Le Mans 24 hour: Sir Chris Hoy’s team come in 17th out of 60 teams in Flying Scotsman’s first attempt at one-day race
Olympic cycling legend turned petrol-head puts in a superb drive to finish in the top 20 in the famous endurance race in France
SIR CHRIS HOY has finished the famous Le Mans 24 hour race in France in a respectable 17th place.
The British cycling legend-turned petrol-head, 40, easily cracked the top 20 with his three-man Algarve Pro Racing team in the 60-strong field in his first attempt at the famous endurance race.
The race was won by Porsche No2 car, driven by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb, with Hoy's Algarve Pro Racing team - including Michael Munemann and Andrea Pizzitola in the Nissan - ending up 17th.
And six-time Olympic champion Hoy kept his Twitter followers up to date during the race - not at the wheel, of course - as he live tweeted his 'bucket list moment'.
Amongst others, the racer wrote: "Just about to grab an hour of sleep. I've just completed a triple stint through the night at LeMans24hr.
"Bucket list moment, tick."
Ahead of the endurance battle in France, Hoy had claimed completing the race would be a dream come true.
He said: "I remember getting a Scalextric track when I was five or six. One of the cars had headlights on it.
"I remember asking my dad why and he said: ‘That’s for the Le Mans 24 Hour race – they race through the night.'”
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The race itself came to a riveting conclusion when the leading car - the No5 Toyota - suddenly ground to a halt as it crossed the finish line for the penultimate time.
That allowed the Porsche to just go through the formality of completing the final lap to snatch the win.
24 hours and it's all decided with the final lap of the race. Incredible stuff.
