Le Mans 2011 - The ultimate stay-at-home guide

WITH LE MANS less than two days away now, chances are you're not going. So let this guide help you enjoy it to the full from the comfort of your armchair.

 

Stay up

First things first, you need to stay up all night. At the track, people will tell you to make sure you get some sleep, but that's ok, because there's a lot of walking to do, and you'll be standing up in the hot sun a lot. At home all you've got to do is walk to the fridge for a beer every now and then so you've got no excuse! Stock up on energy drinks and coffee if you think you might struggle.

Beer 

Beer is a necessity with Le Mans. Those at the track seem to make it a competition to see who can get the drunkest but you need to pace yourself, this is an endurance race not a sprint so you don't want to drink everything in the first couple of hours and the spend the rest of the race utterly shitfaced.

Food

Once again, to get the traditional Le Mans experience you need to barbecue. Burgers, sausages and (if you're feeling brave) chicken will be perfect, just make sure you cook it properly! Of course, barbecues are outside and you can't take the TV out there, what you need is...

Radio Le Mans

Broadcast from the track it provides truly great commentary on the action. If, for whatever reason you need to leave the room for a bit and cannot enjoy Eurosport's expert coverage simply take your laptop or phone with you and go to radiolemans.com.

Twitter

The TV and radio coverage is very good but they can only provide so much. For paddock goings-on and pictures, make sure you follow these people:

@24hoursoflemans - official English language account for the race. 

@antdavidson - Peugeot driver.

@AllanMcNish - Audi driver.

@alex_wurz - Peugeot driver.

@DarrenTurner007 - Aston Martin driver.

@radiolemans - official account for the radio station, they retweet a lot of good Le Mans related stuff.

There's plenty of other great people to follow so keep your eyes open.

The race

I suppose it's worth mentioning the race itself. It seems we may have a classic race on our hands with the Peugeot's and Audi's pretty evenly matched on pace and reliability. There's even reports that rain is possible to spice things up a bit. Should be a good one, make sure you enjoy it!