Way back in 1966—after two unsuccessful attempts to beat Ferrari at its own game—the Ford Motor Company scored an impressive win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Last June, the Blue Oval returned to La Sarthe for a repeat performance, finishing first and third in class (bookending a Ferrari in the process). The company is hoping that was no one-off, and it will be back again this year with a four-car effort, hoping to make it two for two. That race takes place between June 17 and 18, but ahead of the event we caught up with one of Ford's racing drivers, Joey Hand, to find out how the preparation has been going and his thoughts on competing in one of our favorite races of the year.

Hand has raced in a ton of different series but appears to be enjoying racing in the factory-backed GTE-Pro and GTLM (in IMSA's series) class. "It's one of the most competitive things I've done," he told Ars. "You have two factory drivers all the time, so it makes for good, tough fights."

Having spent the last 12 years racing in sports cars, Hand is more than familiar with the competition, many of whom he's been racing against week in and week out. "You don't get along with everybody; there's always someone you don't gel with on the race track... but we have respect for each other," he explained.

Although plenty of racing drivers are superstitious when it comes to preparing for a race, that isn't Hand's style. "I'm not super-big on that stuff, I like to be comfortable. That means I eat well, I sleep well, and I get some workouts in. The reason I came home [between the Le Mans test weekend and the race week] is because of that comfort. I love my family, and to spend 18 days over there—I could find something to do, but the most comfortable thing is to be here," he said.

Physical training for the race is mainly crossfit, which he does with his wife.

Hand is going into this year's race as one of the defending GTE-Pro champions, having won the race in 2016 with teammates Dirk Müller and Sebastian Bourdais (who will miss this year's race following a massive crash during the run-up to the Indy 500). We were curious—does going into the race as the defending winner make it easier or add to the pressure?

"For sure," he laughed. "That pressure last year! You just know the car was built to win Le Mans, that was the whole point. And it was built to win in 2016. It had a timeline. It was like Babe Ruth calling a home run; we had to hit it out of the park—and we did. If we won it this year it would be the cherry on top. I'm sure the other guys (in the other three Ford cars) want to win it, but it's definitely easier for me," he said.

Last year Ford was accused of sandbagging in the run-up to the race in order to get a more lenient Balance of Performance (also known as BoP—where the cars are given extra weight or smaller air restrictors to equalize performance) from the race organizers. However, this year the story coming out of the test day is that the team is concerned about a lack of pace compared to its rivals at Ferrari and other teams.

Hand didn't want to be drawn into discussing the dreaded BoP, but he said that the only thing that's clear is that since last year, his car has had weight added and its engine's boost reduced. "We're not going to be as quick as last year. The only thing I'll say is that last year we had a great fight with Ferrari, we had to fight with them," he said. But he described being happy with the handling of the Ford GT and the tires the car will be running on (which are a slightly different spec Michelin to the ones the team uses here in IMSA's series). "From my standpoint in the cockpit, I felt good about what we were trying," he said.

Much of the work has been on improving comfort in the car, particularly important in the current era of endurance racing where every lap needs to be as close to the car's limits as possible. (This is in stark contrast to even a decade ago, where getting a car to the finish meant driving at maybe 70 percent of its ultimate pace.) "We spent some time on places that might not have been so comfortable last year, trying to make things better from the mechanical grip side of things. I like the car a good bit in those sectors where we have that fast stuff—Porsche Curves, Indianapolis, etc. You don't want to be fighting that thing through the Porsche Curves all night long, because it really changes the sweaty factor," he told us.

This year's 24 Hours of Le Mans kicks off at 9am EDT (3pm CET) on Saturday, June 17. You can watch it online via the FIAWEC streaming app or webpage (which requires a subscription), or on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2.

Listing image by Ford