Before the centenary next year of the 24 Hours of Le Mans here’s an opportunity to remember that the event celebrates significant anniversaries every year – So here’s an amble back to find just some of them for 2021 – some hugely historically significant, some rather less so!
5 Years – 2017 – Jackie Chan DC Racing Finish Second Overall – In An LMP2!
At the peak of the (literal) powers of LMP1 Hybrid, Le Mans produced a baking hot race day, and things went very wrong indeed for a number of the technical marvels that should have dominated the race!
A variety of gremlins claimed all but two of the five cars, two of the three Toyotas and a Porsche retired, and both of the others were significantly delayed.
That left the near bulletproof LMP2s to come to the fore, the best of them only overhauled by the surviving Porsche just before the final hour.
The JOTA-run ORECAs of Jackie Chan DC Racing would complete the podium after a post-race disqualification for the initially third-placed Vaillante Rebellion ORECA after the team used some brute force (and a hole drilled in the bodywork) to start the car! A truly extraordinary Le Mans result.
10 Years – 2012 First Hybrid Win
Audi Sport Team Joest took the first Le Mans 24 Hours overall win with a car powered by a hybrid drivetrain, the R18 e-Tron quattro of Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer ushering in the FIA WEC era and the start of a half-decade of incredible technological advances.
15 Years – 2007 – First Win For The Aston Martin DBR9
Almost 50 years after Aston Martin’s overall win in 1959 the factory was back, this time battling against a new adversary – Corvette racing and after a stumble in 2006 they took the GT1 win in 2007 with the beautiful Aston Martin DBR9, these the early exchanges in a rivalry that would last for more than a decade across GT1, GT2 and GTE Pro.
David Brabham would go on to win overall in 2009 with Peugeot whilst Darren Turner is still racing and winning in Aston Martins a decade and a half later. Rickard Rydell completed the winning trio.
20 Years – 2002 – Last Win From A Factory-Entered Audi R8
There would be wins for Team Goh and Champion Racing to follow, both with some factory support, but 2002 saw the final episode in a winning trilogy for Audi Sport Team Joest – Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Tom Kristensen also completing their hat-trick with the Team Joest and Audi Sport North America R8s completing a 1,2,3 in 2000, 1,2 in 2001 and 1,2,3 in 2002! A game-changing car and team.
25 years – 1997 – The Last Win By A Non-Michelin-Shod Car – And Tom Kristensen’s First Win
The 1997 winning effort was notable for a number of reasons, the winning TWR Porsche from Joest Racing won back to back Le Mans, it was the last win for a car based on a Group C chassis, the Porsche based on the underpinnings of the Jaguar XJR 14 – and it was the last time that a car won on anything other than Michelin rubber, Goodyear taking the victory.
Potentially even more notable though was the fact that the effort saw the first race victory (on his Le Mans debut) for the man now known as ‘Mr Le Mans’, the first of what would be nine wins in just 18 starts from the Great Dane. There were a further five podium finishes in that period too, an amazing record.
TK would share the win with the late lamented Michele Alboreto and with Stefan Johansson.
30 years – 1992 – Peugeot’s First Win
They’ll be back in the top class later this year with the new 9X8 Hypercar but effectively this is where that journey started, the glorious V10-powered 905 of Derek Warwick, Yannick Dalmas (the first of his four wins) and Mark Blundell took the win in a sparsely populated 1992 race!
35 years – 1987 – Derek Bell’s Last Le Mans Win
The 1987 race would see Derek Bell’s fifth and final Le Mans win (in a factory Porsche 962), and would be the sixth consecutive podium finish too for one of the most popular drivers in the sport (he’d make the podium the following year too to make that seven!
There would be another big 24-hour race win to follow in 1989 at Daytona and Derek would race on into the mid-1990s competitively (a further podium in 1995 in the Harrods McLaren).
40 years – 1982 – First Group C Le Mans
And the first win for the soon to be iconic Porsche 956. A new ruleset for international sportscar racing had fired the starting gun on an era that would see legends created over the following decade.
Jackie Ickx and Derk Bell would top an all Porsche factory podium.
45 Years – 1977 – Jackie Ickx Equals Genbedien’s 4 Wins
Jackie Ickx was the original ‘Mr Le Mans’ and is still an icon of the Great Race.
1977 though was when he equalled the four race winning record of countryman Olivier Genbedien’s four-race wining record, thereafter going on to with three more for a total of six, only eclipsed by Tom Kristensen in 2005!
He took the fourth aboard a Porsche 936 co-driven with eventual three-time winner Hurley Haywood (1977 was his first).
50 years – 1972 – Graham Hill Secures World’s Only ‘Triple Crown’
With the win alongside Henri Pescarolo at the 1972 Le Mans 24 Hour in the glorious Matra MS670, Graham Hill completed the first, and so far only motorsport ‘Triple Crown’ with wins at the Monaco Grand Prix (wins in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, and 1969) and Indianapolis 500 (1966).
55 years – 1967 – Foyt And Gurney Become Only All-American Winning Crew
Ford won the latest round of the late 1960s arms race with Ferrari with a result that broke lap and distance records, AJ Foyt and Dan Gurney took control of the race as early as the second hour in their 7 litre Ford GT40 Mark IV and thereafter were never headed, Ferrari though were looming in the background. The leading pair had to be fault-free throughout, a pair of Ferraris completed the podium – and the battle between the Americans and Italians blazed on!
60 years – 1962 – Genbedien’s Final Win
Forgotten by many, the original Belgian ‘Mr Le Mans’ was Olivier Gendebien, a four time winner from 1958 – 1962 – all in evolutions of the Ferrari TR ‘Testarossa’ , three times with Phil Hill and once with French racing writer Paul Frére.
1962 saw the last of the run, and three in a row for Gendebien.
65 Years – 1957 – Jaguar Privateers Finish 1-4
Jaguar was in its pomp at Le Mans in the 1950s, and 1957 saw the last of a string of five Le Mans wins in just 7 years for the marque.
Ron Flockhart and Ivor Bueb would lead home an Ecurie Ecosse one-two ahead of a further pair of Jaguar Privateers, the end of an era in more ways than one, the iconic D-Type a three-time Le Mans winner!
70 Years – 1952 – Mercedes First Le Mans Win
Of all of the great brands, Mercedes Benz has perhaps the most conflicted history with the Le Mans 24 Hours, the disaster in 1955, and very public failure in the late 1990s epitomised by the televised images of the CLR of Peter Dumbreck flying into the woods.
There have though been much better days, a win with the Sauber Mercedes in 1989 and their first victory, back in 1952 with the beautiful little 300SL (W194) of Hermann Lang and Fritz Riess.
85 Years – 1937 – Bugatti’s First Win
The first of two wins in the 1930s came in 1937, the Bugatti 57G ‘Tank’ of French pairing Jean-Pierre Wimille and Robert Benoist taking the victory, Wimille would win again in a Bugatti in 1939, this time paired with Pierre Veyron who would be immortalised decades later as the namesake of the first model of the current revival of the Bugatti brand.
90 years – 1932 – Luigi Chinetti – First Italian Winner
1932 saw French driver Raymond Sommer chase his winning Alfa Romeo drive with Luigi Chinetti who, over 17 years, would become a three-time winner.
That 17 year spread still stands as a record, matched in 1994 by Hurley Haywood in 1994 for the longest period between first and last wins.
Chinetti though holds a Le Mans record for all-time as the first ever Italian driver to win overall.
95 years – 1927 – Bentley At The Savoy
Dudley Benjafield and Sammy Davis took the win in 1927, 95 years ago.
To celebrate the win a victory lunch was held at London’s Savoy Hotel with the winning #3 Bentley needing to be assembled to make it into the dining room.
Fast forward to 2003 and Bentley’s last overall win and the decision was taken to recreate the Savoy scene, though, as can be seen below, the dimensions of the 21st century GTP prototype caused significantly more problems, the now priceless car seeing to be turned onto its side to make it through the dining room doors!
