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Le Mans Legends 2013 Hailed A Great Success !
As the Radio Le Mans commentator put it when the chequered flag fell on the Le Mans Legend , the 45-minute historic race run by Motor Racing Legends as a curtainraiser to the Le Mans 24 Hours , “ That was a real motor race – a perfect start to the weekend .” Light rain started to fall , making the track treacherously slippery as the huge 60-strong grid of 1949-65 Le Mans cars assembled for the green flag lap , and spectators then raised umbrellas as the rain came down harder . Derek Hill , son of the late former Le Mans winner and F1 World Champion Phil , spun his Maserati 151 Coupé at Indianapolis , dropping from his 9th position to the back of the field . He weaved his way back to his proper place well before the rolling start and the full grid arrived at the start in perfect order . From the front row , Ludovic Caron ’ s AC Cobra Daytona Coupé put its nose ahead when the red lights went out , but Alex Buncombe ’ s pole-sitting Lister-Jaguar Costin had a narrow lead as they entered the Dunlop Chicane . Immediately behind , the action was frantic , with Gary Pearson pulling off a daring slide through the chicane to put his D-type in second place . By Tertre Rouge , Carlos Monteverde had seized second place with his yellow 250LM , the Ferrari with which he won this race a few years back . However , the action was only just beginning . The phenomenally fast qualifying speeds – Alex Buncombe had averaged 174.7km / h to take pole – were not possible in these conditions , but the action was still fast and furious . Hill ’ s Maserati had second place approaching the second chicane but the D-types of Pearson and Anthony Reid were Buncombe ’ s closest followers as they left it . While Buncombe slithered impressively towards a lead of 10 seconds on lap one , Reid pulled off with engine worries at Arnage and Monteverde ’ s smoking Ferrari headed slowly for the pits and retirement . Still the battle raged on unabated , with Pearson coming under pressure from Jon Minshaw ’ s Lister Knobbly and Roger Wills ’ s big ISO Bizzarrini , while Gareth Burnett ’ s little two-litre Elva GT160 was doing an incredible job of mixing it with the powerful front-runners . The rain then fell even harder and something had to give .
14 www . cprmag . co . uk
Two cars went off separately at Indianapolis , Paul Chase- Gardener ’ s 1952 Aston Martin DB2 flying sideways into the gravel trap , digging in and rolling spectacularly . The driver was unhurt but the car was badly damaged . Spectators then focused on the great battle for second place between Minshaw , Pearson , Wills and Lynn , which was resolved in that order after much drama and overtaking . “ There was probably more overtaking in this 45-minute , 9-lap race than we have seen in F1 in the past 10 years ,” said one spectator after the race . Among the class winners , Patrick Watts managed to bring his Allard J2 home in an impressive 14th overall , while Gary Pearson ’ s 3rd overall was also a remarkable performance for another of the older cars in the race . However , Alex Buncombe ’ s mastery of the adverse conditions to win outright by 43 seconds was the outstanding feature of the 2013 Le Mans Legend . A sad moment came with the failure of the engine of Georges Gachnang ’ s Cooper Monaco in qualifying . Georges , a Swiss Toyota and VW dealer , is now 82 years old . He competed in the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours in an AC and was looking forward to his return to the great French circuit . His weekend was not entirely wasted , however , because two of his grandchildren were in the modern 24 Hours – Natacha Gachnang in a Morgan-Judd LMP2 car and none other than Sebastien Buemi in a works Toyota LMP1 . www . tourbritannia . com
Le Mans Legends 2013 Top Ten
1 ) 60 Alex BUNCOMBE – 1959 Lister Costin 2 ) 33 Jon MINSHAW – 1959 Lister Jaguar Knobbly 3 ) 7 Gary PEARSON – 1955 Jaguar D-type 4 ) 36 Roger WILLS – 1965 ISO Bizzarrini 5300GT 5 ) 13 Shaun LYNN – 1963 AC Cobra 6 ) 201 Ludovic CARON – 1963 AC Cobra Coupé Daytona 7 ) 130 Gareth BURNETT – 1964 Elva GT160 8 ) 117 Chris HARRIS – 1959 Lister Le Mans Coupé 9 ) 37 Philip WALKER / Danny WRIGHT – 1958 Lotus 15 10 ) 49 Gavin PICKERING – 1955 Jaguar D-type