Four o’clock in the afternoon. The French countryside has become quiet, except for a public address announcer counting down the seconds. Fifty-one men are standing on one side of a narrow roadway. Across that road are fifty-one low and powerful racing cars. At four o’clock the signal is given. The men dash to their cars, start them and begin what many feel is an insane dash into the first turn. It’s the “LeMans Start” and this is the place where the phrase was born, LeMans, France. Today a Missourian will win the world’s most famous automobile endurance race.
