The 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 57th Grand Prix of Endurance, taking place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on the 10 and 11 June 1989. This year it was not included as a round of the 1989 World Sports-Prototype Championship. The entry list promised a strong contest between five manufacturers. Jaguar had won in 1988 and went on to win the championship; while Sauber had finished second and was now matching Jaguar on the track. New regulations were coming in 1991, and the first examples of the 3.5-litre normally-aspirated formula were entered by Spice Engineering.
Although the Saubers started on the front row, it was the Jaguar of Davy Jones that led for the first three hours until the car suddenly came to a stop on the back straight, dropping them well down the field. With the Saubers running to a designated race-pace, it was the Joest Porsche of Wollek and Stuck that took the lead, keeping it for six hours, and into the night. The Jaguar team kept having niggly problems that left them constantly playing catch-up. As night fell, against predictions it was the Joest Porsches running a 1-2. However, at 1.20am, Stuck brought his car in with overheating problems, losing the 3-lap lead they had built up. This moved the Lammers Jaguar to the front for the rest of the night, chased by two of the Saubers. The race was lost for Jaguar as dawn arrived, as their three remaining cars were waylaid. Two of them needed full gearbox changes. This left the Saubers racing each other for the lead on the same lap. However, when Baldi ran out of brakes and ended up in the Dunlop gravel-trap, Dickens went through to take a lead he would not relinquish. Baldi's Sauber lost its chance to fight back when the gearbox broke leaving co-driver Acheson to run home stuck in fifth gear. Third was the Wollek/Stuck Porsche, fighting clutch problems, seven laps behind the winners, with the best of the Jaguars – that of Lammers/Tambay/Gilbert-Scott – in fourth.
In the C2 class, it had been a race of attrition with every car suffering some kind of delay and only five of the fourteen starters finishing. In the end, the class win went to the Cougar of Philippe Farjon and Courage Compétition. Mazda again had the GTP class to themselves and, again, they were pleased to have all three cars finish – the best coming home seventh overall, 21 laps behind the winner. The event was also notable for the unusual number of cars having engine fires - with six of them afflicted either in practice or during the race. Despite the alarming spectacles that produced, the drivers were all able to stop and get out without suffering injury.
Regulations
At the end of 1988, the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) announced an overhaul of the Group C regulations. From 1991, the fuel restrictions would be removed, and the cars would have a weight-limit of 750kg and be powered by 3.5-litre non-turbo engines. The formula was proposed by Bernie Ecclestone, the FIA officer in charge of promotion. These engines were coming into Formula 1 this year, and it was an undisguised attempt to bring the major Sports Car manufacturers (Porsche, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda) into that series at a reduced cost of two series for one engine. Races would be 350km (with co-drivers optional), aside from the only endurance race in the schedule- at Le Mans.[1][2][3]
At a stroke, Group C would be consigned to history, with 1989 and 1990 now designated as transitional seasons to allow the new models to be phased in. Group C2 would be ended at the close of this year.[4] Group C cars would still run to the fuel restrictions, with an additional 50kg of minimum weight added and manual control of the turbo-boost now banned.[1] In contrast, the new 3.5-litre engines were not under these restrictions.[3] This year's championship would be 9 rounds, with teams required to enter every round or face a US$250,000 fine per race missed.[1][2][3] The only exception was for Japanese teams who could miss one European round. The ACO (Automobile Club de l'Ouest) was allowed to take entries from non-Championship cars if the number of official entries was less than 50. Ecclestone also stated that the FIA had control over TV rights and had also signed contracts for race-timing with Longines and Olivetti.[1][2]
All of these were at odds with the contracts the ACO already had in place. When it was still unresolved by May, the ACO had no option but to withdraw the race from the World Championship. This did not go down well with many teams – particularly the Japanese ones – who had committed to the costly full season to be able to compete at Le Mans, which they could now do anyway.[1][5] This year, the ACO modified the formula for the Indice Energétique, to become the Challenge Econergie.[6]
Entries
Despite the FIA regulations, the entry-list was one of the strongest of the Group C era, with five different manufacturers now with genuine race-winning aspirations. There were 25 factory cars – with the notable exception of Porsche. However, it was supporting a flotilla of 17 customer entries, easily the strongest marque present. Joining them this year was Aston Martin, late to the party, and Spice, who were the first to introduce a design to the new 3.5-litre specifications. The C2 class of 18 was dominated by Spice, with 8 entries reflecting its current dominance in racing series around the world. Once again, Mazda entered its cars in the IMSA-GTP class, and again the three of them had the class to themselves. For the first time since 1982 (the inaugural year of the Group C era), a full grid of 55 cars took the start.[7]
Class
Quantity
Turbo+Rotary engines
Group C1
41 / 38
33 / 30
IMSA-GTP
3 / 3
3 / 3
Group C2
18 / 14
2 / 2
Total Entries
62 / 55
38 / 35
Note: The first number is the number accepted, the second the number who started.
Group C1
In 1988, Jaguar had achieved their goal to win Le Mans again, and then won the World Championship for the second consecutive year. They were also running a full programme in the IMSA series. This year, under new TWR Technical Director Ross Brawn, they were moving quickly to prepare the new twin-turbo V6 car (called the XJR-10 for IMSA and XJR-11 for Group C). Meanwhile, four of last year's XJR-9 were prepared for Le Mans instead. With further refinement from TWR's engine-specialist, Allan Scott, they were able to reach 390kp/ h (240mph).[8] They were also now fitted with 18" tyres.[9] Race winner Jan Lammers was now paired with former Ferrari F1 driver Patrick Tambay. They were joined for this race by British F3000 driver Andrew Gilbert-Scott. The other championship duo was John Nielsen and Andy Wallace, with Price Cobb (Nielsen's co-driver in the IMSA series). Together, these three had finished second in the Daytona 24-hours. The third car had Americans Davy Jones and Jeff Kline, with Derek Daly; while the fourth had the Ferté brothers, Alain and Michel, racing with Chilean Eliseo Salazar.[8]
Sauber C9
After withdrawing from the event last year, the SauberMercedes-Benz had gone on to better things. Finishing second in the Championship to Jaguar, they had then started this year with a win at Suzuka. The C9 had received a number of aero refinements. Hermann Hiereth and his team at Mercedes-Benz developed the new 5.0-litre twin-turbo V8 M119 engine: now a double overhead cam design with four valves per cylinder, it had improved power and fuel efficiency and could put out 720bhp. After the tyre failures the previous year, Michelin had done extensive high-speed testing to supply reliable rubber to the team,[10] although their cornering performance still left a bit to be desired.[11] The team's main concern was whether the Hewland transmission would withstand the extreme torque put through it for 24 hours.[11][5] Mercedes sports director Jochen Neerpasch brought 86 works personnel to support Sauber team manager Dave Price with the three cars,[12] now decked out with the 3-pointed star and silver livery of Mercedes to emphasise the closer bond.[13][14][5] This year, lead driver Jean-Louis Schlesser came to the race, with fellow Frenchmen Alain Cudini and former Matra and Renault driver Jean-Pierre Jabouille. Schlesser's co-driver at Suzuka, Mauro Baldi raced with Kenny Acheson and Gianfranco Brancatelli, while the other works driver, Jochen Mass had Manuel Reuter and Swede Stanley Dickens with him.[12]
RLR Porsche 962 GTi
Although not contesting the Championship, the Porsche factory sent crews to support their favoured customer teams: Joest, Brun and Schuppan – all with the 1988 3.0-litre water-cooled engine.[15] Lead designer Norbert Singer prepared the cars for the Joest Racing team. They had three cars entered, of which the lead one, driven by Bob Wollek and Hans-Joachim Stuck, had just come out of the Weissach factory. The other two cars were ex-works chassis – to be driven by Frank Jelinski/Pierre-Henri Raphanel/"John Winter" (Louis Krages) and the very experienced Henri Pescarolo/Claude Ballot-Léna (with 22 Le Mans starts each), with Jean-Louis Ricci. At Dijon, against the Jaguar and Sauber works teams, Wollek and Jelinski had got a surprise victory in the new car – the first victory for a Porsche since 1987.[15]Walter Brun was continuing with his expensive, unsuccessful foray into Formula 1 with his EuroBrun team, yet still managed to assemble five cars for an all-out effort at Le Mans. His two lead cars were new chassis built on honeycomb/carbon-fibre tubs, and dubbed "962C-BM". The other three cars were a mix of old and new 962s – Brun and his F1 driver Oscar Larrauri had the newest car.[16] In the absence of the works team, Vern Schuppan raced with his own team. With Eje Elgh and fellow-Australian Gary Brabham, they ran the ex-works Porsche used by the Andretti family last year. The team's second car was a brand-new chassis entrusted to Will Hoy, Dominic Dobson and young Jean Alesi (currently leading the Formula 3000 series, and about to start his Formula 1 career).[17] The Kremer brothers returned with their two honeycomb/carbon CK6 variants. Clocked at 380kp/h (235mph), they were the fastest Porsches in the field.[18]Richard Lloyd's team had missed the previous Le Mans but were back with two honeycomb GTi models of their own design. Lloyd had got Derek Bell as his lead driver, with Tiff Needell and James Weaver. The other car had 20-race veteran David Hobbs racing with Formula 3000 debutants Damon Hill and Steven Andskär[18] The other three Porsches were small teams who had taken the big commitment to run a full season: the German Obermaier Racing, with its Primagaz sponsorship; Briton Tim Lee-Davey had a car bought from Porsche GB; and the French Alméras brothers back at Le Mans for the first time since the 1970s.[18]
Nissan was becoming the car to beat in the IMSA competition with the Geoff Brabham winning the 1988 GTP Drivers' Championship for the Electramotive Engineering team. To manage its World Championship programme better, Nissan Motorsports Europe was set up at a new facility in England. March was dropped as chassis-supplier in favour of Lola Cars, who were supplying chassis to Electramotive in IMSA. Eric Broadley and Andy Scriven designed the R89C around the new Nissan 3.5-litre VRH35 engine. The twin-turbo double-overhead cam unit could reach over 800bhp. The chassis was derived from the Lola T810 currently dominating the IMSA series with Electramotive, itself derived from the old T600 of the early '80s.[19][20]
Like Nissan, Toyota had invested in setting up a new European base for its Championship season. Based in England, they brought in Dave "Beaky" Sims as team manager. This year's 89C-V featured the 3.2-litre turbo engine the company had started working on last year. For the first time, Toyota TOM'S brought three cars to Le Mans, along with a test-car. Former Jaguar drivers, John Watson and Johnny Dumfries had joined the team and were paired with team regular Geoff Lees. The other works drivers, Paolo Barilla/ Hitoshi Ogawa had the second car with Ross Cheever. The third car was one of last year's 2.1-litre 88C models, driven by Hoshino/Suzuki/Artzet.[22][13]
Aston Martin AMR1
On the thirtieth anniversary of their only previous victory, Aston Martin returned to Le Mans with a new car: the AMR-1. Now owned by Ford, Aston Martin had partnered up with the Écurie Écosse team of Richard Williams and Ray Mallock, to form Proteus Technology (Protech) with Williams as manager. Swedish-Canadian Max Boxstrom designed a Kevlar/carbon-fibre body around a radical aerodynamic layout that created a lot of downforce. The old Aston Martin 6.0-litre V8 was taken over by the American specialist car-convertors, Callaway. Now fitted with four-valve cylinders, it could develop 685bhp with Zytek fuel injection.[23][13][20] Their first chassis was destroyed in testing at Donington Park when David Leslie had a driveshaft failure. That meant missing the opening round and therefore incurring the US$250,000 fine from the FIA.[23][13] A disappointing race at Dijon showed the downforce was excessive and Boxstrom was dismissed. Rushed efforts were made to reduce as much drag as possible before Le Mans. The two cars sent to France had Écosse manager Mallock, Leslie and David Sears in one, and veteran Brian Redman with Costas Los and Michael Roe in the other.[23] The cars ran with a black stripe on their wings in commemoration of John Wyer, who had died two months earlier. Wyer had been the Aston Martin team-manager masterminding their race victory in 1959.[23][13][24]
Last year the small WM Secateva team had achieved immortality by recording the fastest speed ever at Le Mans. Yet this did not lead to a marked funding boost and they could not run a full international season. However, when Le Mans left the championship, they were motivated to hastily prepare an entry with the P88 cars from last year. With Michelin's new contract with Sauber, they had to modify the suspension for new tyres, and revised the rear wing. Roger Dorchy ran his famous car from 1988, while Pessiot and Raulet were reunited with the other chassis.[25] Unlike WM, the other French local did commit to a full WSC season, to be eligible for Le Mans. Yves Courage's team had three of their new C22 – replacing the one destroyed the previous year. Designed around the Porsche 3-litre turbo eingine, with water-cooling, it was given improved aerodynamics and air-ducting for the long straights. However, the top speed was a disappointing 365kp/h (225mph).[26] A problem arose in May when one of the cars was badly damaged when its car-transporter was in an accident. Funding was tight with the full-year entry now that the team was without their usual sponsor, Primagaz.[26] Concerned that they would be liable for a hefty fine for not meeting their requisite entry, the team accepted an offer from the Team LeMans to put the car they ran the previous year under the Cougar entry. Rebadged as a Cougar R87V, the Nissan-March 88G was detuned by NISMO to give better endurance, but this dropped its top speed down to 310kp/h (195mph).[27]
Spice SE89C
Spice Engineering was dominating the C2 and IMSA-Lights classes. Now that its contract with Pontiac had ended, the constructor took the opportunity to build a car to the FIA's new 750kg 3.5-litre Group C formula. They chose to base the car around the latest iteration of the famous Cosworth DFV, the DFZ. The engine was prepared by John Nicholson, while the new chassis was designed by Graham Humphrys. With a longer nose, the wheelbase was 50mm longer and the car 100mm wider. However, with only being able to reach 330kp/h (205mph), the car was no faster than their own C2 cars. Two cars were sent to Le Mans: Team principal Gordon Spice (who had announced he would retire from driving after this race) had his regular co-driver Ray Bellm, along with American Lyn St. James. The other works drivers, Thorkild Thyrring and Wayne Taylor would be joined by Tim Harvey.[28]
Group C2
Spice Engineering kept up its strong showing in the junior class with the new SE89. Eight chassis were built, four each for Group C2 and IMSA Lights. Two of the SE89Cs were entered at Le Mans, one from Graff Racing, with works support, and the other for Chamberlain Engineering. Both were powered with the reliable 3.3-litre Cosworth DFL engine. Chamberlain also entered his older RE86C car, with its 1.9-litre turbocharged Hart engine. His regular team drivers, Fermin Velez and Nick Adams had the new car, while for Jean-Philippe Grand Le Mans was his sole focus for the season.[29] As the cars to beat, there were another four Spices entered: the 1988-championship winning car had been bought by Don Shead and entered by Team Mako, with its Cosworth powerplant tuned by Swiss engine-specialist Heini Mader. The new France Prototeam had bought the ex-Ricci SE88C, also fitted with a Mader-prepared Cosworth. GP Motorsport returned with their SE87C, while the final Spice was, in fact, the first Spice chassis made – the SE86C of Swiss Pierre-Alain Lombardi, with another Mader-Cosworth.[29][30]
Chamberlain Spice SE88C
Tiga Race Cars had lost its market to Spice and was in severe financial difficulties. The GC289 was an evolution of the 287, with improved rear suspension and cooling. Three of the five chassis built were at Le Mans, all with the 3.3-litre DFL engine. The works car was driven by John Sheldon, Robin Donovan and Max Cohen-Olivar. Kelmar Racing had two of the GC288s upgraded to 289 set-up, one of which was leased to Noël del Bello who had put aside his Sauber this year.[31]
Tiga GC289
As well as their cars in the primary class, this year Courage also entered a car into C2. The three-year old chassis had originally been a C12, then progressively upgraded. Now called the C20LM, it was fitted with an older Porsche 2.8-litre turbo engine and modified to comply with the C2 regulations. Now owned by French driving-school director, Philippe Farjon, he knew a careful fuel-consumption strategy would be needed with the big turbo and the tighter fuel restrictions.[32] A change in FIA regulations now allowed teams to enter cars of different makes. The France Prototeam took advantage of this update to also enter an Argo JM19 owned by Jean Massaoudi alongside their Spice.[26]
ADA Engineering had sold their 03 chassis to John Pool's Plumtree Racing, but keen to return to Le Mans, the team repaired and renovated their second chassis as the ADA 02B with its Nicholson-Cosworth DFL. Pool joined owner-driver Ian Harrower, with Lawrence Bristow, for the race.[27]
ALD C289
After reasonable success recently, small French driver-constructor Louis Descartes had four cars at Le Mans. Along with last year's 04, there was the new C289 that the team ran in the Championship. Designed by Descartes, it was a carbon-fibre/Kevlar monocoque chassis with ground effects and the rear wing mounted off the gearbox. With bigger brakes, it was overweight and only had a top speed of 315kp/h (195mph) from the Nicholson-DFL. The car set-up was done by former Renault-Alpine driver Alain Serpaggi.[33] The other two chassis, 05 and 06, were entered by French hillclimber Didier Bonnet. Both were fitted with the 3.5-litre BMW engine and heavily modified. In fact, the 05 was altered so much from its original form that Descartes disowned it.[33]
Practice week had a tragic start, with a terrible accident on the night before, when a TWR crewman was killed crossing the road on the Ligne Droite (which formed the Hunaudières straight).[36] Rain on Wednesday limited the number of fast runs that could be done on the first day of practice.[37] However, Thursday was dry and sunny, and in the evening the Saubers showed their mettle with Schlesser putting in a 3:16.9 to set the standard. His team-mate Baldi then beat that with 3:15.7, breaking the speed radar on the Hunaudières straight at an incredible 400kp/h (248mph). Then out of nowhere, Geoff Lees wound the boost right up on the Toyota and stunned the paddock with a 3:15.5. Pushed to the limit, Schlesser went out and responded with a 3:15.0 to secure pole position. The officials then annulled Lees' time as it was set in a designated test-car, not a race-car. A basic mistake that had already cost Toyota previously, at a Suzuka round.[22] Therefore, Sauber-Mercedes locked out the front row after all. Lammers and Jones put their Jaguars in third and fourth, with Stuck's Joest-Porsche next – the end of Porsche's run of four consecutive pole positions. In the end, Lees was mired down in a lowly 17th.[38][39][36][40]
There were a few issues in practice: the Sauber of Jochen Mass lost its fifth gear which impeded its practice – they were down in 11th.[12] The team cautioned their drivers that gear-changes would need to be more measured for the race to last the 24 hours.[11] The RLR Porsche was one of the victims of the Wednesday rain, in a multiple pile-up at the Ford Chicane. The France Prototeam Spice aquaplaned off first, and then Needell came through and skated off hitting the C2 car. Lavaggi arrived on the scene next in the Kremer Porsche, followed by Taylor in the C1 Spice and both spun into the gravel. Taylor was getting out of his car when he saw Duez's Mazda fishtailing off the road towards him. Leaping back in the car, Duez missed Taylor, but hit his car head-on. Despite all the chaos, the cars were all repaired overnight and the only injury was a bruised arm for Taylor.[41] After a troublesome Wednesday, the Nissan team had a far better second day. The team realised the rear wings were mounted too low and causing instability. Once that was remedied, despite poor brakes, they were back on the pace and qualified 12th, 15th and 19th.[21][11] The new Aston Martins were a big disappointment. So much effort had been put into generating downforce, they could only reach 350kp/h (220mph) along the Hunaudières, barely keeping them ahead of the C2 cars. They also suffered from chronic "porpoising" as the cars got into a pendulum-like cycle of gaining and losing downforce, that was both dangerous and detrimental to shaking the drivers and engine to bits.[40][23] They qualified a woeful 32nd (3:34.1) and 40th (3:40.1).[39] WM also had a terrible qualifying. Dorchy, hero of 1988, had been able to set a 3:27 lap, reaching a sedate (for WM) 385kp/h (240mph) but in the evening session, his co-driver Maissoneuve was accelerating out of Mulsanne when a hydraulic line burned through, setting off a major engine fire. By the time he was able to come to a stop up against the barriers at Indianapolis, the flames had got into the cockpit. Although he got out just in time, the car was a write-off.[25] It was no better for their team-mates: they had a small fire and two engine failures. The team was fortunate to be able to salvage the engine from the Dorchy wreck and spent Friday night and Saturday morning installing it.[25]
Quickest down the speed-trap was Schlesser who reached the mystical 400kp/h (248mph). The next quickest was Roger Dorchy, who got to 385kp/h (240mph) in his WM before it blew up. Third-fastest was Ferté in the #4 Jaguar, at 380kp/h (235mph).[11] In GTP, Takashi Yorino raced the new Mazda 767B round in 3:25.5, fully 14 seconds faster than the team's best time last year. His qualifying place of 16th was the highest position Mazda had achieved at Le Mans. His teammates both went off-track during practice, leaving the pitcrew with a lot of work to get the cars ready for race-day.[34] This year, the C2 class was well off the pace of the C1 leaders. The best time was by the Graff Spice with a 3:38.7 to start 37th on the grid. The other new SE89C, of Chamberlain Engineering, was second quickest – a good effort since when practice started, they were still waiting for a qualifying-engine to arrive.[30] In fact, Spices took the top-six positions in the class. The France Prototeam Spice did get repaired overnight, but then lost the daytime practice with a broken driveshaft and had to qualify in the dark.[29][30] At the back of the field were the ALDs. The misfortune of the WM team, opened a place for Louis Descartes' new C289, however both Didier Bonnet's failed to qualify.[30]
Race
Start
Once again, a huge British contingent made the exodus to the race, anticipating a successful repeat of last year's heroics. Saturday was a warm sunny day.[41] Although the silver Saubers led the start, by the third lap Jones and Nielsen had barged past to give Jaguar a 1-2. Meanwhile, the other two Jags had fallen to the back of the field, having pitted on consecutive laps for suspected punctures.[8] The WM had not been ready to take the grid and started from the pit-lane, receiving a big cheer from the grandstand as they went out already a lap behind the field.[25] Julian Bailey, in the Nissan, had made a lightning start off the sixth row of the grid and also passed the Saubers. He was challenging Nielsen for second when he made a lunge at the Mulsanne corner – an unnecessary risk so early in the race. The cars collided and slowly limped back to the pits. The Nissan came off worst – the furious pit team found the suspension too bent and cracked to continue, and Bailey was the race's first retirement.[1][36][42][41][43]
The race did not start well for the ADA team. After only half an hour, Bristow brought the car in minus its right door. Although they fitted another one, that too blew off just three laps later. With no spares, a call was put out on Radio Le Mans and the original was returned by the over-enthusiastic souvenir hunter in the crowd.[27][30] From the start the two Spice SE89s took the class lead, with “Gigi” Taverna in the Chamberlain getting a break on the rest of the class, lapping them all after just two hours.[30] By the time night fell, there was a 3-lap between the Chamberlain and Graff cars, and a further 3 laps back to the Argo and Porto Kaleo Tiga.[30]
As the Saubers slipped back into their designated race-pace, it was the hot-pink Joest Porsche driven by the experienced Wollek that was chasing Jones in the leading Jaguar. The leading cars started pitting around lap 12, and already some of the top teams were having issues. Elgh jumped into the Schuppan Porsche, sitting in the top10, but lost two laps when it would not restart.[17] The Mercedes challenge faded in the second hour: Reuter had just taken over from Mass, but slipped out of the top-20 when he had to pit after running over exhaust debris on the back straight. Then Cudini spun the pole-sitting C9 at the Dunlop Curve avoiding a back-marker and had to spend eight minutes in the pits while the bodywork was repaired (dropping to 24th). Acheson, in the other Sauber, was driving conservatively to conserve the tyres.[1][44][43] In the early evening, Daly had almost a minute's lead over Wollek and Raphanel in the two Joest cars. Patrick Tambay was driving hard in the #1 Jaguar, getting back up to 4th ahead of the Acheson/Brancatelli Mercedes. At the third pit-stops (around lap 38-40), Wollek took the lead for a couple of laps in the pit sequence until he, too, came into refuel. He was also followed in by Dominic Dobson in the second Schuppan Porsche fielding a badly dented nose and tail – he had just been nerfed into the barriers by Wollek cutting his overtake too fine.[44][17]
Suddenly, in the 4th hour on lap 50, Daly lost all power coming onto Hunaudières, and the Porsche sailed by into the lead. Coached by the pit-crew via radio, Daly got out, pulled the back off the gearbox, and pushed it into 2nd gear and eventually made it back to the pits, but an hour was lost.[8][36] Meanwhile, the two Jaguars delayed in the first laps had been relentlessly powering back through the field – the Ferté brothers were now second and Lammers in third, until his co-driver Gilbert-Scott brought the car in with a broken exhaust. Falling to sixth, Tambay leapt back in and started another charge to make up time.[45][44] All this drama left Stuck (Porsche) with a decent lead over Acheson (Mercedes), Ferté (Jaguar), Jelinski (Porsche), the Japanese-driven Nissan, and Brun in the best of his Porsche stable.[44] At 7.30pm, Sekiya had a big accident in his Kremer CK6 at the Porsche Curves. Although looking spectacular, the Japanese driver was unhurt and an extended local caution was sufficient for the safety-crews to repair the stretch of flattened barrier.[44][43][18] Soon afterward Dumfries slammed his Toyota into the Armco further along the road. Although he got near the pit entry (at one point somehow dragging a Japanese TV camera along with him), the suspension was too wrecked to be able to turn in and he had to abandon the car.[22][44] This was the end of a wretched weekend for Toyota, as the other two cars had already been retired.
The race was interrupted at 8.45pm by a full-course caution when Dominic Dobson's Schuppan-Porsche had a major fuel-fire. The system may have sustained damage in the earlier incident, and when he was exiting the Mulsanne corner, the rear of the car suddenly erupted in a big ball of flame. He managed to pull over approaching the Indianapolis corner, and despite having troubles releasing his safety belts, got out without injury. As it was, the five pace-cars were only out for three laps, without compromising the race.[45][44][43][17]
Night
By 10pm, the Joest team were running 1-2 and Stuck had built a 2-lap buffer over Jelinski. The Baldi/Acheson/Brancatelli Sauber was third, a minute ahead of the squabbling Lammers-Jaguar and the Nissan. The Ferté/Salazar Jaguar had lost time in the pits again, this time due to a faulty exhaust.[44] At 10.30pm, Davy Jones brought his car into the pits with a terminal engine problem. An hour later, Raphanel brought in the second-placed Porsche losing water. Topping it up was not enough and they soon retired.[30][46] However, the Saubers were enjoying the cooler air of the night and started moving up the leaderboard.[30] By midnight, Wollek and Stuck had been leading for six hours, and now had a 2-lap lead over their opposition.[45] After a few stops with overheating, the Baldi Sauber had slipped back to third, overtaken by Lammers, while teammate Mass had charged back up to fifth. Larrauri was up to sixth in the Brun Porsche (constantly having to push to make up for his slower co-drivers[16]); with the Nielsen and Ferté Jaguars, the second Nissan, and the remaining Joest Porsche rounding out the top-10.[30]
Then at 1.20am Stuck came into the pit with their engine overheating. He spent a quarter-hour getting an errant radiator hose replaced, losing his 3-lap lead to the Lammers Jaguar. It meant they would need to top up with water at every subsequent pit-stop.[15][36][30][46] Through the middle of the night, the #1 Jaguar built their lead to almost two laps over the Baldi and Tambay in the Sauber. Mass had done a strong double-stint, putting in 3m24s laps and getting his Sauber back into third, right behind his teammate. The #2 Jaguar was trading fourth place with the Joest Porsche that was periodically stopping for top-ups of water. Often through the night, these three cars were barely fifteen seconds apart. Baldi recovered a lap again when the leading Jaguar had to pit for a slow-puncture.[47][46] The Hasemi/Hoshino/Suzuki Nissan had run very well, mixing it with the other works teams, holding down a steady fourth or fifth place going into Sunday morning. However, just before half-time they were forced out by a leaking water-hose that lead to overheating and a cracked cylinder head.[21][46] Their remaining car, with the IMSA drivers, had had all manner of problems with brakes, causing half a dozen spins and off-track excursions. Despite that, by dawn they were in the top-10 and even up to fifth at breakfast time, until an oil leak ruined the engine and ended their race soon afterward.[21]
Morning
Come the dawn, the Lammers/Tambay/Gilbert-Scott was still leading, pursued by the two Saubers. Then it all started unravelling for Jaguar. The Ferté/Salazar had come into the pits without 3rd gear while running 5th and lost 70 minutes, resuming in 16th place. At 5.30am, Nielsen retired from 4th with a broken engine.[35][8] Then less than an hour later, after leading for five hours, Lammers brought the #1 Jaguar into the pits covered in oil with another gearbox failure for the team – a seal had broken and the oil had leaked out. This time the repairs only took the pit-crew 50 minutes, and the resumed in 9th, 10 laps down and the best-placed Jaguar.[8][35][46] All this drama left Baldi and Mass racing each other in their Saubers, with the Joest, Brun and Schuppan Porsches filling out the top-five. The latter had made an excellent comeback through the night after Gary Brabham spun out at Indianapolis at 11pm, dropping them down to 17th.[17][46] Suddenly there were a spate of retirements: Larrauri's Brun Porsche (4th), the last Nissan (5th) and the second RLR Porsche (10th) all with engine failures; as well as the two uncompetitive works Spices (within an hour of each other), and the March-Cougar.[35][28][27]
Then at 7.30am, fading brakes could not slow Baldi soon enough at the Dunlop chicane and he spun off. That was the only invitation Dickens needed to zip past to take the lead, that extended when Baldi then had to pit for a new nosecone and to hand over to Acheson.[12][24][35][46] The Joest and Schuppan Porsches were next, with the recovering Sauber of Schlesser and Jaguar of Tambay now back up to fifth and sixth respectively. Tambay was travelling in convoy with Alain Ferté in the other remaining Jaguar (12th).[35] Together, the two were flying, putting in 3m21s laps, and Ferté set the fastest lap of the race. [48][8] In a situation similar to the Saubers earlier, this nearly ended badly when Tambay had a lurid 360 degree spin at Tertre Rouge right in front of his teammate and on live TV.[8][35] With the field thinning out, Stuck and Wollek were also picking up the pace, reminding the Saubers the race was not sewn up yet. By midday, although lapping 6-7 seconds slower than their pursuers, they had a 2-lap cushion.[48]
The night had been brutal on the C2 class, with half the original entry of 14 retiring in the darkness. This left only six cars running in the class. The Chamberlain Spice had been having a trouble-free run in the lead, but the others had all had issues and they were strung out over 50 laps apart.[30] The top-qualifying Graff Spice was initially running second, and latterly was third until it lost 100 minutes fixing a gearbox problem.[29] Then, at 9am the Chamberlain car came into the pits with a misfire. Despite the crew's efforts, it was from terminal electrical damage. The car had run faultlessly till now, unlike so many in the class. The crew had contemplated putting it onto 7 cylinders for the next six hours but despondently packed up instead. As it was, it still took over 90 minutes for them to lose the class-lead.[29][30] That fell to the France Petroleum Argo for a few hours until they lost 90 minutes replacing the clutch (that eventually left them fourth in class).[26][30] They were overtaken by the Courage-March which had lost half an hour during the night changing the steering rack. Thereafter they had been running well.[30]
The small WM team had a terrible race. Having started from the pitlane, within an hour they had to repair the gearbox. Through the night, they replaced the oil pump, water pump, wheel bearings and front suspension. The car had spent seven hours in the pits and was always at the tail of the field. Nevertheless, they would not admit defeat. In the morning, Raulet had a tyre blowout at speed on the Mulsanne straight. The final blow was a repeat of their team-mates' demise in practice, when an engine-fire erupted at Mulsanne corner. Despite the smoke in his cockpit, Pessiot made it to an access road at Indianapolis and got out. Such were the delays they suffered, their 110 laps did not even exceed those of the Joest Porsche retiring over 13 hours earlier.[25][39] In stark contrast, the two new Mazdas had also been running very well, always sitting in the top-15, and by 9am had now moved up to fill out the bottom of the top-10. Regout had stopped at 2.50am to get a rear suspension unit replaced, costing a quarter-hour, and the other car had a 1-minute stop to replace a wishbone but otherwise, they kept pressing on.[34]
Finish and post-race
Soon afterward, the second Kremer car, running tenth, retired in spectacular fashion. Just after passing the pits, the engine of the Kenwood Porsche burst into flames. Takahashi was able to run off into the gravel trap at the Dunlop chicane and bailed out safely. The car was quickly consumed in the conflagration.[48][18] Just over an hour later, the sixth car to have a fire at the event went up. Tiff Needell was 7th in the RLR Porsche when his car also caught alight passing the pits. Needell pulled over straight away and got out unscathed in front of a relieved grandstand of spectators.[48][18] The drama continued when the Schuppan Porsche struggled into the pits. Needing a gearbox change, they dropped from fourth to twelfth.[48] However, the Sauber crews were not relaxing – with a nervousness on the endurance of their cars' own transmissions.[48] At 2.45pm Acheson had only driven a lap after taking over from Baldi for the last stint, when he got a gear-selector problem and pitted straight away. Team Manager Price decided there was no time for a major rebuild, so the crew jammed the car into fifth and sent Acheson back out. In this case, the extreme torque of the Mercedes engine was a big help as it enabled him to keep going without changing gears, albeit only doing laps in the 4m10s range.[49] Wollek though was not in a position to press the issue – their hard driving had left them tight on fuel, that was exacerbated by a slipping clutch. In the last few stops the crew had even poured cola on the clutch to clear off the leaking oil.[49]
As Mass eased up, teammates Acheson and Schlesser were able to close up and, in formation that is how they crossed the line. Or they would have but the crowd invasion of the track prevented them reaching the finish line, so technically not completing the lap.[49][46] Sauber secured its 1-2 victory. Wollek brought the Joest Porsche home in third, 2 laps behind Acheson and nursing a slipping clutch that prevented them pushing for second.[15] After getting back to fourth early in the afternoon, the wounded Lammers Jaguar came home a further 2 laps back. With Schlesser finishing fifth, all three of the Sauber-Mercedes had finished at their first competitive attempt at a 24-hour race. A satisfactory race for Joest was completed with sixth to their French-crewed car, which had run consistently apart from a leery moment when a tyre burst at speed on the Hunaudières straight.[15]
For the second year running, Mazda got all three cars home, crossing the line in their own formation finish. Kennedy and Dieudonné took their third consecutive class-win, coming in 7th overall. They covered just shy of 5000km (almost 3100 miles) which was 32 laps further than Mazda had ever done at Le Mans. Their team-mates finished 9th and 12th. In C2, it had been a battle of attrition but in the end, Philippe Farjon brought his Cougar C20 home for victory.[30] They had had their trials getting there, having to change the steering rack overnight and then in the last hours, the drivers were struggling to keep one of the doors shut. But it all stayed together, such was their lead, and they finished 14th, six laps ahead of the Mako Spice.[32] The McNeil team had lost their time overnight after two excursions into the gravel by Ross Hyett had meant 75minutes in the pits for repairs.[29] The 19th, and final, car home was the Graff Spice. Although 98 laps (2025km/825 miles) behind the winners after their gearbox and battery delays, the calculations showed they had run the most economical race, with the Challenge Econergie prize by a wide margin over the two Saubers.[29]
Sauber went on to win all the remaining races in the Sports-Prototype Championship, which had effectively become a sprint-series without the Le Mans round. Jaguar introduced their new XJR-11 but teething problems meant they came a disappointing fourth behind the Joest and Brun Porsche teams. Unsurprisingly, given their dominance, Sauber took the top four places in the Drivers' Championship, with honours going to team-leader Jean-Louis Schlesser. Dickens joined Kunimitsu Takahashi (he of the smouldering Kremer Porsche) to win the latter's fourth All-Japan Group C title with the Nova Engineering Porsche team. Things came right, in the end, for the unlucky Chamberlain Engineering team, when Nick Adams and Fermin Velez won the final C2 Teams and Drivers championships.
This race would mark the end of an era. The ACO had serious concerns at the top speeds now being achieved – with both WM and Sauber reaching 400kp/h (250mph). In December, the FIA passed new regulations restricting a race-circuit to having no straights longer than two kilometres.[2][50] So moves were made to install two chicanes on the Mulsanne Straight breaking up what had been the longest straight in motor-racing into three portions and limit the time cars would be at top speed. The prospects for the new regulations were very unsettling. There were very real worries that engines used in the new "sprint-format" races would not be able to last a full 24 hours, and make a mockery of the Le Mans race. The cost to engineer such reliability could well prove prohibitively expensive for even the biggest manufacturers.[1]
Official results
Finishers
Results taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO[51][52][53][54][55][56] Class Winners are in Bold text.
The Sauber C9 is a Group C prototype racing car introduced in 1987 as a continuation of the partnership between Sauber as a constructor and Mercedes-Benz as an engine builder for the World Sportscar Championship. The C9 replaced the Sauber C8.
The 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 64th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 15 and 16 June 1996. It was won by a Tom Walkinshaw-Porsche prototype run by Joest Racing with drivers Davy Jones, Manuel Reuter and Le Mans rookie Alexander Wurz completing 354 laps. While not being the fastest car on track, it hit the front in the first hour and aside from several pit-stop overlaps, was never headed as other teams hit mechanical troubles during the race. This was Reuter's second Le Mans victory, and the first for Jones and Wurz, who, at 22 years old, became the youngest ever Le Mans overall winner.
The 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 63rd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 17 and 18 June 1995 in one of the wettest races in the event's history with about 17 hours of steady rain. The race was won by the #59 McLaren F1 GTR driven by JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya entered in the GT1 category. This was the first Le Mans win for a driver from Finland and for a driver from Japan. It was also McLaren's first win, at its first attempt. Such was the marque's dominance that its cars filled four of the first five places - Ferrari did it with its two cars in 1949, but other manufacturers like Jaguar, Porsche, Ford or Audi achieved their Le Mans fame only after 2, 3 or more years attempting their first win.
The 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 62nd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 18 and 19 June 1994.
The 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 58th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 16 and 17 June 1990.
The 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 56th Grand Prix of Endurance as well as the fifth round of the 1988 World Sports-Prototype Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on the 11 and 12 June 1988. At their third attempt, Jaguar arrived with five cars to take on the strong Porsche works team of three cars, in their only race for the Championship season. The other potential rival was Sauber, now formally backed by Mercedes-Benz, but after a major high-speed tyre-blowout in practice, their two-car team was withdrawn.
The 1987 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 55th Grand Prix of Endurance as well as the fifth round of the 1987 World Sports-Prototype Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on the 13 and 14 June 1987. Jaguar was a strong contender, have won the four preceding rounds of the Championship. The Porsche works team had installed a new 3-litre engine into their 962s but their turbo engines would test their fuel economy.
The 1986 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 54th Grand Prix of Endurance as well as the third round of the 1986 World Sports-Prototype Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on 31 May and 1 June 1986. This year saw the return of a full Jaguar works team, to take on the strong Porsche works and customer teams. However, with the fuel regulations relaxed, the turbo-charged cars would be able to use more of their potential power to outrun the normally-aspirated 6-litre Jaguars.
The 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 53rd Grand Prix of Endurance, as well as the fourth round of the 1985 World Endurance Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on 15 and 16 June 1985. The works Porsche team returned, with a Group C version of the 962. As favourites, they could expect from their customer teams and the works Lancias. In qualifying, Hans-Joachim Stuck set a new lap record in his works Porsche, with an average speed over 250 km/h for the first time. Mercedes returned for the first time in 30 years, as engine supplier to the Sauber team. The return was short-lived though, as the car got airborne in practice and crashed. With tighter fuel regulations this year from FISA, the teams would have to be more mindful of fuel economy and speed. However, from the start the Joest and Richard Lloyd Racing teams had the measure of the field. Working in tandem, Klaus Ludwig and Jonathon Palmer took turns leading and slipstreaming behind the other. Then at 9pm Jean-Claude Andruet had a major accident when his WM had a tyre blow out a high speed at the Mulsanne kink, sending him into the Armco barriers. Andruet was uninjured, but the race went behind the pace-cars for a half-hour as repairs were done. Just as the race resumed James Weaver pitted the RLR Porsche with an engine misfire. Traced to a faulty sensor, they returned to the race in 7th.
The 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 52nd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 16 – 17 June 1984. It was also the third round of the 1984 World Endurance Championship. There were two big stories going into the race weekend: the absence of the Porsche works team and their drivers, and the return of Jaguar. Bob Tullius had commissioned the new Jaguar XJR-5 to run in the IMSA series and entered two for Le Mans. Earlier in the year, FISA had announced abrupt changes to the fuel regulations to bring them more in line with IMSA. Porsche and Lancia objected strongly because of their strong investment in the existing rules. In the absence of dominant Porsche works team, the race was left wide open between Lancia and the number of strong Porsche customer teams.
The 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans was a motor race staged at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France on 18 and 19 June 1983. It was the 51st Grand Prix of Endurance and was also the fourth round of both the 1983 World Endurance Championship and the 1983 European Endurance Championship. The 1983 race was held eight days before the 60th anniversary of the inaugural race held in 1923.
The 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 50th Grand Prix of Endurance, which took place on 19 and 20 June 1982. It was also the fourth round of the 1982 World Endurance Championship. As well as a significant anniversary, this was a watershed year for Le Mans, with the highly anticipated advent of the FIA's Group C regulations, the essence of which was to allow an open engine formula but a minimum weight for safety and a proscribed fuel allocation.
The 1981 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 49th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 13 and 14 June 1981. It was also the eighth round of the World Endurance Championship of Drivers, and the fifth round of the World Championship for Makes.
The 1980 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 48th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 14 and 15 June 1980. It was the seventh round of both the World Championship for Makes and World Challenge for Endurance Drivers. With neither the Porsche nor Renault works teams contesting the big Group 6 sports-cars for outright victory, it left the prospects open for a privateer victory from Joest, Rondeau or De Cadenet, or from Group 5 again, if they were to fail. The wet weather throughout the race further added to the uncertainty, reducing the advantage of the more powerful cars.
The 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 47th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 9 and 10 June 1979. With no other major works cars this year, the Porsche team were the strong favourites to win. Their competition would be from Cosworth-powered Mirages and Rondeaus and a swarm of Group 5 and IMSA-class Porsche 935s. The other big talking point was the presence of Hollywood actor Paul Newman, driving for Dick Barbour Racing.
The 1978 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 46th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 10 and 11 June 1978. In many ways it was a continuation of the race from the year before – the two main protagonists would be the very evenly-matched works teams of Alpine-Renault and Porsche, with four cars each. The race was not valid for any championship.
The 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 43rd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 14 and 15 June 1975. Colloquially called the “Le Mans Economy Run”, stringent refuelling regulations were put in place. Unable to match the requisite 7mpg fuel economy the manufacturer teams from Ferrari, Alfa Romeo withdrew and Matra had retired from the sport at the end of 1974. Therefore, this only left Gulf and Ligier as front-running works-teams.
The 1973 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 41st Grand Prix of Endurance and took place on 9 and 10 June 1973. It was the eighth round of the 1973 World Championship of Makes.
Joest Racing is a sports car racing team that was established in 1978 by former Porsche works racer Reinhold Joest. Their headquarters are in Wald-Michelbach, Germany.
The Porsche WSC-95 was a Le Mans Prototype originally built by Tom Walkinshaw Racing. It was modified by Porsche from the original Group C Jaguar XJR-14 from which it derived, and run by Joest Racing. Originally intended to race in the IMSA World Sportscar Championship, the WSC-95 saw very little race action even though it won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in both 1996 and 1997 without being acknowledged as a factory supported project. It was later upgraded to the Porsche LMP1-98 before being retired. Only two cars were ever built.
References
Bernard, Davoine, Holtz & Holtz (2023) 100 Years of legends Sherborne, Dorset: Evro Publishing ISBN978-1-910505-75-5
Clarke, R.M. - editor (1999) Le Mans 'The Porsche & Jaguar Years 1983-1991' Cobham, Surrey: Brooklands Books ISBN1-85520-483-5
Laban, Brian (2001) Le Mans 24 Hours London: Virgin Books ISBN1-85227-971-0
Spurring, Quentin (2012) Le Mans 1980-89 Yeovil, Somerset: Haynes Publishing ISBN978-0-85733-128-1
Williams, Richard (2023) 24 Hours – 100 Years of Le Mans London: Simon & Schuster ISBN978-1-3985-1722-6
Wimpffen, János (2008) Monocoques and Ground Effects Hong Kong: David Bull Publishing ISBN1-893618-97-8
External links
Racing Sports Cars– Le Mans 24 Hours 1983 with entries, results, technical detail and photos of every car. Retrieved 26 Nov 2023
Le Mans History– Le Mans entry-list and hour-by-hour placings (incl. pictures of every car, quotes, highest speeds per car, YouTube links). Retrieved 26 Nov 2023
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