With F1 dominating BMW's motorsport plans, has the company missed an opportunity to put one over on Porsche in the greatest race on earth, asks Dominic Holtam?

The last vestiges of daylight are little more than a bright smear on the horizon, silhouetting skeletal trees. Loud disco music thumps away as fireworks fill the sky. The fun fair echoes to the sound of whoops and cheers and the air is thick with smoke and steam. In the background, there's the cry of race car engines. Forget the Monaco Grandprix or the Indy 500, the Le Mans 24-hour is the greatest motor race on earth.

Around a quarter of a million people step through the gates at the Circuit de La Sarthe during the race week, including a staggering 80,000 Brits who make the pilgrimage in all sorts of automotive exotica. Stop for a coffee on route and watch GT40's, Aston Martins endless Ferraris and Lamborghinis drive by. Porsche 911 drivers barely get a second look. And where else but Le Mans could you get stuck in a traffic jam next to Stirling Moss in a C-Type Jag? I kid you not.
After a slightly ordinary race in 2000, in which Audi's enormous budget (rumoured to be more for the one race than a mid-grid F1 team spends in a year!) saw them romp home in a formation one-two-three finish, the 2001 race as more vibrant than ever. The return of the Bentley Boys and the little MG prototypes provided a big draw for the British Contingent, and even hours of sheeting rain couldn't dampen their spirits, as the flags waved through the night.
The big disappointment, however, was the lack of BMW's. Two years ago, the works V12 LMR won one of the most thrilling Le Mans battles eve, trading places constantly with the challengers from Toyota and Mercedes. Yannick Dalmas, who picked up his fourth victory, claimed it was the 'biggest race one can win'. BMW obviously felt it should leave on a high note.
The 2001 motorsport program has been dominated by BMW's F1 effort, and there's no doubt they're doing a spectacularly good job the Munich V10 is the class of the field. There's a difference though, between an F1 race and an endurance race - about 22 hours. If there wasn't the budget for a full on works assault on the prototype class, surely the awesome M3 GTR should have been unleashed on the Porsche contingent in the GT category?
The Stuttgart concern has taken more victories than any other in the French classic, and this year, its cars were unchallenged in the production - based class. Why so, when the M3 is beating it in the ALMS and the ELMS? There was no factory effort from Porsche, so surely BMW has missed a tick here.
The prospect of a derivative of a sub-£40,000 sports coupé winning Le Mans is outrageous. And surely there's no greater proof that BMW build the best engines if the GTR gains the same kind of plaudits as the BMW WilliamsF1 contender has? The old adage of winning on Sunday and selling on Monday still rings true.
Maybe BMW feels that it doesn't need anymore help to sell the M3. Maybe it feels that the ALMS commitments are sufficient (despite the fact that more than ten times as many spectators watch the Le Mans). Maybe I'm just bitter that our favourite marque is not represented at my favourite race.
Of course, that didn't stop me going - and it shouldn't stop you either. Join the party, and I'll see you there next year.

Article reproduced with the kind permission of BMW Car magazine, published by Unity Media plc.

Written by Dominic Holtam