This programme contains strong language
Sir Chris Hoy has already ignited the burners.
Who's going to get it? Chris Hoy! That's his sixth gold medal.
He becomes the greatest British Olympian.
Mesdames et messieurs, ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the 84th running of the greatest race in motor sport -
the 24 hours at Le Mans.
HOY: When I finished competitive cycling,
in the way that many sports men and women struggle
when they retire from something that has consumed them,
every decision that you make is about performance,
and then all of a sudden, overnight, it stops.
So you have to find something to replace that,
you have to have something that you are passionate about.
So, motor sport was just the perfect fit.
It is mad, though, isn't it? Just how many people are down here.
The very first time I became aware of Le Mans,
I had a Scalextric track when I was a wee boy.
I remember asking my dad, "Why does this car have lights on it?"
He said, "Well, that's a Le Mans car," he said.
"They race all day and then all night for 24 hours."
And I just remember thinking, "That sounds amazing."
I'm very excited, a little bit nervous,
just an amazing experience to be here.
And I can't wait to get on the track and start racing.
Sir Chris Hoy, thank you.
Being the biggest race in the world,
people have come from far and wide -
from the worlds of Formula One, IndyCar,
the biggest names, the biggest teams,
this is the one that everybody who is anybody wants to win.
This is some of the best drivers in the world,
and my name is in there.
Four years of my life has been working towards this one race.
This is a massive challenge. And it's not been easy.
To be a Le Mans winner, it's like being an Olympic gold medallist.
That is with you for the rest of your life.
Three, two, one...
Have you just woken up? Are you sleepy?
Hello. Where is Dada?
Do you want a wee cuddle?
In 2012, track cyclist Sir Chris Hoy
became the first British Olympian to win six gold medals
competing in four games,
but this is the first Olympic year since 2000
that he's not in training.
Olympic year is definitely different
because you immediately start thinking back
to where you were four years ago, eight years ago,
12 years ago, 16 years ago, what you were going through.
What's that down there? Is that the Christmas tree?
'This time four years ago,'
I wouldn't be standing wasting energy in my legs.
'I would be sitting down.'
I hate to break the news to you, son,
but we are taking the Christmas tree down.
Don't stand when you can sit, don't sit when you can lie down.
Rest your legs, recover. That was our mantra,
that was what we did as cyclists.
And it was relentless. It was an obsession.
I feel freed from that pressure,
but in equal measure, I miss being part of something that means so much
and that you're on this journey towards this end goal.
This is a man who thrives on being able to have a project
that he can strip down, learn every single detail of,
become good at it, build it all back up together
and try and do it.
How did you get that there?
Oh, dear.
I dreamt of Le Mans, but never thought it would be possible.
So far, nothing has been confirmed,
but if I get to race at Le Mans, it doesn't matter who you are,
to measure yourself against the best in the world, it's exciting.
It's fast, it's dangerous, it's the real thing.
Right, thank you. Round of applause for Daddy.
Chris's journey to Le Mans
started two months after retiring from competitive cycling
when he signed up to an amateur race series.
To actually get on the track yourself
and experience it first hand, it's amazing and a real privilege.
I just want to try and bring the car back in one piece each time.
In just his second race,
Chris got a real taste of what motor sport can offer.
Pretty hairy at moments, but, yeah, pretty fun.
Over the past three years, Chris has been fast tracked
through the motor sport world by his sponsors.
He has gone through an intensive training programme
and competed with a host of pro drivers and teams
in races across Europe.
Last year, he won one of the top endurance race series.
Amazing. I never thought I would be on the podium
hearing the national anthem again. I thought those days were over.
I have the same passion, the same competitive spirit.
I'm not doing it just for the sake of it.
The reason I'm doing it is because I love it.
Chris has a chance to join one of the top teams
at Le Mans for this year's race.
Morning. How you doing?
Today he has come to show them he can handle their car.
With a top speed close to 200mph,
it's faster than anything Chris has ever driven.
Getting the nerves again.
Right before you get in it, you're thinking,
"Oh, God, this is... This is bloody terrifying."
It's a new season, it's a completely different set-up this year.
It's with Greaves Motor Sport,
who've won in Le Mans this car before.
You know, it is nice to drive in the dry, but you want to get used to wet
because you're not going to get a dry 24 hours, are you?
It's going to rain at some point.
Greaves Motor Sport have raced at Le Mans
every year for the past decade,
finishing on the podium twice and winning their class in 2011.
We've got the pro-am situation here.
Each team has to have an amateur driver.
The difference between winning and losing can be the quality,
the performance of the amateur driver.
Chris, in this case, yeah.
At Le Mans, three different categories of car
race together on the same track.
Chris wants to compete in the LMP2, or Le Mans Prototype 2 class,
the highest level an amateur can race.
The professional drivers are continually helping
the amateur drivers.
Remember, most of these professional drivers
have been doing this since they were eight years old.
Chris jumps in, what is it now, three years?
Any observations?
No. The car is really, really easy to drive.
Each team needs three drivers to share the car
through the 24-hour race.
We still haven't even finalised the team for this year.
At the moment, it is looking likely it will be myself
and Alex Brundle - Martin Brundle's son -
a very experienced prototype racer,
he's raced at Le Mans many times before.
I tried second, it's not better. Yep. It is easy to run wide.
If we can get him quick, on professional driver pace,
it's a huge asset to the team.
It's the same with any team doing anything -
you're only as strong as the weakest link.
I know I'm the weak link, so that's OK.
It's not like I'm going,
"Shit, they said that? I didn't know that.
"I thought I was the best out there", you know?
But I enjoy a challenge.
I miss that moment of, "Shit, we are in this now.
"We are in the battle and this is what we have trained for
"for the last however many months or years."
He's doing exactly what we want him to do.
Currently the pace is about a 1 minute 48 for the top drivers.
I think he will go under 50.
If he gets under 50, he has done a brilliant job.
Yep.
It's not a million miles away then.
It's not miles away.
An hour later, Chris gets a chance to improve on his time.
He's done a 49.
We're sort of where we should be with Chris today.
Such a mega car, that.
It encourages you to push, to go faster and faster.
It's just amazing. That's what it's all about. Just awesome.
Chris's performance today has cemented his place in the team.
The test has been a massive success.
It's been really encouraging for me personally.
The team that has won at Le Mans before,
so you start and put two and two together and you start to think,
"What would it be like to get on the podium at Le Mans?"
What a fairy-tale ending - wouldn't it be amazing?
So anybody watching for the first time, it's an 8.5 mile lap
as many times as you possibly can over the space of 24 hours.
No other form of motoring event
eclipses the world of man and machine
in a more incredible environment.
I've been here a million times before
but not in motor sport, the pre-race feeling.
You recognise it as a good sign -
you need to have adrenaline,
you need to have that raised level of alertness.
THUNDER RUMBLES
The umbrellas are up and our race director has declared this
a wet race, so that is the first bit of drama
before we've even got underway.
I mean, the conditions - it couldn't be worse
to make a debut in the Le Mans 24-hour.
This is where you're glad...?
You're not starting. Yeah, exactly.
It's the toughest race in the world.
What we are going to see is 60 cars driving around
and a hell of a race throughout the classes.
Pilotes, demarrez vos moteurs!
Ten, nine, eight...
The race I am most intrigued by is the LMP2 race.
It's the most competitive field in an awfully long time.
Five, four, three, two, one...
BEEPING
The race will start now behind the safety car.
It is very, very wet indeed.
Well, you know, in weather like this with the cars that close together,
an incident is almost inevitable.
On the back of every ticket, it says motor racing is dangerous.
It is not that long ago that very tragically
Allan Simonsen lost his life at this track.
Danger is still there.
For the past three weeks,
Chris has been preparing to race
with the highly successful Greaves Motor Sport.
But yesterday, he was told that engine supply problems
have forced them to withdraw his car from Le Mans.
Mamma. Mamma.
At the last minute, Chris's sponsor Nissan have stepped in
and found him a new team.
I've been very frustrated for the fact that, you know,
he's given up so much time...
Obviously it's all that he wants to do,
but he has given up so much time.
I mean, ten days after he was born
and he was in intensive care in an incubator,
Chris was in Barcelona, through our mutual choice of both of us
for saying we've got to go and get all your race training in,
you've got to be as good as you can if you're going to Le Mans.
Then for you to give all that time in what was
a really upsetting and stressful year for both of us,
but particularly for me and not to have Chris around for a lot of it,
for it then that not to happen and him not to get to Le Mans,
that was... I would have had absolute words with Nissan.
Yeah, little smiley boy.
Chris now has to take a leap of faith and join an unknown team
with a different car who will be racing at Le Mans
for the first time.
I was stressed, but the guys at Nissan said
last minute we have a guaranteed seat in a different team.
People I've never met before, never been to the factory,
never met them, never been in the car.
MAN OFF SCREEN: And you're going to be racing Le Mans?
I'll be racing Le Mans... In a couple of months?
..in a couple of months' time... In this car,
and this team you have never met. I've never met them before.
The problem is now the tyres are shit, aren't they?
Today, Chris is meeting his new team - Algarve Pro Racing.
They are run by Stewart, an ex-Formula One mechanic,
with his wife Sam.
Is it Stewart? Hi, Chris. Stewart. Hi.
To get you some running, for we will do,
we'll just see what happens now. It's going to happen very shortly.
Yeah.
We are very lucky.
People have heard of Chris Hoy because he is,
in some people's eyes, famous for being
one of the greatest Olympians ever, so it's big kudos for our team.
He's met the Queen, been knighted. Fantastic. Good luck to the guy.
You know, he worked hard for it.
Michael is the team's only permanent driver.
He is an ex-Wall Street trader who got back into racing
in his 40s and, like Chris, is ranked as an amateur.
Today he is helping to get the car set up
and install software for the new season.
Are you good at bleeps,
because there is going to be loads of bleeps coming out of there.
HE CHUCKLES
Michael has raced Le Mans once before
but with a different team.
I had a bit of a rough introduction to Le Mans two years ago.
I crashed badly in practice and somebody spun in front of me
in the race, so I went airborne over him.
We only finished about three hours before we destroyed the car.
You slow down the car, you rotate, and exit, it is better.
You can see where the rubber is. Yes.
Andrea has just joined the team.
He is an up-and-coming pro driver, but he has never raced Le Mans.
I didn't expect to do Le Mans soon like that. I'm really happy.
I think all the racing drivers dream about that. Yeah, it is amazing.
He's actually getting ready now.
He's going to be probably a minute and a half. So 90 seconds.
Chris has less than three months to fit in with the team
and get to grips with a new car.
The first time I have ever driven this car. It is brand-new to me.
It is an LMP2, so the same category as the Greaves car that I tested,
but it is a closed cockpit.
It's totally different to anything I have driven before,
so it does feel a bit alien.
All LMP2 cars have similar performance,
going from 0-60 in under three seconds,
but with every team customising their vehicle set-up,
each one is different to drive.
What's happened? The exhaust pipe's blown up.
These prototype cars are hand-built and cost £0.5 million each,
but this one has some teething problems.
Did you find it really bumping along the end of the straight?
Unbelievable. Yeah, it was a bit scary, that.
No, it's the worst it's ever been. Right.
Just before you are turning in, you're thinking,
"Shit, this is going to lift off." Exactly.
At high speed, the front is lifting off the ground...
See, it's bouncing already.
..which risks flipping the car over.
Watch the cable on the left. Getting really bumpy now.
This is our first Le Mans as a team,
so we have got a lot to do and a lot to learn.
Top 10?
The thing is, at Le Mans, there are so many stories of teams
which had, on paper, no chance, so you do the best you can.
Hand on heart, you'd say that was it,
but if you've done the best, you've done the best.
It sounds like loser speak to me. No, I don't think it is.
It's not, it's not, is it? It's like...
Yeah, we all go there to win.
I shouldn't do this, but looking back at the car
I drove two weeks ago, which was so easy to drive
and confidence-inspiring,
in comparison, this is a much trickier proposition.
I'm not going to start nit-picking about things.
This is the team, this is the car,
this is what we are going to be racing with.
It's hanging off.
You know, to have the team manager saying we're not aiming for a win
because it's unrealistic,
we're aiming for top 10 which would be a good finish.
MAN OFF SCREEN: Did your heart sink a bit? A little bit. Yeah.
Yeah, it did.
Do we not have any solid packers?
Stewart knows even making top ten will be difficult.
Less than half of all rookie teams complete Le Mans.
At the end of the day, if these guys get in the car and we finish,
as a team, we have done a great job.
It could go horribly wrong really quickly.
There's 24 hours of overtaking,
there are so many things that can happen.
ON RADIO: Well done, mate. Really proud of you.
Well, now for one lap of the Le Mans 24-hours,
we can say that an LMP2 car is the fastest of the race.
That is the one, number 25, Andrea Pizzitola at the wheel.
That is the car that Sir Chris Hoy is a part of,
the Algarve Racing machine.
ON RADIO: He is absolutely on fire at the moment.
Say again, Andre.
Nothing on our data, not yet.
OK, Andre, we have no alarms here on our telemetry,
your fuel level is fine.
Let's be realistic, this could be my only time at Le Mans.
The car could go off in the first hour, it might break,
I might not get a drive.
The lift pumps are all off.
What did you say, Stew?
The lift pumps are all off.
Mate, there's no fuel pressure.
If there is a problem with the lift pumps, we are so low on fuel,
it'll just stop.
I need to talk to the driver and I need to do something quite drastic.
There is a live feed on French TV. They would like to interview.
I don't know if maybe it is the wrong time...
Maybe not just now, because... This is really...
This is crucial, this bit.
Andre, listen very carefully.
I know this is going to sound mad, but I need you to press the
red button and turn the car off and back on again and fire the car up.
I need you to power cycle the car.
Are you listening to what's going on?
Basically they need to switch the engine off and on again.
It's probably something quite trivial, I mean...
But if the car conked out on the track, of course it would be awful.
At the same... I don't know, it just seems like...
I'm sure they will figure it out, Chris. Don't stress.
No, no. Absolutely, yes. Stewart is very good at what he does.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's some silly little thing, never had it before, it will go away.
He's good at what he does.
Stewart, I think we should do the power cycle.
Yeah, it is looking all right.
It may be the water ingress or something silly.
When I first tested with Algarve, it did feel different to all the
cycling teams and motor sport teams I have been a part of.
It was a problem with the car that they thought it could
potentially could mean it would conk out on the track.
It would all be over. But I think they fixed it.
They haven't done Le Mans before, so it is a lot to expect for
a very inexperienced team to perform at the very highest level.
The lift pump has just stopped working.
You don't need that shit, though. No, you fucking don't.
It's not always about winning here, Graham, is it?
It's not even about getting on the podium.
For some people, just to compete at Le Mans is enough
and getting to the finish is actually a bonus.
Get it home, that's the point.
Silverstone host the first race of the year.
Chris has arrived ahead of time to have a seat fitting for his new car.
See what you think. I'll go in the other side.
During a race, drivers are subjected to G-forces
equal to three times their body weight...
There we go.
..so they need to have custom seats made
to hold them in their driving position.
What do you need? What I need is a little bit of lumbar support.
This seat in particular, when I drove this last time,
I got a pain in my hip by the end of a stint.
One of the key things is that the leg is in a straight line
to the throttle pedal.
If it's not, if it turns your knee inwards...
Exactly as you describe, it causes this pain right in your glute,
which is kind of top of your hip in there.
The consequence of doing this well versus not doing it at all
or doing it incorrectly can make the difference
between a car that is almost undrivable and one that is bang-on.
The morning before the race is a free test session for the teams,
but first Stewart wants to practise
their driver change drill for Le Mans.
Everyone ready? Chris in position? OK, car is in the pit lane.
Out!
Every second spent in the pits for a changeover
will push the team down the field.
The race begins for you with a properly stressful,
"Get in the car. Quick, get the seat belts on.
"Oh, God, the time is slipping away," you know.
Out.
Even the steering wheel, you've got to squeeze the little back,
sort of, part of it and line it and put it on.
If it's even slightly off dead centre, it won't go on.
You've got to get it absolutely right.
When you're desperately trying to get it on, if you rush it,
"more haste, less speed," kind of thing.
On the whole, the team are...
The more you do it, the better you get. But it's getting there.
Today will allow Chris to see how his new car performs
under race conditions for the first time.
Ten seconds, OK?
There's times where I've been getting strapped into the car
in the pit lane thinking, "What the hell am I doing this for?
"Why am I here? This is crazy?"
I've only recently got over that terrifying feeling,
you know, "I could die out here."
I know it could happen. It could happen any time.
At Le Mans, Chris will have to drive for
a minimum of six hours throughout the race.
Each driving session, or stint, lasts for a tank of fuel,
which is about 40 minutes.
Drivers usually do two or three stints in a row.
He's got a car behind him.
Sir Chris Hoy running in 10th position.
In car 28...
Oh! Car number 25, Sir Chris Hoy, off and beached in the gravel.
He's come backwards, that's how he's got to that angle.
You can see the spin marks on the circuit.
Poor Chris Hoy, from 10th place, is in the gravel.
Chris, don't panic. There you go. Nice one.
Flash and kill.
Chris manages to complete his stint,
but the spin is the least of his worries.
That seat's killing me. I can barely...
His new seat has made the car too painful to drive.
I've got to sit down. This is killing my leg.
This is really bad. Really bad.
There's no position I can get into where it's not causing me...
Was it cramping?
No, no, it's like a sciatic pain going down my leg from my hip.
The seat's not right...and it...
Fucking hell.
Do you want to go and see the medic?
No, he'll not be any use. It's just... I need a physio.
Jeez...
OK, Andre, you can make it for the next five laps.
OK.
SARRA: In the last 24 hours being here,
it's reminded me of what it was like watching him race bikes when
kind of in the run-up to it,
he would recede more and more into himself.
STEWART: Jon, how long before we need to have Chris on his toes?
JONATHAN: Basically four laps.
He will just be really focusing and taking on all pieces of
information about the weather,
about the track and just beginning to kind of feed that into what
he knows to say, "OK, how is this going to affect my drive?
"What do I need to think?"
Chris is ready.
Or he could be completely shitting it.
Athletes can be some of the most insecure people in the world,
trust me, I know that. In sport, you're laying it on the line.
You're literally saying, "This is what I've got."
OK, guys, driver change, fuel and tyres.
Run the check, Chris.
Help him with the steering wheel, help him with the steering wheel!
Fucking thing is stuck.
Ignore it, Chris, ignore it.
I've never seen someone try to put a wheel on so many times in my life.
Chris, straight into your rhythm as quick as possible, OK?
SARRA: You don't know what's going to happen, anything could happen,
and then you start wondering about the worst.
JONATHAN: OK, so you need to keep your pace up.
If the vibration is too much then we'll bring you in.
STEWART: Jonathan, if he locks the tyre and goes through,
we'll have a puncture and we're fucked.
Chris, you have to wait, I'm afraid you've buggered the tyres.
I cannot just fix it like that.
You have to continue driving until I've got to
a point where I can stop you to fix the problem.
Why, mate? We need hot soft.
Jonathan, there's no soft tyres at all.
You'll just have to go with one tyre.
He's flat-spotted both fronts.
Just do the whole set.
I'm going to have to come in. This is getting fucking dangerous now.
OK, got to take the chance. Box now.
Oh, fuck me.
Using cold tyres can be like driving on ice.
What's done is done, we can't change it. Concentrate and we'll go again.
OK, Chris, nice and easy. The tyres are cold, so just be careful with them.
Chris, really careful. The first two laps, extreme care.
I know what's happened.
Because Jonathan's worried about heat cycles,
you were waiting to put the next set of mediums in.
But what happens is, if you wait, you get fucked.
Fuck him. I know what I'm talking about.
Always have a set of hot tyres in.
OK, Chris, how are you feeling? Everything OK?
Chris has come to see one of his cycling mentors,
the man who helped him develop the mental skills
to win gold after gold.
Hey, Steve, how you doing? Psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters.
It's weird, because he was such a central part of my life
during that part of my career.
I'd be seeing him probably once a week at least.
Yeah, I was going to be... I thought,
I'll be cheeky and when he opens the door, say, "how are you?"
"What are you doing here?" "Haven't seen you for a long time."
So, what's the purpose of this?
Why did you think, "I'll go and see Steve"?
It's about trying to tick all the boxes, making sure I'm as
well prepared as I can be when I get to Le Mans.
During a race, things happen out the blue.
You could have a moment where you make a mistake,
you could lock up on the braking zone or you could overshoot a corner, or you could have a spin.
and often you're kicking yourself and you're just angry that you've done something stupid.
So, we go back to you and say, right,
as a physical machine there are two aspects, your physical body... Yeah.
..and then there's the mental apparatus, which is a machine,
which will run crazy if you let it.
But if you actually say, "can I start managing it?"
then you've got to learn how it's structured, get an understanding,
then when you've got it, you can say, I can switch mode now.
Yeah. I'm beginning to get this and understand what each part of my brain is trying to do.
So you have to practise in practical things off the track.
Yeah. Do you remember?
Yeah, yeah. People pissing you off when you're driving on the road.
Yes. Phone calls when you're held in the queue,
just things that were getting you frustrated or angry. Yeah.
Obviously if people get frustrated they are in the wrong mode approaching something.
Cos frustration is when you've got this high expectation of
something that should happen, and it doesn't, you know?
Whereas actually, in the battle mode you went into before,
in cycling, that's not an element.
When you think of racing, there isn't frustration,
just dealing with reality, just get on with it. Yeah.
So, it's getting back to that.
I'm good at dealing with pressure and focusing, but it doesn't
mean to say that I have this supreme confidence all the time.
I have to work really hard to perform as well as I can.
The team are in Italy for the last race before Le Mans.
Stewart's first priority is to fix Chris's seating position.
I can't drive with my foot like that pushing the whole time against that.
It'll... I won't be able to do more than two stints.
It'll be undrivable after that.
Most racing drivers, including Chris's team-mates,
brake with their left foot,
opposite to normal road car driving.
Silly question, can you move the footrest further away? Which one?
Chris still brakes with his right foot,
so his natural racing position doesn't suit this car.
Chris is comfortable in the car. We know he can right foot brake.
Why not try left? Why don't we just try left...?
I think, let's go for it, and if it's horrendous,
then we've still got time to try and find another solution.
It is quite a big thing to change.
I have left-foot braked once before on a track,
and I do left-foot braking in the simulator.
I'm optimistic.
The danger of changing to left-foot braking is that most people
don't have the same control with their clutch foot,
and at high speed, precision braking is critical.
It's not a natural thing to do.
Like trying, if you are right-handed, to write with your left hand.
Over five laps, Chris records some of his fastest times in the car.
The braking made a massive difference.
Straight away it just felt natural.
It didn't feel I was having to think about what I was doing.
It's something I wouldn't have done unless I was forced into doing it,
because you get set in your ways,
you get comfortable driving a certain way.
With Chris now able to drive pain-free...
So, into the pit lane. Stop.
..Stewart's next job is to speed up the driver change drill for Le Mans.
OK, we need some more practice at that.
It's like, basically, the Oreca is 19 seconds.
That just took a minute and ten.
So basically, we might as well pack the fucking car up and go home.
Stewart decides to show the team how it should be done.
Go!
You do your belt up. You do your belt up.
That's my first time in about a year...
I don't give a fuck. They do that.
They can't. They have to. Cos that's what all the pros do.
So don't argue, just do as you're told, and you'll learn.
If you shout at people... Yeah. They're going to get stressed.
I don't want to hear excuses, I want to see them push.
It's easy to go, "I can't do it."
My dad's idea - if you can't do it, son, I'll just hit you harder until you do it, and it worked.
Stewart cares so much about it. That's why he gets frustrated.
Right, for me, that bottom strap is actually quite tight.
He's not just angry for the sake of it. He's a lovely bloke.
But the frustration brings out the anger in him.
Chris's own race preparations have always been meticulous.
His ability to find what's called marginal gains
was key to his sporting success.
And this attention to detail spills over into every part of his life.
Over-extracted. I'm going to start again, actually.
You wouldn't want to drink it if it wasn't right.
The whole point is, it's got to be right.
Well, I initially got into my coffee because, as a cyclist,
training full-time, you didn't go to the pub, you didn't drink alcohol.
So you start drinking coffee, and then you start to take an interest in it,
and then do the barista course, do another barista course.
If I get into something, I tend to really get into it,
sort of do it 100%. And coffee's another example of that, I suppose.
When you grind the beans, if you don't grind them enough,
the water passes through too quickly and you miss
a lot of the flavour and the oils that didn't come out of the coffee.
You don't have to be absolutely bang on,
but you want to be roughly 28 seconds to do a 60ml pour.
Roughly. I'm not going to measure it.
Oh, no, no...
This is really embarrassing.
I'm sorry. Going to get so much stick for this.
There we go. What is that?
I guess I can deal with the pressure of racing at the Olympic Games,
but doing some latte art in front of a film crew...
that's a step too far.
HE SCOFFS
RADIO: OK, Chris, about two laps to go before I box you. Copy.
Bring it in, bring it in. On the lollipop. On the lollipop.
Come to me, come to me. Stop!
COMMENTATOR: Chris Hoy did, I think a double stint at least there, Paul.
Well, he did a triple stint, in fact. Triple stint! Well done.
Comfortably on the pace of other LMP2 drivers.
He certainly has kept himself very clean and tidy.
His dad's texting to say he's very proud of him.
Just the worst start.
Just too tight to settle in. Black spotted twice.
When you came in, the tyre was down to the canvas.
Everything all right? Yeah, yeah, good.
Once you get in the rhythm, you start...
You know where you can overtake, you know where you can't overtake,
you can conserve energy when you don't... There's nothing to do.
What it's done now is it's given you an insight into
what you have to do, management wise, on this track. Yeah.
Just take it easy, cos you're going to do the nightmare shift. Yeah. OK. All right?
Yeah. Triple stint at night, is it?
Oh, yeah, and if I can push you one more, I will do. OK.
CHEERING
The race feels different to anything else I've done. The ferocity of it all.
You can just sense it means more to all the teams,
and the way the drivers drive, they're just ruthless.
Every corner, every lap, flat-out.
It's an endurance race, but it's a sprint the whole way.
I think this is the right one.
Is this a practical joke?
In the build-up to Le Mans,
Chris is juggling work and family life with a full-time race schedule.
I thought it was the wrong car!
Just shows how alert I am, switched on.
Was up at four. Had a three-hour flight.
Got in, had about an hour's sleep,
and then I'm going to go and jump on the track.
I'll put it in gear, shall I? I'll put the handbrake on.
I'm completely awake(!)
Stewart has organised a private practice session for the team.
It's the last time they'll be together before Le Mans.
I feel I'm ready for Le Mans now. You looking forward to it now?
Yeah. I'll be honest, I'm preparing myself, cos I don't want to...
I hate being disappointed. You know, the deflation of...
So I'm going in there saying that anything can happen at any time.
Hopefully we're going to see the chequered flag. And you never know. Exactly.
You looking forward to it? Yeah?
It's going to be amazing. HE LAUGHS
This isn't going to be your last Le Mans. Don't ever look at that.
You just have to drive. This has to get to the end.
Cos it doesn't matter where you finish,
because you're never going to win.
We're not a team that are going to be pushing for the win.
We are pushing to try and go as fast as we can, but if you're being
realistic, you know, we are the plucky underdogs, we are the
non-league side up against the big boys in the Premier League.
That's the situation we're in. But miracles happen.
I'm genuinely positive about my own development, my own progression.
I'm much more confident in my own ability.
And I feel like a racing driver.
Hopefully I can pass myself off as one.
Stewart has spent over 12,000 euros to hire the track and give his
drivers the experience of something unique to 24-hour racing -
night driving.
This is the last part of the jigsaw.
Everything else I've had a fair bit of experience and practice with,
but the night driving is the one thing I haven't done much of.
With Le Mans only three weeks away, it's essential that
Chris is confident and competent to race at night.
The whole 24-hour racing thing, the Le Mans thing, it becomes...
The emotion of it and the romance of it starts when the sun sets.
If you've made it into the night, then that is a big step.
And even more so, to make it to the morning when the sun comes up,
you know, you've done really well.
Then when you get to that point,
it's all about just trying to get the car to the finishing line.
I didn't really dwell on the fact it was in the dark.
Once you've got the reference points, it's just the same as the daytime,
they just look a bit different. Yeah.
The last couple of laps there, I got this moment of thinking,
yeah, I'm ready now. I'm ready. Here we go.
There's one last hurdle for the team to complete.
Cars always crash at Le Mans.
So, for safety, each driver now has to prove they can exit
through their passenger door in under nine seconds.
I was actually really nervous about it. I was like...
I just thought, I'm not going to get out of here.
Chris and Andrea took the test at Imola,
but they both took several attempts to pass.
You pushed up or grab and pull? I sort of did both.
I grabbed the frame and tried to kick my legs out.
And then just launch yourself.
If I do it the first time, I do one full lap naked.
You hear that?
Andrea said if he does it first time, he's going to do one full lap naked.
Five, four, three, two, one. Go!
Oh, my God!
Argh!
8.82. You are running naked, mate!
LAUGHTER Get your kit off.
Just seeing the way the team is starting to respond,
and everybody is getting fired up for it, everyone is excited. It's their first Le Mans, too.
Everyone is experiencing it the same way.
So, in many ways, maybe this is the best way to do it.
LAUGHTER
RADIO: 'OK, Andrea, you're doing a great job.' Copy, copy.
COMMENTATOR: With four minutes till one o'clock in the morning, now...
Yeah, so another hour done, and that means there are 14 hours of
the 84th running of the 24 hours of Le Mans still to go.
That's an engine failure. That's game over, it looks like.
We've got oil down, I'm afraid it's not in a very nice place, either.
Zone 30-32, Paul, is...
Coming through the beginning of the Porsche curve.
It's a safety car. Safety car has been scrambled, and it will be for the clear-up for that,
because that is in a very nasty place indeed, in darkness.
TYRES SCREECH
RATTLING
Ah, fucking hell!
OVER RADIO: 'OK, you OK? I'm OK.
'OK, mate, just bring the car home.
'If you can bring the car home, please do.'
BUZZING
ENGINE STARTS
STEWART: Ask him if it's steering straight.
Is your steering straight, Andrea?
It looked like a Porsche blew up right in front of him.
The Porsche was in the curve, he was coming the first one in. Ah...
'Don't worry about it, it's not your fault,
'we'll just get it repaired. We'll do a driver change as well.'
'OK, we'll keep you in the car then, we'll keep you in the car.'
COMMENTATOR: Andrea Pizzitola has made it back to the pits.
A run into the tyre wall, there, after a very gravelly moment.
STEWART: Come on. Let's just have her off. Let's have a look at the rear rockers.
Good to go, good to go on the rear. Put that back on.
You probably know more than I do.
I just got woken up about ten minutes ago.
We were just in the motorhome, and Chris was having a sleep.
My dad texted me, he called up and said, the car just went into barrier.
I felt my heart go, even though I knew it's definitely not Chris,
so he's safe, but you just don't want it to be anybody.
It's what an endurance race is all about.
'OK, now it's time to get Chris Hoy in.
'We'll change driver and tyres at this stop.'
I feel I'm waking up, I feel really woozy and jet-lagged.
They say don't drive tired on public roads,
and then you're jumping in a car to race at 200mph, and you're knackered.
The sleep deprivation just begins to hit.
It's just another part of the challenge.
It's the endurance aspect. It's so much more than driving the car.
That's what I'm beginning to see now.
'Driver change.'
COMMENTATOR: Well, here we are, then.
4:04 in the morning, Central European Time.
I mean, just getting yourself motivated to get back into that car.
Where do they get that from? That's remarkable to me.
Caffeine. LAUGHTER
Lots of it.
Latest, I should be up at 7:45,
so I'm going to set my alarm for 7:45. OK.
Great. All right. Sleep well.
Copy.
COMMENTATOR: It's six o'clock in the morning.
More than the first little shards of sunshine coming through,
the sky lightening over to the eastern side of the circuit,
so we are heading into the last nine hours of this race.
Morning. How you doing? Did you get some sleep?
Yeah, just over an hour, but I feel worse for it, to be honest,
but I'll be all right once I get in the car.
But, yeah, still a bit groggy.
The man who's been up all night. You're an asshole. LAUGHTER
Keeping me up for all this time.
How you feeling? Yeah, yeah, it was good, actually.
We're here, it's the morning, it's lovely, it's sunny, and we're on our way.
'OK, Andrea, fuel, tyres and driver change. Copy.'
Two.
But be ready in one.
Oh, no!
COMMENTATOR: That's the Thiriet By TDS. That's the second placed car in LMP2.
Knows he's missing. That's gone in hard. Is that at Mulsanne?
Yeah, it is.
Oh! Fire! Get out, get out, get out, your car's on fire.
Get the extinguishers, quick.
The attrition rate is really starting to kick in, now, at Le Mans, isn't it?
They've survived the night,
but we are starting to see cars at the scenery dropping like flies,
and that's quite commonplace at this stage in the race.
'OK, Chris, straight down to a 3:50 as soon as you can. Copy.'
COMMENTATOR: Chris Hoy is back in the car. Paul did the sums.
And Sir Chris's times have been mighty.
He has impressed all of us cynical old hacks who have watched this.
'Very good, Chris, keep this up, please, this is fantastic.'
Oh, shit!
GRAVEL CRUNCHES
'Chris, are you OK?'
'OK, good, good, you're fine. Carry on. Copy.'
COMMENTATOR: It's the last 120 minutes of the Le Mans 24 hours
for 2016, for the run to the chequered flag.
'OK, Chris, come in, come in, come in. Come in, Chris! Come in!
That's it.'
'Well done, buddy, well done.'
COMMENTATOR: There has to be one pit stop for virtually everybody left.
Now we are looking for the guys to make it to the flag
as efficiently as possible.
How was it? It was good, but I was kind of on the edge of couple of times.
I went off on the gravel. I saw that, yeah.
I just thought, Jesus, just in the blink of an eye it can be all over.
'OK, matey, you got an hour and a half.
'Keep it out of the wall, bring it home, and race hard.
'Copy, copy.'
SAMANTHA: I feel a bit emotional.
What position are we in? 19.
You are shitting me?!
Ha ha ha!
Ho ho ho ho ho!
'OK, mate, nice and concentrated, head down, OK?
'Hit your marks, be smooth. Copy, copy.'
Ooh! One of the Toyotas gone off!
Everybody's going out at the minute.
'You've seven minutes remaining. We have kept on track position.
'Bring her home. Copy, copy.'
SAMANTHA: I'm nervous!
Nervous now. I am nervous now.
STEWART: Let's just all keep calm and wait a bit. We ain't finished yet.
Oh, my God!
Oh! No!
No! No!
COMMENTATOR: 3 minutes 21 seconds to go, and there is a new leader.
The 5 car has stopped.
ALL GROAN
Stewart: The leading car's stopped on the last lap.
COMMENTATOR: He's getting out here. Think sometimes how brutal this race can be,
and that's just shown it again. Heart-breaking for these guys.
'OK, Andrea, this has all been coming up to your last lap.
'When you pass the post this time, one more lap to go.
'Copy, copy.
'Bring her home, mate.'
It's not over till he crosses the line.
To have been a fan for so many years and looked from the outside and wondered,
what is it like to be one of these guys inside these cars, going round the circuit?
And what are they thinking? What are they feeling?
I've done it.
'Woo hoo! Here we go, guys!'
'Woo! Well done, guys, well done.
'Andrea, you've been a superstar. Thank you very much, buddy.'
Well done, mate. Awesome. Well done. What an achievement.
Well done to you, mate! Well done to you! What an achievement. Amazing, amazing.
Amazing!
I finished at Le Mans. I really didn't think it was going to happen.
That team were amazing. I mean, everybody there was a rookie.
Nobody had done that before. And everyone pulled together.
You know... So, it's...
So happy for you!
You have to care about things.
You've got to invest in it emotionally.
If it came easy, you'd just be like, "That was fun, that was great. What will we do next week?"
It's cos it's hard, it's cos it's a challenge.
Right, let's get pissed! LAUGHTER
I was brought up just to give it your best shot.
And it's not about the winning, it's... Genuinely, it sounds like a cliche,
but doing the best you can possibly do.
CHEERING