French automotive manufacturer Alpine has announced today that it will be racing in the top class of the FIA World Endurance Championship next season with a grandfathered LMP1 car. This is an incredibly welcome surprise for everyone in and around the FIA WEC, and kicks off what is set to be a big week for Le Mans news ahead of the delayed 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend.

So what do we know, what do we think we know and how significant is this announcement?

Travel Destinations understands that Alpine will race a grandfathered (Gibson-powered) Rebellion R-13 for this FIA WEC programme, leased from ORECA (which manufactures the chassis) following the end of Rebellion Racing’s LMP1 effort at the end of this season. The R-13 a proven, race-winning car, which in the hands of an aspirant manufacturer like Alpine could prove to be a force in the WEC’s new-look top class.

Just how competitive will it be? Well a lot will come down to how strong the Le Mans Hypercar offerings from Toyota, Glickenhaus and ByKolles prove to be in their debut season. The Le Mans Hypercars are expected to be slower in terms of lap time than the current crop of LMP1 cars, meaning the Alpine will need to be handicapped in order to balance the field.

This plays to Alpine’s advantage. Should the restrictions on the car not prove too harsh, then the R-13 (which will likely be re-badged an Alpine) can surely take the fight to Toyota’s challenger? The R-13, after two seasons of competition, is a package that has proven to be pretty reliable, and quick too, so a de-tuned version of the car – in theory at least – should be even more capable of surviving the bumps at Sebring and the stress-test that 24 hours of racing at Le Mans provides.

Entering the 2021 season with a proven piece of machinery in a year that will see all of its competitors getting to grips with a new formula, looks like a smart move from Alpine and its parent company Renault at this stage. Alpine has been a stalwart in LMP2 racing since it first partnered up with Signatech back in 2014 and has WEC and ELMS titles and multiple Le Mans class wins to its name. The transition should therefore be relatively seamless to LMP1, especially as the R-13 is, in effect, a heavily modified version of the re-badged ORECA 07 the team competes with currently.

Many feared that Renault’s decision to re-brand its Formula One team as Alpine for 2021 would mark the end of Alpine’s run in sportscar racing. But this is clearly not the case. Renault is showing that it has bold plans for its boutique brand, which lest we forget, has a long and storied past at La Sarthe, with an overall win in 1978 among the successes.

So where will this lead? Currently, grandfathered LMP1 cars are only eligible in the FIA WEC for the 2021 season as part of the championship’s transition to the new Le Mans Hypercar era. So beyond next year it remains to be seen what Alpine decide to do. But the rumour mill is already churning away, with many outlets confident that this move to LMP1 is part of a wider plan to join the Le Mans Hypercar/LMDh formula in the medium term, allowing them to compete for Le Mans wins outright with a brand new car. The prospect of winning the 2023 edition, on the 100th anniversary of the inaugural Le Mans 24 Hours, for instance, has to be on the minds of those behind Alpine’s sportscar programme, especially with rival brand Peugeot Sport already signed up and readying itself for the task.

That’s a ways off though. Right now it’s time to get even more excited about the 2021 FIA WEC season. Toyota vs Alpine vs Glickenhaus vs ByKolles at the front of the field at Le Mans? It’s shaping up nicely!

Stephen Kilbey

Want to make the trip to Le Mans next year for the 24 Hours or Classic? We’re already on sale for 2021 and demand is high! Give our office a call today to get yourself a package booked on 01707 329 988.

Image courtesy of Alpine Cars

With the delayed 2020 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours right around the corner, Travel Destinations has taken the time to look back at last year’s race, which feels like a very long time ago now!

Le Mans wins are like buses it seems… Having waited decades for its first victory at La Sarthe, Toyota made it two overall Le Mans wins in two years in 2019, with another dominant showing against the privateer pack. Last year’s edition served as the ‘Super Finale’ to the 2018/19 WEC ‘Super Season’ and delivered, in every class, with drama right until the checkered flag fell.

In the end, it was Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 8 TS050 HYBRID that took the spoils. It was back to back wins for Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima, though throughout the race they were not the quickest of the two crews from the Japanese marque.

The final hour served up a huge bout of confusion, as a faulty sensor for the sister No. 7 of Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway caused the lead to change between the two TS050s, leaving 252,000 fans in the stands and members of the team, scratching their heads throughout the final stint of the race.

The No. 8 eventually took the victory, after a final hour filled with confused radio messages between Kazuki Nakajima in the winning car and Jose Maria Lopez in the No. 7 and their engineers.

It was rather heart-breaking for No. 7 team, who led most of the second half of the race but came up short, all three forced to wait at least another year to score their first win. It was a cruel end after the car had the pace to win this race all the way to the flag.

The picture became clearer after the race. The No. 7’s tyre sensors indicated that there was a right-front puncture just before the end of the penultimate hour. This forced the team to pit the car. When it pitted, the team changed only the right-front tyre. The sensor was then discovered to have been wrong. So they pitted the car once again, to change the right rear.

After that, the team managed the finish. Alonso, Nakajima and Buemi claimed a second straight Le Mans win and the FIA WEC World Drivers’ Championship.

Behind Toyota, there was plenty of excitement in the privateer ranks. Four of the privateer LMP1s from SMP Racing and Rebellion Racing went toe-to-toe for third place overall.

On Sunday afternoon, though, it would be SMP that would take the ‘best of the rest’ moniker with the No. 11 BR1 of Vitaly Petrov, Mikhail Aleshin and Stoffel Vandoorne. The trio drove masterfully en route to scoring the best result for the chassis to date and AER’s first ever Le Mans overall podium.

By race end it was no longer close between the two teams, as the No. 3 Rebellion was knocked out of contention in the second half of the race after a wild sequence of events. The list of mishaps included a three-minute penalty for supplying officials with the wrong tire serial numbers, a spin into the gravel on the Porsche Curves by Gustavo Menezes and a series of brake issues. All this after the car had to be repaired hastily in the opening hours of the race after Thomas Laurent went nose-first into the barriers down the Mulsanne Straight.

Both of Rebellion’s cars finished though. The best of the two was the No. 1 of Neel Jani, Bruno Senna and Andre Lotterer which took fourth, three laps behind the No. 11 (sole-surviving) SMP machine after the car hit trouble early when the team incorrectly misidentified a puncture, and didn’t recover.

In the other classes there was plenty of drama and excitement too.

LMP2 saw Signatech Alpine won the class, like Toyota, for a second straight year. Though on this occasion its drivers could celebrate on the podium – as in 2018 it was handed the victory via a post-race investigation for the car which crossed the line third. Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Pierre Thiriet finished up an astonishing 2018/19 campaign with a pair of Le Mans wins and a world title.

It wasn’t a dominant run as such for the French outfit, but towards the end the of the race its competition from Jackie Chan DC Racing and G-Drive Racing faded.

GTE Pro, with an entry packed with factory cars from Ford, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, BMW and Corvette, surprisingly, was the only class that was settled early in the 87^th edition. It was AF Corse’s year, the Italian team scoring the first win for the Ferrari 488 GTE at this famous race on the 70th anniversary of Ferrari’s first win at Le Mans.

The No. 51 of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra was the winning car, the trio emerging as a contender in the race’s opening hours and fighting for the win all the way through the night and into Sunday afternoon. The battle, which involved multiple marques for the win, wasn’t decided on track, and instead by a safety car period splitting up the field in the final hours. After that it was an easy ride for the No. 51 crew, who finished over a minute ahead of the No. 91 and No. 93 Porsches that completed the podium.

While it was a huge result for Ferrari, its rival marque Ford had a forgettable weekend in what was the final weekend for the GT factory programme in the WEC. It had five cars in the race, with four of them entered in the Pro class run by the Ganassi team. The works entries finished in formation from fourth to seventh. In order to challenge, the drivers had to run the cars ragged, not a sustainable option over 24 hours…

Meanwhile in GTE Am, it looked as though the GT would sign off with a farewell victory via its customer car from Keating Motorsports; but post-race technical checks saw the team stripped of what would have been a memorable victory.

The US team, owned by Ben Keating, crossed the line first after Keating himself, Jeroen Bleekemolen, and Le Mans debutant Felipe Fraga survived late drama to beat the Project 1 Porsche to the flag. Seemingly out of nowhere, in a similar fashion to AF Corse’s No. 51 Ferrari in Pro, the No. 85 rose up the order and went on to control the race in Am.

In the second half, it looked almost too comfortable for the American guest-entered team. The trio had built a big lead and looked set to cruise to the finish. But a pit stop to change the car’s front end, requested by the organizers in the penultimate hour, spawned drama. Keating left tyre marks when leaving his pit box, prompting race control to hand out a stop-go penalty.

All of a sudden, with less than an hour to go, the team’s lead had vanished, and the Project 1 Porsche was just a handful of seconds behind after the final stops. It was a straight fight in the end between Bleekemolen and Jorg Bergmeister, the Dutchman soaked up the pressure and made it look easy, eventually finishing 44 seconds up the road.

But the drama didn’t end there. As the following day the team was disqualified due to the fuel tank being in excess of the total permitted for the race. It meant the aforementioned No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR of Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsey, and Egidio Perfetti, who had already claimed the world title by finishing second, were handed the class win post-race too.

Stephen Kilbey

Want to make the trip to Le Mans next year for the 24 Hours or Classic? We’re already on sale for 2021 and demand is high! Give our office a call today to get yourself a package booked on 01707 329 988.

Images courtesy of Dailysportscar.com

While this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours will no longer be the final race for the LMP1 category – the FIA WEC’s newly scheduled trip to Bahrain later this year will be ­– it will represent somewhat of a last hurrah for a class which has represented the pinnacle of sportscar racing for most of the past two decades.

The list of designed and raced LMP1 cars is surprisingly long, when you consider that new models have been few and far between in recent years. It comprises of 53 chassis spanning 26 manufacturers. There have been some stinkers, but also some absolute stunners.

It begs the question: When the Le Mans Hypercar category takes over the reigns at the top of the FIA WEC next year, what will we remember when we look back on the LMP1 era? Lest we forget that it has provided some of the most memorable races in sportscar racing history and pushed the boundaries on the technology front.

So before we say goodbye, at Travel Destinations we’ve picked six of the most significant LMP1 battles at La Sarthe to remember:

2007: Audi Vs Peugeot Round 1

Cast your mind back to 2007. The Diesel-powered era was in its infancy, and the class’ visibility beyond the Le Mans 24 Hours was low. Audi wasn’t fighting Peugeot for a world title over the course of a season, in fact Audi chose to race in the American Le Mans Series in an attempt to grow its Diesel product in the US and its French rival planted its flag in the Le Mans Series. This meant the only time they came together and raced was at Le Mans, which was a non-championship race at the time.

As a spectacle, the 2007 Le Mans 24 Hours may not have lived up to the hype that two automotive giants competing against one another for the ultimate prize in endurance racing creates. But the result was significant. It was a race in which Audi flexed its muscles and won its seventh Le Mans by 10 laps with its sole-surviving R10 TDI and kickstarted a rivalry that would last five years.

For Peugeot it was a baptism of fire for the 908 programme. It took two examples to the event and put them up against a trio of R10s manned by highly experienced crew members who the year prior had dominated the 2006 edition scoring the first ever diesel victory up against a cabal of petrol-powered privateer LMP1s that in reality stood little chance due to the inherent advantage in fuel efficiency the Diesels benefitted from. In 07, the disparity between the petrol and diesel cars was no different.

For much of the race it appeared that the venerable trio of Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Dindo Capello would storm to victory. For 15 hours, they were in control, showing stunning raw pace and consistency up against their teammates and the 908s that proved to be fast but fragile.

But it all went wrong for the No. 2 Audi, when the right-rear wheel came detached at Indianapolis sending Capello into the barriers and into retirement. This left the No. 1 Audi of Frank Beila, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner to claim the lead and a second consecutive victory as a trio. A 10 lap margin looks comfortable on paper, but in reality there was a sense of unease at Audi in the closing stages; it was down to one car by the end as the No. 3 R10 had also retired following an off of its own. It meant Audi and Peugeot would head into the final hours with one car apiece following the No. 7 908’s engine expiring.

In the end though Audi would prevail.

2010: Peugeot’s meltdown

Three years on from Peugeot’s debut with the 908, it was on top of the world. It had scored a famous Le Mans victory in 2009, making the most of an uncharacteristically poor showing from Audi’s factory team and was poised to make it two wins in a row for its updated 908 HDi FAPs.

The 908 was a considerably faster car than Audi’s revised R15 Plus, and it appeared to be reliable too, having scored commanding 1-2 finishes in the Sebring 12 Hours and the 100km of Spa in the run up to the race in France.

But it simply wasn’t meant to be, as the French giant would see its hopes of winning Le Mans slowly fade away during the 24 Hours as the four 908s hit trouble and retired; three of them with identical engine failures. The scenes trackside and in the garages were remarkable, it was beyond a missed opportunity and the top brass at Peugeot knew it.

Peugeot’s woes left Audi to pick up the pieces and score a highly unlikely 1-2-3 finish, the marque’s ninth overall win which equaled Ferrari in the all-time tally. Ultimately, the French marque wouldn’t get a better chance to score a second Le Mans victory with the 908 platform, though it did come close the year after.

2011: Audi’s Last Man Standing

And it was a year later, in 2011, which saw arguably the greatest on-track battle in LMP1 history between Audi and Peugeot, in what turned out to be the French constructor’s final Le Mans before withdrawing from the sport.

It was a classic round-the-clock war between two teams. Both Audi’s brand new R18 and Peugeot’s revised 908 ran on rather equal terms, though both cars had strengths and weaknesses. The Audi? It was quicker over a single lap at La Sarthe and could quadruple stint its tyres. The Peugeot? It could go longer on fuel and proved to be faster during the night hours when the temperature dropped.

That combination made for a thrilling race in which the pendulum swung wildly throughout. Audi may have taken a clearer win had it not had two of its three cars eliminated by major accidents. The team’s No. 2 example of McNish, Capello and Kristensen crashed out early after a tangle with a Ferrari at the Dunlop Bridge which sent McNish flying into the barriers. Then overnight Mike Rockenfeller had a huge accident in the No. 3, also (coincidentally) with a Ferrari, at the Mulsanne Kink, which saw him spear into the barriers, destroying the car. Thankfully both were unhurt.

It left a sole-surviving R18 of Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer to defend Audi’s honor and score their second straight win as a crew. The trio performed impeccably under increasing pressure from the Peugeots throughout, and survived some rather ‘daring’ attempts to force mistakes. When the cars crossed the line it was Audi’s day once again in a tight finish that came down to the final round of pit stops.

It was the closest finish since ’69, just 13.8 seconds separated the leading pair.

2015: Porsche makes it 17

Held in front of a record crowd of over 260,000 people, the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours had a lot to live up to. With 11 factory cars in the LMP1 ranks on the entry list and an ensemble cast of drivers in the top class at a level higher than any race at La Sarthe post-2000, it had so much promise, and thankfully delivered.

When it came down to it, the race turned into a titanic battle between Porsche and Audi. The two Japanese marques failed to feature. Toyota on this occasion was a step behind two German makes up front, and Nissan’s radical GT-R LM NISMO was so far off the pace (and unreliable, in part because its hybrid system simply didn’t work) that the pole-setting LMP2 car reeled off a time half a second up on the slowest of the three in Qualifying.

But it was still a race filled with drama, as Audi attempted to further chip away at Porsche’s record number of overall wins. Unfortunately, the race weekend would mark the start of Porsche’s dominant run in LMP1. The 919 was hitting its stride, proving to be both fast and (mostly) reliable.

But on this occasion, Porsche’s full-season crews in the No. 17 and No. 18 examples were not the shining stars, instead its third car – in just for Spa and Le Mans – with Earl Bamber, Nick Tandy and Nico Hulkenburg had a faultless run to the victory. Audi’s leading trio of Lotterer, Fassler and Treluyer were in the fight for the first half of the race, before the pace of their car dropped off when the sun went down and the rear deck of their R18 became detached on Sunday morning, costing them valuable time in the pits. It left the door open for Porsche to score a 1-2 finish.

It was victory 17 at Le Mans for the brand, which would go on to make it 19 before walking away in 2018.

2016: Toyota’s heartbreak

You can’t write about the best LMP1 races without mentioning the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours. It was a simply staggering race, with one of the most gut-wrenching finishes in sportscar racing history.

We’ll start at the end. Toyota had this won. With two laps to go, well over 23 hours of the race completed, Kazuki Nakajima was heard on the team radio complaining that he had lost power. At that point he held a comfortable lead over Porsche’s leading 919 which was on the lead lap but had opted to back off as a showing of class.

Those trackside saw the No. 5 TS050 HYBRID slowing and immediately brushed off it off as an attempt to create a formation finish. But it quickly became clear that the panic was beginning to set in down in the Toyota camp. It wasn’t part of the plan at all, instead there was a fault with the car which caused it to slow to a crawl and eventually grind to a halt on the start/finish line directly in front of the team’s garage.

Nakajima could barely walk after being retrieved from the car and the entire squad, understandably, were experiencing collective shock on an colossal scale. After so many years of trying, Toyota, once again had run out of luck when it mattered most. It would have to wait another two years to claim its first win. Porsche meanwhile, took a surprise victory.

Stephen Kilbey

Want to make the trip to Le Mans next year for the 24 Hours or Classic? We’re already on sale for 2021 and demand is high! Give our office a call today to get yourself a package booked on 01707 329 988.

Any Le Mans regular will know that it is highly unusual for the 24 Hours to be held in September. Things will be very different this year, but the action this year should still make for a fascinating watch.

Conditions for the teams and drivers will be somewhat unfamiliar, with no fans present, more night hours and a schedule condensed into four days. For the drivers that have perennially complained that race week at La Sarthe is too long and drawn out compared to a normal weekend, making it harder to stay focused, now is their time to shine.

But this year isn’t the first time that the Le Mans 24 Hours has been pushed back to September however, as civil unrest in France during the summer of 1968 prompted the ACO to postpone the event and make it the final round of the World Sportscar Championship that season.

So what was it like? Well the race itself was a memorable one, and not just because of the date change, as Stephen Kilbey writes…

Le Mans in the 1960s is always associated with the Ford vs Ferrari rivalry, but the ’68 edition wasn’t contested by factory efforts from either marque. Instead it was a race in which privateer entrants from Ford did battle for the victory up against Porsche’s factory and privateer teams as the challenges from the Alpine, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Matra outfits either faded or failed to feature.

The winning car was an iconic one, a JW Automotive Ford GT40 draped in a Gulf livery, driven by Pedro Rodriguez and Lucien Bianchi. It was a case of an older car coming out of retirement to claim a famous win.

Changes to the rules which limited the engine capacity of the prototype cars prompted Ford to withdraw its works effort after the Shelby-American team won the race in the two previous years with the GT40 MK II and GT40 MK IV respectively. With the regulations changed and the factory team out of the picture it was up to privateer teams to fly the flag for the ‘Blue Oval’. Enter John Wyer’s Slough-based outfit, who bested the field with the GT40 MK I up against a mixture of prototypes and grand tourers.

The French marques looking to reclaim the Le Mans title for their homeland after an 18-year drought were the real losers here.

Alpine scaled up its effort, and entered a record nine cars in the race. Had the event been run in June, it wouldn’t have been ready to stage such an attack with its A210 and A220 prototypes, though strength in numbers didn’t help on this occasion.

In the end just three of its cars made the finish, with the best of the trio crossing the line classified eighth, 34 laps down on the winning Ford after suffering multiple mechanical issues; though it did pick up a third place finish in the Prototype subclass for 3.0-litre cars. Its other two finishers, in the Prototype category for 1.15-litre cars took a 1-2 finish while finishing 10^th and 14^th overall.

Matra on the other hand, only entered a single V12-powered MS630 longtail for Messrs Pescarolo and Servoz-Gavin as part of a decision to focus on its Grand Prix programme. In fact, the French outfit wouldn’t have headed to La Sarthe at all had the race been run in June. Like Alpine, the delay to the event provided it more ample time to prepare.

As it turned out Matra fared better than Alpine for much of the race with its lone challenger. Johnny Servoz-Gavin stuck the car fifth on the grid for the race, before Henri Pescarolo (who would score three straight wins in the early 70s with Matra) moved up the order during the opening hours, claiming second overall before midnight.

It was a story of heroics from there on in for the team. A fault with the windscreen wipers persuaded Matra CEO Jean-Luc Lagardere to retire the car, but Pescarolo refused to throw in the towel and drove on. He battled through the night in an attempt to keep the team’s podium hopes alive with rain coming down through the early hours of Sunday morning. In the end his efforts would come to nothing though, as a puncture damaged the car terminally just after midday. Matra would have to wait another five years to claim an overall win.

Porsche also couldn’t seal the deal, the winning Ford proving too much for the Stuttgart make, which like both Matra and Alpine was searching for its maiden Le Mans victory. Porsche had seven cars on the grid, four of them new-for-68 908s fielded by the factory, with a further trio of 907s from privateers.

On this occasion the 907 came out on top, with the Swiss team Squadra Tartaruga coming home second overall, though five laps off the JW Ford. The factory’s hopes ultimately ended in the first half of the race and Just one 908 would finish, but after losing an hour to repairs for an overheating issue. Rolf Stommelen and Jochen Neerpasch pushed hard on Sunday to make up for lost time, although a third place finish was all they could muster, finishing a lap behind the brand’s Swiss customer team that in turn took the 3.0 litre Prototype class honours. The duo did however complete more laps than the trio of works Autodelta SpA Alfa Romeos that completed the top five.

Put simply, it was John Wyer, and consequently Ford’s day, against the predictions of many who had Porsche down as the favourite. Porsche had enjoyed plenty of success that season and had collected World Sportscar Championship wins at Daytona, Sebring, Palermo, Nurburgring and Zeltweg before Le Mans, where it looked to claim another win and the championship.

The combination of Rodriguez and Bianchi was also an unknown quantity for the JW Automotive team too, as injuries to two of its star drivers – Jacky Ickx and Brian Redman – (who together claimed two wins together that year) meant a new line-up was required at the last minute for Le Mans in the No.9 Ford.

Bianchi at least was a two-time class winner ahead of what would be his final ride at La Sarthe, but Rodriguez had retired nine times in his previous 10 attempts and finished only once (seventh overall in 1965). On the day though both would drive faultlessly, and after Porsche’s factory cars hit trouble in the opening hours would take control of the race. It may have been a 1-2 finish for Gulf GT40s too had the sister No.10 entry of Paul Hawkins and David Hobbs not suffered a clutch issue and subsequent engine failure having run up front in formation with the winning GT40 during Saturday afternoon.

Wyer wouldn’t leave disappointed however, as the victory for his team was comfortable and secured the Manufacturers’ crown in the World Sports Car Championship for Ford by three points over Porsche. It was real added value for the American giant which had poured so much into its Le Mans effort during the decade.

Stephen Kilbey

Want to make the trip to Le Mans next year for the 24 Hours or Classic? We’re already on sale for 2021 and demand is high! Give our office a call today to get yourself a package booked on 01707 329 988.

Images courtesy of Ford Motor Company and Porsche

The 2020 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours is set to be run behind closed doors in September (19th-20th), following a decision from the event organiser, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and the Sarthe Prefecture today.

Prior to today’s announcement the ACO had explored multiple solutions to allow a limited number of spectators to attend the race during the current COVID-19 situation, including a zone system which would segregate the fans trackside. However, after lengthy discussions with the public health and safety authorities the ACO and the Sarthe Prefecture decided that the best move was to run the event without fans.

“The 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans will go down in the annals of history as, sadly, the world’s greatest endurance race will be run this year with no spectators trackside,” Pierre Fillon, president of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest said.

“Over the last few weeks, we have looked at many ways in which we could hold our event in September with fans present, albeit in limited numbers. However, given the constraints involved in organising a festival-scale event over several days in the current situation, we have opted with the local government authorities to hold the race behind closed doors. There were still too many question marks regarding health and safety.

“We know that our fans will be as disappointed as we are by this decision but, with public health in the balance, it really wasn’t a difficult call to make. You don’t compromise where safety is concerned.

“Fans will not miss out altogether. They may not be at Le Mans, but our media teams and service providers will bring Le Mans to them! We are sure that we can count on everyone’s support and understanding at this time.”

Anyone with an existing booking with Travel Destinations to attend the Le Mans 24 Hours this September will be contacted directly by a member of the team to discuss the available options in the next few days.

Travel Destinations is already looking ahead to the 2021 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours, which is set to be held on the 12th & 13th June. Everyone can book travel packages to next year’s race now (and at 2020 prices for a limited time). Please call our offices on 01707 329988 today.

LE MANS 24 HOURS: IMPORTANT UPDATE

Today we have received the news that the Le Mans 24 Hours has been postponed and the new dates have now been confirmed as the 19^th & 20^th September 2020.

IMPORTANT

• In the first instance, please do not call or email our office.
  In order to manage the volumes of correspondence we are receiving, we respectfully ask you to refrain from contacting us at this time. Rest assured we will be contacting you in due course in a systematic manner. This may well take some weeks in the current situation so your patience would be appreciated.
• Reservations will be amended to the new dates, keeping the same price and travel arrangements as previously confirmed. Your new balance due date will be on or before 1^st June.
• Should you be unable to attend the Le Mans 24hrs in September, you are entitled to a credit note or refund for the full amount already paid. This must be redeemed by 24^th December 2021 and is valid for any events until 30^th September 2022.
• As ABTA members we would like to re-assure you that any monies held with us are financially protected.

Please note that at this time the Le Mans Classic will continue to go ahead in July as planned.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter and we will be in touch very soon.