1994 Le Mans

1994 — With Peugeot off fighting other wars, it was clear to Toyota that it was their turn. No corner was cut. Two "private" Toyota teams made the journey to Le Mans: SARD and NissoTrust. California’s TRD help smooth the edges and swept a clear technological path for the "private" Toyotas, all without any trace of a token or ace Japanese driver in either line up. They were the cream of the new Le Mans Prototype class. And should one of these privateers actually manage to win the hallowed 24 Hours, there were enough senior Toyota managers, staff and corporate types on site to assist with whatever protocols might be required.

To equalize performance and invest the new breed of GT Supercars with a chance at the big marquee, the A.C.O. allowed the new Le Mans GT-1 class runners 50 percent greater fuel capacity with just 50 kilos more weight than the pure prototypes.

With the World Sports Car Championship a memory and homologation a meaningless historical term, the A.C.O. simply looked to its own rich history and required nothing more than the existence of a road worthy "production" version of the GT-1 racer. They imagined a winner, or at least a contender from the new breed of fashionable "supercars" like the Bugatti EB110 or the promised McLaren F1. What they got was something else altogether.

In Germany, cool intellects read and reread the new Le Mans GT-1 rules with the same care and precision that attended the release of the FIA’s Group 5 rules in 1969. A triple alliance between Stuttgart, Reinhold Joest and Jochen Dauer grew from this convergence of economics, legislation, bold creativity and broad expectations.

What the world – actually Le Mans – needed, they decided, was a road-going, GT-version of the Porsche 962.

But fans and the media were more interested in emotions than matters technical and cerebral. They had already turned their attentions to a true hero of Le Mans. Derek Bell announced he would retire from Le Mans competition following his 24th and final start aboard a Kremer K8-Porsche. Bell gridded the Gulf-liveried prototype outside row one ahead of the two rules-bending Dauer/Joest/Weissach loophole busting 962LMs.

The pole had gone to the No. 2 Alain Ferte Courage-Porsche; but Bell would have his moment, and the huge British contingent would have it no other way. The five-time winner gave the boost knob a healthy twist and led into the Dunlop curves. It was a bit of magic at a place that seems to manufacture the stuff in huge quantities. But Bell led only as far La Florendiere before Ferte’s Courage sailed past. No matter: Derek Bell in an open cockpit car wearing Gulf Oil livery had led in his final start at Le Mans.

The Dauer 962LMs blew what little was left of their cover at the first pit stop. The Dauer GT-1 Porsches were going two, sometimes three laps farther on a tank of fuel. Mauro Baldi (pictured above) ran one tank to 15 laps, nearly an hour, while the prototypes were stopping every 40min. This and pace enough to keep the prototypes in sight.

When the second hour report was distributed the Dauer/Joest 962LM Porsches were first and second. The Toyotas reduced this advantage by driving as fast as they dared and double stinting drivers and tires. It was a solid plan and seemed to work when the Dauer cars faltered. First the No. 35 Shell Oil 962LM had a big flat tire in the Ford curves with Danny Sullivan aboard. Hurley Haywood, Mauro Baldi and Yannick Dalmas’s No. 36 needed a new driveshaft before midnight. By early Sunday morning, the Toyotas were looking strong.

They had lost the unofficial Nippon Derby (to win Le Mans first for Japan) to Mazda, but any Le Mans win is a gold-plated big deal. By Sunday morning, the tide was clearly in their favor even though Hans Stuck was just a lap behind in the No. 35 Shell-sponsored Dauer Porsche. He had retrieved one of the two laps lost to the flat tire on Saturday.

Near 4:00 a.m., things went sour in the leading NissoTrust Toyota’s pits. A new gearbox cured a hideous vibration, but the swap consumed 54min and opened the door for the Dauer/Joest 962LM. Three and a half hours later Thierry Boutsen repaid this courtesy when he mashed the lower left rear wishbone on the leading No. 35 Porsche and spent 13min – enough to open the door for Toyota – in the pits getting a new piece fitted.

Now it was the turn of the SARD Toyota team. From 7:30 Sunday morning through lunch, the No. 1 Toyota 94CV of Jeff Krosnoff, Mauro Martini and Eddie Irvine led with the Dauer Porsches lurking, waiting for any crack, no matter how small.

It came with just 98min remaining. Krosnoff coasted to a stop just past pit-out with a healthy engine but no gears to deliver the power. Jeff went to the tail of the car and found a weld had broken on the gear linkage. His first guess was good: he had selected third gear and drove back to the pits slowly but without damaging either gearbox or clutch. While the SARD crew labored, the Dauer Porsche team struck. Five minutes later, the Haywood/Baldi 962LM with Dalmas aboard went into the lead.

Eddie Irvine emerged in the SARD Toyota and chased the second-place Shell-sponsored Dauer car as hard as he could. Boutsen had just one pit stop between him and a sure second place. When it came, he ignored tires and took only fuel. It was a tactical mistake that cost the Dauer Porsches a one-two finish. The 962LMs had been changing tires on each stop, and this lapse saved time but cost Boutsen grip and tactical options in traffic. On the penultimate lap, the Shell car was balked in Virage Ford, and the Toyota, with fresh covers and a determined Irvine aboard, slipped past. He was just one lap behind Haywood, Baldi and Dalmas.

Baldi was repaid for his efforts during the previous year’s 24 Hours with his first – and long overdue – Le Mans victory. This was the second Le Mans win for Dalmas and the third for Haywood. When he got home to Jacksonville, Fla., late Monday evening, Haywood was met at the airport by television cameras, fans and even some of the folks he worked with in his nine-to-five life at Brumos Porsche. When he went to his office on Tuesday morning, someone mentioned that his third Le Mans victory gave him a total of 10 victories in the big-three classic endurance races: Le Mans, Sebring and Daytona. "And all in Porsches, thank you," he said quietly to nobody in particular.

Derek Bell came sixth in his much-promoted farewell Le Mans appearance. His Gulf-sponsored Courage was powered, appropriately, by Porsche. He was welcomed home in much the same manner that he was willed into the lead by his mob of fans at 4:00 p.m. Saturday: non-stop screaming and cheering and a sea of waving Union Jacks. Very much the genuine hero with five Le Mans victories in 24 races. His Le Mans career began in the hideously dangerous days of the Group 5 wars between Porsche’s 917K and the Ferrari 512.S. Bell's only serious injury came during the filming Steve McQueen’s "Le Mans" while driving Jacques Swaters’ Ferrari 512S as Erich Stahler, nemesis and rival of McQueen’s Michael Delaney. Today the burn scars around his left eye are gone too.

On Monday morning, the A.C.O. met to discuss in excruciating detail the rules for the '95 24 Hours.