In early 2009, we were approached by RDI with regards to entering a team for the 2009 Le Mans 24Hr Kart race. It takes place in the summer at the Alain Prost International Kart Circuit, and has been running since 1986. Drivers such as Sébastien Bourdais have entered, so it's quite a serious race with lots of talented drivers involved.

Having raced the 24 hour at Wembley in late 2008, I didn't hesitate in wanting to get involved with this one. To go to Le Mans, the most famous race circuit in the world was a definite must! RDI had created a team, myself & 5 other talented drivers. We met up once for an Ironman practice race (2 hour individual endurance) before Le Mans, but obviously nothing quite like the same as racing at Le Mans itself!

Just like the real Le Mans where there are multiple categories of cars racing, the Karting race consists of hire kart drivers and owner drivers, all racing in twin engine pro karts. The hire karts are supplied and maintained by Teesside Autodrome, where as owner drivers have huge sponsored lorries and alot of investment, which usually sees the karts being both alot faster and alot more reliable. Anything can happen in 24 hours though!

We all got together and met at the ferry terminal and headed over to Le Mans. Also at the port was the Teesside Autodrome guys, and a few other drivers from RDI. 

It was an overnight crossing so woke up to sunshine and high temperatures. It was like this until we got to Le Mans, when it started raining as soon as the tents came out! typical... That didn't dampen our spirits & excitement for the days ahead. 

On arrival, there were a few sports cars driving around on the main Le Mans circuit next to the karting one. They looked a bit slow going through the corners so probably those driving experience days you can book, but looked like fun anyway. We watched the action for a bit then headed over to the kart circuit. 

 The owner drivers were already out testing when we got there. The advantage for them is they had several days worth of practice over the hire kart drivers, and able to make pit stops & mechanical/driver changes as frequently as they liked. The hire kart drivers didn't get access to the karts until the day of practice, which was 24 hours before the actual race began!  

Each team should have had their own individual pit garage, but due to administrative cock up there were two or three teams sharing garages, including us. When they realised they'd messed up, we were told to deal with it ourselves! (Well organised) The good thing was the guys we ended up in with were a great bunch. 

Anyway so back to the race. After a group photo had taken place, the teams returned to their garages. The starting drivers all standing opposite from their karts with a guy on hand to start the karts engines. Twin engine karts, twice as much to go wrong! With the drop of the French flag, the race was off. People who were starting the engines and pushing the karts out were nearly getting ran over by other drivers and it was all a bit chaotic from where I was standing, but amusing & a highly exciting start.

Once the start was cleared, we went back to the pits. The first few laps were very tight amongst the pack, a few karts going off & getting it wrong in the battle for position. The last corner before the start/finish line saw the most incidents, with heavy braking and a sharp right hand turn, which alot of people got wrong (including myself!). The worst and most embarrassing part is if you get stuck in the gravel, you have to get yourself out, with no doubt the teams along the pit wall watching you do it.    

As the afternoon's racing carried on, bad news swept across the circuit in that some thieving git was breaking into peoples tents and nicking people's stuff. I thought it was a wind up until I got to my tent to find all of my clothes had been stolen!! I was lucky to have all my valuables on me, but what thieving pikey bastard would want to wear my boxers!!! A few of our team lost wallets & phones, so that put us all in a sour mood but British spirit kicked in shortly after and we knew he couldn't take our track time, so we focused back on the race.   

Over night things calmed down. Most teams attempting to sleep in the pits but getting sleep down there wasn't easy. I had my stint in the middle of the night. Over night is when a lot of accidents happen due to being tired and mis judging everything. As well as being physically fit, you need to be mentally aware of what's going on. So much to think about when you're out there and it's hard to stay focused. Other drivers may be able to do it better than myself, I started thinking about some guy named "Jimmy 5 Bellies" we met on a Greek holiday and all sorts of other random stuff! Also driving whilst the sun is coming up is such a bizarre experience, part of you thinks what the hell are you doing racing at 4am, other parts are trying to tell you to keep the kart on the track. Still, it's one of the most amazing and surreal experiences I've ever had! We had always planned on having at least one person in the pits awake and ready incase the driver needed to come in, but everytime I looked across, the garage light was out and everyone was asleep. Just as well I didn't need to come in.

The following morning came around and we were around 6 hours away from completing the race. The kart had taken a bit of abuse from several incidents but was running ok. The daylight made it alot easier to see what state she was in! The tyres weren't in the best of condition, the front bumper was held on with duct tape and then things started to go bad for us. We had a few mechanical issues with one of our engines and started visiting the pits more and more frequently. This continued with about an hour the clock left and our team doing pretty well, one engine died completely. We were in the pits for over half an hour having bits swapped out and cleaned up. I took it out for a run after each repair only for the engine to die and return back to the pit. All the laps and positions we had made up were being undone by this mechanical issue. Other drivers from RDI in the garages near the Teeside's workshop could see it wasn't looking good for us. They practically swapped the whole engine over in the end, which saw us through to the finish.

The winner took the chequered flag and did a few laps of honour around the circuit. All teams did an excellent job of completing that race. Trophies were awarded at the end by RDI's founder Barry Scott. We went over to Parc Ferme to see what condition our kart was in. Not surprisingly, it was wrecked. There was a huge puddle of oil underneath it which shows it had just completely given up. We gave it everything, and it gave us everything it could. 

Completing the race seemed a lot harder than the Wembley 24 hour 6 months earlier, but felt like a fantastic achievement regardless of where we finished. The team had really bonded well, and it was a privilege to share this experience with such a fantastic bunch of guys. They all agreed, so we're going to be entering in 2010! 

Here's a few other photos taken from the Le Mans trip, including a tour of the Le Mans Museum, unfortunately I only had my camera phone for that part!  

See you at Le Mans in 2010!