LE MANS, France — It’s nearly 3 a.m. at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Stephan Joulia is struggling. Despite having chugged some energy drinks and espresso earlier in the evening, the Frenchman is slouched over in the grandstands, finding it hard to stay awake for the entirety of the famous day-long car race.
But with engines roaring past him every few seconds, he’s finding it even harder to fall asleep.
“I’m in a strange state of half-awake, half-asleep,” he says with a laugh. A sleeping bag is wrapped around his legs, and he crouches over and shuts his eyes whenever there is a brief lull in the race.
I, too, had made the trek to Le Mans last weekend, and I spent the bulk of the overnight hours in my seat, staring glassy-eyed at the racecars. With hotels filling up quickly and costing exorbitant prices, thousands of fans each year choose to lie out in the grandstands or camp out on patches of grass overlooking the track, intent on not missing a second of the action.
“It’s the true Le Mans experience,” Joulia said.
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Located at Circuit de la Sarthe in the town of Le Mans, about an hour train ride outside of Paris, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of the world’s unusual sporting events, popularized recently in the United States by the 2019 movie “Ford v Ferrari.” This year marked its centennial, drawing a record 325,000 spectators to the circuit. Sports royalty LeBron James and Tom Brady were in attendance (presumably not sleeping in the grandstands), and even NASCAR — the American stock car series — was participating.
And if fans were tired, imagine how the drivers felt. During the race, teams race continuously for 24 straight hours, with three drivers per team putting in hours-long stints behind the wheel. Finishing the race in one piece is considered a success, while winning it is one of the crowning achievements in motorsports.
As the hours rolled by, and night blended into morning, a variety of fans shared their stories and strategies for tackling this wild, sleepless spectacle.
‘24 hours of toilet lines’
During race week, the more than 8-mile-long track at Circuit de la Sarthe turns into a makeshift town unto itself, with restaurants, shops, carnivals and bars popping up across each section of the circuit. Rock concerts and movie marathons go on during the race, and an on-site museum is free for anyone with a ticket. A shuttle bus takes fans to different parts of the track.
“There’s too much to do in just 24 hours,” said Manuel Garcia, a man from Spain who was attending his seventh Le Mans. He had arrived a couple of days earlier with just a few extra clothes, a small tent and some food. “And I have a little bit of what I love the most: French wine,” he said.
Yes, you can bring outside food and beverages with you, though concession stands had tasty offerings. Sandwiches, wraps, French pastries, salads and more items all looked fresher — and maybe a tad healthier — than what you might find in a typical U.S. stadium. But drink sizes tended to be smaller than what most Americans are accustomed to (Starbucks’s “Venti” size and 7-Eleven’s “Big Gulp” are foreign concepts in France).
As the opening ceremony began, leading up to a 4 p.m. start, I tried to meticulously plan my day: I’d watch the start and first few hours from the stands, then make my way to the museum and carnival areas. After catching some live music and the three-hour pop concert, I’d swing back to watch more racing and speak with campers.
All the while, more experienced racegoers advised me to keep my eyes peeled for the best bathrooms.
“That’s the real challenge,” said Tom Sims, an engineer from the United Kingdom who had traveled nearly 12 hours overnight to make it in time for the start of the race. “I’m always making a mental note as I walk across the track to figure out which ones have the shortest queues.”
Some bathrooms had lines appearing to be well over 50 people long. At one point, I saw a woman throw up her hands and walk away, tired of the wait.
“This should be called the 24 hours of toilet lines,” she said.
Tents fit for a butler
While some spectators lay out in the grandstands or pitch a small tent, others get a bit more creative. There are multiple campgrounds across the circuit, and they turn into giant parties during the late-night hours of the race.
As I walked through one camping area in a section of the track called Tertre Rouge, a group of fans from the Netherlands asked me to join them for a beer and kebab. Their setup featured a giant tent, a big-screen TV broadcasting the race — “I see it better from here!” one of them told me — speakers, and a refrigerator full of beer.
“Every year, we do something a little bigger, a little better,” said Marcel Bollen, one of the group’s de facto ringleaders. “One time, we built a beautiful table, covered it with linen and candles, and had our friend dress like a butler and serve us.”
Europop blared out of speakers at a nearby tent, just barely obscuring the humming engines that provide constant background noise at Le Mans. A group of English fans placed a chair on top of their RV for a perfect view of the racetrack and evening fireworks. I heard stories about other campsites that had karaoke and smoke machines.
A key benefit of camping is having your own shelter in the event of rain. Occasional showers are typical at Le Mans (and happened a handful of times during this year’s race). Each time it rained, fans would go scurrying under awnings at concession stands and restaurants, while some remained watching from the sidelines, wearing ponchos and embracing the elements.
Sleeping, as I learned, was considered optional. Many of the campers said they would potentially take short naps in their tents at some point in the early, pre-dawn hours. Others who traveled solo, without big camping setups, told me they would try to nap in the back seats of their cars. Some recommended headphones or ear plugs to drown out the noise of the racecars.
But, mostly, people encouraged sleeping as little as possible.
“Who wants to sleep with all this going on?” Bollen said.
As fun as camping seemed, others took a more conventional approach. Mark Solis, from San Francisco, told me he had been lucky to snatch up a nearby Airbnb many months before the race — back when they were still available. He planned to head back there around 1 or 2 a.m. and return to the race the next morning.
“I do a lot of camping just for fun,” he said, “but here? It’s a different animal. Generators, TVs — these guys are ready for anything.”
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An extra night of partying
As the evening hours rolled on — and a few brief rain showers came and went — I could hear groans and snores from the grandstands. Sleeping bags began stirring as the sun crept up over the racetrack around 6 a.m., as the smell of espresso and fresh croissants filled the air near concession stands.
A new day of racing had arrived, and the action proved exciting: Ferrari, after a long absence from competing in the top class of Le Mans, pulled out a surprising victory over Toyota. And as a scrum of elated, sweaty and weary fans gathered on the side of the track to celebrate the top finishers, it smelled as if no one had bathed in about a month.
Even as a spectator, making it to the end of the race brought with it a sense of victory: We too had survived the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Once the celebrations had wrapped up, fans streamed out of the racetrack and packed the local tram. Many, like me, were heading to the central station to catch a train back to Paris. I fought the urge to sleep so that I could keep my internal clock on a mostly normal schedule. Some of the campers, meanwhile, had planned to stay into Monday morning, assuring me they would keep the party going.
“This was amazing,” said Sebastien Dubois, a Canadian fan who was also attending his first Le Mans. He estimated that he had slept for about a half-hour, at most, in a patch of grass next to the track. Wearing water-resistant pants and a poncho, he had endured even the rainiest parts of the race.
“It was wonderful to shut your eyes and just hear the engines roar,” he said. “It’s addicting. I’m already thinking about next year.”
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