Despite the Le Mans 24 Hours race throwing everything that it could at James Winslow, the race ace from Witham was delighted to finish motorsport’s most iconic endurance event.

In his second visit to the famous Circuit de la Sarthe venue in northern France, the 33-year-old from Witham overcame setbacks to complete the full 24 hours for the first time.

Writing on his Facebook account, Winslow said: “We did it...we got to the chequered flag of the ‪#‎LeMans24‬!!

“The toughest, most demanding race in the world threw everything at us, (but) like a wounded bull we powered on and on and on!”

Just getting an entry into the iconic event can be momentous for racing drivers and making it to the chequered flag is a huge achievement.

Winslow’s previous visit in 2014 ended well before the end after one of his team-mates was involved in a collision that ended their race after just 31 laps.

But the Witham ace, who has won two Australian F3 titles in his career, made it to the end this time as part of the Swiss Race Performance team in the LMP2 class along with co-drivers Switzerland’s Nicolas Leutwiler and Japan’s Shinji Nakano.

The trio shared driving duties throughout the 24 hours in their Oreca 03-R car, making it a total of 289 times around the 13.6km Circuit de la Sarthe.

Having qualified in 26th place, they had to overcome a number of setbacks, though, having their Judd HK 3.6 litre V8 engine beset by electrical problems from the start.

However, they and their mechanics got the car to the end, finishing 44th in the overall standings and 17th in the LMP2 class.