Perry McCarthy starts his bid for glory at this year's Le Mans 24-hour race today.

The Billericay driver and team-mates Mika Salo and Frank Biela have the first of two qualifying sessions for the sportscar endurance race this evening.

The trio will go again in the second session tomorrow evening ahead of race, which starts at 3pm BST on Saturday.

And McCarthy is hoping to take the chequered flag for Audi as he tackles the world famous track for a fifth time in a car that has won the race for the last three years.

"The Audi has been extremely fast for the past three years and their ability has been nothing short of fantastic, and it's this excellent combination that has earned them their three victories," said 41-year-old McCarthy.

"I'm out to win and I need my body to keep up with that expectation. The incredible performance of today's top racing cars exerts a high level of G-force from acceleration, cornering and braking."

McCarthy first raced the Audi R8 in 1999 at Florida's Sebring 12-hour race and he drove the car to sixth place with Jonny Kane and Salo in March this year.

That race was won by Biela who will be going for his fourth consecutive Le Mans win this weekend.

McCarthy will be hoping to be a part of that at the French circuit following four retirements in his previous attempts at Le Mans.

"The Le Mans circuit is my favourite race track," said McCarthy. "It possesses a combination of high, medium and low speed corners that offer a driver a rewarding challenge.

"There are few European circuits long enough to allow cars to travel in excess of 200mph for a lengthy period of time and even fewer that allow the driver to carry that same speed into some of its corners, making Le Mans unique in many respects."

Essex-born ex-Formula One driver Johnny Herbert is also in action at Le Mans driving a works Bentley.

Published Wednesday, June 11, 2003

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