Mike Conway heads to Le Mans this weekend to take part in his first ever Le Mans 24 hour race and he is excited at the prospect.

Although Mike has never raced before at Le Man in the 24 hour event or at night as it transpires, he is confident that his team and he can deliver the goods.

We caught up with Mike in the pit lane at Le Mans as he took part in a test session to give the car a shakedown test and get used to the track and its intricacies.

Speaking about the event, he said: “I can’t wait, I have literally just got to the track and I am trying to get a bit of a feel of what this place is about really.

“I am just standing here in the pit lane and the grandstands are massive, I can’t wait to get on track really which is Saturday, we have a test day and then we come back the week after for the test days, qualifying for three days and then the race itself.”

Mike is no stranger to the endurance event as he is racing in the World Endurance Championship this season and admits that Le Mans will be a whole different test to what he is used too.

He added: “It is pretty different to be honest, and the longest that I have ever raced is two to three hours. It is different to IndyCar racing but it is good because you get more time to work on development and working with the team as you get a whole lot more time to change things which you don’t normally.

“You try and suit the car a bit more and you get more time to do that in Endurance type racing, there is always lots going on especially in the races. You can find yourself overtaking a GT car or another NMP2 car or you can find yourself being overtaking by NMP1 cars as well.

“You need really high concentration levels as well because of the amount of things that are going on in anyone race.”

With Le Man having the biggest number of the cars on the grid and being over 24 hours it is possible that you can have issues with the car and still make the time up, something Mike is looking forward to.

He said: “You have got to have a good fast car, but then you have to be reliable as well as you have a full 24 hour race rather than a shorter two to three hour race. There are so many variables with the weather and the tyres and the racing styles. It is a whole different animal really and you have to be consistent and never give up.

“If you have an incident within the first few hours, you still have another 20 odd hours where things can turn around, you aren’t sure what is going to happen to someone else as well. Whatever happens you have just got to knuckle down and push all the way whilst being smart about it.

“I have not even driven a car in the night yet, I have played around on the Playstation with it on night settings but it will be different when you are in the real thing. There is only so much you can do in terms of simulation stuff, and at the end of the day you have just got to get in the car and do it. The cars seem to go even quicker at night, we have a few days before the actual race to get used to that and I think we will be fine.

“I have only seen Le Mans on TV before, I cant wait for it really, it has to be one of the biggest races I have ever been involved with I think. The Indy 500 is obviously a big race as well and that goes over the course of a few weeks and Le Mans is sort of similar. There is a huge history here and it is one that we want to win, I am sure that we have a car and a team that are capable of doing that.”