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Pollinator (talk | contribs) m Reverted edits by 72.154.0.59 (talk) to last version by RexNL |
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== Le Mans start ==
Traditionally, the race starts at 16:00 on the Saturday, although in 1968 the race started at 14:00 and in 1984 the race started at 15:00 due to the conflicting French General Election. In 2006, the A.C.O. has scheduled a 17:00 start time on Saturday, June 17 in order to maximize television coverage alongside the enormously popular Football World Cup, which has scheduled games for 15:00 and 18:00.
The races used to begin with what became known as the "Le Mans start": cars are lined up on one side of the track, drivers on the other. When the French flag dropped at 16:00, the drivers ran across the track to their cars, entered and started them. This became a safety issue after the introduction of safety belt harnesses in 1967, which needed to be properly strapped, preferably by mechanics. At that time pilots entered the first curves with unfastened belts and locked their belts in the straight, if possible.
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