Editor’s note: This is the first of a series looking back at my racing season of 2024. Of course I’m starting with Le Mans.

Reality exceeded the dream. Emotional highs and goosebumps marked my 10 days in Le Mans. I was 10 years old when I first learned of the Le Mans 24-hour race. I read everything I could find about it. Two years later I announced to my family that I wanted to go to Le Mans.  I would accept the trip as any gift for any occasion- graduation, birthday, Christmas- the occasion didn’t matter.  

I never received an envelope with plane tickets to Paris. I still followed the race and learned more of its history. During my freshman year in high school, I spent my study hall time writing a novel about Le Mans. I’m pretty sure it was not a classic. I grew older, and life got in the way.  

In 2023, after a health scare, I made up my mind. I am going to Le Mans next year. I can wait no longer. I called a travel agency in London that specializes in motorsport travel and booked lodging at the track and bought a race ticket. Friends who had been there inundated me with advice. I don’t think I could have navigated the Paris Metro without their help. 

While I spent the entire time on an emotional high, there were three times when my excitement boiled over and spilled out of my eyes. I entered the track for the first time on the Sunday before the race. The first step through the gate onto that hallowed ground ended a 65 year wait. The track was still a mile away, but I had made it.  

The next day at the museum two of my favorite cars of all time- the 1959 Shelby Cobra and the 1970 Gulf Porsche sat silently and proudly, anxious  to Have their engines roar to life again and roll onto the circuit just a few hundred feet away.  

I had eagerly awaited and dreaded race day. I knew containing my feelings would be a challenge. I told myself I had control, and I enjoyed the opening ceremonies until the first notes of La Marseilles. Control failure.  

The start of the race calmed me down. I took in as much of the track as I could, defying the intermittent rain and the long tram lines. Twenty-four hours goes by quickly when you want it to last forever.  

Everything was just as I had pictured, and in many ways the event was even better than I had imagined.  

All dreams must end, and it seemed that just a minute later I was in Charles de Gaulle airport boarding my flight home.