Is this still a thing?
I watched Ford vs
Ferrari recently, and also Elvis’s *Viva Las Vegas" and both feature a car race in which the cars are lined up here, the drivers are lined up there, and the starting gun is fired and the drivers sprint to their cars and start off.
I don’t think any current professional race series use the Lemans Start. Some amateur go-kart/off-road/motorcycle endurance races still do.
Minor correction - it looks like the FIM Endurance World Championship still uses it for the Suzuka 8 Hours and the 24 Heures Motos races. But these are motorcycle races, not cars.
Only in motorcycle racing according to Wikipedia. I don’t know why the article mentions bicycles and radio-controlled cars; those aren’t really motorsports.
In the 1969 Le Mans race, Jacky Ickx famously did NOT run to his car, instead casually walked over to it and carefully and fully strapped himself in before heading out. Another driver, John Woolfe, who didn’t, promptly killed himself on the very first lap, and the next year everybody started the race already strapped in. Ickx won the 1969 race note.
My understanding is the LeMans-style start, with drivers sprinting across to their cars, jumping in, firing up, and roaring off became a thing of the past as a safety measure. Too many drivers were intent on ‘roaring off’ to get a lead, so they would strap in on the fly. The LeMans-style start also led to a great motorsports myth, that Porsche put the key switch on the left to make the start faster for their drivers. They could turn the key with their left hands, and operate the shifter with their right. All bogus, but it persisted for a long time.
The OP having received their answer, I wonder why that ever was a thing in the first place. Is it somehow more entertaining for those watching? Was there a perceived need to put more sport into motorsport? Was it somehow considered “more fair” instead of having a starting position determined in some other way?
LeMans was originally a competition for customer cars, or cars that you could buy and drive on the street. They had interiors, lights, turn signals, etc. Compared to F1 where you unbolted everything non-essential. As such, making your car difficult to get into was frowned upon, and starting outside the car was a way to enforce the spirit of the rules.
LMP cars today still have a passenger seat for that reason. It’s a joke of a seat, but it’s still there per the rules.
I think they’re also supposed to be equipped with a spare tire and tool kit.
Ignorance fought! I never realized that was done in the real world. I always thought it was a Speed Racer thing.
I competed in one Le Mans start during an autocross. It was fun, if hectic. My 1967 Triumph GT6 still had a “fly-off” hand brake to aid in this technique. You pulled on the hand brake and “set” it by pressing the button on the end. All you had to do was give a quick pull to the lever and it would snap down and away you went.
That might be kind of fun! Did the clock start when you physically crossed a line with your body? I’m guessing the Boy Racer-types with the five point harnesses would be at a substantial disadvantage!
You got a beep then started running. They did have an observer to make sure you fastened your seat belt before moving or you got penalty points.
I’ve done LeMans starts in outdoor go-karts and they’re definitely a hoot. No seatbelts in those, though, plus they’re already running, so it doesn’t make much sense.
A couple of decades ago I saw a Le Mans start (of sorts) at Silverstone, in a veteran car race. All the drivers (except one) ran across the road to their cars, but then there was a hiatus as they were properly buckled in, and then pulled off rather politely. As these guys were owner/enthusiasts rather than athletes, they didn’t run very fast.
The one driver excused the Le Mans start was Tom Delaney, who was described on commentary as the oldest driver currently holding a racing license - but they coyly neglected to give his age. Wanna guess?
Ans: 94 at the time. In that race he was competing against his granddaughter, who was driving the car gramps had driven in (IIRC) the 1935 Irish Grand Prix
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