Become Who You Are: 4 Drivers, 4 Stories, 1 Race

Two minutes, move the cars to the wall.

Two minutes.

It is now allowed to start the engines.

One minute now, you can turn on the engine.

The time for waiting is over.

The time for racing has arrived.

Green, Green, Green.

Mike Conway in the number #7 Toyota,

sweeping around to lead the field down the Dunlop here

for the first time.

Gustavo Menezes right behind from fourth on the grid

in the brightly colored car from Rebellion.

You are one of the quickest cars,

on the sector 1 on track at the moment.

Box and driver change.

First round of pit stops,

and almost the entire field in in from GTE Pro.

92' Porsche that won last year in it's pinky pig is in.

Ferrari in as well with both AF Porsche cars.

Driver change.

Battle in LMP2 and he goes by.

So much top speed here at Le Mans.

On that one lap we lose two percent of performance.

4 lap to the next one Bruno.

Bruno brought the car in,

a little bit early on his stint.

Oh, that's out. That car is out Porsche curves.

Attention debris early part of Porsche curves.

It's just the 88 cars having a, it's struggle.

In about 16 seconds we will go full course yellow

Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

Full course yellow, full course yellow.

I'm Scott Dixon originally from New Zealand,

racing in America, also in the World Endurance Championship,

24 hour Le Mans.

So Indycar season this year,

and endurance races for the Ford GT program.

My name is Bruno Senna

I am a professional driver

Competing with Rebellion Racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Hi, I'm Memo Rojas

I am competing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

For IDEC Sport Racing

My name is Jules Gounon

I am a professional driver

And I am going to take part at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

For the really first time.

To be for the first time in the parade,

with so many people around,

and the town which is really busy,

you can really feel the atmosphere of Le Mans.

Le Mans is a,

you know it's a special race that everybody wants to win.

It's one of the three biggest races in the world.

There's very few events around the world

that have that status.

The atmosphere is insane.

I think for when you're performing at such

at an event like that,

it just makes you feel so good.

Ayrton was my uncle first, you know, a family member.

Ayrton was also, you know, my example, my reference,

because I really looked at everything he did,

and I always tried to self learn

and to see how he did it.

Ayrton Senna was a Brazilian race car driver,

definitely one of most accomplished drivers of his time.

Any race car drivers dream would be to meet Ayrton Senna.

I mean, it would be, I mean, bucket list,

if you're possible.

And of course, Bruno, being his nephew, had the ability

to actually receive coaching from Ayrton Senna.

For me it was really the way that he was able to

teach without really trying to teach.

You know, he was just so natural at like,

I guess transmitting his values and the way

and his way of life,

that he didn't need to be like a boring teacher

trying to tell you do this, do this, do this.

He would just kind of come and show you what he was doing,

and you'd go and you try it and you know,

he would really try to make it a practical thing

rather than just a lecture.

And this was, this was a great thing because really,

as a kid you want to do things.

So you want to just experiment and experience.

And I think he nailed it.

It's a dream come true.

You couldn't learn from a better instructor.

I mean, Ayrton knew everything

there was to know about racing.

Ayrton Senna was dominating in the 80s for sure.

He was well known in the formula one world

and racing in general.

But on May 1st, 1994, Ayrton has a horrific accident.

As soon as that happened,

the subject and the motor racing became a bit of a taboo

subject at home.

From my perspective, Le Mans means a race

that is, you know, one of the three or four largest races

in the world.

To me, it's a race that goes back to the beginnings

of motorsport,

where it pits manufacturer against manufacturer,

proving who has the best car.

Scott Dixon's a driver that came to us,

you know, at the, at the wise age of 22-years-old I think.

He's the leader of our team.

It was just a natural progression to put him

in the sports car team and as part of the Ford program.

Competition just drives me and I think most of the others,

and the adrenaline,

what you feel and what you get out of it,

the sensors and how they become enlightened.

I will never forget that day as a seven-year-old kid

getting into a go cart and being so low to the ground

and feeling just that adrenaline rush.

And how amazing it was at such a young age to be able to,

you know, drive this powerful thing around, you know even,

you know, it was only a little go cart.

I started racing, go carts at the age of seven

and just, you know, tried to hang on to that dream

ever since of being able to drive things fast.

I moved initially to Australia by myself

at the age of 16.

I lived in Melbourne for two years,

and then you know that transitions to America, I was 18.

For me, it was all about, you know,

trying to win and to get to that next bigger category

or bigger car.

But it was all about the dream, it was all about the dream.

You know, as I was,

when I was a kid who was getting formula one, and then,

you know, on the southern it was IndyCar.

And once I saw my first IndyCar race,

just the passion I had for IndyCar racing and how close

and competitive and, you know,

just for anybody in the field could win,

you know, that really fascinated me.

But it's kind of scary.

I think thinking of my own children at that point,

you know, maybe traveling halfway around the world

and being on their own and maybe in that same situation.

Tilly, Tilly what song is this one?

We do do something very dangerous.

You know, it says it right on the back of the ticket

that, you know, bad things can happen.

He has the track record in that IndyCar

of exceeding 232 miles an hour.

Incredible.

And of course at the same time,

he has a family at home and bad things can happen

at 232 miles an hour.

You know we're quite spiritual people.

So we're very much like you know what will be will be.

And if you focus too much on that negativity,

it can play a part in how you race.

An un-believable atmosphere.

A sea of faces, of smiles of hopes and dreams,

awaiting the start of the toughest test in motor racing.

Throughout the years, the cars have a evolved so much.

They are faster, they have more down-force

the technology has pushed the boundaries of the cars,

and also the drivers.

Every time a car goes faster it generates more G-forces,

lateral forces that have an impact on the body.

Driving a car at the limit for such a long period of time.

It raises your heart rate for a long period of time.

It's an average of 150 to 160 beats per minute,

and you need to be very strong physically.

You know, like anything these days,

it's all about preparation.

You know and I think you can't go in blind.

I do, what I call I do the homework.

You know, doing the homework is, you know,

doing what you need to do in order to get an A

on the following day.

I really love to go on the bike cause you can really push

yourself to the limit.

Because you are the only limit on the bike.

A bit like in the race car.

In my case I practice a lot of boxing for this

because the position of boxing,

it's almost the same as the race car.

You know, you're holding the steering wheel like this

and the guard for boxing is like this,

and you're using the same muscles.

People see the race car driver in the podium.