Following the postponement from the race’s usual mid-summer date in June, this weekend will mark the 88th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans—and the very first for Petrolicious’ participation on the fast side of the guardrail.
We’ve happily stayed up all night in the past to report on the event with our media passes from the pit boxes to the shoulders of the Mulsanne Straight, but this year is a new one for Petrolicious. Our presence (in sticker form) will be lapping the legendary track with Rebellion Racing’s pair of R-13s in the race’s quickest category, LMP1.
As much as we’d love the chance to pilot one of the two Rebellion-Gibson R-13 entries ourselves, it’s probably in everyone’s best interest if that job is left to the professionals—like two-time overall winner Romain Dumas, part of Rebellion’s driver lineup for the weekend that includes Ayrton’s nephew Bruno Senna, Norman Nato, and Gustavo Menezes in the #1 car, with Louis Delétraz and Nathanael Berthon teaming with Dumas in the #3. We are proud to be a part of this effort, and although they’re going up against the incumbent race-winning Toyota team, Rebellion has a solid shot at making it to the top step of the podium on Sunday.
The R-13’s 4.5-liter Gibson-built V8 sends 665 through the car’s real axle, which gives the all-wheel drive hybrid Toyotas the advantage in adverse weather, but the meteorology of the weekend is but one variable in a race where fortunes are constantly changing and anything is possible. We’re going to be up all night watching the race, and we hope you’ll join us in supporting our little logo as it hurtles around circuit collecting bugs and bits of rubber for 24 of the most captivating hours in motorsport.
You can follow along with Petrolicious and the Rebellion Racing team’s R-13s over the course of the race here, and follow the official WEC timing of the event here.
Photography by Marcel Langer courtesy of Rebellion Racing
