1984 24 Hours of Le Mans
1984 24 Hours of Le Mans | |
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The 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 52nd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 16 – 17 June 1984. It was also the third round of the 1984 World Endurance Championship.
The works Rothmans Porsche team boycotted the 1984 Le Mans race due to a disagreement between Porsche and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) over the fuel regulations, meaning that drivers such as multiple winners Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell were absent from the race for the first time in many years. Porsche originally stated that its contracted drivers would not be allowed to race with any other team, however they did relent only two or three weeks before the race. 1983 co-winner Vern Schuppan was the only member of the Rothmans team to race in 1984, eagerly snapped up by Kremer Racing to drive a Porsche 956B he would share with fellow Australian, 1980 Formula One World Champion Alan Jones, and experienced French driver Jean-Pierre Jarier. Surprisingly, Schuppan was the only regular Rothmans team driver to actually compete in the event with his 1983 co-winners Al Holbert and Hurley Haywood joining Ickx, Bell, Jochen Mass and Stefan Bellof (who would go on to win the 1984 World Endurance Championship) as non-starters.
1984 saw the largest ever influx of Australian drivers in the race, with not only defending race winner Schuppan and ex-World Champion Jones driving, but also star touring car driver Peter Brock and ex-F1 driver Larry Perkins in a 956 supplied by John Fitzpatrick Racing, in the second Kremer Porsche 956 (French's drive was a reward from Porsche for winning the 1983 Australian GT Championship in a Porsche 935), Allan Grice in a 956, and regular Group C2 competitor Neil Crang in a Cosworth DFL powered Spice-Tiga Racing Tiga GC84.
Jaguar made its first official appearance at Le Mans for the first time since 1959 when Bob Tullius' team brought over its two Jaguar XJR-5's powered by 6.0 litre Jaguar V12 engines from America. Group 44 racing, with the full backing of Jaguar, would compete in the IMSA GTP class. Before the decision to enter the race had been made, Jaguar had been concerned about the competitiveness of the XJR-5's against the turbocharged Porsche's and Ferrari powered Lancia's, especially with regard to top speed on the 6 km (3.7 mi) Mulsanne Straight. But those fears were put to rest when the 600 hp (447 kW) cars were clocked at over 200 mph (322 km/h) during the 24 Hours of Daytona in February.[1]
Reinhold Joest's privately entered 956 driven by Frenchman Henri Pescarolo and West German Klaus Ludwig won the race in the #7 Porsche 956B. For Pescarolo it was his fourth and last win at Le Mans, while for Ludwig it was his second win. After starting 3rd on the grid, the pair were only in 30th place after the first hour after pitting twice in the first 5 laps to fix a minor fuel feed problem after which the car ran almost faultlessly. The Porsche 956 dominated the final standings, taking the top seven places. The first non-Porsche 956 to finish was the Martini Racing Lancia LC2 of Bob Wollek and Alessandro Nannini. Wollek set the pole for the race with a 3:17.11 (248.873 km/h - 154.642 mp/h), some 11 seconds faster than Ludwig in the fastest Porsche. Formula 2 ace Nannini would set the races fastest lap and new lap record with a time of 3:28.90 (234.818 km/h - 145.908 mp/h) on lap 261, a time that would have been good enough for 5th place on the starting grid.[2]
During the race, a French marshal, Jacky Loiseau (42) was killed when British driver John Sheldon crashed massively in the Aston Martin powered Nimrod NRA/C2 at the flat out right-hand kink on the Mulsanne Straight, a crash that also involved the second Aston Martin Nimrod of American driver Drake Olson, who hit some of the strewn bodywork from Sheldon's Nimrod that had caught fire and crashed as well. He was unhurt. Another marshal, Andre-Guy Lefebvre (48) was seriously injured, but survived. Sheldon survived the 200 mph (322 km/h) crash, but he was severely burned, and the Nimrod's explosive impact against the Armco barriers was so violent, that some of the trees next to the track where the impact took place had been set on fire. The race was not stopped immediately, only that section of the straight was under caution, to protect the marshals and firefighters cleaning up the accident. Soon after, four pace cars were brought out under a full course caution, which lasted for 1 hour.[3]
Official results[]
Pos | Class | No | Team | Drivers | Chassis | Tyre | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Engine | |||||||
1 | C1 | 7 | New-Man Joest Racing | Henri Pescarolo Klaus Ludwig |
Porsche 956B | D | 360 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
2 | C1 | 26 | Henn's T-Bird Swap Shop | Jean Rondeau John Paul, Jr. |
Porsche 956 | G | 358 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
3 | C1 | 33 | Skoal Bandit Porsche Team John Fitzpatrick Racing |
David Hobbs Philippe Streiff Sarel van der Merwe |
Porsche 956B | Y | 351 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
4 | C1 | 9 | Brun Motorsport GmbH | Walter Brun Prince Leopold von Bayern Bob Akin |
Porsche 956B | D | 340 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
5 | C1 | 12 | New-Man Joest Racing |
Volkert Merl "John Winter" (Louis Krages) |
Porsche 956 | D | 340 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
6 | C1 | 11 | Porsche Kremer Racing | Vern Schuppan Alan Jones Jean-Pierre Jarier |
Porsche 956B | D | 337 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
7 | C1 | 20 | Brun Motorsport GmbH | Massimo Sigala Oscar Larrauri Joël Gouhier |
Porsche 956 | D | 335 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
8 | C1 | 4 | Martini Racing | Bob Wollek Alessandro Nannini |
Lancia LC2 | D | 326 |
Ferrari 308C 3.0 L Turbo V8 | |||||||
9 | C1 | 17 | Porsche Kremer Racing | Tiff Needell |
Porsche 956 | D | 321 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
10 | C2 | 68 | B.F. Goodrich Company | John Morton Yoshimi Katayama |
Lola T616 | BF | 320 |
Mazda 13B 1.3 L 2-Rotor | |||||||
11 | C2 | 93 | Jean-Philippe Grand Graff Racing |
Jean-Philippe Grand |
Rondeau | A | 310 |
Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 L V8 | |||||||
12 | C2 | 67 | B.F. Goodrich Company | Boy Hayje |
Lola T616 | BF | 295 |
Mazda 13B 1.3 L 2-Rotor | |||||||
13 | C1 | 37 | McCormack and Dodge | Walt Bohren Alain Ferté |
Rondeau | G | 293 |
Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3 L V8 | |||||||
14 | B | 109 | Jean-François Yvon |
BMW M1 | D | 292 | |
BMW M88/1 3.5 L I6 | |||||||
15 | C2 | 87 | Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. | David Kennedy Jean-Michel Martin Philippe Martin |
Mazda 727C | D | 291 |
Mazda 13B 1.3 L 2-Rotor | |||||||
16 | B | 106 | Claude Haldi | Claude Haldi Altfrid Heger |
Porsche 930 | M | 285 |
Porsche 3.3 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
17 | IMSA GTO |
122 | Thierry Perrier |
Porsche 911 SC | M | 283 | |
Porsche 3.0 L Flat-6 | |||||||
18 | IMSA GTO |
123 | Equipe Alméras Frères | Jean-Marie Alméras Jacques Alméras |
Porsche 930 | M | 268 |
Porsche 3.3 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
19 | C2 | 81 | Scuderia Jolly Club | Almo Coppelli Guido Daccò |
A | 262 | |
Giannini Carma FF 2.0 L Turbo I4 | |||||||
20 | C2 | 86 | Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. | Pierre Dieudonné Takashi Yorino Yojiro Terada |
Mazda 727C | D | 261 |
Mazda 13B 1.3 L 2-Rotor | |||||||
21 | C2 | 80 | Scuderia Jolly Club | Martino Finotto Carlo Facetti |
A | 258 | |
Giannini Carma FF 2.0 L Turbo I4 | |||||||
22 | B | 107 | Philippe Renault |
Porsche 928S | D | 255 | |
Porsche 4.7 L V8 | |||||||
23 DNF |
IMSA GTP |
44 | Jaguar | Brian Redman Doc Bundy Bob Tullius |
Jaguar XJR-5 | G | 291 |
Jaguar 6.0 L V12 | |||||||
24 DNF |
C1 | 5 | Martini Racing | Paolo Barilla Hans Heyer Mauro Baldi |
Lancia LC2 | D | 275 |
Ferrari 308C 3.0 L Turbo V8 | |||||||
25 DNF |
C1 | 21 | Alain de Cadenet Allan Grice Chris Craft |
Porsche 956 | D | 274 | |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
26 DNF |
IMSA GTP |
61 | Henn's T-Bird Swap Shop | Michel Ferté Preston Henn |
Porsche 962 | G | 247 |
Porsche Type-935 2.9 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
27 DNF |
C1 | 14 | GTi Engineering | Jan Lammers Jonathan Palmer |
Porsche 956 | D | 239 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
28 DNF |
IMSA GTP |
40 | Jaguar | Tony Adamowicz John Watson Claude Ballot-Léna |
Jaguar XJR-5 | G | 212 |
Jaguar 6.0 L V12 | |||||||
29 DNF |
C1 | 8 | New-Man Joest Racing | Stefan Johansson Jean-Louis Schlesser Mauricio de Narváez |
Porsche 956 | D | 170 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
30 DNF |
C1 | 38 | Nick Faure Mark Galvin Richard Jones |
Dome RC82 | D | 156 | |
Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3 L V8 | |||||||
31 DNF |
C1 | 50 | Pierre Yver Bernard de Dryver |
Rondeau M382 | M | 155 | |
Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 L V8 | |||||||
32 DNF |
C1 | 13 | Yves Courage |
Cougar | M | 153 | |
Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3 L V8 | |||||||
33 DNF |
C1 | 47 | Obermaier Racing GmbH | Jürgen Lässig George Fouché John Graham |
Porsche 956 | D | 147 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
34 DNF |
IMSA GTO |
121 | Paul Smith |
Porsche 930 | A | 146 | |
Porsche 3.3L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
35 DNF |
C1 | 34 | Team Australia John Fitzpatrick Racing |
Peter Brock Larry Perkins |
Porsche 956 | D | 145 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
36 DSQ† |
C1 | 16 | GTi Engineering | Richard Lloyd Nick Mason René Metge |
Porsche 956 | D | 139 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
37 DNF |
C1 | 23 | WM Secateva | Roger Dorchy |
WM | M | 122 |
Peugeot PRV 2.8 L Turbo V6 | |||||||
38 DNF |
C1 | 6 | BP Scuderia Jolly Club |
Pierluigi Martini Beppe Gabbiani |
Lancia LC2 | D | 117 |
Ferrari 308C 3.0 L Turbo V8 | |||||||
39 DNF |
B | 101 | Jens Winther Team Castrol | Jens Winther David Mercer |
BMW M1 | A | 96 |
BMW M88/1 3.5 L I6 | |||||||
40 DNF |
IMSA GTP |
62 | |
March | G | 95 | |
Buick 3.3 L Turbo V6 | |||||||
41 DNF |
C1 | 31 | Viscount Downe Aston Martin | Ray Mallock Drake Olson |
Nimrod NRA/C2B | A | 94 |
Aston Martin-Tickford DP1229 5.3 L V8 | |||||||
42 DNF |
C1 | 32 | Viscount Downe Aston Martin | John Sheldon Mike Salmon Richard Attwood |
Nimrod NRA/C2B | A | 92 |
Aston Martin-Tickford DP1229 5.3 L V8 | |||||||
43 DNF |
C1 | 24 | WM Secateva | Jean-Daniel Raulet |
WM | M | 74 |
Peugeot PRV 2.8 L Turbo V6 | |||||||
44 DNF |
C1 | 55 | Skoal Bandit Porsche Team John Fitzpatrick Racing |
Rupert Keegan Guy Edwards Roberto Moreno |
Porsche 962 | Y | 72 |
Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
45 DNF |
B | 114 | |
Porsche 930 | M[4] | 70 | |
Porsche 3.3 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
46 DNF |
C2 | 70 | Spice-Tiga Racing | Gordon Spice Ray Bellm Neil Crang |
Tiga GC84 | A | 69 |
Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3 L V8 | |||||||
47 DNF |
IMSA GTX |
27 | Dominique Lacaud |
Ferrari 512BB/LM | D | 65 | |
Ferrari 5.0 L Flat-12 | |||||||
48 DNF |
C2 | 48 | François Migault François Sérvanin |
Lola T610 | D | 52 | |
Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3 L V8 | |||||||
49 DNF |
C1 | 45 | Bruno Ilien |
Rondeau M382 | D | 49 | |
Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3 L V8 | |||||||
50 DNF |
C2 | 79 | |
A | 42 | ||
Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3 L V8 | |||||||
51 DNF |
C2 | 85 | Noël del Bello |
D[4] | 41 | ||
BMW M88/1 3.5 L I6 | |||||||
52 DNF |
C2 | 77 | Ecurie Ecosse | Mike Wilds David Leslie |
Ecosse | A | 36 |
Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 L V8 | |||||||
53 DNF |
C1 | 25 | C.A.M.S. |
Dudley Wood |
A | 10 | |
Porsche Type-935 2.9 L Turbo Flat-6 | |||||||
DNS | C1 | 39 | Dome Racing Team | Eje Elgh Stanley Dickens |
Dome RC83 | D | - |
Ford Cosworth DFL 4.0 L V8 | |||||||
DNS | C2 | 99 | Jeremy Rossiter |
Tiga GC84 | A | - | |
Ford Cosworth BDT 1.8 L Turbo I4 |
† - The #16 GTi Engineering Porsche was disqualified during the race for receiving technical assistance while still on the track.
Statistics[]
- Pole Position - Bob Wollek, #4 Martini Lancia - 3:17.11
- Fastest Lap - Alessandro Nannini, #4 Martini Lancia - 3:28.90
- Distance - 4,900.276 km (3,044.890 mi)
- Average Speed - 204.178 km/h (126.870 mph)
Notes[]
- ^ McKay, Peter; Naismith, Barry (August 1984). Le Mans 24 Heures Du Mans: The Australian Assault. Glen Waverley, Vic: Garry Sparke & Associates. p. 42 - The Contenders. ISBN 0 908081 02 2.
- ^ Racing Sports Cars - Le Mans 1984
- ^ "1984 - Le Mans — John Sheldon's massive crash". Archived from the original on 2021-12-22. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
- ^ a b "1984 Le Mans 24 Hours". Motor Sport Magazine. 2017-06-12. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
References[]
- "FIA World Endurance Championship 1984". World Sports Racing Prototypes. 2 October 2005. Archived from the original on 30 December 2006. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
- "Le Mans 24 Hours 1984 (Photo Archive)". Racing Sports Cars. 2008-03-27. Archived from the original on 26 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
- 24 Hours of Le Mans races
- 1984 in motorsport
- 1984 in World Sportscar Championship
- 1984 in French motorsport