24 Hours of Le Mans set to start Saturday

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The 78th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s most famous sports-car endurance race, is scheduled to begin Saturday at the 8.5-mile Circuit de la Sarthe track in France.The long race includes different classes of race cars, each with multiple drivers, but the premier class features exotic prototype cars led by the diesel-powered entries of Peugeot and Audi.

One Peugeot team with drivers David Brabham, Marc Gene and Alex Wurz won the race’s overall honors last year, Peugeot’s first Le Mans victory since 1993 after several years of Audi domination.

Anthony Davidson joins Gene and Wurz this year on that Peugeot team, while Brabham is driving an Acura prototype for the Highcroft Racing team. Another Highcroft driver is Marino Franchitti, younger brother of this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner, Dario Franchitti.

The race is scheduled to start at 6 a.m. PDT. Speed will provide television coverage.

-- Jim Peltz