Nascar and F1’s Button ready to crack Le Mans with ‘romantic’ project
It’s 24 hours, 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds of racing round and round and round; but it is iconic, part of motorsport’s triple crown and etched into the history of four wheel racing. Of course it is Le Mans.
Were it based on these shores, the famous race would this year be receiving a letter from King Charles, because it turns 100 this weekend. And to mark this milestone there’s a loud, wacky, American present heading to Pays de la Loire from the banked corners of the Daytona International Speedway.
Nascar itself turns 75 this year, so to celebrate this feat they’ll be sending a car to compete in Le Mans. The 24-hour race, which specialises in certain classes of race car, has an extra spot in the pit lane – Garage 56, to be precise – which each year is reserved for a non-traditional car.
Nascar in France
In the past we have seen a DeltaWing and a Morgan, among others, but this year it will be a Nascar.
Driving as part of the team this weekend will be seven-time Nascar Cup winner Jimmie Johnson, former Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller and British 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button. For an additional sprinkling of stateside stardust, the race is to be ceremonially started by NBA superstar LeBron James.
“When you see it, you’re going to go: ‘Ah that’s a Nascar’,” Button said of the Garage 56 project.
“It’s a category which we don’t see much of in the UK. The first time I watched Nascar was Days of Thunder [the 1990 film starring Tom Cruise]. It’s kind of true to life.
“I think it will open people’s eyes to the type of car that’s racing. It’s very different to what we’re used to — we’re used to developing these cars super lightweight and taking every ounce of weight out of it, and Nascar is not like that.
“It’s really exciting. No category is perfect, but I like how different it is to anything I have raced before. It looks cool, people can relate, it’s kind of like a road car. The sound of it will blow your mind.”
The project sees the US motor sport team up with Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports and Goodyear but there are ambitions beyond a good time and some experimenting.
Falling behind?
Nascar is falling behind the likes of Formula 1 in the viewership figures – as is every class of motorsport on the planet. Drive to Survive and some neat marketing have propelled Formula 1 beyond the boundaries of traditional fans and into the lives of many who like the drama and fighting.
And it is no secret that Nascar and the other brands involved see project Garage 56 as a gateway to the European market – where the sport has an established but less well-known racing series.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt about that [looking to Europe],” Michael Lockwood, executive international consultant for the Nascar Garage 56 project, told City PM
“There was a technical development team including Goodyear and Chevrolet but there’s also a communications and branding opportunity here, a promotional opportunity which is the lens I’m looking at it with.
“A race at Le Mans is like a calling card for us to say to Europe: ‘Hey, you may or may not think you know what we do — well we’re going to come into your back yard and show you’.
“Nascar is a domestic race series, albeit a very big one, but it is a domestic series in the US and Europeans can be forgiven for not really knowing much about it, other than stereotypical things that they may have seen on TV.
Nascar calling card
“And there might be an impression among a lot of Europeans of big cars, old cars and good old boys. But it’s modern and very technical. We’re excited to have the opportunity so show it off.
“Somebody called it a Trojan horse. It’s not that, it’s a calling card.”
So it’s the latest US ambassador, heading over to Europe to open us up to something new.
Nascar, for now anyway, still feels like a foreign sport whereby loud, obnoxious vehicles battle one another around the US.
But it’s more than that. It is skillful, technical, and lovable.
On the project, Pierre Fillon, the president of Le Mans organisers the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, told City PM: “With a Garage 56 project, the idea is to leave as much room for creativity as possible.
“Garage 56 explores the automobile technology of tomorrow and beyond. They [Nascar] have conducted a thorough testing programme and can boast a superb driver line-up.
“I am looking forward to seeing the Camaro, the future of Nascar, on the Mulsanne Straight.”
Pushing the boundaries
The simple answer as to why such a project at Le Mans is even occurring, then, is actually pretty simple: a shared love of motor sport and of pushing boundaries.
“It is a really romantic idea,” Lockwood adds. “So much in motor racing is deadly serious — there’s millions of dollars tied up in motor racing and no one wants to lose, and there’s honour and it’s fast and it’s dangerous.
“Le Mans is at the very serious end of that sport but the idea of bringing something like a Nascar Cup car that’s a very North American product over to the most famous sports car race in Europe — it’s romantic.
“That’s why it’s capturing people’s imagination. The idea of this clash of cultures and different philosophies is a rare thing and that’s why people are amused and excited by it.”
Le Mans is iconic, its history is part and parcel of what motor sport used to be, what it is and where it will go in the future.
Sure, there’s a pretty smart marketing angle to this – combining 100 years of Le Mans and 75 of Nascar – but Lockwood is right when he says motorsport is serious, probably too serious.
So maybe fans of motor sport should simply ignore everything that surrounds this incredibly fun and ambitious one-off project and just revel in every one of those 86,400 seconds. Because come the end of the 24 hours – and if the Nascar survives – they may not see its like again.