By Becky Waring

Globally, there's probably no more a fabled auto race than the 24 Hours of Le Mans. First run in 1923, the 2009 edition takes place on Jun 13-14. Past winners read like a who's who of auto racing, including legends like Jacky Ickx, Derek Bell, Bruce McLaren, Carroll Shelby and A.J. Foyt (who won in a Ford GT40 built by Shelby).

Le Mans is run on an 8.5-mile closed circuit consisting of both racetrack and public roads in the Sarthe region of Northern France. Speeds can reach 250 mph on the straights and require throttling down to 65mph on some corners, a real challenge for both car and driver. The 2008 qualifying speed was 247mph, not far from the record of 251 set by the Porsche 962 in 1985; the average speed for the entire 24 hours is well over 200 mph.

As a test of endurance and reliability, Le Mans requires different skills and car types than most other car racing classes. Le Mans teams use customized production GT sports cars, such as Audi R10s, BMW M3s and Peugeot 908s, although Audi has dominated in recent years as other car manufacturers have cut back on their racing expenditures. Porsche was on top through much of the 70s and 80s, Ferrari and Ford in the 60s and Jaguar in the 50s. One of the biggest attractions of Le Mans has always been that you could theoretically buy one of these cars and drive it yourself on the same roads the pros race on.

The 21st Century has been dominated by repeat winners Tom Kristensen, Emanuele Pirro, Franck Biela, Marco Werner and Stéphane Sarrazin. Three-person teams run one car through the 24 hours, making as few time-eating pit stops as possible, because with so little room for error, extra pit stops can result in losing a race. One of the quirks of Le Mans is that cars must be turned off when pitting, and no work on the car, such as changing tires, can take place at the same time as refueling. This makes for much longer stops than in most other race series, up to a minute or more, depending on the amount of maintenance needed. Driver changes also take place during pit stops.

More than 200,000 people come to view the race each year. It starts mid-afternoon on Saturday and ends at the same time on Sunday, allowing for plenty of spectator time. You can also come earlier in the week for qualifying rounds.

Le Mans (which boasts 46 iPass hotspots) is an easy weekend trip from Paris, 2 hours west of the city by car on the A11 autoroute, or 1 hour on the high-speed TGV train, which runs up to about 200 mph (still not as fast as the Le Mans racers!). Paris itself has almost 1,900 iPass locations, so you'll never be out of touch.

Le Mans tickets are available online now.

Gentlemen, start your engines!