86 Stats in 86 Days Until 86th 24 Hours of Le Mans – Day 28, Most Races By Country, With One Driver (April 18, 2018)

The 86th annual 24 Hours of Le Mans is 59 days away! This is the 28th day of the 86 Stats in 86 Days Until the 86th 24 Hours of Le Mans blog.

Each day from now until the Friday before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, we’ll post a list of stats related to the race. Some are well-known statistics, while others are a little more in-depth.

A total of 60 countries or special administrative regions have been represented in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Latvia, Singapore and Turkey joining the list in the 2017 race. At least one driver from France and the United Kingdom have competed in all 85 of the previous 24 Hours of Le Mans races. Here is the list of the 20 countries represented in the most races, with at least one driver.

Countries Represented in Most 24 Hours of Le Mans By One Driver, By Number of Races

- France: 85 races (First: 1923/Last: 2017; longest streak of 85 races, 1923-2017)

- United Kingdom: 85 races (First: 1923/Last: 2017; longest streak of 85 races, 1923-2017)

- Italy: 80 races (First: 1925/Last: 2017; longest streak of 68 races, 1950-2017)

- Belgium: 73 races (First: 1923/Last: 2017; longest streak of 65 races, 1953-2017)

- United States: 73 races (First: 1929/Last:2017; longest streak of 70 races, 1939-2017)

- Germany: 70 races (First: 1930/Last: 2017; longest streak of 66 races, 1952-2017)

- Switzerland: 67 races (First: 1923/Last: 2017; longest streak of 34 races, 1958-1991)

- Netherlands: 61 races (First: 1935/Last: 2017; longest streak of 31 races, 1987-2017)

- Australia: 57 races (First: 1928/Last: 2017; longest streak of 15 races, 1996-2010)

- Sweden: 56 races (First: 1932/Last: 2017; longest streak of 37 races, 1981-2017)

- Austria: 50 races (First: 1957/Last: 2017; longest streak of 19 races, 1985-2003)

- Spain: 47 races (First: 1924/Last: 2017; longest streak of 18 races, 1985-2002)

- Japan: 41 races (First: 1973/Last: 2017; longest streak of 38 races, 1980-2017)

- Canada: 37 races (First: 1923/Last: 2017; longest streak of 9 races, 2000-2008)

- Brazil: 36 races (First: 1954/Last: 2017; longest streak of 15 races, 2003-2017)

- Denmark: 35 races (First: 1983/Last: 2017; longest streak of 35 races, 1983-2017)

- Monaco: 34 races (First: 1928/Last: 2017; longest streak of 23 races, 1995-2017)

- New Zealand: 33 races (First: 1959/Last: 2017; longest streak of 7 races twice, 1961-1967 and 2011-present)

- South Africa: 33 races (First: 1961/Last: 2017; longest streak of 13 races, 1982-1994)

- Mexico: 28 races (First: 1958/Last: 2017; longest streak of 15 races, 1958-1972)

Notes of Interest

- Luigi Chinetti has represented Italy and the United States. He was the only American driver in the 1949 race, though no Italian drivers competed in the 1949 race. He represented Italy prior to World War II, having driven as an Italian in the last race before the war, in 1939. Had he competed in the 1949 as an Italian, Italy would have been represented in every 24 Hours of Le Mans since 1930, and missed only the 1923, 1924, 1927 and 1929 races.

- Allan Moffat was born in Canada, but raced in Australia for much of his career. However, he was not granted Australian citizenship until 2004, thus technically, he was Canadian-only while racing in the 1980 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is how this document is constructed. Either way, he’s be the only Canadian or only Australian that competed in that race. If he is considered both, that would move Australia’s total to 58, and its longest streak of races with at least one driver from 15 to 18 (1973-1990).

- Mark Patterson was born in South Africa, and as such is considered to have raced for South Africa from the 2014 races on for the purpose of this blog. However, he races with the flag of the United States on his suit, as he’s spent much of his life in the U.S. as a resident and the CEO of an American-based company. To further complicate the issue, he is listed on the United Autosports website as living in Mexico. Moving him from competing as a driver from South Africa to the U.S. would drop South Africa’s total to 29, one more than Mexico.

- Only one driver competed for the United States in the 1992 race, Olindo Iacobelli, who was born in Italy but was a citizen of the United States at the time.