Mega Gallery & Report: The Le Mans Classic Centenary

Submitted by Marcel Hundscheid on July 20, 2023

By Marcel Hundscheid / Speed-O-Graphica

At the beginning of July, the Circuit des 24 Heures in Le Mans was entirely dedicated to the Le Mans Classic Centenary. 235,000 visitors, over 900 drivers, more than 800 racing cars from the period between 1923 and 2010, 9,200 cars in the club area and 150 exhibitors set a new record. It was the 11th edition of the Le Mans Classic, an event unparalleled in the world of historic motorsport.

In addition to six different grids, the program was completed by the presence of Group C Racing, Endurance Racing Legends, Porsche Classic Race Le Mans and the Benjafields Racing Club.

Impressive to see were the crowded starting grids that you honestly don’t encounter at any other historic motorsport event. In addition, not only the large number of cars is striking, but especially the often unique cars that in various cases cannot be found anywhere else. Reason enough for fans of historic motorsport to put this event on their bucket list.

For accredited photographers, including our reporter, it was a challenge to capture the event in words and images. The Bugatti circuit, which is linked to the Circuit des 24 Heures, just like for the 24 hours of Le Mans, is simply too big to cover on foot. A mapped out plan to determine in advance what you want to do is a must.

The weather conditions were not entirely cooperative this year. On Friday it remained dry with a stray drop of rain. On Saturday a number of times a serious downpour came out of nowhere, which even caused a red flag situation in the Endurance Racing Legends event.

Grid 1

Sixty four cars from the 1923-1939 period opened the event on Saturday around 4:00 pm. Gareth Burnett and Michael Birch dominated all three races in their Talbot AV105 from 1937. Truly an unique performance during this edition of the Le Mans Classic. During the third and final race of the weekend, the number of participants was reduced to fifty-four cars.

Grid 2

Niklas and Lucas Halusa left their mark on the races with cars representing the period between 1949 and 1956 in Grid 2. They drove their 1954 Jaguar D-Type to victory during the first race on Saturday in a seventy-four field of cars and after a hard-fought victory again in the third race on Sunday. Nigel Webb and Chris War won the second race in a 1953 Jaguar C-Type.

Grid 3

Former Le Mans-winner Andy Wallace drove his 1957 Jaguar D-Type almost faultlessly, resulting in winning the first two races in a seventy five car grid.

Wallace won the Le Mans 24 Hours back in 1988 on his debut in a Jaguar XJR-9. At this year’s Le Mans Classic he was defeated by five-time winner Emanuele Pirro and Dutchman Hans Hugenholtz in the third race with their 1959 Lister Jaguar Costin.

Grid 4

Ford GT40s dominated the first five rows in Grid 4, open to cars from 1962 to 1965. A total of fourteen GT40s were entered in a eighty one car grid.

Christian Gläsel and Seb Perez won the first race, but it was Diogo Ferrao from Portugal who won race two and three in his 1965 Ford GT40. The Portuguese driver profited from the problems with the No. 1 GT40 of Ford CEO James Farley and Belgian Eric van de Poele who were in the lead. The left door of their GT40 opened at high speed and the driver didn’t manage to close it, forcing him to retire.

Grid 5

This race represented sports cars and GTs from 1966 to 1971 with an impressive seventy seven car grid. The Lola T70 Mk.IIIB dominated all three races with a hard fought victory by Steve Brooks in race 1. Father-and-son David and Olivier Hart ruled both in the second race and third race with their T70.

Besides the domination of the Lola T70, Grid 5 saw a wide range of cars including three Porsche 917s and a Porsche 908LH driven by, amongst others, legend Brian Redman.

Grid 6

Close to eighty sportscars and GTs from 1972 to 1981 found their way to the final of the six Le Mans Classic grids. Just as in Grid 5 it was the Lola marque dictating the pace on the 13.6 kilometre track with five different types T286, T292 and T298 claiming the first six places on the starting grid.

Maxime Guenat (T286) won the first race, but it was Yves Scemama who beat the Lola driver in the second race of the weekend with his TOJ SC304. In the third and final race of the weekend Scemama was in the lead again but a technical problem forced him to slow down, handing the lead over to Guenat, who scored his second victory.

Support Races

Endurance Racing Legends

Unpredictable weather conditions and pouring rain resulted in a delayed race for the Endurance Racing Legends on Saturday morning, in fact the first race of the program.

When the forty minute race started after a long break, a nice battle unfolded between the Pescarolo of Emmanuel Collard and the Toyota TS020 of Francois Perrodo. The thirty minute sprint race on Sunday was a copy of Saturday’s main race. Collard managed to keep Perrodo with a narrow margin.

Group C Racing

Forty five epic Group C sports cars from the 80s and 90s entered the track for their first qualifying session. The battle for the pole was fought between the nr. 7 Porsche 962C (Ivan Vercoutere/Ralf Kelleners) and the nr. 20 Jaguar XJR-9 driven by Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen. With a narrow margin of just 0.395 of a second, Vercoutere and Kelleners won Q1.

In Q2 nobody had an answer to the commanding speed of the Porsche 962 driven by Vercoutere and Kelleners. This resulted in combined Q1 and Q2 results giving the pole position to the French-German driver combination.

Thirty three cars found their way to the grid for their forty five minute race. It was surprising to see that Vercoutere and Kelleners both failed to cash in on their pole position during the race. It was Erik Maris who raced the nr. 3 Peugeot 905 Evo 1 Bis to victory. Vercoutere and Kelleners had to be satisfied with third place on the podium.

Thirty one cars reported for the thirty minute sprint race on Sunday. Vercoutere and Kelleners put things in order and drove unthreatened to victory.

The Le Mans Classic went down in the history books with the necessary records. The next edition will take place in two years.