The film stars and sports heroes who tried their luck at the Le Mans 24 Hours

You might not be able to play in an international match at Wembley, or join the bill on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, but the Le Mans 24 Hours sees amateur racers join top-level drivers in the same legendary race.

In fact, it’s obligatory for teams racing in the LMP2 and LMGT3 classes below the top-level Hypercars to include amateurs in their line-up of three drivers.

The ranks are typically made up of wealthy racing enthusiasts who build their experience in one-make and GT series, including a handful of famous faces, who have made their name elsewhere before being drawn to the challenge of one of the toughest races on the planet.

Here are the celebrities who have take on the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Chris Hoy

Eleven-time cycling world champion and a six-time Olympic champion Chris Hoy swapped two wheels for four when he fulfilled his dream of competing at Le Mans in 2016. He had switched to racing with Nissan following his retirement from cycling, first joining the British GT championship in 2014 and then moving up to prototype competition in the European Le Mans Series.

That led to a Le Mans entry the following season, with an Algarve Pro Racing LMP2 car. Racing with Michael Munemann and Andrea Pizzitolahe, he finished 17th overall and 12th in his class. His efforts were documented in a BBC documentary.

Michael Fassbender

Michael Fassbender became the latest Hollywood star to swap the silver screen for the streets of Le Mans in 2022, when he entered the race with Proton Competition, competing under an Irish licence.

The Inglourious Basterds, Prometheus and the X-Men actor showed why the race isn’t for the faint-hearted when he crashed in qualifying, then twice more during the race, including one incident when he was pushed into the gravel by a passing car. While he did finish, his car was 51st overall out of 53 finishers and 16th in the GTE Am category.

He returned the following year to excise the demons. “For me, it was all about going back there, I had such a rough experience in 2022,” he said in 2023. “You know, just I mentally sort of imploded and never managed to come out of that downward spiral. And so, for me, it was really important that I went back there.”

Despite crashing towards the end due to a self-confessed “silly mistake”, Dempsey declared the race less of a disappointment than the previous year’s.

Much like Hoy, his entire experience was created into a 90 minute film, titled Michael Fassbender: Road to Le Mans, and can be watched for free on Porsche’s YouTube channel.

Patrick Dempsey

Another actor who has made the transition from television to tarmac is Grey’s Anatomy star, Patrick Dempsey, who has competed in four of the 24 hour races, as well as forming his own Dempsey Racing team.

He made his first start in 2009, finishing 30th and ninth in the GT2 class in a Ferrari F430.

By the time of his second start in 2013, he had declared that he would walk away from acting and race full-time if he could; that year brought a fourth-place GTE Am finish in a Dempsey-Proton branded Porsche.

He missed out on the podium in 2014 too, with a fifth-place finish in class, but found success in 2015 when he, Patrick Long and Marco Seefried finished second in the GTE Am class.

Between then and 2024 when it dropped the Dempsey name, the team has secured more podiums and a victory at Le Mans, without the actor behind the wheel.

Fabien Barthez

No stranger to the big stage, having won the World Cup with France, Premier League titles with Manchester United and the Champions League with Marseille, former goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, has raced at Le Mans three times.

After retiring from football in 2007, Barthez fulfilled his long-held dream of becoming a racing driver, competing in GT series and entering the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time in 2014.

After a creditable run to 29th, and ninth in class with Ferrari 458 GTE Am car, he moved up to prototypes in 2016, with an LMP2 car run by Panis Barthez Compétition – a team co-owned by Barthez and former Formula 1 driver Olivier Panis.

The result was 12th place and eighth in class, which he couldn’t better a year later, again in LMP2.

Jean-Claude Killy

Jean-Claude Killy is another top-level athlete who tried their luck at the world’s most famous endurance race. The French skier became a three-time alpine ski champion at the 1968 Winter Olympics, then wasted no time trading in his skis for a steering wheel.

Racing at the 1969 Le Mans, aptly in an Alpine, Killy raced with team-mate Bob Wollek, who had also been a competitive skier until an injury saw him flip his focus to become an established driver.

Unfortunately for the duo, they were forced to retire with seven of the eight Alpine entrants failing to reach the finish line that year.

Paul Newman

For many fans, the only name that comes to mind when you combine movies and motor sport is Paul Newman. In 1979, on his first and only attempt at the endurance event, Newman and his team-mates Dick Barbour and Rolf Stommelen, finished second overall in their Porsche 935/77A to help the German manufacturer secure a one-two-three-four result.

As we previously wrote, “any self-respecting studio would have rejected a script involving a big-shot movie star going to the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time at the age of 54 and coming within an ace of victory.”

It could have almost been a victory for Newman and co though, but a jammed wheel nut got in the way. The Academy Award winner didn’t disappear from racing though, and helped found Newman/Haas Racing who competed in CART, Champ Car, and the IndyCar Series from 1983 to 2011.

Jackie Chan

While he might not have been in the driving seat, martial artist and film superstar Jackie Chan was associated with the Le Mans 24 Hours for several years.

As a co-owner of Jackie Chan DC Racing from 2016 to 2020, his team made history during the 2017 running of the event when it became the first LMP2 team to finish on the overall podium when it ranked second and third. Taking a category one-two result, Chan described the feeling as “like winning an Oscar” to the media, but wasn’t able to witness the achievement in person.

Nick Mason

A self-confessed petrolhead, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has participated in five runnings of the Le Mans 24 Hours. His first attempt was in 1979, the same year that his band released The Wall. He finished 18th overall, and second in his class, driving a Lola T297, a result that would prove to be his best.

Mason returned to the prototype two-litre class the following year, and returned in 1982, teaming up owner-driver Steve O’Rourke — Pink Floyd’s manager — in an EMKA BMW M1, which lasted 23 hours before an engine failure.

Group C beckoned in 1983, when he joined Eliseo Salazar and Chris Craft in a Dome RC82, but failed to finish. The following year’s attempt, in a Porsche 956, also ended early at the 12 hour mark; Mason’s final appearance in the race.

Did Steve McQueen race in Le Mans?

It’s a common question, and the answer is no.

His company, Solar Productions did enter a Porsche 908/2 into the 1970 race, fitting it with cameras to capture real-life footage for McQueen’s Le Mans film but the man himself, who had hoped to race a 917 with Jackie Stewart, was barred from entering by his insurers.

Instead, he had to content himself with repeated running during the five-month shoot at Le Mans, from the end of the 1970 race to November of that year.