The race course includes country roads and a portion of the track with a huge grandstand the size of Indy.  The course is 8.5 miles long, with a "Lemans Start" in front of the grandstand filled with over 200,000 people. 

 

          This entails each driver standing on the opposite side of the track, and then at the drop of the flag, sprinting to his car, starting the engine and peeling out from the grid into oncoming traffic and trying to avoid an accident.  

 

          Since nobody bothers to buckle his seat belt, they are stopped at mid-track for a seat belt check and restarted in the same order.

 

          The team Max was racing for, competed in two different classes, with the team owner being Billy Lyon, son of General William Lyon, an Orange County home builder.  They raced both a 1962 Abarth Porsche and a 1964 Porsche Carrarra.  Both Porsches had the big "four cam" 2.0 litre engine. The expected morality rate for most of the vintage cars are usually 40%, but all of Lyon's cars finished, which was a tribute to his engine and chassis builder, specializing in the 356 model.

 

          Max had a couple of anxious moments during his seat time, with the most exciting being a 132 MPH sprint down the fastest part of the back stretch, being passed by a vintage Ford GT40, which lost traction and spun out right in front of him.  Max went through a cloud of blue smoke at about 100 MPH, without the help of a spotter, but luckily he made it OK.

 

          So how did Max and his Porsche teammates do? Well, they lapped 3 of the 6 cars in their class, and didn't even come close to a win, but asked if he would do it again, Max grinned and said "in a heartbeat." 

 

          Max and Sue also combined his racing habit with a little vacation in France and got to see something other than the racetrack.  They said they were treated like royalty and have the utmost respect for the team owner, Billy Lyon, and his support staff.

 

          I can see it now, on our next hot rod cruise, Max will have us lining up opposite our roadsters and sprinting across the street to see who can peel the most rubber and kick up a few rocks.