Peugeot Prevails

That was the preview from EuroSport for this year's race, but the results are in:

Audi is eclipsed at the 77th running of the Le Mans 24 hours. Peugeot's push to the first podium step took three years this go around, Peugeot's last overall win coming in 1993.

There's an old salt about racing that says while the American's enjoy the spectacular the Europeans revel in the epic. There is nothing else that compares with the French road race at Le Mans as an epic battle of man & machine against time and each other. But in the end at Le Mans you have to defeat time and entropy before you can beat your human opponents.

Nowhere else is the saying, "to finish first, you first have to finish", as apropos. Le Mans is grueling, unforgiving of the unprepared, and can test the will of the strongest. It is, quite possibly, the premier race in motorsports.

Run by the Automobile Club of the West (ACO), the race features four classifications of cars (two prototype and two sports car classes). It has been won overall by diesel prototypes for four years running.

Rules for next years race will open the door for hybrid systems, keeping the ACO in the forefront of technical innovation. Le Mans will continue to be important and relevant.