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Life is Good at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2009 !
By Dick Pierson on 2 July 2009 | 
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What does a good cigar, a glass of good cold beer, a huge crowd of people, lots of noise and excitement have in common - simple - The 24 Hours of Le Mans.
WOW what a show the cars and drivers put on this year. Beauty on the race track is about the only way to describe the outstanding job all the drivers and crew members did at Le Mans this year. Fifty five cars started the famous race, over 30 finished after 24 gruling hours of punishment. It was such a privledge to be there and witness what some people only dream about. An amazing spectical in deed realized by me because of my wonderful French friend Christophe.
When I strap myself in to the racecar my job is to drive it to the maximum, to get the most out of myself, the car and the crew. In other words - I am trying to push myself to the point that I am within an inch of being out of control, to push the car to it's breaking point by giving it so much punishment that it can't stand it and it gives up. If I can keep it on the track and it doesn't give up then we have a good day of racing, if either myself or the car breaks then we did what we expected to do from all the punishment. To realize that over 30 cars drove hundreds of laps around the punishing facility without a hitch is truly an amazing fact.
The competition was fearce and enjoyed by the hundreds of thousands of fans that lined the course. The drivers were exhausted, the cars were used completely used up and the fans were treated to a flawlessly presented display of racing excellence from the ACO. In this writers opinion, there are many other sanctioning organizations can learn from the ACO. The lack of tolerence for anything other than total professionalism is very refreshing. I applaude their professional manner and their continued ability to present on a truly amazing event to the world.
Next we talk about one of my favorite people, Heshel McGriff. Hershel is 81 years old and is getting back into his brand new DEI NASCAR Chevrolet to run the road course at Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon and again in Salt Lake City on the road course of Miller Sports Park . We will follow Hershel and how he does in his quest to come back from several years of retirement and give it another shot. Watch Petrol-Head for more on Hershel.
