ONE LAST TIME

As Le Mans celebrates its centenary, Matthew Hayward heads to La Sarthe and joins the Corvette Racing team for its swansong race

- Matthew Hayward

I have never felt tension in the air quite like now. A couple of hours into this year's Le Mans 24 Hours, the only Corvette C8.R out there has just come in with a problem. Not only is this the event's centennial year, it's also the final year that the factory-backed Corvette Racing team will be here. And this is a huge blow to its chances of winning.

The bright yellow C8.R had started the race on pole for the LMGTE Am cars, and was looking odds-on favourite to win the class. Now a broken damper has potentially destroyed the team's chance of a ninth victory. When the car finally rejoins, it's two laps down - which, as Corvette Racing veteran Oliver Gavin explains, is almost impossible to come back from. What happens over the next 22-orso hours is quite possibly the best introduction to Le Mans I could have asked for.

REWIND A COUPLE of days. For as long as I can remember, the Le Mans 24 Hours has been a part of my life. Incredibly, since the first event in 1923, racing has continued uninterrupted except in 1936 (a strike during the Great Depression) and between 1940 and 1948 (World War Two). Tuning into Eurosport and staying up to watch the race was always a family ritual, yet I'd never experienced it first-hand.

For many it's an annual pilgrimage, never to be missed, and more than 325,000 individuals attended this year, which boasted a new Hypercar class and a long-awaited return to this top level of endurance racing for Ferrari. Then there's the fact that an all-star line-up in the form of Jenson Button, Mike Rockenfeller and Jimmie Johnson would be taking to the Circuit de la Sarthe in a lightly modified NASCAR as this year's Garage 56 entry, a slot reserved for prototypes and experimental formulas. I have been invited as a guest of Corvette, with access to operations during the race as well as insight from Gavin and his team.