cyrenepenya: Motorsports: Everything you need to know about this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Motorsports: Everything you need to know about this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans

Audi Le Mans drivers with caption bubbles

Today's practice session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans has our anticipation of this weekend's race at a fever pitch. The four Audi R18s (two diesel and two hybrid quattro cars) have ended the day of practice in 1-2-3-4 order with the quickest lap times, followed very closely by the pair of petrol hybrids from Toyota. Having battled the quicker LMP1 cars from Peugeot for years, though, Audi knows better than anyone that you don't need to be the fastest car at Le Mans to win. The oddly shaped Nissan DeltaWing, meanwhile, ended the day of practice with a best lap of 3:43.576, which puts it squarely in the midst of the LMP2 class cars.

With Le Mans on the brain today, we were just about to start putting together a top-to-bottom guide for the best spectating experience of this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans, but then we discovered our friend and former colleague Reilly Brennan beat us to the punch.

Part of Reilly's patent-pending "Couch Kit" series, his 24 Hours of Le Mans guide tells you everything you need to know about this weekend's race, from when and where to watch the action to what stories will be the most interesting to follow. We've included a few of the most essential items from his guide below, but you'll want to click through to his site to make sure you're fully prepared to watch the race.

2012 24 Hours of Le Mans

Race Start: 3:00PM CET (9AM Eastern), Saturday June 16

Speed's alternating broadcast schedule on TV and Speed.com:

Speed TV: 8:30AM - 1PM
Speed.com: 1PM - 2:30PM
Speed TV: 2:30PM - 7PM
Speed.com: 7:00PM - 7:30PM
Speed TV: 7:30PM - remainder of race (through 9AM Sunday)

Live-streaming Audio: