat belts. Drivers would get in such a rush they wouldn't strap themselves in properly. It hasn't been used since 1969. In 1969 Jack Ickx protested the procedure by WALKING across rather than running, carefully belting himself in, and starting behind everyone else. Another less careful driver was killed on the first lap. Jack Ickx won the race. Drivers were strapped in for 1970 before the flag dropped, but in 1971 the rolling start was used.

So it's not a new development.

Perhaps those stands look empty because the race does not start for almost two weeks. Yesterday was 'test day', sort of like the day at Indy for 'carb testing' when nobody runs a car with a carburetor at Indy anymore. Those cars in the picture are even lined up pointed the wrong way.

snailgate

Were it not for the wings on the back, I'm not sure we could tell which way they were heading. They certainly all look alike.