2022 Le Mans Classic - Plateau 4 - 1962 to 1965

 

Just after the start of the third and final Plateau 4 race with the GT40s leading a great field up the hill from the first corner to the Dunlop Chicane.

Plateau 4 is always one of the highlights of the Le Mans Classic and this year in 2022 it kicked off proceedings after the Jaguar, Porsche and Group C support races.  I enjoyed watching their first and third races and pictures from those races feature below.

Plateau 4 was always going to be a battle between the Ford GT40s.

This plateau really needs a Ferrari 250LM so I was very pleased to see this Dutch recreation present and running.

Lots of variety further down the field with Lotus, Alpine, Alfa, Austin-Healey, MG and Bizzarrini.

Most of the top cars in the field and many others are shown below:

The winner on scratch was this 1965 Ford GT40 of Diogo Ferrao.

Second was another 1965 Ford GT40, this one driven by Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford.

Third was Emile Breittmayer in a 1965 Ford GT40.

This 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé driven by Michel Lecourt and Raymond Narac came fourth.

Wonderful to see a competitive Ferrari in this plateau.  This is the 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO recreation of Nicky Pastorelli.  It came fifth.  Built in the Netherlands I believe and to very high standards including hand beaten bodywork. 

Ludovic Caron's 1963 Shelby Cobra 289 came sixth.

Seventh was Frédéric Jousset's 1965 Shelby Cobra 289.

Damien Kohler in his 1965 Shelby Cobra 289 was eighth.

Ninth were Gregor Fisken and Patrick Blakeney-Edwards in their 1965 Shelby Cobra 289.

The 1965 Ford GT40 of Dominique Guenat was tenth.

Eleventh was this 1965 Ferrari 250 LM recreation of Alexander van Der Lof and Yelmer Buurman.

This 1965 Ford GT40 was twelfth driven by Jean-Francois Decaux.

One of my favourite cars, this 1964 Elva GT160 driven by Michael Birch and Gareth Burnett finished thirteenth.

Fourteenth was this Shelby Daytona Coupé driven by Neurrisse and Rouchard.

Sixteenth was this 1965 Lotus Elan 26R but it won the Performance Index for Plateau 4 driven by Simon Evans.

Tenth in the Performance Index was this 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ driven by Claudio Scalise and Manuel Elicabe.

A good Jaguar E-Type battle led by the 1963 car (No.50) of Luc-Pierre Verquin.

The 1965 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS of David Clark and Pierre Fillon.

The fast 1965 MG B of Michael Boyle.

The 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350 of L Desplaces.

The 1965 Marcos 1800 of Chris Marsh, Axel Lind and Robert Hamilton.

Malte Fromm in his 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ.

Julian Ellison in the 1966 Austin Healey Sprite Prototype.

1966 CD SP88 driven by T de Chesse and E Bruet.

1964 Alpine M64 driven by Mitch McCullough.

Christian Bouriez in his 1965 Bizzarrini 5300 GT leading a 1964 Lotus Elan 26R.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web à condition de créditer le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com, et de fournir un lien vers cette page.

1966 Marcos Mini GT driven by G. Carini, C. Gasco and J. Trousse.

One of the fastest cars was this 1965 Ford GT40 driven by Shaun Lynn but it spun out of contention in race 3.

2022 Le Mans Classic - Porsche Classic Race

A group of cars led by the famous Toblerone sponsored 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 3.0 that finished sixth driven by Didier Denat.

Sixty three cars completed at least one lap of a Porsche race that didn't have as interesting a field as in 2018 when there were a 908, 906 and 550 racing.  However, there were still some cars of interest most of which can be seen in this post.

 

The winners were Massimo and Marco Guerra in this 1981 Porsche 935 K3. 

Second were Guido Dumarey and Philipp Brunn in this 1974 Porsche 911 RSR Turbo 2.1 litre.

Third were Henrique Gemperle and Marc de Siebenthal in this 1978 Porsche 935.

This 1967 Porsche 910 driven by Jürgen Rudolph finished fifth.

The 1964 Porsche 904/6 Carrera GTS of Afschin Fatemi finished eleventh.

Gerard Larrousse shared the driving of this 1972 Porsche 911 2.5 ST with Oliver Bryant.  They finished tenth. 

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web à condition de créditer le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com, et de fournir un lien vers cette page.

The fastest of the Porsche 914s was this 1970 914/6 driven by Pascal Lebeau and Benoit Bourgoin.

An entertaining midfield dice with a 1972 Porsche 911 ST leading the battle.

2022 Le Mans Classic - Group C Racing

 

The sixth placed 1987 Jaguar XJR8 of Richard Meins leading the seventh placed 1990 Porsche 962C of Lars Erik Nielsen through the Esses.

Group C covered the period between 1982 and 1993.  For many of the fans, the race and the paddock covering this period at the Le Mans Classic is the highlight of their weekend.  Loud, fast and covering a period many of us remember.  What particularly made this year's race special was it being the 40th anniversary of the start of Group C racing and having seven Group C Jaguars present.  All of the Group C cars that raced at the 2022 Le Mans Classic are pictured in this blogpost:

The winning 1988 Jaguar XJR9 of Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen at Tertre Rouge.

The  second placed 1991 Jaguar XJR-14 of Christophe d'Ansembourg.

The third placed 1990 Jaguar XJR-12 of Olivier Galant.

In fourth place was this 1990 Porsche 962C of Ivan Vercoutere and Ralf Kelleners.

Fifth place went to Erik Maris in this 1992 Peugeot 905 Evo 1 bis.

Eighth place went to Nicolas D'Ieteren in this 1990 Porsche 962C.

Shawn Lynn was ninth in this 1987 Jaguar XJR-9

This 1990 Spice SE89C driven by Eric De Seynes and Eric Van de Poele was tenth.

This 1988 Jaguar XJR-9 finished eleventh driven by James Thorpe and Claudio Cappelli.

One of my favourite Group C cars is this 1989 Aston Martin AMR1 which was driven by Alexandre Leroy into 12th position.

In thirteenth place was this 1989 Porsche 962C driven by Lukas Halusa.

This 1988 GKW 862-C2 came fourteenth driven by Massimo and Marco Guerra.

The 1988 Argo JM19 C of Marco Famagalli and Stephano Zerbi came fifteenth.

The unusual looking 1985 Gebhardt JC853 finished sixteenth driven by Stanley Dickens.

Seventeenth was the 1985 Toyota Tom's 85C driven by Masanori Sekiya and Kasuki Nakajima. Kasuki's father Satoru drove one of these at Le Mans in 1985.

Eighteenth was the 1988 Tiga GC288 of Vincent Neurrisse.

This 1987 Jaguar XJR-8 of Henry Pearman finished nineteenth.

Rounding out the top 20 was Max Von Braunmühl in this 1990 Porsche 962.

21st - 1991 Porsche 962C - Hans-Jörg Hübner and Nick Salewsky.

22nd - 1984 Sthemo SMC2 - Romain Belleteste and Christophe Gadais.

23rd - 1985 March 85G - Romain Rocher.

24th - 1988 Olmas GLT 200 - Bertrand Rouchaud and Benjamin Monnay.

25th - 1986 Tiga GT286 - Jack Fabby and Tim Macrow.

NC - 1990 Spice SE90C - Pierre-Loup Boch.

NC - 1993 Peugeot 905 Evo 1 Bis - David Hart.

NC - 1985 EMKA C84 - Douglas Titford and Trevor Reeves

NC - 1990 Spice SE90C - Tony Sinclair.

NC - 1983 Porsche 956 - Rainer Becker and Mike Wilds.

NC - 1990 Spice SE90P - Cal Meeker.

NC - 1990 Spice SE90C - Patrick D'Aubreby.

NC - 1989 Spice SE89C - Mike and Matthew Wrigley.

NC - 1990 Cheetah G606 - Eric Rickenbacher.

DNS - 1985 Ecosse C285 - Lionel Roch.

DNS - 1991 Gebhardt C91 -  Michael Lyons

One of the seven Jaguars races past as I look back from Tertre Rouge towards the Dunlop Bridge.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web à condition de créditer le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com, et de fournir un lien vers cette page.

One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing and hearing the 1991 Le Mans winning Mazda 787B give a demonstration lap just before the Group C race.

A pair of Nissans in the paddock.  The 1990 Nissan RC90CP is about to be restored for historic racing having been acquired by Ascott Collection from the Nissan Heritage Collection. The RC90CK has similarly been acquired from Nissan by Ascott.  Hope to see them race again in the future.