Vive Le Mans! Another triumph in 2025
Last weekend saw another triumphant success for Le Mans Classic. Wildly variable weather, with some biblical rain at times, could not dampen the enthusiasm of the huge crowds although it did curtail a couple of the races. Big news of the weekend was the announcement by organisers Peter Auto that from 2026 the event will become an annual occurrence, alternating between running cars from 1923 – 1975 (Heritage) and those from 1976 – 2015 (Legend). This change reflects both the appetite of visitors to attend and the growing number of eligible cars that are able to take part.
Following support races for later cars, racing proper started at 4pm on Saturday with Felipe Massa waving the flag for the traditional ‘Le Mans’ start of the grid 4 class for 1960’s cars which in part one was a Ford benefit with GT40’s taking the top 6 places. Part two, finishing just before midnight, saw a couple of Cobras break up the dominance, taking second and fifth places, whilst part three in the torrential early morning of Sunday saw a real mixed bag with the top four places going to Ferrari 250LM, GT40, Jaguar E-Type and Bizzarrini respectively.
The pre-war class was limited to 2 races with victory going to an Alfa 8C in each case – the Halusa/Ames entry in the first stint and Fritz Burkard in the second. Runners up were the Griffiths/Nutthall BMW 328 and Vanderlof/Ames Delahaye 135 respectively.
The early 50’s category was dominated by Nigel Webb and Chris Ward, in the Jaguar C-Type, taking victory in all three races. They were kept honest however by the Godard’s Cooper T39 which pushed them hard in two of the rounds.
The late 50’s races threw up a wide variety of machinery in the various podium positions; Lister-Costin, Jaguar D-Type, Lister-Knobbly, Ferrari SWB, Maserati Birdcage, Porsche Carrera, Aston Martin DB4GT and Austin-Healey all being represented. Overall victory finally went to the 250SWB of Meier/Lips followed by Guillermo Eleta in the Birdcage.
Early prototypes were dominated by Ferrari with the 512M of Halusa and 312P of Lips/Stippler sharing the individual heat spoils. Overall victory belonged to the 512 but behind were a gaggle of Lola T70’s and Chevrons chasing hard. The final class, up to 1983, was also curtailed by the bad weather but overall victory went to Maxime Guenat in a Lola T286 followed by the Hyett’s in a Chevron B31.
