Le Mans 24 hour race 1995

Third placed McLaren F1 GTR by Andy Wallace, as well as Derek and Justin Bell ...

Anders Olofsson's, Luciano della Noce and Tetsuya Ota's Ferrari F40 broke down early due to a gearbox failure

The number 84 Honda NSX finished the race in eighth place overall and won the GT2 class

The 63rd 24-hour race of Le Mans , the 63 ^e Grand Prix d'Endurance les 24 Heures du Mans , also 24 Heures du Mans, Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans , took place from June 17 to 18, 1995 on the Circuit des 24 Heures .

The race

Before the race

After the experience in 1994 , when the German racing team owner Jochen Dauer and a technician from the Porsche motorsport department found a loophole in the new technical regulations of the GT1 class, which enabled the start of the Dauer 962 LM based on the Porsche 962 , the regulations were changed again. Now, of a vehicle type registered in the GT1 class, a number of 25 cars had to have been produced in order to obtain racing approval. The 962 and the Porsche 962 GTi were finally history at Le Mans.

The 1995 race had almost no factory involvement by an automobile manufacturer. Exceptions were the Venturi 600LM by Jean-Marc Gounon , Paul Belmondo and Arnaud Trévisiol , which was reported by Venturi Paris , the two works - Marcos LM600 by David Leslie , Chris Marsh , François Migault , Chris Hodgetts , Thomas Erdos and Cor Euser . The remaining four factory cars came from Japan; two Honda NSX GTi and two Nissan Skyline GT-R LM .

The McLaren brand was most strongly represented with seven McLaren F1 GTRs , all of which were privately registered. In the WSC class, Ferrari returned to prototype sports car racing at Le Mans. The last time Ferrari racing cars were driven was in Le Mans in 1973 ; Arturo Merzario and Carlos Pace achieved second place overall in the Ferrari 312PB . Against the express request of Scuderia , Euromotorsport Racing Inc. reported their Ferrari 333SP . To Massimo Sigala and Jay Cochran former French Formula 1 driver came René Arnoux in the team. The car broke down after just seven laps due to an engine failure.

The WSC prototypes were the favorites for overall victory; the two Kremer K8 Spyder , the Courage C34 by Bob Wollek , Eric Hélary and Mario Andretti , and the new C41 by Henri Pescarolo , Franck Lagorce and Éric Bernard .

The course of the race

The fastest practice time was achieved by William David in the number 9 WR LM94 from Welter Racing . The time of 3,46050 minutes corresponded to an average speed of 216.589 km / h. Next to him in the front row was the LMP94 with the number 8, piloted by Patrick Gonin , Pierre Petit and Marc Rostan . Patrick Gonin took the lead right from the start and held it until the first refueling stop after 10 laps. Half a lap there was even a double lead for Welter shortly after the start was released, then William David was pushed into third place by Bob Wollek in the Courage C36 . Both cars had the same technical problem early on in the race and fell behind in the overall standings. Pierre Petit, who had taken over the number 8 from Gonin, had to pit after 1½ hours to have the power transmission changed. Although the Welter pit team acted very quickly, the car lost three laps. The drive of the prototype ended after a serious accident at nightfall. When it started to rain, he got under-air at the quick spot in front of the Mulsanne, overturned once and hit hard on all four edges on the right edge of the track. The accident was very similar to that of Peter Dumbreck in 1999 , but is nowhere near as well known, mainly because there are no television pictures of it. Patrick Gonin, who drove the car, suffered severe bruises and several broken ribs in the accident. He had to spend one night in the hospital.

The heavy rain was a particular burden and challenge for the drivers. In addition to the serious accident at Gonin, there were numerous other incidents, all of which, however, resulted in harm to the drivers. During the night there was thick fog in addition to the rain, which made driving fast almost impossible. After the race, Mario Andretti spoke of the worst race he had ever driven. The adverse conditions favored the GT vehicles, which had more ground clearance and were therefore less prone to aquaplaning than WSC prototypes. At midnight, five McLaren F1 GTRs were in the lead. At the top was Derek Bell's team , who had already retired but made a comeback for these races, his son Justin and Andy Wallace . This team dueled the entire race with the McLaren with the number 59, in which JJ Lehto sometimes drove 10 seconds faster than the competition during the night and thus moved up from third to first place.

The decisive factor in the race, however, was Mario Andretti's accident in the Courage C34 in the Porsche corners during the night. When overtaking a Kremer K8 Spyder, he missed the braking point and hit the guardrail. The subsequent repair threw the car back six laps. By the end of the race, the team was able to catch up five laps on the winning team on the now dry track and still achieve second place overall. Without the accident, Courage would have won the race with superiority.

A defective starter decided the race in favor of Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya , who was the first Japanese to win the race. The starter of the Bell / Bell / Wallace-McLaren kept on strike, which resulted in the alternator and battery also being drawn with pity. In Wallace's last stints, victory was lost because the Briton had to struggle for up to two minutes after the necessary pit stops to get the car running again with the defective starter, because outside help, pushing the car in the pit lane , was not allowed. So two laps were lost, which is why only third place remained in the end.

Results

Pilots by nationality

52 French	23 British	16 Japanese	10 Germans	10 Italians
9 Swiss	7 Americans	5 Spaniards	3 Brazilians	2 Belgians
2 danes	1 fin	1 Canadian	1 Dutch	1 Swede
1 Czech

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis	engine	tires	Round
1	GT1	59	Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing	Yannick Dalmas Masanori Sekiya JJ Lehto	McLaren F1 GTR	BMW S70 6.1L V12	M.	298
2	WSC	13	Courage Compétition	Bob Wollek Éric Hélary Mario Andretti	Courage C34	Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	M.	297
3	GT1	51	Harrods Mach One Racing	Andy Wallace Derek Bell Justin Bell	McLaren F1 GTR	BMW S70 6.1L V12	G	296
4th	GT1	24	GTC Gulf Racing	Mark Blundell Ray Bellm Maurizio Sandro Sala	McLaren F1 GTR	BMW S70 6.1L V12	M.	291
5	GT1	50	Giroix Racing Team	Fabien Giroix Jean-Denis Delétraz Olivier Grouillard	McLaren F1 GTR	BMW S70 6.1L V12	M.	290
6th	WSC	4th	Porsche Kremer Racing	Thierry Boutsen Hans-Joachim Stuck Christophe Bouchut	Kremer K8 Spyder	Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	G	289
7th	WSC	5	DTR	Yōjirō Terada Jim Downing Franck Fréon	Kudzu DG-3	Mazda 13B 2.0L 4- Wankel	G	282
8th	GT2	84	Team Takahashi Honda	Keiichi Tsuchiya Akira Iida Kunimitsu Takahashi	Honda NSX	Honda 3.0L V6	Y	275
9	GT2	73	Callaway Cars Incorporated	Enrico Bertaggia Johnny Our Frank Jelinski	Callaway Corvette SuperNatural	Chevrolet 6.3L V8	B F	273
10	GT1	22nd	NISMO	Hideo Fukuyama Masahiko Kondō Shunji Kasuya	Nissan Skyline GT-R LM	Nissan 2.6L Turbo I6	B.	271
11	GT2	75	Agusta Racing Team	Robin Donovan Eugene O'Brien Riccardo Agusta	Callaway Corvette SuperNatural	Chevrolet 6.3L V8	D.	271
12	GT1	34	Aldix Racing pilot	Michel Ferté Olivier Thévenin Carlos Palau	Ferrari F40 LM	Ferrari 3.0L Turbo V8	M.	270
13	GT1	42	BBA Compétition	Jean-Luc Maury-Laribière Marc Sourd Hervé Poulain	McLaren F1 GTR	BMW S70 6.1L V12	D.	266
14th	GT1	27	SARD Co. Ltd.	Jeff Krosnoff Marco Apicella Mauro Martini	Toyota Supra GT LM	Toyota 3S-GTE 2.1L Turbo I4	D.	264
15th	GT2	77	Seikel Motorsport	Guy Kuster Karel Dolejsi Peter Seikel	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6L Turbo Flat-6	P	263
16	GT2	78	Jean-François Veroux	Eric van de Vyver Didier Ortion Jean-François Veroux	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6L Turbo Flat-6	G	262
17th	GT2	81	Richard Jones	Nick Adams Richard Jones Gérard MacQuillan	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6L Turbo Flat-6	G	250
18th	GT1	41	Ennea SRL	Gary Ayles Massimo Monti Fabio Mancini	Ferrari F40 GTE	Ferrari 3.0L Turbo V8	P	237
19th	GT1	54	Freising Motorsport	Wolfgang Kaufmann Yukihiro Hane Michel Ligonnet	Porsche 993 Bi-Turbo	Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6	G	229
20th	LMP2	14th	Didier Bonnet	Patrice Roussel Eduoard Sezionale Bernard Santal	Debora LMP295	Cosworth 2.0L Turbo I4	M.	222
Not classified
21st	GT1	44	Venturi Automobiles SA	Jean-Marc Gounon Paul Belmondo Arnaud Trévisiol	Venturi 600SLM	Renault PRV 3.0L Turbo V6	M.	193
22nd	GT2	71	Team Marcos	David Leslie Chris Marsh François Migault	Marcos LM600	Chevrolet 6.3L V8	D.	184
23	GT1	46	Honda Motor Co. Ltd.	Hideki Okada Philippe Favre Naoki Hattori	Honda NSX GT1	Honda 3.0L Turbo V6	D.	121
Failed
24	LMP2	9	Welter Racing	William David Jean-Bernard Bouvet Richard Balandras	WR LM94	Peugeot 2.0L Turbo V6	M.	196
25th	GT1	45	Eric Graham	François Birbeau Éric Graham Ferdinand de Lesseps	Venturi 600LM	Renault PRV 3.0L Turbo V6	D.	178
26th	WSC	3	Porsche Kremer Racing	Jürgen Lässig Franz Konrad Antonio Herrmann de Azevedo	Kremer K8 Spyder	Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6	G	163
27	GT1	23	NISMO	Kazuyoshi Hoshino Toshio Suzuki Masahiko Kageyama	Nissan Skyline GT-R LM	Nissan 2.6L Turbo I6	B.	157
28	GT1	57	PC Automotive Jaguar	Richard Piper Tiff Needell James Weaver	Jaguar XJ220	Jaguar JV6 3.5L Turbo V6	D.	135
29	GT2	70	Team Marcos	Chris Hodgetts Thomas Erdos Cor Euser	Marcos LM600	Chevrolet 6.3L V8	D.	133
30th	GT1	49	West Competition	John Nielsen Jochen Mass Thomas Bscher	McLaren F1 GTR	BMW S70 6.1L V12	G	131
31	GT1	43	BBA Compétition	Emmanuel Clérico Laurent Lécuyer Bernard Chauvin	Venturi 600LM	Renault PRV 3.0L Turbo V6	D.	130
32	GT1	58	PC Automotive Jaguar	Bernard Thuner Olindo Iaccobelli Win Percy	Jaguar XJ220	Jaguar JV6 3.5L Turbo V6	D.	123
33	GT2	76	Agusta Racing Team	Thorkild Thyrring Almo Coppelli Patrick Bourdais	Callaway Corvette SuperNatural	Chevrolet 6.3L V8	D.	96
34	GT1	37	Larbre Compétition	Dominique Dupuy Emmanuel Collard Stéphane Ortelli	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6L Turbo Flat-6	M.	82
35	GT2	79	Stadler Motorsport	Enzo Calderari Lilian Bryner Andreas Fuchs	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6L Turbo Flat-6	P	81
36	GT1	25th	GTC Gulf Racing	Pierre-Henri Raphanel Philippe Alliot Lindsay Owen-Jones	McLaren F1 GTR	BMW S70 6.1L V12	M.	77
37	GT1	36	Larbre Compétition	Jean-Pierre Jarier Jesús Pareja Érik Comas	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6L Turbo Flat-6	M.	64
38	GT2	91	Heico Motorsport	Tomás Saldaña Miguel Angel de Castro Prince Alfonso d'Orleans Bourbon	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6L Turbo Flat-6	G	63
39	GT1	30th	ZR-1 Corvette Team USA	John paul jr. Chris McDougall James Mero	Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1	Chevrolet 6.3L Turbo V8	G	57
40	GT1	40	Ennea SRL	Olofsson Luciano della Noce Tetsuya Ota is different	Ferrari F40 GTE	Ferrari 3.0L Turbo V8	P	42
41	GT1	52	Lister Cars Ltd.	Geoff Lee's Dominic Chappell Rupert Keegan	Lister Storm GTS	Jaguar 7.0L V12	M.	40
42	GT1	55	Jean-Claude Miloe	Pierre Yver Jean-Luc Chéreau Jack Leconte	Porsche 911 GT2 Evo	Porsche 3.6L Turbo Flat-6	M.	40
43	LMP2	8th	Welter Racing	Patrick Gonin Pierre Petit Marc Rostan	WR LM94	Peugeot 2.0L Turbo V6	M.	33
44	WSC	11	Courage Compétition	Henri Pescarolo Franck Lagorce Éric Bernard	Courage C41	Chevrolet 5.0L V8	G	26th
45	GT1	26th	SARD Co. Ltd.	Alain Ferté Kenny Acheson Tomiko Yoshikawa	Sard MC8-R	Toyota 4.0L Turbo V8	D.	14th
46	GT2	82	Eleven Haberthur Racing	Charles Margueron Pierre de Thoisy Philippe Siffert	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6L Turbo Flat-6	P	13
47	WSC	1	Euromotorsport Racing Inc.	Massimo Sigala Jay Cochran René Arnoux	Ferrari 333SP	Ferrari F310E 4.0L V12	G	7th
48	GT1	47	Honda Motor Co. Ltd.	Armin Hahne Bertrand Gachot Ivan Capelli	Honda NSX GT1	Honda 3.0L Turbo V6	D.	7th
Not started
49	WSC	12	Courage Compétition	Eric van de Poele Olivier Beretta Matiaz Tomlje	Courage C41	Chevrolet 5.0L V8	G	1
50	WSC	6th	Norbert Santos	Dominique Lacaud Jean-Paul Libert Pascal Dro	Norma M14	Buick 4.5L V6	G	2
51	WSC	7th	Sylvain Boulay	John Jones Jean-Marc Massé François Provost	Tiga FJ94	Buick 4.5L V6		3

¹ Disqualified, vehicle under weight limit ² Engine failure during training ³ Engine failure during training

Only in the entry list

Here you can find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race, but did not take part for various reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis	engine	tires
52	GT2	88	Christian Heinkélé	Christian Heinkélé Lucien Guitteny François O'Born	Ferrari F355	Ferrari F129B 3.5L V8
53	P2	10	Alain Lebrun	Patrick Bonjour François O'Born Franck Matifas Pierre Bruneau	WR LMP2	Peugeot 2.0L Turbo V6
54	P2	15th	Didier Bonnet	Bernard Santal Christophe Caveng Patrice Roussel Didier Bonnet	Debora LMP201	Cosworth 2.0L I4
55	GT1	20th	Chamberlain Engineering	Peter Hardman Richard Dean Dominic Chapell Jun Harada	Jaguar XJ220	Jaguar JV6 3.5L Turbo V6
56	GT1	33	Ascari Cars Ltd.	Klaas Zwart Nigel Greensall Jonathan Baker	Ascari FGT-LM	Ford 5.7L V8
57	GT1	35	Manoirde l'Automobile	Eric Hélary Alain Cudini Stéphan Grégoire	Aston Martin DB7 LM	Aston Martin 3.2L Turbo I6
58	GT1	48	Honda Motor Co. Ltd.	Philippe Favre Hideki Okada Naoki Hattori	Honda NSX GT1	Honda 3.0L Turbo V6
59	GT2	53	Obermaier Racing GmbH	Philippe Auvray Hervé Regout Jürgen von Gartzen Sandro Angelastri Uwe Alzen	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6L Turbo Flat-6
60	GT1	61	Rent-a-Car Racing Team	Bertrand Balas Marcel Tarrès David Velay	Dodge Viper	Chrysler 8.0L V10
61	GT2	74	Callaway Switzerland	Kurt Huber Hans Hauser Seppi Wendlinger Enrico Bertaggia	Callaway Corvette SuperNatural	Chevrolet 6.3L V8
62	GT2	83	Jean-Francois Metz	Patrick Bornhauser Jean-François Metz Marc Pachot	VBM 4000GTC	PRV Douvrin Sodemo 3.0L Turbo V6
63	GT2	85	Team Nakajima Honda	Takuya Kurosawa Kouji Satou Tetsuya Tanaka	Honda NSX GT1	Honda 3.0L V6
64	GT2	86	Sport Time	Javier Camp Antonio Puig Joaquim Guasch	Venturi 400GTR	Renault PRV 3.0L Turbo V6
65	GT2	87	Patrick Boidron	Pierre-François Bernigand Patrick Boidron Philippe Régnier	Ferrari F355	Ferrari F129B 3.5L V8
66	WSC	16	Vonka Racing Team	Jan Vonka Wilson Fittipaldi Franz Konrad	Kremer K8 Spyder	Porsche Type-935 3.0L Turbo Flat-6
67	GT2		Konrad Motorsport		Porsche 911 Bi-Turbo
68	GT2		Konrad Motorsport		Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6L Turbo Flat-6
69	WSC	2	JF America Racing		Ferrari 333SP	Ferrari F310E 4.0L V12
70	P2	16	Vonka Racing Team	Jan Vonka Dan Novotny	PRC S94	BMW
71	GT1	21st	Chamberlain Engineering	Peter Hardman Win Percy	Jaguar XJ220	Jaguar JV6 3.5L Turbo V6
72	GT1	28	Nisso Trust Racing	George Fouché Steven Andskär Thomas Danielsson	Toyota Supra GT LM	Toyota 3S-GTE 2.1L Turbo I4
73	GT1	29	ZR-1 Corvette Team	Mac DeMere	Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1	Chevrolet 6.3L Turbo V8
74	GT1	31	AIM Team Lamborghini GT	Rupert Keegan Harry Nuttall	Lamborghini iota
74	GT1	32	AIM Team Lamborghini GT	Harry Nuttall Rupert Keegan	Lamborghini iota
75	GT2	56	Callaway Competition		Callaway C7
76	GT1	60	Crisal Competition	Thierry Guiod Dominique Bardini Michel Cottot	Venturi 600LM	Renault PRV 3.0L Turbo V6
77	GT2	72	Legeay Sports	Bernard Castagné Luc Galmard Benjamin Roy	Alpine A610	Renault 3.0L Turbo V6

Class winner

class	driver	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
GT1	Yannick Dalmas	Masanori Sekiya	JJ Lehto	McLaren F1 GTR	Overall victory
WSC	Bob Wollek	Eric Helary	Mario Andretti	Courage C34	Rank 2
GT2	Keiichi Tsuchiya	Akira Iida	Kunimitsu Takahashi	Honda NSX	Rank 8
LMP2	Patrice Roussel	Eduoard Sezionale	Bernard Santal	Debora LMP295	Rank 20

Racing data

• Registered: 77
• Started: 48
• Rated: 20
• Race classes: 4
• Spectators: 168,000
• Honorary starter of the race: unknown
• Weather on the race weekend: heavy rain, fog at night
• Route length: 13,600 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 24: 00: 00,000 hours
• Rounds of the winning team: 299
• Distance of the winning team: 4055.800 km
• Winner average: 168.992 km / h
• Pole position: William David - WR LM94 (# 9) - 3: 46.050 = 216.589 km / h
• Fastest race lap: Patrick Gonin - WR LM94 (# 8) - 3: 51.410 = 211.573 km / h
• Racing series: did not belong to any racing series

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre: Les 24 heures du Mans 1995. Editions IHM, Brussels 1995, ISBN 2-930120-03-7 .

Web links

Commons : Le Mans 24 Hours 1995  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peter Braun, Gregor Schulz: The great Ferrari manual. Heel, Königswinter 2006, ISBN 3-89880-501-8 , p. 217.
2. ↑ Pit stops of number 8 in 1995 in Le Mans ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.