24h Le Mans
Though the TUSC, new American endurance series created in 2014, carried a full summer calendar, the last weekend of August will mark the return of the series called "Le Mans" and FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
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Photo : CHRISTOPHE JOUNIAUX / VSA
Let's start with the Asian Le Mans Series, the second round of which will take place in Japan on August 31st (start of the 3 Hours of Fuji at 2:30 p.m. local time, 6:30 a.m. in the U.K.). The three remaining races on the 2014 calendar will happen in Shanghai (China, October 11th), Buriram (Thailand, November 23rd) and Sepang (Malaysia, December 7th). Then the return of the European Le Mans Series in mid-September for the last two rounds of the year: the 4 Hours of Paul Ricard (France, September 14th) then of Estoril (October 19th).
September will bring the return of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Three months after the third round, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the competitors will reunite at the Circuit of the Americas at Austin (Texas, September 20th) for the first phase of an intercontinental journey that will take them to Japan (6 Hours of Fuji, October 12th), China (6 Hours of Shanghai, November 2nd), the Middle East (6 Hours of Bahreïn, November 15th) before the close of the 2014 season in Brazil (6 Hours of Sao Paulo, November 30th).
One of the big races of this fall 2014 will take place Saturday, September 20th at the Circuit of the Americas. This event called "Lone Star Le Mans" (referring to the state of Texas' nickname "Lone Star State") will host two races on the track: the next-to-last round of the Tudor United SportsCar (TUSC) Championship and the fourth round of the WEC. Then the TUSC competitors will end their 2014 season at the Road Atlanta circuit for the 1,000 mile climax (10 hours of racing) of Petit Le Mans, having become since its inception in 1998 one of the three great American endurance events along with Daytona (late January) and Sebring (mid-March).
Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO
Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, WEDNESDAY JUNE 11 2014, FREE PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING. Will the Porsche 919 Hybrid win its first victory at one of the five remaining FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) rounds?
