1994 24 Hours of Le Mans

After the death of global Sports Car racing (aside from the IMSA series in North America), GT racing came to the fore. Knowing that teams would always want to race prototype sports cars at Le Mans, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) came up with a pioneering equivalency formula to allow the production-based GT cars to compete for the outright win against its own LMP class and the IMSA WSC cars. These involved engine air-inlet restrictors, smaller fuel tanks and minimum weights to limit the prototypes' performance. The ACO also allowed the old 1990 Group C cars but they now had to be open-topped, with flat underfloors.

FISA's new GT rules had developed through 1993, aligning with the ACO, IMSA and Japanese JAF, defining a GT as a road-going car on sale to the public and registered for road-use in two of the following countries: France, Great Britain, Germany, USA or Japan.[1] To allow time for entrants to prepare, the ACO was forced to issue its own GT regulations in September 1993, before FISA had completed their work. A summary of the restrictions:

• LM-WSC: fuel tank 80L, target output 550 bhp, min weight 900 kg (920 kg for turbos), max tyre width 16"
• LM P2: fuel tank 80L, target output 400 bhp, min weight 620 kg, with production engines, max tyre width 12"
• LM GT1: fuel tank 120L, target output 650 bhp, min weight 1000 kg, max tyre width 14"
• LM GT2: fuel tank 120L, target output 450 bhp, min weight 1050 kg, max tyre width 12"
• IMSA GT-Supreme: fuel tank 100L, target output 650 bhp, min weight 1000 kg, max tyre width 16"

Minimum annual production levels were 25 for GT1, and 200 for GT2, however a crucial loophole in the rules allowed a manufacturer to apply for GT1 homologation even when still planning the car design and before any cars had been made, meaning a single prototype for a proposed model could be raced. Several manufacturers spot this exemption and would exploit it, most notably Porsche, whom managed to homologate the now decade old 962C.

Roland Ratzenberger's name was left on the Toyota 94C-V as a tribute.

Overall, interest was very high with the ACO receiving 83 applications, accepting 50 +reserves, to vie for the 48 starting places. From the aging Group C population there were only 8 LMP1 cars and 4 LMP2 entries. Toyota was backing two Japanese teams driving their new Toyota 94C-V. Roland Ratzenberger was originally scheduled to drive in the SARD Toyota but was tragically killed in qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix. Eddie Irvine took his place on the team, and Ratzenberger's name was left on the car in tribute.[2]

Yves Courage, still trying emulate Jean Rondeau with an owner/racer Le Mans win, had three of his own cars, and the Kremer brothers had a new spyder in Gulf Racing livery. Roland Bassaler also took the chance to run his old 1982-vintage ALPA (rebadged Sehcar / née Sauber) one last time. Welter Racing again fielded two very fast little LMP2s. The two American WSC entries were later withdrawn, however there were three entrants for the IMSA GT-S silhouette category. These included the two Nissans from Clayton Cunningham's championship winning team that had earlier in the year won the Daytona and Sebring endurance races.

In GT, the two direct works entries were in GT2, with debutants Honda working with the Kremer brothers bringing three new NSX cars, and a pair of Lotus Esprit S300 entered by Hugh Chamberlain. The two Porsche 962 facsimiles were entered by Jochen Dauer and run by Joest Racing. All up there were 11 different marques represented in the GT field, including returns from Alpine-Renault, Bugatti, De Tomaso and Dodge. Ferrari was back in some force, as well as Reeves Callaway's new, modified Corvette.

With the new LMP regulations trimming power, as well as reducing downforce by 50%, unsurprisingly the Group C cars struggled and were about 10 seconds slower than previously. Courage took confidence by gaining their first pole position, courtesy of former single-seat and Peugeot works driver Alain Ferté. Derek Bell was second-fastest in the Kremer spyder, then came the little WR from LMP2, of Patrick Gonin, punching well above its weight. But clutch problems prevented Marc Rostan from doing any qualifying laps so only Gonin and Petit were allowed to race. The Dauer 962s started 4th and 6th, on laps that were 20 seconds slower than a 962C's best lap, set by Oscar Larrauri in 1990, but 15 seconds faster than ADA Engineering's true LMP1 Porsche 962C.[3]

The two Nissan 300SX in the GT-S category came in 9th and 12th amongst the rest of the LMP field, with the next fastest GT being the Ennea/Obermaier Racing Ferrari F40 starting in 14th, just ahead of the Jacadi Racing Venturi of ex-F1 racer Olivier Grouillard and Michel Ferté (Alain's younger brother). With the GTs mixing it up with the sports cars, it was looking like the ACO had got the equivalence formula about right.

• Pole Position - Alain Ferté, #2 Courage Compétition - 3:51.05
• Fastest Lap - Thierry Boutsen, #35 LeMans Porsche Team - 3:52.54, lap 243
• Winner's Distance - 4678.4 km
• Average Speed - 195.238 km/h
• Highest Trap Speed — Dauer 962 Le Mans - 365 km/h (practice)
• Attendance - 140000
• Last time when the team entered only two drivers for a racecar (Car #21)

• Spurring, Quentin (2014) Le Mans 1990-99 Sherborne, Dorset: Evro Publishing ISBN 978-0-9928209-1-6
• Laban, Brian (2001) Le Mans 24 Hours London: Virgin Books ISBN 1-85227-971-0

• Official website of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
• Racing Sports Cars – Le Mans 24 Hours 1994 entries, results, technical detail. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
• Racing Sports Cars – Le Mans 24 Hours 1994 (Photo Archive). Retrieved 4 July 2016.
• Le Mans History – Le Mans History, hour-by-hour (incl. pictures, YouTube links). Retrieved 4 July 2016.
• Formula 2 – Le Mans 1994 results & reserve entries. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
• Motorsport Magazine – Motorsport Magazine archive. Retrieved 4 July 2016.