The Circuit de la Sarthe certainly knows its share of heartbreak. That’s particularly true in the LMP2 class, where too many times the race has been decided by a mechanical issue late in the race, and a certain victory turned to crushing defeat. The ORECA 07-Gibson platform is robust, but 24 hours of racing can take its toll.
That’s what VDS Panis Racing discovered this year. The #48 squad of Oliver Gray, Esteban Masson and Franck Perera had been going back and forth with the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA of Jakub Smiechowski, Tom Dillman and Nick Yelloly for hours. The back-and-forth turned into a real rollercoaster ride in the final run to the checker.
Yelloly, in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans, though he had thrown away any chance for victory with a pit lane speeding penalty. But he recovered to once again take the lead; seeing some smoke coming from the #48 sealed the victory for the Inter Europol squad, their second in three years. A left-front suspension failure destroyed the VDS Panis team’s hopes for a win.
“I know a little bit how VDS feels, because last year we also had a technical issue that potentially prevented us from winning, and we finished second,” said Smiechowski.
“It’s always a difficult feeling. It’s not nice, but it’s the case in many of the 24 hour races. You don’t always win when you deserve it. Sometimes the race just chooses you and chooses who wins. And I think we both deserved to win today, to be honest. We are fighting really hard until the end of the race. At the end, somebody had to win, and I’m happy it’s us, but I feel really bad for them, because it’s not the way to lose a race like this.”
Smiechowski’s sympathy for VDS may have been greater due to having already achieved success at Le Mans with the Polish team’s 2023 victory with Albert Costa and Fabio Scherer. But it was the first for Perera in his second attempt, and Yelloly’s first Le Mans resulted in a win, a remarkable result.
“This time, Le Mans chose us, and I’m obviously very happy and fortunate for that to be the case. I’m looking forward very much to coming back again,” Yelloly said.
It was the switch for Yelloly from BMW to Acura in IMSA competition that allowed it to happen. In 2024, he was a reserve driver for BMW. But with Acura not competing in WEC and Yelloly now working with that manufacturer in IMSA, he was free to pursue an LMP2 ride. But late in the race he thought he had screwed it up massively.
“I locked the rear going to the pit lane, just trying to make a little bit more time so we were safer with our fuel numbers,” the British driver explained. “Obviously I was pretty annoyed at myself. I won’t repeat what I said in the helmet, but it was quite angry. But then, unfortunately for them, I think they had some suspension issue or something, and I could see them almost selecting reverse and coming back to me.”
Masson persevered through the problem with the #48 to finish second. That was the same position Inter Europol finished last year. In the three years since Le Mans became the only WEC race that included LMP2, Inter Europol has only been first or second.
In an impressive third place in the overall LMP2 order, AO by TF scored the Pro-Am subcategory win. PJ Hyett, Louis Delétraz and Dane Cameron drove the fan-favorite Spike the Dragon car to claim the win among the cars that included a Bronze-rated driver.
That Bronze driver, American tech entrepreneur Hyett, has been chasing victories in IMSA and WEC for a couple of years. With a bunch of poles to his credit in IMSA, a win had eluded him, until he scored in the biggest endurance sportscar race in the world.
“Well, it hasn’t been for a lack of trying to win races, but to have my first win of Le Mans is sort of unbelievable,” Hyett declared, before linking the fact that Sunday was Father’s Day in the U.S. to the victory.
“About an hour before the race ended, my daughter called me to wish me a happy Father’s Day. And it’s in large part that we run these characters on the cars, whether it’s Rexy, the green Tyrannosaurus Rex Porsche 911 back in the States, or Spike the LMP2 dragon, it’s an homage to my children. So it’s sort of unbelievable to have it also be Father’s Day and a Le Mans win, and to do it with such a fun livery that seems to resonate with families around the world. It’s a really, really special day for me.”
It was a bit of a redemption story for Delétraz, who also understands the type of heartbreak that the VDS Panis squad experienced. Competing with Team WRT in LMP2 alongside Ye Yifei and Robert Kubica in 2021, the team was leading when the car quit on the final lap.
“It’s amazing. We’ve been trying so hard to win Le Mans the last few years. I came so close. Yeah, ’21 still hurts,” the Swiss driver said.
“Obviously, I’m very happy for Robert and Yifei, because it feels a bit special that we all won on the same day. But three times second and finally, to win. So I’m really proud. Both teammates made no mistakes. We were super fast. The whole team did great. And I mean, it’s just such a pleasure to stand on top step here. So we’ll be back for sure.”
Delétraz can add a Le Mans victory to his other successes, including a trio of European Le Mans Series LMP2 titles and a 12 Hours of Sebring win with Wayne Taylor Racing. He also joins his father as a Le Mans winner; Jean-Denis Delétraz has a pair of LMP675 wins at la Sarthe. And since his father has two, Louis joked that he would have to come back to try to equal him.
Cameron adds to many racing achievements as well, including a trio of IMSA championships and a 24 Hours of Daytona win.
“Super excited with the day,” the Californian declared. “Very happy for Louis and PJ as well. To get PJ’s first win here is quite incredible. That was a goal for me to join the programme and deliver this to him.
So great to be a part of this. And, sorry for Louis, it’s been quite challenging over a couple of years here, so really happy to be a part of his first success here.
“It’s really a tremendous day and something I had circled on the calendar when I knew we were all going to be together here, as something I thought was quite possible to achieve. So quite pleased.”
