24 Hours of Le Mans Closed to Spectators

The 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, scheduled for Sept. 19-20, will be raced behind closed doors, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest announced.

A plan that would have allowed a limited number of fans to the 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans had been considered, organizers said, but recommendations from public health and safety authorities and the uncertainty surrounding the development of the situation led the ACO and the Sarthe Prefecture to decide to hold the event without spectators.

“The 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans will go down in the annals of history as, sadly, the world’s greatest endurance race that will be run this year with no spectators trackside. Over the last few weeks, we have looked at many ways in which we could hold our event in September with fans present, albeit in limited numbers,” said ACO president Pierre Fillon. “However, given the constraints involved in organising a festival-scale event over several days in the current situation, we have opted with the local government authorities to hold the race behind closed doors.”