Race 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans

1 race

1.1 start
1.2 night
1.3 morning
1.4 finish , post-race

race
start

the start brought forward 3pm accommodate thousands of british fans on site watch england-scotland football match @ euro championships. unlike last year s heavy rain, race started in sunshine. dalmas , wollek in works porsche gt1s raced lead first 4 laps until overtaken in turn 2 joest twr-porsches of jones & theys. wider tyres, lower weights , better aerodynamics twrs able make break on field while others had problems: boutsen , dalmas both fell off track, losing minutes. cottaz, in fastest courage, had kept top 4 initially, lost time in second hour electronics issues. likewise best kremer in top ten. both cars in gulf , bigazzi mclaren teams filled out lower half of top ten.

night

the joest cars maintained comfortable 1-2 lead going night. veteran team of wollek/stuck/boutsen kept in touch in porsche gt1 , took second place @ half-race distance theys pole-sitting twr. after delays, cottaz/alliot/policand courage had moved through field , fourth , fifth, until alliot crashed courage @ tertre rouge after dawn. remaining ferrari prototype (sponsored charity of 1001 belgian royalty, celebrities , citizens) had tyre problems @ start, courage had steadily made places fifth.

the riley & scott, american enduro-champ, had run during day despite being excessively thirsty, after several offs slipped down board , @ 2.30am broke down marooning pace on mulsanne. in us, r&s mk iii started dominating events , winning championships.

at 4.30 duez, running 7th, bought first bigazzi mclaren pits stuck in gear. after 2 gearbox changes during next day, finished 11th. ferrari f40s never competitive previous year , dawn 4 cars had retired, including short, sudden, spectacular fuel-fire in pits ratel entry.

morning

a charging triple stint stuck got porsche gt1 front, leaders had enough in hand. @ 9.20 martini dropped second twr in gravel @ first mulsanne chicane, , time spent doing repairs dropped them fourth, behind ray bellm s gulf mclaren. mclaren stopped gearbox change @ midday, taking 90 minutes, , dropping them in turn down 10th. after several offs wendlinger , goodyear in night, second porsche gt1 had fallen down 12th, early-morning had recovered fifth. other bigazzi mclaren of f1 champion nelson piquet, sister car, in 7th place when stopped hour gearbox change. race attrition able 8th finish, ahead of bellm s gulf mclaren.

just after dawn, ferrari needed gearbox change, taking half hour, dropping 10th. van der poele took off, setting race s fastest lap several times @ 7am, when fifth, Éric bachelart crashed out @ esses.

in gt2, leading roock racing porsche had replace driveshaft @ midday, had enough in hand keep lead.

finish , post-race

the jones/reuter/wurz car never missed beat, , never headed on scoring charts. in end won lap porsche gt1, yet again bob wollek beaten second place (and yet again, stymied time lost off-track excursions). @ 22 years of age, alexander wurz became youngest ever le mans winner, starting f1 career year later day, benetton @ canadian grand prix. reinhold joest s deal porsche said keep car if race-winner, , reappear again 1997 race.

with 40 minutes remaining, driveshaft broke on second twr, stranding unlucky martini out on circuit @ arnage. third place fell lap of other porsche gt1, finishing distant 13 laps behind winners. mclarens took next 3 places: 2 troubled dpr-team cars , second car gulf racing. these included derek bell, drawing curtain on illustrious le mans career @ age of 54; career of on 25 years, included 5 outright victories , pair of 2nd-places, winning daytona 24 hours 3 times , twice winning world sportscar championship, marking him 1 of all-time great sports car drivers.

seventh pescarolo/lagorce/collard courage of la filière team (a motorsport academy @ le mans circuit), , second prototype home. down 27 laps lost hour replacing clutch during night.

the roock racing porsche won gt2 class finishing 12th overall , 4 laps ahead of parr motorsport porsche. kiwi porsche had trouble-free race, spending least time in pits of car except winning twr-porsche. japanese gts uncompetitive against porsches , mclarens, , did finish down board. kudzu-mazda lmp2 finisher, coming in @ of field 100 laps behind winners.

after le mans, porsche works team entered gt1s in 3 races of bpr global series, winning three. in new year, sold further cars customer teams, usurping mclaren become new dominant force in gt racing.

andy evans, owner of scandia team running ferrari prototypes, along roberto muller (ex-ceo of reebok) bought control of american imsa organisation, , changes led resignation of number of board members , formation of breakaway series usrrc.