1989 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 57th Grand Prix of Endurance, taking place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on the 10 and 11 June 1989. This year it was not included as a round of the 1989 World Sports-Prototype Championship. The entry list promised a strong contest between five manufacturers. Jaguar had won in 1988 and went on to win the championship; while Sauber had finished second and was now matching Jaguar on the track. New regulations were coming in 1991, and the first examples of the 3.5-litre normally-aspirated formula were entered by Spice Engineering.

Although the Saubers started on the front row, it was the Jaguar of Davy Jones that led for the first three hours until the car suddenly came to a stop on the back straight, dropping them well down the field. With the Saubers running to a designated race-pace, it was the Joest Porsche of Wollek and Stuck that took the lead, keeping it for six hours, and into the night. The Jaguar team kept having niggly problems that left them constantly playing catch-up. As night fell, against predictions it was the Joest Porsches running a 1-2. However, at 1.20am, Stuck brought his car in with overheating problems, losing the 3-lap lead they had built up. This moved the Lammers Jaguar to the front for the rest of the night, chased by two of the Saubers. The race was lost for Jaguar as dawn arrived, as their three remaining cars were waylaid. Two of them needed full gearbox changes. This left the Saubers racing each other for the lead on the same lap. However, when Baldi ran out of brakes and ended up in the Dunlop gravel-trap, Dickens went through to take a lead he would not relinquish. Baldi's Sauber lost its chance to fight back when the gearbox broke leaving co-driver Acheson to run home stuck in fifth gear. Third was the Wollek/Stuck Porsche, fighting clutch problems, seven laps behind the winners, with the best of the Jaguars – that of Lammers/Tambay/Gilbert-Scott – in fourth.

In the C2 class, it had been a race of attrition with every car suffering some kind of delay and only five of the fourteen starters finishing. In the end, the class win went to the Cougar of Philippe Farjon and Courage Compétition. Mazda again had the GTP class to themselves and, again, they were pleased to have all three cars finish – the best coming home seventh overall, 21 laps behind the winner. The event was also notable for the unusual number of cars having engine fires - with six of them afflicted either in practice or during the race. Despite the alarming spectacles that produced, the drivers were all able to stop and get out without suffering injury.