Reilly Brennan

2013 24 Hours of Le Mans Couch Kit: Streaming, Entry Lists, Et Al

Ten years ago I packed my big Corvette team trolley bag in my Detroit apartment and headed off to Le Mans for the first time. I remember packing and repacking all of my stuff, a mix of fear and excitement to go to the one race I had spent my entire life thinking about. I really never thought I’d be able to attend, let alone from inside a pit box.

As it turns out, our team had plenty to be nervous about, what with the Prodrive Ferraris coming out stronger than ever at Sebring and our cars featuring a one-off non-yellow paint job that made more than a few people feel we had a made a deal with the devil. Those fears were well-founded, as even a podium finish was (is) considered a loss for the factory team. But, it did make 2004’s win even better.

This year I have another installment in a lazy man’s most thrilling 24 hours: the 24 Hours of Le Mans couch kit. I use this as my home base for all the web streaming, entry lists, twitter lists and anything else that gets me through my favorite motor race of the year. 

(Note: this page updates frequently as links head back to the garage for repair. If you have a new link or comment, leave it in comments.)

Start time: 3PM CEST (9AM Eastern), Saturday June 22

US TV Coverage: Speed’s coverage of the race is primarily on its TV channel, with only a few breaks to cover the necessary NASCAR stuff (incidentally, a double-header for road racing: Nationwide at Road America and Cup at Sears Point). During the times when they’re not on air, they offer coverage on Speed.com. The full schedule:

(all times Eastern)

• 08:30AM - 02:00PM Speed TV broadcast
• 02:00PM - 04:00PM Speed.com
• 04:00PM - 07:00PM Speed TV broadcast
• 07:00PM - 07:30PM Speed.com
• 07:30PM - 09:30AM Speed TV broadcast

Audio Streaming: 

• Radio Le Mans: The team at Radio Le Mans, led by my favorite John Hindhaugh, does round-the-clock, we-never-stop coverage. It is one of the treasures of being a fan of this event that you get to indulge in a day of Hindy calling a race. There are rumors that RLM will be broadcast on Sirius XM during the event in the US and Canada.

TV / Web Streaming:

• Speed.tv splits their coverage between broadcast and online, meaning that when it’s on TV it’s not online. That is sort of frustrating, but when the feed is on it is very, very crisp. When the full feed isn’t available online, they plan to show the Corvette Racing team on-board.
• Eurosport: Official player (only works in Europe, 1-month charge is $6). There will also be a range of grey-market web feeds here that come in from friends and knaves and will be posted here. Try here for Eurosport Germany link. Sportlemon also has many related to Eurosport.
• Team Streams: Corvette, Audi, Nismo.
• Eurosport: 
• Ten Sport: a TV station from Australia, who will provide coverage of the entire race. In order to access this outside of Australia, you can get backdoor access by following these steps.
• ACO feed: To come.

Timing / Scoring:

• ACO / WEC: Official timing and scoring from Le Mans
• Baekdal’s dashboard: A mix of a twitter feed from official sources and timing and scoring. Here’s Baekdal’s dashboard for iPhone/iPad optimized viewing

Phone / Mobile apps:

• Radio Le Mans on iPhone: Download F-stream (free) from iTunes and then add this URL in as a new Favorite (go to Edit, then add a new station). 
• Radio Le Mans on Windows Phone: Requires Windows 7 or later. 
• ACO iPhone app: (has timing/scoring built in) I don’t think there’s an Android version.
• Android-only spotter’s guide app
• Baekdal iPhone optimized page. 

Entry List:

• Official ACO entry list: From the sanctioning body
• Spotter’s Guide: A great visual view of the entries, from the great Andy Blackmore. Direct link to the PDF in large or slightly smaller size.

Twitter / Facebook

• My favorite Twitter searches: #LM24, #LeMans, #WEC, #24hr
• Official 24 Hours of Le Mans Twitter and Facebook feeds
• Metacool racers Twitter list is a perennial favorite
• Other good ones: @almsnotes, @lemansrace, @johndagys

Other Useful Info:

• Racecar Engineering’s Le Mans section
• Michael Fuller’s notes from Le Mans on the always incredible Mulsanne’s Corner. 

2012 Info:

• Winner average speed: 133.38 mph
• Winner’s total laps: 378 (3 off all-time record set in 2008)
• Winners: Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer (Audi R18 e-tron quattro)
• Winners: Podium shot from 2012 (all Audi, mind you)

(Photos from Audi Sport)

2012 24 Hours of Le Mans Couch Kit: Streams, Entry Lists, Good Stuff

Another Le Mans means another awesome day of watching from across the Atlantic via a series of tubes. If you want to follow along, I’ve pulled together some of the better resources here, in my recurring lazyman’s Couch Kit series. 

(Note: this page updates frequently throughout the week and weekend)

Start time: 3:00PM CET (9AM Eastern), Saturday June 16

U.S. TV coverage explained: Speed’s coverage of the race is primarily on its TV channel, with 23 hours on air. Unfortunately the experience is broken up across a few sections because they cut away to NASCAR for a bit, during which they are live on Speed.com. Here is the full schedule (Eastern times) for U.S.

• Speed TV: 8:30AM - 1PM
• Speed.com: 1PM - 2:30PM
• Speed TV: 2:30PM - 7PM
• Speed.com: 7:00PM - 7:30PM
• Speed TV: 7:30PM - remainder of race (through 9AM Sunday) 

Audio Stream

• Radio Le Mans: The team at Radio Le Mans does round-the-clock, we-never-stop coverage and they are quite good — and funny, which is what you need when you cover something for 24 hours.
• Team streams: Flying Lizards, JRM

TV / web streams

• Speed.tv splits their coverage between broadcast and online, meaning that when it’s on TV it’s not online. That is sort of frustrating, but when the feed is on it is very, very crisp. When the full feed isn’t available online, they do show Corvette on-board.
• ACO feed: ACO gave their official feed to DailyMotion here. There are some other team-related streams below the feed.
• Corvette on-board: Actually the same as the Speed link above, but showing only Corvette when Speed doesn’t show their coverage online. Confused yet? 
• Audi on-board: In addition to dominating Le Mans, Audi dominates web streaming as well with bandwith, quality and coverage that is in keeping with their herrschaft.
• Eurosport: This one shows Eurosport, with Radio Le Mans as its audio (ads go away after 30 seconds) — I should note this one has been very stable. This is another (ads disappear after 30 sec) — thanks to Rory O’Connor for this one. Or try here for Eurosport Germany link.
• Ten Sport: a TV station from Australia, who will provide coverage of the entire race. Update: deggis4 comes in hot with some tips on how to access this outside of the outback — see the comments below.

Timing/Scoring

• ACO / WEC: Official timing and scoring from Le Mans
• Baekdal’s dashboard: A mix of a twitter feed from official sources and timing and scoring. Here’s Baekdal’s dashboard for iPhone/iPad optimized viewing.

Phone / mobile apps

• Radio Le Mans on iPhone: Download F-stream (free) from iTunes and then add this URL in as a new Favorite (go to Edit, then add a new station). Thanks to Dan Edmunds for this tip!
• Radio Le Mans on Windows Phone: Requires Windows 7 or later. Thanks Brian Roche for the tip!
• ACO iPhone app: (has timing/scoring built in) I don’t think there’s an Android version.
• Baekdal iPhone optimized page. 

Entry List

• Spotter’s Guide: A great visual view of the entries, from the great Andy Blackmore (direct link to PDF).
• Official ACO entry list: From the sanctioning body (opens PDF)

Other useful stuff

• Twitter searches: #LM24, #LeMans, #WEC, Metacool racers list, @almsnotes, @24hoursoflemans (official feed)
• Drive will be online live from YouTube for 25 hours, in the words of the team there: “we are not broadcasting the race, we are broadcasting interviews and discussions from the track and the New York Studio.” I love Drive and expect we’ll see good stuff from them throughout the day.
• Michael Fuller’s notes from Le Mans on the always incredible Mulsanne’s Corner. 
• Technical review from Racecar Engineering (PDF, requires email)
• Audi released another awesome installment of Truth in 24 from the 2011 race (high res YouTube link). (Part I - 2010 race is here, too.)

2011 info

• Winner average speed: 125.06 mph
• Winner’s total laps: 355 (record)
• Winners: Fassler, Lotterer, Treluyer (Audi R18 TDI, named ‘Red Sonja’)
• Winners: being awesome below

2011 24 Hours of Le Mans couch kit

Until 6AM tomorrow morning I am hunkered down watching my favorite motor race in the world. I was lucky enough to attend the race twice as a team member but these days I watch from the command center known as my laptop. If you want to follow along, I’ve pulled together some of the better resources here:

Audio stream

• Radio Le Mans: The team at Radio Le Mans does round-the-clock, we-never-stop coverage and they are quite good — and funny, which is what you need when you cover something for that long.

TV streams

• Eurosport hijacked through someone’s Justin.tv account. Seems to be delayed from live by about 15 seconds.
• Speed.tv splits their coverage between broadcast and online, meaning that when it’s on TV it’s not online. That is sort of frustrating, but when the feed is on it is very, very crisp. Click the bottom right thumbnail.
• Corvette on-board: Actually the same as the Speed link above, but click on the top thumbnail on the right.
• Audi on-board: The little map on the right is useful. Note the audio here is from Radio Le Mans.
• Peugeot on-board: This is really great and you can control multiple cameras from on-boards to pit views.

Timing/Scoring

• ACO: Official timing and scoring from Le Mans
• Baekdal’s dashboard: A mix of a twitter feed from official sources and timing and scoring.