24 Hours of Le Mans

24 Hours of Le Mans 2009 - GT1 Review

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

After being a highlight in recent years the GT1 class was nothing more than a grid filler this year. The last race under the current GT1 regulations only had four Corvette C6.Rs, 1 Aston Martin DBR9 and a Lamborghini Murcielago in it.

In 2008 Aston Martin Racing and Corvette Racing battled it out for the victory, but with the Lola Aston Martin LMP1 project requiring all resources the ultimate battle never happened. So Corvette Racing was set for a farewell 1-2 or wasn’t it….
Let’s take a look back at the 77th 24 Hours of Le Mans GT1 race per car.

63-Corvette Racing: Jan Magnussen, Johnny O’Connell and Antonio Garcia gave the #63 Corvette C6.R its final victory at Le Mans. The #63 dominated the entire week setting the fastest times in free practice and qualifying. In the race for the first 18 hours the #63 was in the lead, after that the cars were close to each other and swapped positions several times. Twenty minutes before the chequered flag came out, and having a big lead in the race again, the #63 came into the box where all the mechanics cleaned the car and it crossed the line as if it had done only a few laps!

64-Corvette Racing: Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Marcel Fässler were unable to beat their team mates in the #64. In the race the C6.R was trailing its sister car for most of the race only to lead the race for a while after nineteen hours. A nice fight between the two American Corvettes came to an end at around 12:45 p.m. when the #64 came to a halt just shy of the pit lane entry. Despite Corvette Racing mechanics rushing to the scene the problems with the gearbox could not be repaired at the spot and the car retired from the race.

66-Jetalliance Racing: Jetalliance Racing had a disastrous race that was eventually still rewarded with a third place podium finish. The #66 Aston Martin DBR9 came into the pit after only one lap and stayed there for nearly half an hour. From that moment on the car had several moments where it went straight or into the gravel. Despite the spins and the pit stops the car kept returning to the track and was still racing after 24 hours. It eventually finished 31st overall (out of 32 classified cars) and 48 laps behind the winning Corvette.

68-JLOC Isao Noritake: The Lamborghini was a waste of an entry. The team found out that their car was in fact the chassis that was written off in 2007 with parts of a newer car bolted onto it. This immediately explained the lack of speed and reliability of the JLOC car. It remains to be seen though if it was really a surprise for the team to find out the history of their car or that they knew it from the start. Like in 2007 the car completed one lap before retiring in the pit. Let’s hope that the ACO will never accept an entry from JLOC again.

72-Luc Alphand Aventures: Luc Alphand must have had a different idea of how his 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours would end. The #72 Corvette C6.R never played a role in the GT2 battle and was behind the two factory cars and the #73 sister car for the first five hours. After six hours it had finally moved into third place but just before 10 p.m. the race ended with a bang. At Tertre Rouge Patrice Goueslard tangled with an LMP car and smashed his Corvette into the wall. Goueslard was alright, but the car was destroyed. It remains to be seen what this write-off will mean to Alphand’s future racing programme.

73-Luc Alphand Aventures: The #73 Alphand Corvette C6.R driven by Yann Clairay, Xavier Maassen and Julien Jousse took a nice second place in the final GT1 outing as we know it at Le Mans. With the Corvette Racing C6.Rs out of reach for the youngsters the main target was the sister car. After that car went out on Saturday night the #73 looked set for third place but the retirement of the #64 meant that Clairay, Maassen and Jousse were promoted to second place. Despite their inexperience at Le Mans the three drivers did well and kept their car on the track and out of trouble.

Conclusion:

The GT1 category was a farce. The Lamborghini entry was a disgrace, the Jetalliance Racing DBR9 taking third place said it all. Thumbs up for the #73 Luc Alphand Aventures youngsters for taking second place and for the entire Corvette Racing team for racing at Le Mans despite the demise of General Motors and their on-track battle before the #64 retired.