1997 Le Mans

1997 — The A.C.O., seeking to level the playing field and let the big GT runners fight it out with the prototypes, reshuffled the GT classes. GT1 included such technological dignitaries as the resurgent McLaren F1s led by the Team Schnitzer entry, Porsche’s 911GT1, the stout Lister Storm GTL and new R390 GT from Nissan out of the Walkinshaw stable. Then there was the amazing front-engined Panoz GTR sporting six-liters of Jack Roush power and torque (with a capital "K").

The rationalized and realigned GT2 category made eminent sense, with Vipers moving in to join the much-favored Porsches, Steve Saleen’s Mustangs (making their Le Mans debut), Rocky Agusta’s Callaway Corvette and Cor Euser’s slick Marcos LM600.

The prototypes were again headed by the 1996 Le Mans-winning Porsche-powered TWR-WSC95 from Reinhold Joest, whose '96 effort had added a 14th victory to Porsche’s Le Mans tally. The werkes hoped the new GT1 could be the 15th Le Mans winner from Stuttgart. But the Walkinshaw-built R390 was the car setting hearts aflutter. Martin Brundle, taking a working vacation from his ITV F1 broadcast duties, had scorched pre-qualifying in the new Nissan, 1.5sec faster than three-time winner Yannik Dalmas in the latest Porsche GT1, and nearly three seconds clear of ’95 winner JJ Lehto’s surprisingly quick Schnitzer McLaren.

Sixty-eight cars posted times in May training, confirming the headlines of the financial journals that the world economy was buzzing right along. Car Wars would have to be fought in Le Mans’ big tent where there was still room for Reinhold Joest’s IMSA reject TWR-WSC96 chassis #001. The number had been kind to McLaren in '95 and to Joest in ’96. His men had, a decade or so earlier, won consecutive Le Mans victories with the same car, Porsche 956 "117". But this year they would go bareback – only one car, "117", and no factory help. At least the lone spyder wore Joest’s lucky number "seven"; all his Le Mans winners had carried his favorite number.

Faithful "117" was still good enough for the pole with two seconds in hand from the Nissan R390’s spring training mark. Best of the new Nissans was the No. 22 Riccardo Patrese/Eric van de Poele/Aguri Suzuki R390 gridded fourth behind the Joest pole winner, the Bob Wollek/Hans Stuck/Thierry Boutsen’s Porsche GT1 and Gianpiero Moretti’s Momo 333SP Ferrari.

Brundle was gridded a distant and disappointing 12th. Nissan was obliged to learn the delicate complexity of A.C.O. scrutineering at full retail. A.C.O.-approved GT cars must have actual luggage space. Walkinshaw’s engineers had created a lovely inflatable "boot" that seemed to satisfy even the ancient "FIA suitcase" rules while being remarkably clever and inventive. No good said the scrutineers, and Walkinshaw’s men had to create a rigid luggage compartment, and that meant, among other things, rerouting the exhaust. And that meant moving the pipes closer to the gearbox, and that was just as bad as it sounds. The approved boot contained the sort of thermodynamic baggage gearboxes hate.

Mario Andretti and son Michael were back at Le Mans. Again. And again in a local Courage-Porsche, this time with third-man Olivier Groulliard. The American legend had come close in '95 but suffered through an appalling 24 Hours in ’96. In a year when lucky numbers seemed so important, the Andretti Courage-Porsche gridded 13th, 5.1sec behind Brundle’s distant Nissan with the new A.C.O.-approved trunk.

Norbert Singer prepared a practical, non-PR version of the well worn BMW & Mercedes Junior-Senior team concept: Wollek, Stuck and Boutsen in the "tenured" senior car and Emmanuel Collard, Ralf Kelleners and three-time Le Mans winner Yannik Dalmas (who had also been to the Le Mans podium five times in seven starts) in the No. 26 GT1. Impressive, as usual. Behind them, five privateer BPR GT1 refugees.

At 4:00 o’clock, Singer’s senior men broke away with the Joest’s "001" and van der Poele’s R390, leaving the lovely Momo Ferrari to lead the B-race for fourth. It was an eventful first hour. Allan McNish got a tire puncture and a big ride at Maison Blanch in ace Porsche privateer Fabian Roock’s GT1. Mario Andretti’s Courage-Porsche went onto three cylinders, and Mario started thinking about his electrical problems during the ’96 race.

The Nissan threat was already panting and wheezing. A clutch change during the third hour for the No. 21 headliner bearing Brundle, Wayne Taylor and Joerg Mueller was only a preview of coming distractions. The Patrese (van de Poele and Suzuki) Nissan went into the gravel for awhile on its out lap, and the gearbox oil cooler was replaced on the Brundle Nissan during the fourth hour. All this well before dark.

Joest’s strategy held through the opening hours and Michele Alboreto double-stinted while Joest and team manager Ralf Juttner plotted a careful path to 4:00 o’clock Sunday afternoon: keep stops to a minimum, surrender pit time in thin slices, stay clean. The inevitable consequences of pace happened during the third hour and both works GT1s passed the prudent Joest No. 7; juniors first, seniors second. This Porsche trio had the race by the throat as dusk turned to dark. A fleet of McLarens took up stalking positions behind them and waited for an opportunity that didn’t involve driving flat out.

Mauro Baldi crashed Franz Konrad’s privateer GT1 in the Porsche Curves on the dark run to the halfway hour. With barely less than 12 hours to go, the thundering Panozs of DAMS (oil leak) and David Price (FIRE!) retired. Two important cars that hold true to the spirit of Le Mans, gone, almost at once, in the dark.

Numerologists noted the 13th hour retirement of the Brundle/Mueller/Taylor Nissan, which qualified 13th and the sister ship No. 22 car. The troubled pair was deputized as a sort parts depot for the less distressed Eric Comas/Kazuyoshi Hoshino/Masahiko Kageyama No. 23 NISMO entry. The last Panoz nearly went to 6:00 a.m. At least Butch Leitzinger/Andy Wallace/James Weaver’s No. 54 saw daylight before the engine quit, ending Panoz’s Le Mans freshman indoctrination.

Poor Bob Wollek found a full strength dose of his traditional Le Mans bad luck at Arnage on Sunday morning. He arrived at the pits uncertain of what had launched his leading Porsche into the barriers like a pinball. The Porsche "senior team" had, through maturity and economy, eased a bit more range from their tank than Singer’s young guns in the No. 26 GT1. When Wollek tried to bounce a McLaren at Arnage, he got wheels on the curb and found himself sideways. Then backwards. And so on.

Wollek’s retirement prompted Joest to do a few mental calculations. He looked toward Schnitzer’s Charlie Lamm who presided over the quiet but relentless march of the No. 42 JJ Lehto/Steve Soper/Nelson Piquet "works" McLaren. Soper had been making adult-strength progress with good economy and conservation throughout the morning. They hadn’t the outright speed of either the leading No. 26 GT1 Porsche or the No. 7 Joest Porsche spyder. But they had range and a solid driver line-up without any hint of a soft spot. And they were under constant pressure from the seamless Gulf McLarens. It was a brew Joest didn’t particularly like.

Events of the 18th hour eased his mind. The Schnitzer McLaren spent nine laps in the pits with a split water pipe. Once repaired, Lehto jumped in and put on a charge to the front. He was briefly into the top 10 before he backed into the wall at Arnage. He was able to get the car back to the crew, but it went to the dead car park without further attention.

Dalmas seemed headed for a certain fourth Le Mans win in the No. 26 GT1. There was little to choose from on speed between the leading Porsche coupe and Joest’s roadster. Perhaps a half-second. Certainly not enough to make up even the small one-lap deficit. Joest would settle for second overall and first in class. No shame in that.

With two-and-a-half-hours remaining, race fans worldwide were greeted by the astonishing television images of Ralf Kelleners bailing out of his flaming Porsche GT1 – the leading car! – just past the Mulsanne kink. An oil line had split while Kelleners was at full throttle. He slowed the car as much and as hard as he dared. The fire worked its way into the cockpit quickly. Kelleners hit the fire bottle and jumped.

The race had might as well have been struck by lightning. The commentators had barely contained their astonishment when the No. 39 with Andrew Gilbert-Scott aboard hove into electronic view with flames surging from the business end of his Gulf Team Davidoff McLaren! This was the twin to the Ray Bellm No. 41 McLaren of Pierre-Henri Raphanel, Jean-Marc Gunon and Anders Olofsson that had inherited second place when the first fire broke out on Mulsanne.

Alboreto took the final shift in "001", maintaining the single lap lead on the No. 41 Gulf McLaren. It was Porsche’s 15th Le Mans victory and Joest’s fourth: the second victory with chassis #001. It was only the third time in Le Mans history that a car had scored consecutive victories, and Joest had done it twice in two entirely different formulae.

It was noble and impressive, but without the exciting copper taste of combat. The really big cheers at 3:58 p.m. were reserved for an Italian. Gianpiero Moretti was aboard his 333SP Momo Ferrari. This was his second trip to Le Mans in a Ferrari. The first had come during the golden Group 5 year, '70 when Moretti had raced a Ferrari 512S during the year Porsche finally scored its first Le Mans win. But he hadn’t finished. His third appearance at Le Mans was indeed the sweetest. He was in a proper Ferrari again – his own 333SP with Didier Theys and the ebullient Max Papis. Happy times. They were sixth, and the sole surviving Ferrari. Moretti spun twice on the agonizing final lap. Everyone cheered him, all the way around, and practically willed him home. It was his first Le Mans finish in 27 years, and you’d have thought he won.

The much-touted NISMO Nissan team finished one car a quiet 12th, 14 laps behind the GT2 winning Haberthur Porsche 911.