By Colin Wood
Jun 9, 2025
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Highlands 101,
Le Mans Start
A Le Mans start not challenging enough? The former Highlands 101 race at New Zealand’s Highlands Motorsport Park created its own take on the famed race start, one that involved a foot race.
In comparison to the traditional Le Mans start, the Highlands 101 had cars parked in pit lane with a driver already in place and ready to drive, with a co-driver from each team positioned some 800 feet away.
When the flag dropped, the co-drivers made the sprint to pull a flag from their corresponding car. Once the flag was pulled, the car could leave. (With pit lane speed still enforced, of course.)
Feel free to enjoy the whole race broadcast, though we won’t judge if you skip to the 12:50 mark to watch the foot race.
6/9/25 2:59 p.m.
I'm not saying that more series should adopt this style of starting, but I certainly wouldn't complain if next year's 24 Hours of Daytona started this way.
6/9/25 3:57 p.m.
Admittedly, I was expecting this. 😑
6/9/25 4:00 p.m.
At 10:50 in, I understand the pain of people thinking just because I'm tall, I run fast. It was the death of me in high school track–well that plus asthma.
6/10/25 3:13 p.m.
No.
6/11/25 1:21 a.m.
Reminds me of the time that a buddy of mine challenged me to a foot race at our autocross course. He could run faster on account of being like 8" taller, but he's also like 180 lbs heavier, most of it muscle. Those tight turns slowed him down haha.
6/11/25 4:00 p.m.
The way the foot race is done makes it a disadvantage for the top qualifiers because they have so much further to run to get to their car.
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