Le Mans, France, June 16, 2001
Listers Top Practise Times
Le Mans Start
Attrition In The Race
Ferrari Entries
Results – Top Five
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
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