Le Mans Trivia and Fascinating Facts

You can tell which month the Le Mans 24H race is in just by knowing it is the weekend of 11^th & 12^th. June starts on a different day of the week from all of the other months and in 2011 it is the only month with a weekend of 11^th & 12^th.

Graham Hill is the only person to have won Le Mans, the F1 Championship and the Indy 500.

The youngest overall winner was Austrian Alex Wurz who won in 1996 at the age of 21 together with his teammates Davy Jones and Manuel Reuter in a Joest Porsche.

Jean Rondeau is the only constructor-driver to win Le Mans outright.

The earliest town twinning in Europe was between Le Mans and Paderborn in 836.

Le Mans is also twinned with Bolton - United Kingdom, Haouza - Western Sahara, Rostov-on-Don - Russia, Suzuka - Japan, Volos - Greece, Xianyang - China and Alexandria - Egypt

Mario Andretti is the only driver who competed at Le Mans in 4 decades - his first appearance in 1966 in a Ford GT, his last in the year 2000 in a Panoz sports prototype.

The Andretti clan was the first family to send its 3rd generation to Le Mans: Besides Mario, his son Michael and nephew John who all started previously at Le Mans, in 2010 Mario's grandson Marco was in an LMP1 Lola.

Four times overall winner Henri Pescarolo participated 33 times and holds the record for the most Le Mans appearances.

The female driver with the most Le Mans participations is French Anne-Charlotte Verney with 10 appearances between 1974 and 1983

Danish driver Tom Kristensen holds the record for the most overall wins as a driver - he won the race 9 times between 1997 and 2013. Next in the list is Belgian Jacky Ickx with 6 wins between 1969 and 1982.

The most successful manufacturer is Porsche with 16 overall victories.

The most successful team is Team Joest from Germany with 12 overall victories.

The top speed record at Le Mans is held by the French Welter Racing team, their Peugeot-powered prototype reached a recorded speed of 404 km/h (251 mph) down the Hunaudieres straight in the 1988 race.

A new all time distance record was set in 2010, the winning Audi R15 coverd a distance of 5410 km, the previous record of 5335 km was already 40 years old.

The first Japanese manufactorer to win the race was Mazda in 1991. This was also the first, and up to now only victory of a car powered by a rotary engine.