Le Mans ”The Legend Race”


 

Le Mans, France, June 16, 2001 

In June 2000 the Le Mans circuit hosted a round of the Shell Ferrari Maserati Historic Challenge as a curtain-raiser to the 24 Hour Race, this year it was another historic race that fulfilled this role, called Le Mans Legend. The race was for cars of the type that had competed in the 24 Hour Race between 1949 and 1964, in eight classes, and attracted a wide ranging but predominantly British based entry of 62 cars plus four reserves. 

Listers Top Practise Times

By the end of the qualifying practise session on Thursday evening, the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta of Jean Sage was out of action after only completing a single full lap. At the sharp end of the grid, the protagonists were getting their cars into some lurid slides out of the chicanes in an effort to post the fastest practise time. Most spectacular amongst the power slide heroes were Justin Law in the unique Costin bodied Lister coupe, Tony Dron in the 330 LM berlinetta, and Peter Hardman in the Aston Martin DBR1, all giving magnificent displays of tail out opposite lock motoring. Eventually it was Justin law who claimed pole position, less than a second ahead of the Lister Jaguar of Gary Pearson, followed by Dron and Hardman. Sir Stirling Moss was 2nd fastest in his class in Adrian Hamilton’s ”C” Type Jaguar, showing how competitive he is at the tender age of seventy-one.

Le Mans Start

The competitors lined their cars up at an angle to the pit wall for the race start on Saturday morning, as they would have done in the period that they raced. Although this time it was only a mock Le Mans start, with the drivers running across the track to climb into their cars to do the warm-up lap, prior to coming round to form up on the grid proper. It was a nice touch in memory of days gone by, the Shell Historic Challenge race of last year also re-enacting this feature.

Attrition In The Race

Mechanical maladies dictated the progress and final result of the race, with the pole-sitter not even completing the warm-up lap. This left the Lister Jaguar of Gary Pearson with a clear road in front of him which he used to good advantage to pull clear of the 250 LM of David Piper. Peter Hardman initially challenged the BP green LM hard, but had to give second best in terms of straight line speed, Allowing David Piper to edge away. So that when Gary Pearson failed to come through on his eighth lap, having stopped out on the circuit with electrical problems, he moved into the lead. As rain started to fall in the final two laps he kept it on the island to take victory from Peter Hardman by a little over five seconds, with Tony Dron bringing the 330 LM Berlinetta home 3rd to take the final podium place.  The other 330 LM Berlinetta of Eric Heerema only lasted a single lap, and the 500 TRC of David Cottingham retired on lap 5 when a fuel line burst. The only other Ferrari, the 166 MM Barchetta of Sally Mason-Styrron struggled on valiantly, against much more powerful opposition, and at least made it through to the finish, which is more than could be said for quite a number of starters.

 

Ferrari Entries

166 MM Barchetta Touring

Sally Mason-Styrron

s/n 0040M

500 TRC Spider

David Cottingham

s/n 0682MDTR

250 GT SWB Berlinetta

Jean Sage

s/n 2165GT

330 LM Berlinetta

Tony Dron

s/n 4381SA

330 LM Berlinetta

Eric Heerema

s/n 4725SA

250 LM

David Piper

s/n 8165

 

 

 

Results – Top Five

 

 

1st - # 21

David Piper

Ferrari 250 LM

2nd - # 5

Peter Hardman

Aston Martin DBR 1

3rd - # 11

Tony Dron

Ferrari 330 LMB

4th – # 62

Graham Bryant

AC Cobra

5th – # 1

Jeremy Agace

Iso Grifo Bizzarrini A3C

 

Keith Bluemel