Field for Le Mans 24 Hours Race Chases Jaguars : Motor racing: The car duplicates its Daytona finish with first and second places in the endurance race.
From Daytona to Le Mans, Jaguars are first--and second--in endurance races.
On Sunday, Jaguars finished 1-2 at the Le Mans 24 Hours race, duplicating the finish at the 24 Hours of Daytona, Fla., in February.
At Le Mans, Denmark’s John Nielsen, American Price Cobb and Britain’s Martin Brundle combined on a Jaguar XJR12 to win by four laps. The winners covered 359 laps--3,034 miles--and averaged 126.8 m.p.h. The distance was far off the record 3,315 miles set in 1971 by a Porsche.
Second went to the Jaguar driven by Jon Lammers of the Netherlands, Britain’s Andy Wallace and West Germany’s Franz Konrad.
It was the seventh time a Jaguar won Le Mans. The British-built car won in 1988 and lost to Mercedes last year.
“Now we’d like to see England and Scotland win in the World Cup,” Tom Walkenshaw, the guiding force behind the Jaguar team said, “but some things are more impossible than others.”
Nielsen’s Jaguar took the lead just before the 12-hour mark and guarded it until the end, fighting off challenges from Porsche and Nissan.
A Nissan driven by Australia’s Geoff Brabham, American Chip Robinson and Britain’s Derek Daly battled for the lead for eight hours through the night before the car suffered a fuel cell problem.
Then, over the last eight hours, the Nielsen Jaguar was closely pursued by a Porsche 962 C of Argentina’s Oscar Larrauri, Spain’s Jesus Pareja and Switzerland’s Walter Brun.
But with 15 minutes left, the Porsche sputtered smoke and slowed to a stop.
Even though it had covered more than 350 laps, it could not be classified because it was not able to take the checkered flag at the end of the 24 hours.
That paved the way for third to go to an all-British team of Tiff Needall, David Sears and Tony Reid in a Porsche 962C.
“Porsche didn’t give in until the very end,” Walkenshaw said. “I was nervous and worried about it.”
Walkenshaw had made other moves during the 24 hours to ensure his leading car had the best combination of drivers.
He replaced Chilean Elizeo Salazar with Brundle more than 14 hours after the race started to have a more experienced person ride with Cobb and Nielsen.
Brundle’s Jaguar, one of four in the race, dropped out with water pump problems just after the halfway point. Salazar had not been behind the wheel as Walkenshaw held him out in case of another driver becoming available.
“To say I am disappointed is an understatement,” Salazar said. “But I understand the decision of TWR (Tom Walkenshaw Racing).”
Brundle is a former world champion sports prototype driver but ran in Formula One last year.
The Le Mans race is not part of the World Championship schedule this year. A dispute between the organizers, the Automobile Club of the West, and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) over the safety of the 3.6-mile circuit, saw to that. Top finishers at Le Mans do not receive world championship points.
