1988 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 56th Grand Prix of Endurance as well as the fifth round of the 1988 World Sports-Prototype Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on the 11 and 12 June 1988. At their third attempt, Jaguar arrived with five cars to take on the strong Porsche works team of three cars, in their only race for the Championship season. The other potential rival was Sauber, now formally backed by Mercedes-Benz, but after a major high-speed tyre-blowout in practice, their two-car team was withdrawn.

From the start, it was a close duel between the two works teams. Even though Hans-Joachim Stuck had put in a blazing qualifying lap to lead a 1-2-3 grid for Porsche, it was Jan Lammers in his Jaguar who muscled his way up to the front. A blocked fuel-filter cost Klaus Ludwig two laps in the pole-sitting Porsche. Thereafter the chase was picked up by his team-mate Bob Wollek, and he took the lead in the fourth hour. Along with the third works car run by the Andretti family and the Joest Porsche, these four cars continued dicing well into the night, constantly swapping positions. However, this year the usual Porsche reliability was missing: the Andretti car lost three laps repairing their water pump, then Wollek's car retired just before half-time with a burnt-out engine. Jaguar did not have plain sailing either, as Boesel had retired at midnight with a broken gearbox. Meanwhile, hard driving by Stuck, Ludwig and van der Merwe had them back into the race, and the second half would be a duel between them and the Jaguar of Lammers, Dumfries and Wallace. A light shower late in the morning just added to the tension with Stuck, a wet-weather master, getting ever closer.

Once the rain eased though, the Jaguar drivers were able to stabilise the gap, and going into the last hour had a comfortable 1-lap lead. That was until the gearbox broke. Lammers, mindful of what Boesel had told him about his own cars demise, had the presence of mind to slam it into fourth and not change gear for the rest of the race. The last drama was their final pit-stop, but Lammers dropped the clutch and with a shove from his pit-crew, got back on the track. Ludwig, unaware of the dire situation facing the Jaguar, had little fuel left himself and could not put pressure on to force a mistake. Lammers led home a formation finish with his remaining two team-mates, as the track was invaded by delirious British fans. After twenty-four hours, the margin of victory was one of the tightest in the race's history - less than half a lap. The Joest Porsche had run like clockwork and finished third, nine laps behind.

There was another major milestone in this race. The small WM Secateva team had always built their cars for speed and never foresaw outright victory. Their current goal was to be the first car to break the 400 kp/h barrier at Le Mans. Now with significant backing from Peugeot for their twin-turbo engine, they had their best opportunity. As the evening cooled, the two team-cars had already had several issues. Roger Dorchy was called in and the crew taped up all the vents to minimise air-friction and wound the turbo-boost right up. Knowing he only had several laps, Dorchy went out to give his best effort. On his second lap, he broke the radar speed-trap on the Hunaudières straight at 405 kp/h (252 mph). Sure enough, the engine soon gave up, but it was mission accomplished for the team.