In honor of the 78th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2010, the michelinracingusa.com staff offers 24 bits of Le Mans history, factoids and trivia. See www.michelinracingusa.com for updates, features and the complete list, plus Rick Dole photos.

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Note 17 of 24: Up to Speed

American race fans will once again enjoy hyper-extended coverage of the world’s premier race thanks to SPEED TV.

Calvin Fish, Leigh Diffey, Brian Till and Dorsey Schroeder will anchor the coverage from the air conditioned, catered, climate controlled comfort of the network’s plush Charlotte studios.

Meanwhile, Jamie Howe, Chris Neville, Justin Bell, and Andrew Marriott will cover the pits live at Le Mans, enduring heat, rain, sunburn, darkness, snack foods and the occasional brief nap on a plastic chair to tell us what is really happening.

Karl Koenigstein, technical team leader for the Michelin ALMS efforts, drew a rare pass on Le Mans this year.  He will likely camp out on his couch, TV remote in hand. Karl can be expected to have Le Mans timing and scoring, and the michelinracingusa.com blog on the laptop monitor along with Radio Le Mans. A mobile phone will be at the ready for text messaging. An entire case of assorted flavors of Pringles snack chips may disappear during the race if Karl holds to his one can per hour race strategy.

The SPEED broadcast schedule (Live, All Times Eastern)

Saturday, June 12

8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Le Mans – The Start, SPEEDTV
12:30 – 6:00 p.m. Le Mans – Streaming video, SPEED.com
6:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m. Le Mans – Overnight, SPEEDTV

Sunday, June 13

6:00 – 9:30 a.m. Le Mans – The Finish, SPEEDTV