Last month Mike Conway took part in his first ever Le Mans 24 hour race and impressed by finishing on the podium.

The 29-year-old qualified on the front row of the grid in his class with his team and but for a couple of issues in the race itself he could easily have been standing on the top step of the podium in his class.

Speaking exclusively to Kent Sports News about his Le Mans experience, Mike said: “You have to be there to see it and experience what it is all about, and I really got a feel for what it is all about. It was great to see all the fans, I have never seen so many people camp out.

“The festivities go on for a good few days and of course you have the wheel going round in the centre of track, with bonfires and parties going on at the same time. When you are on the podium looking down at the fans who are allowed to come across the pit lane it was really cool. The turnout from the British fans was fantastic and it was really cool to be amongst them.”

Le Mans isn’t like your average race meeting in that testing, and qualifying take place in the week leading up to the 24 hour race on the Saturday, meaning that you need high levels of confidence over a long period of time.

“You can’t wait for the racing to come around quick enough really, added Mike “There are three sessions of qualifying and if you feel that you have a good time, you have to wait for quite a long time for everyone to go back out and then you do another one or decide that you are happy with the lap that you have.

“Then you could do what our team did, we did a time in the first session and we knew that it probably wouldn’t stay as the pole lap but in the end it was good enough for second which was alright. We didn’t want to risk breaking anything before the race because our car 25 had already crashed in practice.

“When you have all the build-up that includes preparing for the race and working on suspensions, engines and gear boxes, on the Wednesday night the boys were really busy as we had everything on the car brand new. You don’t want to spoil all that for the race, you want to make sure that everything is ok for the race.”

The race is nothing like Mike has ever experienced before from racing for 24 hours through to the new element to him of racing at night.

He said: “You think that the six hour races fly by but the 24 hour races are definitely a bit long, it is a strange one as you don’t want to get out of the car after your stint, but when you do you have to try and wind down, get some food and fluid into you and some physio if you need it.

“Also you can’t help but watch the screen and see what is going on with your car and how the race is unfolding, then again you also have to try and get some sleep. I think I managed to get one or two hours and after that you don’t feel good, you feel like you are hung over or something.

“It does feel really weird, in the last stint we were under a safety car period and I was probably going to be putting in another hour and as the safety car was going to pull in the guys were telling me to warm up the tyres and warm up the breaks. As I was feeling a bit sick due to the amount of food and fluids you are trying to take on board and the lack of sleep, I felt a bit sick.

“When you are warming your car up you are flinging it from left to right and I started to get a bit car sick, that was the first time that I have ever been sick in a race car. I had to wait for the last half a lap before speeding up and then I was ok. It just shows the toll that it takes on your body with little things like that, which really kind of affects you.”

As for the longest amount of time you spend in the car that depends very much on the tyres and how long you can run on the before as Mike explains.

He added: “You can do a triple stint or a quadruple stint depending on the tyres, each stint would be around 45 minutes, if there are safety car periods you could be in the car up to four hours. Normal stints were about two hours and 15 minutes.

“The hardest stints I thought were in the night, because you go from driving around during the day, and then all of a sudden all the reference points that you had are gone. You don’t see the track in the same way, it is lit up in some areas and there are some corners which are completely black and so you don’t see anything until the headlights get into the corner and light it all up.

“So definitely for me the first stint in the night was like learning the circuit again which might sound strange having been there a few days already. You have really got to learn all your reference points again. In the second part of the stint I found myself getting dialled in and in the third part it was definitely comfortable.

“It was constantly unnerving, it was raining on and off and sometimes you would arrive at a corner and it has been raining for 30 seconds, but because it is such a long lap you have got to be aware of what is going on and a lot of cars caught out with it but luckily we were ok. The concentration levels are so high for the whole time that you are out there that it is crazy really.”

Obviously the driving didn’t effect Mike too much as he finished on the podium and in his first race that is a real achievement for the 29-year-old.

He said: “It was a great achievement and we should have finished first in class really, we had the lead and I think it was around a minute 30 on people and it was all looking ok. Then at night one of the light panels broke and it lights the numbers of the car on the door of the car itself. Coming into the pit lane it was on and then out on the track it wasn’t.

“We then had to wait for the stewards to point it out to us and we had to come in and change it and we then lost five minutes with that, which meant we had lost a lap and a half on the leader then. Then two hours later we had another one go on the other door, which was a real shame as we lost another five to six minutes which meant we were three and a half laps down.

“That is really hard to catch that up at that point and unless someone has a problem it is going to be really tough to do. We were quick all the way back up from eighth or ninth to third and I think that is the best that we could have done after all our problems.

“I was proud to get on the podium with the problems that we had, but at the same time it was a shame that we couldn’t achieve the result that we were capable of. That is Le Mans for you though and you have got to be perfect to win the races. It isn’t like years ago when you could have that problem and maybe get away with it, nowadays it is flat out racing and there is no room for error.

“The team did a great job all week and it is just a shame that those small little parts which are one of the smallest costs on the car that have broken, that is just part and parcel of racing and I am proud that we managed to finish on the podium.”

Finally we had to ask Mike weather he wants to race in another Le Mans 24 hour race after experiencing his first, and there was a resounding answer from the Kent racer.

He added: “If you had asked me a week after the event I might have said no as I was still pretty tired, but there is a year in between each 24 hour race. I would definitely like to do it again, it is such a cool event and hopefully we can win it again next time. To have the chance to go back and do it again would be awesome and hopefully I will have the chance to do that.”

Mike will be back on track this weekend as he takes part in the IndyCar race in Toronto which will be another double header and all at Kent Sports News wish him the best of luck for the race.