GOING THE DISTANCE

Ahead of the centenary of the gruelling 24 Hours of Le Mans race, Mick O'Hare looks at the event's growth from humble beginnings into an annual highlight for fans around the globe

Rain and wind, hail and mud. And the bits of the track that weren’t turned into a bog resembled a skating rink. It seemed like pre-race predictions that no car would finish the course might come true. But of 33 starters, a full 30 made it to the chequered flag.

The weekend of 10-11 June marks the 100th anniversary of the world's most gruelling motor race. By the time the winning car crosses the line it will have covered more than 5,000km Back at that sodden first race in 1923 the leading car completed fewer than 2,300, but it had set in motion the most punishing, most venerable and perhaps most revered motor race on the planet Les Vingt-Quatres Heures du Mans - the Le Mans 24-hour race.

The great constructors who enter Le Mans - Toyota, Ferrari, Cadillac and Porsche among them - have one intent: to sell cars.

Despite the fame and fortune that will be accorded to the winning team of three drivers come Sunday, for the manufacturers success or otherwise will not be judged by what happens on the track, but by how much sales of their vehicles increase over the next 12 months.

That imperative, of course, matters little to the thousands who flock to the Sarthe region of France every June to witness the greatest of all endurance races, nor to the millions watching on TV. For them the sport is paramount. But to the manufacturers spending millions of euros, this is their shop window.

The romance surrounding the Le Mans 24-hour race is perhaps matched only by the glamour of the Monaco Grand Prix and the financial rewards on offer to the winner of America's Indianapolis 500. Multitudinous are the claims to be the world's greatest motor race. But nowhere, despite all the high-tech machinery on show, does any race butt up as hard against legend as it does at Le Mans. For many fans, it's the only one that matters.