We have of course discussed the existence (or otherwise) of a 'Triple Crown of Motor Sport' before. DCN even admitted to (probably) being one of the perpetrators of this semi-mythical title.
https://forums.autos...n/#entry1290541
It has however been a decade since anyone came close to emulating Graham Hill's achievement of WDC, Indy 500 and Le Mans, when in 2008 - on his second and last appearance - Jacques Villeneuve finished second at Le Mans, missing out on a win by just over four and a half minutes. He seems to have forgotten that in 2007 he said he would continue to run at Le Mans until he won it ...
Today we've seen Fernando Alonso become the 25th driver to win Le Mans at his first attempt (or the 23rd if you discount Messrs Lagache and Leonard in the first race in 1923). Last year he ran very impressively at Indianapolis, leading 27 laps before having to retire from 7th place when his Honda engine let go on the front straight. He took to oval racing like the proverbial duck to water and in a statistical quirk has actually already led more laps at the Brickyard than either Graham Hill or Jacques Villeneuve. He's also only done one previous race in sports cars - this year's Daytona 24 Hours.
It is strongly rumoured that McLaren intend to undertake a full IndyCar season in 2019 - and of course from both McLaren's and IndyCar's point of view Alonso's presence would be a tremendous draw and could open up the possibility of a 'quadruple crown' if he was able to win both the 500 and the championship. Villeneuve, Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi - all long retired - all won the 500, the CART title and the WDC, but none of them ever won Le Mans. Fernando is now half way there, but will he achieve all four?
On another note, it was nice to see the Porsche GTs sporting replica liveries - one (the class winner) painted in homage to the famous 'Pink Pig' 917 and another in the classic blue, white and red scheme which typified the Rothmans-sponsored cars.