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Some important things to know about the Le Mans 24 Hour race

What: The Le Mans 24 Hour race is the opening round of the QMMF FIM Endurance World Championship. Specially modified but production based motorcycles race for twenty four hours, stopping only for fuel and fresh tyres while 100,000 spectators party through the night.

When: The race is held over the weekend on the 21st/22nd April. It starts at 15:00 local time on Saturday afternoon; 14:00 UK time. The first hour is shown live on one of the Eurosport channels and there are regular updates through the afternoon, evening and following morning.

Where: The race is held at Le Mans, but *not* on the same track that the cars use. The bikes use the Bugatti circuit which shares the start/finish straight and Dunlop chicane with the car circuit but then loops back on itself to form a conventional 4.403km (2.752 miles) short circuit rather than the full 17.2km loop.

How: Teams of three riders share each bike, typically riding for 45 minutes to an hour at a time before the bike pits for fuel and new tyres. The race goes on through the night with lap times barely slowing as darkness falls. The winner is the team to complete the most laps in 24 hours.

Who: Last year's Le Mans race was won by the National Motos Honda, although second placed SERT Suzuki went on to win the World Endurance Champ-ionship. Yamaha GMT94 won in 2005, and SERT Suzuki won in 2004, 2003 and 2002.

This year's race is expected to be a fight between the top French teams SERT Suzuki, Kawasaki France, National Motos Honda and GMT94 Yamaha. Expect privateers Yamaha Austria, Yamaha Phase One, Yamaha X One, Kawaski Bolliger, Kawasaki Diablo, and Suzuki Sweden to be right up there as the race plays out overnight.

Official Le Mans site: www.lemans.org/24heuresmoto/live/pages/accueil_fr.html

The entry list: www.lemans.org/24heuresmoto/live/pages/engages_gb.html

The race schedule: www.lemans.org/24heuresmoto/live/pages/horaires_gb.html

Live results: http://www.lemans.org/24heuresmoto/live/pages/chronos_fr.html

Official championship website: www.FIMendurance.com

More team and endurance links here: www.Race24.com/links.html