1981 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 49th 24 -hour Le Mans race, the Grand Prix d' Endurance les 49e 24 Heures du Mans, was held from June 13 to 14 place in 1981 at the Circuit des 24 Heures.

  • 2.1 pilots after Nations
  • 2.2 Final ranking
  • 2.3 Only in the message list
  • 2.4 Class Winner
  • 2.5 racing data

The race

New racing classes

The Automobile Club de l' Ouest took the introduction of group C, which is categorized in the sports car world championship from 1982, the great prototypes, anticipated and opened the old group 6 for race car about 3-liter displacement. The IMSA class was divided into four categories. Now vehicles in classes IMSA -GTP, IMSA GTO, IMSA GTU and IMSA GTX were to start.

New qualifying format

Also the qualifying format was revised. Still had 55 cars to start. In order to achieve the qualification of the average of the three fastest times was only determined in the overall standings. Now, were not allowed to be longer than the value of 130 % of this time. The same was true for your class. Again, a section of the three best times was determined. However, here the threshold value was 110 %. The tank capacity of the vehicles was limited to 120 liters.

Rolling stock

The majority of the cars presented the Porsche brand. The work team brought new Porsche 936 to the Sarthe. The driver teams formed Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell and Hurley Haywood, Vern Schuppan and Jochen Mass. In the vehicles came a new 2.6-liter turbocharged engine to use, which was originally developed for the 500-mile race at Indianapolis in 1979. Two other works cars were reported in the GTP and the IMSA GTO class. The GTP Porsche 944 LM drove Jürgen Barth and he German World Rally Champion Walter Röhrl.

In addition to many private Porsche 935 Porsche 917 replica of Kremer Racing was the attraction of the race. Trailer also came from Lancia that rolled a racing version of the Lancia Beta Monte Carlo at the start. From France came five Rondeau - including new prototypes of Jean Rondeau, factory team, the winning team of the previous year.

In addition to Walter Röhrl, gave the Americans Cale Yarborough and the Venezuelan Johnny Cecotto two drivers their debut that were active in other areas of motorsport as Röhrl. Yarborough came from the NASCAR and Cecotto worked as a motorcycle racer.

Fatal accidents

1 ½ hours after the start of the race - at this time the two Porsche 936 were already clearly in the lead - had the young Belgian Thierry Boutsen, who drove a WM P81 Welter Racing - a serious accident on the Les Hunaudieres. Boutsen lost at high speed control of his vehicle and crashed at the break before the Mulsanne into the guardrail. By parts flying four marshals were injured, two of them so hard that they still died at the accident scene, despite rapid assistance.

The field was led around by the long safety car in slower driving on the track. At this time the Frenchman Jean -Louis Lafosse was a Rondeau M379 at the seventh place overall and had his first fuel stop still ahead when the race was released. Before him, the Briton Guy Edwards drove in a Lola T600 and both vehicles approached suddenly the Mulsanne with almost 350 km / h speed than the Rondeau and collided into the left guardrail. Two more, standing just behind the guard rail marshals were seriously injured. The Rondeau was thrown across the road, crashed into the right guardrail and was completely destroyed. Lafosse had no chance of survival and died in the wreck. An accident cause a fracture of the left front suspension was adopted. However, after the race were published pictures of the car (taken just before the accident ), on which the Rondeau is seen with damage to the front end and grass stains. Whether Lafosse had come off before the accident once the track and had damaged the front of the car, could never be clarified. That left the question of whether this ride could be related to the later accident related, to this day unanswered.

Another race course

The Porsche 936 of Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell drove a lonely race at the front of the race. While the sister car was plagued by engine problems and only ranked 12 was classified at the end of the race, had the Ickx / Bell car in the destination 186 km ahead of the Rondeau by Jean -Louis Schlesser, Philippe Streiff and Jacky Haran.

Hurley Haywood drove 3:34.000 a new lap record in the race and Ickx / Bell achieved with 4825.348 km driven a new distance record for the 13.626 -km track layout.

Results

Pilot after Nations

Final ranking

1 2 replacement car not qualified not qualified 4 3 5 not qualify unqualified 6 7 Reserve Reserve Reserve 8

Only in the message list

Here are the teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the competition, but it did not participate for various reasons.

Class winner

Race data

  • Reported: 73
  • Started: 55
  • Weather during the race weekend: hot and sunny
  • Distance: 13.626 km
  • Honorary starter of the race: Jean -Marie Balestre, President of the FIA
  • Distance of the winning team: 4825.348 km
  • Winners section: 201.056 km / h
  • Pole Position: Jacky Ickx - Porsche 936 (# 11) - 3.29.440 = 223.213 km / h
  • Fastest race lap: Hurley Haywood - Porsche 936 (# 12) - 3.34.000 = 229.231 km / h
  • Race series: 8th round of the World Sportscar Championship
Circuit de la Sarthe Sports prototype Wolfgang Seidel 1980 24 Hours of Le Mans Jean-Louis Lafosse Jean-Louis Schlesser Italy Australia Derek Bell (racing driver) Dunlop Tyres Cosworth Gordon Spice Charles Pozzi Michelin Anne-Charlotte Verney Eddie Cheever Carlo Facetti Pirelli Harald Grohs Porsche 924 Peugeot Emilio de Villota Philippe Alliot Bernard Darniche Porsche 934 Pierre Yver Claude Haldi Mark Thatcher David Hobbs (racing driver) Eddie Jordan Philippe Martin (politician) Dieter Quester Marc Surer Hans Heyer Dome (constructor) Bob Evans (racing driver) Patrick Gaillard Tom Walkinshaw Mazda Tony Trimmer Bob Wollek Reinhold Joest Dale Whittington Klaus Niedzwiedz Bill Whittington Don Whittington Jean-Daniel Raulet Mike Wilds Helmut Marko Christian Danner Prince Leopold of Bavaria (b. 1943) Beppe Gabbiani Emanuele Pirro Preston Henn Henri Pescarolo Patrick Tambay Jean Ragnotti Win Percy Chevrolet Brian Redman Bobby Rahal Peter Brock New Zealand Richard Lloyd (racing driver) Rolf Stommelen Danny Ongais Reine Wisell 1923 24 Hours of Le Mans 1924 24 Hours of Le Mans 1925 24 Hours of Le Mans 1926 24 Hours of Le Mans 1927 24 Hours of Le Mans 1928 24 Hours of Le Mans 1929 24 Hours of Le Mans 1930 24 Hours of Le Mans 1931 24 Hours of Le Mans 1932 24 Hours of Le Mans 1933 24 Hours of Le Mans 1934 24 Hours of Le Mans 1935 24 Hours of Le Mans 1936 24 Hours of Le Mans 1937 24 Hours of Le Mans 1938 24 Hours of Le Mans 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans 1950 24 Hours of Le Mans 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans 1952 24 Hours of Le Mans 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans 1958 24 Hours of Le Mans 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans 1961 24 Hours of Le Mans 1962 24 Hours of Le Mans 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans 1973 24 Hours of Le Mans 1974 24 Hours of Le Mans 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans 1976 24 Hours of Le Mans 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans 1978 24 Hours of Le Mans 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans 1986 24 Hours of Le Mans 1987 24 Hours of Le Mans 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans 1992 24 Hours of Le Mans 1993 24 Hours of Le Mans 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans 2001 24 Hours of Le Mans 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans 1981 World Sportscar Championship season
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