At the Nürburgring, a lot is down to how blinding your competitors’ headlights are before dawn, what happens in the wet behind the Venturi stream of a GT3 car, how big of a miracle your mechanics can pull after a collision, and with the overall tight fencing of the Nordschleife, the drivers’ ability to handle the mental pressure for up to 2.5-hours per stint as the pulse reader keeps ticking at 160.
Even compared to that, on two wheels at Le Mans for 24 hours, it’s a whole new ballgame.
Australia’s Joshua Hook won the race with the French Honda team in 2018 and 2020. In the movie, he walk us through the importance of the first lap started on a full tank that lasts for an hour, with 64 bikes on the grid and not much grip until the sun goes down. It’s then 8-9 stints per rider with two hours off before ten minutes of preparation for that ten-second pit stop replacing tires and pumping 6.34-gallons of racing fuel under the crotch area.
On bikes, endurance racing is just much more physical, while no such mistakes are allowed as on four wheels. Physiotherapy is crucial, being blind through the night is normal, and after the sixth stint out there, one would imagine you really wished two plus four would land the day at its 24th hour.
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