Anyone interested in motorsport will be aware of the annual Le Mans 24hrs race, which takes place on the second weekend in June (there are sometimes exceptions). It has been running since 1924 with some gaps for obvious reasons. In a previous post I wrote about the competitiveness of the “new” Hyper Car category and this year the class lived up to its reputation.

the top eight Hypercars, eight LMP2s and eight LMGT3s that qualified the day before are entered into the Hyperpole shootout.

54 entries, comprising 23 Hypercars, 16 LMP 2s and, 23 GT3s took to the track on Wednesday 12th June for first practice. Qualifying, Hyperpole and further qualifying (yes, I know) would follow on the Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon and evening. Essentially the top eight Hypercars, eight LMP2s and eight LMGT3s that qualified the day before are entered into the Hyperpole shootout. This then determines their grid position. The remaining cars are given their grid positions based on the two qualifying sessions. At least I think that’s what happens. Got that?

Overall pole position fell to the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963, the AO by TF Oreca took LMP 2 pole and, the Inception Racing 720s McLaren secured the GT3 pole.

So, what was significant about this year? In short, the weather. It was cold, wet and very windy. This resulted in a number of incidents that brought out the safety car(s). The overall period run behind safety cars was almost seven hours and in my opinion this led to the unprecedented result of 9 cars on the lead lap at the finish. Because 7 hours of less than flat out running meant that reliability issues were reduced. This didn’t help Alpine or BMW of course.

The weather also resulted in one soggy laptop which got soaked when the wind drove the rain into my tent during the night!

There were incidents throughout the event including Cadillac No. 311 which fell off at Mulsanne Corner.

Of technical interest, the entries for the Ford Mustang in GT3 which, according to reports, differs from its rivals by having a traditional gear lever rather than flappy paddles. Ford are pushing the Mustang in international motosrport and are developing the car for WEC and other GT3 events. In the event the Mustangs ran reliably but were beaten by the Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R that won the class.

LMP2 was deservedly won by the United Autosports Oreca Gibson. This class does not run in the rest of the WEC but here it ran in two categories Pro and Pro Am. The AF Corse Oreca Gibson ran out the winner of the Pro Am category.

But after a close run to the finish the No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P crossed the line first, followed by the No 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid. Third place fell to the 2023 winner the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P.

Of course the weekend wouldn’t be the same without the presence of friends from all around the world and there were over 50 attendees at our traditional pre race “lunch” where such delights as Stroopwaffel licqueur, stilton, rillettes and other commestibles are consumed whilst catching up on the events of the past year.

Also Radio Le Mans was invaluable for keeping us all informed and entertained throughtout the event. Overall, from a spectator’s viewpoint it was an epic race, the classes provided entertainment throughout and unlike 2017 to 2021 there was uncertainty as to who would be the overall winner until the last hour.

Camping at the Porsche Curves gave access to an unparalleled trackside view as evidenced by this and many other photographs which can be found here.

There were some disappointments. The Alpines broke down in the first 12 hours and the BMW Hyper Cars failed to deliver. The No. 12 Jota Porsche suffered severe damage on Wednesday and was completely “re tubbed” in time for the race. A magnificent effort by the team, assisted by Penske who loaned them the replacement tub. It was an IMSA tub thus needed a new wiring harness to match the Le Mans specification it was running in. It finished a creditable 12th.

Roll on 2025!