1991 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 59th Grand Prix of Endurance, taking place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on the 22 and 23 June 1991.
The race was anticipated to be a final showdown between Jaguar and Sauber-Mercedes, with Porsche, Mazda and the new Peugeots playing supporting roles.
The belt on the waterpump had come off and stopped the engine cooling – a similar issue to what had struck the third team-car a few hours earlier.
In return, FISA offered a five-year contract in the new Sportscar World Championship (SWC), with worldwide TV promotion and coverage.
Few manufacturers had prepared new models meeting the regulations, so FISA had to let the Group C cars (to be called "Category 2") back in the entry lists and declared 1991 as another "transitional season" to allow more time.
[1][4][5] FISA reduced their commitment to 40 Championship cars and Le Mans and two non-European rounds were given a waiver to allow non-registered teams to enter.
Having not been consulted as required, Jaguar and Mercedes in particular, were livid that Nissan and Toyota (who had abstained from the Championship) would now be able to race after all for the one-off event without the expense of the rest of the series.
[15] The ACO changed their mind from the previous year, dropping the extra half-hour of qualifying in the first sessions of both days, thus returning to 4hours total on Wednesday and Thursday.
The second car was run by former F1 world champion Keke Rosberg with Yannick Dalmas, matching up experience with young French F1 prospects.
Dutchman Charles Zwolsman was their main customer for his Euro Racing team and bought two of the new chassis that were the only regular Spice entries in the championship.
[25] Classic Racing was the only US-entry this year, with a 3-year old SE88 owned by GP Motorsport, and now fitted with a 3.2-litre Ferrari V8 turbo, that therefore consigned them to the Category 2 with the other turbo-cars.
[25] Tsunemasa Aoshima had started his new team AO Racing in 1990, for the Japanese Championship, running an accomplished all-female crew of South African Desiré Wilson and American Lyn St. James in an all-pink SE90.
[23] TWR had little faith that the XJR-14 sprint-car would have the endurance to last at Le Mans and thus prepared a full assault with the Group C cars that had won the previous year.
[20] Current drivers' champion, Jean-Louis Schlesser, shared the #1 car with regular teammate Jochen Mass, along with Alain Ferté.
The three drivers of the Mercedes Junior Team were also cross-entered in the second C11, while the third was driven by Jonathan Palmer, Stanley Dickens and Kurt Thiim.
After doing the Dakar Rally with the ORECA team, he recommended that Mazdaspeed coordinate with Hugues de Chaunac and his organisation for their European race preparation.
The second car had Stefan Johansson and David Kennedy joined by Brazilian Maurizio Sandro Sala, the only new member of the team.
One was on a carbon/honeycomb monocoque (to be driven by Manuel Reuter, JJ Lehto and Harri Toivonen), while the other ran the standard factory aluminium hull (Gregor Foitek/Tiff Needell/Tomás López Rocha).
[4] Running this year with the short-tail set-up and a wider nose, Le Mans winners Derek Bell and Hans-Joachim Stuck were with Frank Jelinski, while the indefatigable Henri Pescarolo raced with Bernd Schneider and "John Winter" (Louis Krages).
This 1-year-old chassis would be raced by Salamin and his regular series co-driver, Moroccan Max Cohen-Olivar, and joined by 8-time French hillclimb champion Marcel Tarrès.
[38] Hans Obermaier was not entered in the SWC and had originally wanted to run a new Spice, but changed his mind and sold it back to Fedco.
[38] Australian Vern Schuppan's team was in the Japanese championship and brought three cars to Le Mans, including a T-car, under the Salamin banner.
[43][27] Alliot was third in the best of the Peugeots, and when TWR decided on Friday to withdraw the XJR-14 from the race, it became an all-Peugeot front row with Rosberg qualifying 8th overall with 3:35.1 (3rd in Category 1).
[37] The time spent by AO Racing preparing their new car meant St James and Muller failed to get qualifying laps in, however the ACO used their discretion and allowed them onto the grid.
The junior team took over second place when Palmer brought the other Mercedes into the pits complaining of chronic handling problems, after running over debris left by Hans Stuck's Porsche.
[20][33][52][47][31][53] Jaguar were having their own tribulations: in the 15th hour, Wallace lost 3 laps, and one place, when he planted his car into the gravel at the first chicane,[48] then Martini crashed at Tertre Rouge and Acheson came in for a new nose-section after hitting a rabbit.
Then the Graff car's engine began misfiring, necessitating a long, and ultimately fruitless, attempt at repairs, forcing their retirement in the 14th hour.
[2] After all the time and investment by Nissan and Toyota over the past decade, it was Mazda, building on their recent success in IMSA, that became the first Japanese manufacturer to win overall at Le Mans, and likely the only rotary-engined car to do so.
However, even the biggest manufacturers had to focus resources and in December, the company closed its Sportscar program and withdrew from the World Championship.
[33] Ironically, Footwork abandoned the Porsche engine after Le Mans for the upcoming French Grand Prix, and reverted to the Ford-Cosworth for the rest of the season.
