{"id":5095,"date":"2017-06-15T16:38:39","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T14:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/b106543.web05.cust.bluerange.se\/?p=5095"},"modified":"2017-06-15T16:41:24","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T14:41:24","slug":"le-mans-three-fast-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/le-mans-three-fast-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Le Mans: three fast facts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LeMans3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It’s one of the world’s greatest races – and it carries almost a full century of tradition. We take a quick look at three facts you might, or might not know, about the 24 Hours of Le Mans.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1: Triple Crown<\/strong>
\nThe 24 Hours of Le Mans is part of motor racing\u2019s \u201dTriple Crown\u201d, alongside the similarly prestigious Formula 1\u00a0Monaco Grand Prix\u00a0and America\u2019s\u00a0Indianapolis 500.<\/p>\n

To claim the Triple Crown, a driver is required to win each of the three events during the course of their career. Only one man has ever achieved this exceptional feat; Britain\u2019s\u00a0Graham Hill, who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1966, Le Mans in 1972 and the Monaco GP a full five times between 1963-1969. Hill was also crowned Formula 1 World Champion in 1962 and 1968.<\/p>\n

As for current-day drivers, IndyCar star\u00a0Juan-Pablo Montoya\u00a0is the one sitting closest to a Triple Crown, having won both Monaco and Indianapolis (the latter twice).<\/p>\n


\n2: The birth of the champagne custom \u2013 in France, of course<\/strong>
\nLe Mans was the scene of the first known instance of a by-now classic motorsport tradition \u2013 the spraying of champagne on the podium. This extravagant practise dates back to 1967, when\u00a0Dan Gurney\u00a0celebrated in style after winning that year\u2019s 24 Hours in tandem with fellow American\u00a0A.J. Foyt.<\/p>\n

The very Ford GT40 that won that race 50 years ago is on display at Le Mans this week.<\/p>\n


\n3: Scandinavian success<\/strong>
\nWith nine victories to his name between 1997-2013 \u2013 including six of them on the trot \u2013 Denmark\u2019s\u00a0Tom Kristensen\u00a0is the most successful driver in the history of Le Mans. One of Kristensen\u2019s team-mates on his first win in 1997 was Sweden\u2019s\u00a0Stefan Johansson<\/strong> \u2013 Felix\u2019s own advisor, who is present at the Circuit de la Sarthe this week. There has been one further Swedish victor in the event, with\u00a0Stanley Dickens\u00a0emerging triumphant in 1989.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/a>
Tom Kristensen and Stefan Johansson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  It’s one of the world’s greatest races – and it carries almost a full century of tradition. We take a quick look at three facts you might, or might not know, about the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 1: Triple Crown The 24 Hours of Le Mans is part of motor racing\u2019s \u201dTriple Crown\u201d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news3","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"aioseo_notices":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5097,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095\/revisions\/5097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}