Max Mayer: Le Mans Race Weekend Preview
“This weekend I’m about to live one of my dreams by racing at one of the most mythical tracks in Motorsport history, 24 Heures du Mans. This opportunity has come to me due to my participation in the Ligier European Series. This is Round 2 of the series with other exciting tracks to follow later on in the season such as Paul Ricard and an equally famous circuit, Spa Francochamps.
The Le Mans circuit is totally new to me and my first time on track will be the same day as the race, this is due to the fact that this circuit is mainly a street circuit which does not allow for testing like most other circuits. It is a challenging track with 38 corners and a 13.6km lap which offers some straights where we are flat out, foot to the floor, on the limiter at 256km/h.
The circuit itself is located just outside Le Mans so it’s a perfect opportunity to brush up on my French language skills!! I am racing with RLR Msport this season for the whole championships and delighted to have “The Racing Reverend” aka Simon Buttler, who is an actual ordained priest and professional racing driver, as my teammate in the championship. This may sound like an odd coupling but we get on like a house on fire and Simon brings many years of experience to our package.
The Ligier European Championship is made up of 6 races and we are racing this weekend on a grid of 26 cars in our JS2 R GT. The car runs a Ford V6 rear wheel drive pushing 350HP and I’m hoping to use everyone of those horses this weekend!! This year is the 100th anniversary of the famous 24 hour race du Le Mans which actually takes places next weekend, and as part of the celebrations there are many races leading up to the main event but we are honored by being the opening race event for this year.
It’s a very tight schedule because of all of the different classes. On Sunday we have to fit in a practice session, a qualifying session and then the race itself.
As with all races we are going with the ambition to win, but we will be thrilled if we can get on to the podium at such a special event.
After our maiden race in Barcelona where we showed we had the pace to fight at the very front, we feel that this is definitely possible and I will giving my absolute best to try and achieve my dream. I will let you all know how it goes after the race on Sunday.”
