24 Hours of Le Mans is hailed as best auto race in the world, alongside Indianapolis 500 and Monaco Grand Prix. But why is it best race and why is it run every year for more than 80 times? Join us for a multiple part series into history of endurance racing, brief history of Le Mans and most amazing stories from it’s start up till now that makes this race a pure, classic fairy-tale.
The Early Days of Endurance Racing
At the start of 20th Century, there were a few endurance races like Coppa Florio, Targa Florio and Mille Miglia but all of them were on open roads. The first 24 hours endurance race was on Brooklands.
The race format proved to be essential for the car manufacturers to test most of the technologies (fog lights were first introduced in a Le Mans race) as well as test the reliability and durability of a car on race speeds. ACO (Automobile Club de l'Ouest) first sanctioned the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1923. It was first run as a three-year event where one needed to win all three years to get the cup for it but the idea was soon abandoned. The first winners of race were Rene Leonard and Andre Lagache driving for Chenard-Walcker. In next few years, we saw the French giant Bugatti winning races as well as Alfa Romeo and Bentley, both being really strong rivals of Bugatti. In 1936, the race was cancelled after air strikes and again in 1939 for 10 years, until 1949 cause of World War 2 breaking out in France. But we see amazing races and wins, most notably that of female drivers like Odette Siko, who got a class win and 4th position overall in 1932 race.
Post War, Automotive Giants coming to sport and the 1955 Disaster
Getting back to the scene after the circuit is reconstructed, and back to racing, we see Ferrari coming and taking the first win in 1949 with 166M. The next few races were dominated mostly by Jaguar or Mercedes. In 1953, a full global series of endurance races were formed, named World Sposrtscar Championship. This was the rising point of the race. It attracted the bigger car companies to the race and Aston Martin, Mercedes, Jaguar raced multiple cars. The races were more competitive and tough, and that's where the 1955 Tragedy came into happening. Pierre Levegh, driving for Mercedes crashed heavily into Lance Macklin and flew into air, falling on spectators and the crowd catching fire as 83 people died. What was the outcome? Mercedes left Motorsports for decades and Motorsports were banned in several countries including Switzerland, which bans racing to this very day.
Ford vs Ferrari
Ford and Ferrari's rivalry stands as one of best rivalries Motorsports has ever seen. The background of the rivalry is way more interesting and political but that's another story. Ferrari was winning consecutively for 6 years and Henry Ford II was desperate to win Le Mans but they failed. He didn't give up, and worked with Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles to create a beast that will be remembered for ages, The Ford GT40. It destroyed Ferrari's dominance for 4 consecutive years until Porsche came to take the place.
1970s: Porsche's first Le Mans win and a successful era of domination
Porsche comes in scene and takes multiple Le Mans victory in early 70s and continuing it in late 70s with the Porsche 917. The car got more exposure with Steve McQueen's Le Mans movie and he begged the producers to give him a chance to race but they refused. Porsche's domination was just the start of the best era of Sportscar racing and amazing luck of the German manufacturer all through the Group C era. A driver not to forget was a future Le Mans legend and an amazing Formula 1 driver Jacky Ickx, who won the race 6 times and just got his first win in 1969 with three consecutive wins between 1975-77.
Group C cars, More luck for Porsche and Rotary engine winning a race
In 1981, ACO (Automobile Club de l'Ouest) proposed a fuel-consumption formula cause of the oil crisis. The prototypes were named "Group C". It came with more glory for Porsche as Porsche 956 first, and then it's replacement, 962. The cars were outright winners and got several wins in 1980s until Mercedes and Jaguar returned to sport and Jaguar beat Porsche in 1988 and 1990 with XJR-9 and XJR-12. The Sauber C9, powered by Mercedes engine won the race in 1989. Japanese manufacturers came to sport as well as Peugeot, that set a top speed record of 405 km/h on Mulsanne straight but failed to finish the race. Mazda 787B was the first Japanese car and first car with rotary engine to win the race in 1991 (that car sounded like an aeroplane for real!). In '92 and '93, Peugeot became serious and won the races with Peugeot 905. And as a safety measure, the 6 km long Mulsanne straight was divided into three sections with 2 chicanes.
Short Lived Age of Grand Tourers
So, the World Sportscar Championship was folded after 4 decades and it saw the rule change to run grand tourer production cars at Le Mans. Porsche played the trick and entered with 962 one more time in 1994 and won the race with Yannick Dalmas and others. ACO revised the rules and closed the loopholes. McLaren entered in 1995 and won the race with F1 GTR as an amazing victory that stands to this day as highly respected. Jaguar, Mercedes, Porsche, BMW built the GT cars through the 90s, BMW won first and last race in 1999 but it was big failure for Mercedes, as their car failed several times, with Peter Dumbreck and Mark Webber, making them never return to the sport. Many other manufacturers left the sport, like Toyota (which would return for WEC) and BMW which focused more on Formula 1 from now as they partnered with Williams.
As it stood, Le Mans lent its name to new series, American Le Mans Series (now known as IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship).
The Start of a Glorious Millennium
As most of big manufacturers left in 1999, only Audi and Cadillac remained. Audi amazingly dominated most of the first years of the decade as all others failed to stop Audi with it's amazing R8.
In 2006, Audi introduced the R10 TDi with a Diesel engine, the car won in 2006 and 2007 as it's emerging rival Peugeot also introduced a diesel engine. Audi went on to dominate in 2008 as well with an emotional and unexpected win as the Audi drivers were more experienced, consisting of Allan Mcnish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello, Allan McNish calling Le Mans "our backyard" compared to Peugeot's lineup of mostly Formula 1 drivers. (watch Truth in 24 for references).
For 2009, Peugeot introduced ERS for their cars very much like Formula 1. Peugeot went on to win the race, getting first victory since 1993.
Audi, Toyota and Porsche
In 2010, rules were changed. Peugeot chose speed over reliability and Audi chose reliability. The outcome? All Peugeots retired and Audi finished 1-2-3.
2011 and 2012 saw series of accidents, Mike Rockenfeller and Allan McNish after Dunlop Bridge crashed heavily in Audis in 2011, where the other Audi of Andre Lotterer and team won the race. In 2012, Toyota replaced Audi as both Toyotas retired and Anthony Davidson suffered a horrible crash.
In 2012, Le Mans became part of World Endurance Championship to again become part of an endurance series. The 2012 season saw a hybrid car winning the race, The R18 e-tron quattro.
Since 2012, Toyota came as a strong competitive but didn't win cause of reliability issues. Porsche returned in 2014 with new program and new hopes with a hybrid engine. Nissan also came but left only after a single attempt in 2015. Audi won in 2014 and retired from Le Mans in 2016 on a high, providing great drivers over the years in a legendary Audi family.
Porsche was the next legend in making, winning 2015, 2016 and 2017 races, of which 2016 is still considered one of most brutal losses in Motorsports history as Toyota retired from lead in last 5 minutes.
In 2017, Porsche retired as well from Le Mans, after having three amazing victories, Toyota remaining the only LMP1 Hybrid for 2018.
In 2018, the double F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso drove a LMP1 car and won the first Le Mans race for Toyota after 20 years of failures and heart breaks. Toyota named this victory as their most memorable achievement ever.
A history was made. A history of never giving up and always staying committed to goals.
Shahmir Khan
Editor-in-Chief WEC & WRC, Member news desk.
In his own words, “17-year-old guy who is avid motorsports gamer. Petrolhead, die-hard F1 and motorsports fan and loves to write about cars and motorsports.”
Shahmir can be easily reached by the following address:
Gmail: shahmirkhan9181@gmail.com
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