HE has already conquered the cycling track with a record-breaking tally of six Olympic gold medals.
Now Sir Chris Hoy is turning his attention to a new competitive challenge as a professional car driver, with the ultimate aim of competing in the world-famous Le Mans 24 Hours race.
Britain's most decorated Olympian has confirmed he will join the British GT Championship in a Nissan as part of a three-year plan to take part in the French classic.
Sir Chris, 38, only made his car racing debut last season in the relatively new Radical SR1 Cup and has driven a variety of Nissan GT touring cars in preparation for the step up.
He said: "It's quite intimidating [but] I want to do my best and do these guys justice.
"It might sound ridiculous right now but my ambition in motorsport is to compete at Le Mans. Who knows if it's even remotely possible but that's my dream. I'm in the right place to do it."
The champion cyclist has joined the Japanese manufacturer's Academy outfit Team RJN and will be partnered in its NISMO GT-R GT3 by Alex Buncombe.
"We always do things differently," said Nissan GB marketing director Guillaume Masurel.
Sir Chris said: "There are fantastic people here who have the right experience. If I can do what they tell me to do, listen to them and develop, then it may not be a ridiculous dream.
"At the moment, though, I'm just thinking about British GT and we'll see how this season goes."
Commonly known as the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency, teams at Le Mans have to balance speed against the cars' ability to run for 24 hours without sustaining mechanical damage to the car and manage the cars' consumables, primarily fuel, tyres and braking materials.
The endurance of the drivers is also tested as drivers frequently spend stints of over two hours behind the wheel before stopping in the pits and allowing a relief driver to take over the driving duties.
Drivers then grab what food and rest they can before returning to drive another stint.
The Le Mans 24 Hours circuit is known as the Circuit de la Sarthe. The nine-mile loop, a mix of permanent track and public roads closed for the event, has claimed the lives of 22 drivers in its 80 year history.
The race is no stranger to tragedy. In 1955, 84 people were killed when a car crash sent debris flying into the crowd.
In 1972, Swedish driver Jo Bonnier was killed instantly when he collided with a Ferrari and the force of the impact catapulted him into woodland lining the track.
In last year's tournament, Danish racing driver Allan Simonsen was fatally injured after losing control and striking crash barriers at the Tertre Rouge section.
Sir Chris, from Edinburgh, announced his surprise retirement from track cycling in April 2013 saying it had taken all his energy to win at the London Olympics in 2012.
He had been expected to compete in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games but said he felt "to go on for another year would be one too far".
Besides winning six Olympic gold medals between 2004 and 2012, Sir Chris' sporting achievements include 11 world championship titles and two Commonwealth Games golds from Manchester 2002 and Melbourne 2006.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article