Le Mans is an event on an epic scale, but for everyone who attends, and for everyone who looks or listens in, it is, and always has been a collection of ‘moments’.
In celebration of the centenary of the event DSC is presenting, over the next 10 days, 100 of those moments – some triumphant, some sad, and some absolutely ridiculous – over the 20+ years that it has been on-site covering proceedings*.
It would be sensible to predict that by the end of the 2023 event we’ll have significantly more material!
*including a couple that dip into the times from our immediate predecessor site
1. Simonsen passes (2013)
We will start, and as you will see next week, we will finish, with those we have lost.
In a near-quarter century of writing and broadcasting professionally in motorsport, I have only ever been at the track once, when a driver was killed. Heartrendingly that came a decade ago when we lost a true world-class talent, and a personal friend to many at DSC, that was Allan Simonsen.
There are a number of moments that stand out. We knew immediately it was bad. The wait for confirmation was agonising. The inability to report live because the press room internet connection had failed, saw tempers rising too.
When the news finally came, via then Aston Martin PR, the amazing Rebecca Jones, emotions were high. Many in the press room were in tears. I will never forget the face-to-face encounter with a tearful and shocked Gary Watkins, whose words to me were “he was a bit special wasn’t he?” That he was.
Subsequent calls to DSC founding editor Malcolm Cracknell, who was a key part in Simmo’s rise to prominence, were extremely tough.
It took a long and tearful call to my wife, to allow the emotions to be dispensed with, ahead of the official announcement being confirmed on Radio Le Mans by myself and John Hindhaugh late that night in one of the most emotional broadcasts I have ever been a part of.
It was a moment that I was glad to be a part of, on reflection, but it still ranks amongst the toughest in my broadcasting career.
2. Strakka’s near faultless run (2010)
Memorable runs at Le Mans happen in all sorts of ways, triumph against adversity, last lap tragedy, but just once in a while, a team, perhaps not fancied for a win, produce something very special.
Strakka Racing victory in 2010 was one such occasion, the British squad did not come in as favourites, that privilege went to a star-studded Highcroft racing effort, both teams fielded identical HPD ARX 01-C cars, but it was the crew of Nick Leventis, Jonny Kane and Danny Watts that produced near perfection on track, their pit crew similarly perfect too, with just a slow puncture after a short run off track from Leventis to dent the record.
The team would take the LMP2 win, fifth overall, and with a six-lap advantage over second-placed OAK Racing.
3. The Deltawing turns heads (2012)
The Nissan Deltawing saga has chapter after chapter of intrigue and controversy but of one thing there is no doubt, it was a HUGE fan favourite in 2012 at Le Mans.
It’s quirky looks, edgy marketing and one-of-a-kind appeal meant that trackside spectators and TV viewers alike were closely watching its progress.
That was until the seventh hour of the race, the field just released by the Safety car brought out to neutralise the race after Ant Davidson’s huge accident at Mulsanne Corner with a GTE AM Ferrari.
In the melée, Satoshi Motoyama was hit by Kazuki Nakajima’s Toyota as he attempted to get onto terms with Lotterr’s Audi just ahead, the little #0 Nissan sideswiped off and into the wall.
The raw emotion of the driver’s attempts to fix the car trackside – instructed and urged on by the team’s mechanics and Nissan’s Darren Cox produced one of the all-time great Le Mans YouTube hits which sadly ended with Motoyama having to retire the car.
4. Audi congratulates Peugeot (2009)
Audi’s early days at Le Mans saw some astonishing on-track performances and a little bit of teutonic arrogance on the fringes.
Pretty soon though the dominant squad of their day grew into the prevailing culture and became more open, more communicative and, frankly, more fun!
They relished the top class competition when it came, and it seldom came more convincingly than with Peugeot Sport and their astonishing 908 HDI FAP effort.
The big Peugeot dominated outside of Le Mans but the effort had something of a habit of self-inflicted wounds at the big one.
In 2009 though it all came together and Peugeot took the win.
A defining moment though was the reaction of Audi whose team principal, Wolfgang Ullrich, led his team down the pit lane post-race and into applause at the Peugeot garage for the efforts of their great rivals!
5. The AMR One disaster (2011)
In the wake of the beautiful but increasingly outclassed Lola Aston Martin, the British marque announced, with significant pomp, a new LMP1, the AMR-One, the new car employing a radical aero solution but with looks that, after its fan-favourite predecessor, were somewhat more divisive.
The engine too was to divide opinion, after the sonorous but heavy Aston Martin V12, the AMR One was powered by an all-new two-litre straight six turbo. The new engine was an ear splitter at speed, but the whole package was problematic, late to be commissioned and thereafter left chasing a development curve that was getting ever steeper with the Audi and Peugeot competition!
The race debut at Paul Ricard was somewhat underwhelming, the team pulled out of the next race at Spa to concentrate on testing but despite that Le Mans Test Day was simply a disaster.
With no real time to build upon the substantial mountain of lessons learned, Le Mans itself came around just too quickly.
The cars proved to be slow (both qualified in the lower order of the LMP2 field) and unreliable – the first car retired after completing just 2 laps, the second, after attempts in the pits to delay the inevitable, after just four – One of the all-time worst factory team performances of the modern era!
6. THAT Corvette Aston battle (2017)
Corvette vs Aston Martin in GT1 and then GTE became one of THE rivalries at Mans in the 21st century and it came to the boil in 2017 as, towards the end of the race Jonny Adam was closing in on Jordan Taylor for the GTE Pro race lead.
There was a bit of door to door action before the Scot took a good old lunge up the inside at Arnage, grabbing the position but allowing the ‘Vette back ahead as he ran wide on the exit.
Next lap around would be the penultimate circuit for the pair and the Corvette was in tyre trouble, Jordan running over the gravel at the second chicane, retaining the lead but with the Aston Martin putting him under huge pressure.
Worse still it seemed that either cause or effect of the gravelly moment saw the C7.R with a slow puncture, the Aston Martin was closing in but did not seem close enough for anything to happen before the end of the lap.
That was until the Ford Chicane, the Vantage way better on the brakes and the Corvette running almost off track at the exit as Taylor fought a now evilly handling car.
Adam needed no second invitation, he got a good run through the Chicane and took the lead as the cars started their final lap, the huge crown in the Tribunes going nuts as the lead changed before their eyes!
Adam was away and clear, Taylor would go off at Dunlop and again at Tertre Rouge, his valiant defence falling victim to the now deflated rear tyre.
7. Menezes’ Hyperpole blitz
The Hyperpole concept at Le Mans was met with a wave of criticism when announced by the ACO for a debut in 2020, as things turned out a year when there was, because of the COVID pandemic, no trackside crowd.
The format did though dole out some real drama and entertainment, never more so than in the first year when, after Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi had set what looked like a very solid 3:15.9 in the #7 Toyota TS050, Gustavo Menezes responded by taking provisional pole in the #1 Rebellion R13 Gibson with a 3:15.822, the fastest non-hybrid lap ever at Le mans.
Kobayashi would respond with a pole-setting 3:15.267 leaving the rebellion to start alongside on the front row but it was what happened on pit road that gives this story some more bite!
Menezes maintains that the fast time was achieved with far more fuel than was required for the run and, depite protestations that a much faster time was possible with the car in full qualifying trim, the car never re-emerged after that run, the presumption being that Rebellion were unwilling to risk a post qualifying performance adjustment.
It will remain then a Le Mans ‘what might have been’. Could Rebellion not only have set Pole, but have beaten the outright qualifying lap record of 3:14.791?
8. Vaillant film cars (2002-2003)
There have been some truly terrible films about motorsport – and right up there alongside the infamously terrible Sylvester Stallone penned ‘Drivel’ (That! should be Driven! – Ed) is the 2003 movie Michel Vaillant, paying homage to a much-loved French comic book character developed and drawn by Jean Graton.
The books are sublime, the DSC Editor has an extensive collection. The film however, despite significantly good action sequences filmed during the 2002 Le Mans 24 Hours is atrocious.
For the action sequences two cars – one ‘Hero’ car for Michel Vaillant a Lola B98/10 Judd, the other for the ‘baddy’ ‘Leader’ team a Panoz LMP Roadster were entered into the race proper and were fielded by the DAMS team.
The Panoz would retire, the Lola would be non-classified having not completed enough mileage, the film was consigned to sub-bargain basket oblivion.
9. GTE Pro Battles (2011-2022)
GTE Pro left the scene after 2022 and with it went one of the most reliable sources of wheel to wheel, door to door action of the international sportscar racing scene.
Whether it was Ferrari vs Porsche, Aston Martin vs Corvette, and putting Ford into the mix pretty much any of the above vs any of the above the class doled out some astonishing drama, usually squeaky clean but breathtaking duelling at terminal velocity and with drafting, side drafting, demon outbraking and pretty much anything and everything else into the mix on a regular, lap by lap basis!
LMGT3 you have a lot to live up to!
10. TotalMotorsport doesn’t mention Audi (2001)
Audi Sport matured very rapidly into an organisation that was comfortable in its own skin. Its outlook in the wake of huge success put the sport back into sportscar. However, the early days of the R8 programme did see elements of overly-corporate attitudes at the fore, behaviours which lit the blue touch paper on DSC’s founding editor Malcolm Cracknell.
The exact nature of the offence cause has been lost in the midst of time, but Cracknell’s response certainly isn’t.
With an editorial instruction that “no matter what, the word Audi is not to be mentioned in TotalMotorsport (DSC’s predecessor) coverage” during the 2002 race. Lest we forget that the 2001 edition was a race which finished with Audi completing a one-two finish. That left the writing team to come up with a variety of mechanisms to avoid the ‘A word’. “The cars from Ingolstadt” “The silver cars” “The German cars” “The German factory team” etc etc, over 24 hours of in-depth, blow-by-blow live coverage.
It was only when the team completed its 1-2 finish that Malcolm released the metaphorical shackles and allowed Audi its first mention of the event.
God alone knows what Crackers would think of some of the modern attempts to manage the media…
