[Motorsport] Le Mans 2014

Earlier today I got back from my second holiday in three weeks, and my third trip to the Le Mans 24 hours. Now that I've recovered (I really needed a nap when I got back to the flat), I wanted to talk about it a bit.

There was a new logo for the race this year. But the on-track action was definitely classic. (Credit: David Brown)

In terms of racing, I think that this year was the best of the three at the front of the field. We were back up to three manufacturers with the return of Porsche, and the seven cars that they had between them were all fairly evenly matched throughout the week. What's more the new rules for LMP1 manufacturers have led to more complex cars, which over 24 hours translates into poorer reliability. This didn't manifest itself during the first third of the race, but once the wee hours of the morning were reached it seemed as though nobody wanted to win. Cars seemed to break down every half an hour or so, which was great because unlike my previous trips it meant that the winner was uncertain right up until the last hour.

Rebellion, running in LMP1-L, had two of their new car at Le Mans. Reliability troubles hit one of them,

but the other run well. It was still disappointingly off the pace of the factory teams though. (Credit: David Brown)

In the end it was another Audi victory, but when I went to bed at 2am (11 hours into the race) it seemed as though Toyota were running away with it. Although one of their cars was well back thanks to a crash during one of the heavy downpours that we experienced during the second hour of the race, the other car was out in front an unchallenged. When I woke up though it was nowhere to be found - a fire in the electrical system put it out about 5am apparently. From then on it was a fight between the two German manufacturers, but as I mentioned above both had their problems. Porsche nearly had a fantastic story on their hands, but both cars failed in the 22nd hour in a cruel twist that meant the final results didn't really reflect their achievements. Audi too nearly had a fairytale ending - the number 1 car, which had been written off in first practice and completely rebuilt - looked like it was going to win at one point, before turbo problems meant a trip to the garage.

Another year, another 1-2 finish for Audi. But they had to work hard for it this year, and

it wasn't clear who would be victorious until about an hour from the end. (Credit: David Brown)

In some ways LMP1 was (to shamelessly steal a phrase from Radio Le Mans) an old-fashioned 21st century endurance race. We haven't seen unreliability from all of the cars in this manner for some time, and it very much harked back to the Group C days of cars dropping out all over the place, and of even the winners spending considerable time in pitlane. Sadly I don't think it will last into next year, but the similarity of laptimes shown by Toyota, Audi, and Porsche makes me hopeful for another great race in 2015.

Porsche did well on the their return to the top class, and came very close to winning. (Credit: David Brown)

Behind LMP1 the other classes were equally as good, as we've come to expect. LMP2 could have gone to any one of about ten different cars at the start of the race, but in the end was won by the JOTA Zytek, one of the oldest designs in the class. It could so easily have been a different story though - a couple of the contenders crashed out during the early rainstorm, the OAK Racing Morgan disappeared in the middle of night while I was asleep, and most of the other front runners hit trouble in the last few hours. Included in that last group were the two Ligier coupes from OAK Racing and Thiriet by TDS. The Ligier was a brand new car for the race, and there had been question marks over its reliability for 24 hours. But it could so easily have been a 1-2 finish for the French marque. The Thiriet car had a puncture whilst leading roughly an hour from the end, and the OAK car was suffering with engine troubles and was a cylinder down. They tried to stay out in front (they had a pretty big lead), but the problem got worse and they were eventually forced to pit for repairs. It was a cruel end to a gutsy performance, but JOTA were in the right place at the right time.

The Ligier JS P2 was a brand new car at Le Mans, and nearly won LMP2. The reliability was really impressive

for a new car. This is the Thiriet by TDS, Nissan engined example. (Credit: David Brown)

GTE-Pro was a three way fight for the whole race, just not necessarily between the same cars. For a long time it was Aston Martin vs Corvette vs Ferrari, including some great fighting around midnight. But by the end of the race it was Ferrari, Corvette and Porsche that were in the hunt after the Aston had power steering issues. Oddly enough it was the AF Corse Ferrari that finished on top, quite comfortably in the end, although that was deceptive given the ferocity of the battles earlier in the race.

The number of cars being run by AF Corse was silly, so it's no surprise that they won one of the GTE classes.

This is the #60 GTE-Am car. (Credit: David Brown)

GTE-Am was a quieter affair in which penalties ultimately played a sizeable role. The Dempsey car was penalised for spinning the wheels as it pulled away from a pitstop, which dropped it out of the lead, and the Proton Competition car was given a pitlane speeding penalty while in second. In the end it was the #95 Aston Martin Vantage that won the class - a fitting tribute to Allan Simonsen.

Unfortunately I once again failed to get any pictures of the #95 car. So here's a picture of the

#97 GTE-Pro Aston Martin instead. (Credit: David Brown)

For support races this year we were treated to Group Cs, and the Porsche Carrera Cup France/UK/Germany/Scandanavia/anyone that wants to come along. The Group C race wasn't particularly exciting sadly, although the cars were as spectacular as ever, but the Porsche's put on a magnificent race. There was constant battling for position right the way through the 62 (62!) car field, and the leader suffered a blown tire on the last lap! It was spectacular.

<Homer> Mmmmmm, Group C. </Homer> Such gorgeous cars. Here, the #18 Aston Martin AMR1 passes the #16 Porsche 962 (Credit: David Brown)

I was worried that my third trip in a row to the 24 hours would be less exciting, and would show me that the race had lost some of its lustre. That certainly wasn't the case, and I wish I'd been able to stay awake for more of the night running. It was a classic race, and I can only hope that I can make it back next year for the return of Nissan, and what should be another corker.