Like
in the good ol' days
The 24 Hours of Le Mans 1998
Le
Mans, June 7, 1998
- A
1st in class for Ferrari
- Number 3
- Number 5
- Number
10
- Number
12
Up to now, Ferrari gained nine
overall wins in the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans,
the last one back in 1965. In 1998, one was at
last reminded of Ferrari's great tradition in the
world’s most famous endurance race because
of the class win of the F333 SP of Wayne Taylor,
Eric van der Poele and Fermin Velez in the
LMP-category (the class for Le Mans prototypes).
Their overall ranking is the 8th position, just
19 laps were missing on the winning Porsche
911GT1 198.
Four
333 SPs had started on Saturday at 2 o'clock in
the afternoon; two of them could eventually stand
the tough race.
What
did happen to the individual teams?
The favorite among the Ferrari had
been Giampiero Moretti's car after the team had
already been victorious at Daytona and Sebring.
Moretti did again team up with Didier Theys and
Mauro Baldi.
Having
started from the 17th position, they had reached
rank 14 after four hours and later even the 11th
position, but various minor problems occurred
later in the race and eventually the Momo team
ended up on the 14th overall position (3rd in the
LMP-category) again. When they crossed the
finishing line, 40 laps were missing on the
winning Porsche.
 
The Ferrari of J B Racing had
started from the 17th position and was piloted by
the former Formula 1 pilots Vincenzo Sospiri and
Jean-Christophe Bouillon plus Jerome Policand.
The Italian-French team suffered the most common
fate at Le Mans: DNF due to a broken gearbox.
When they dropped out of the race, their 9th
position had been the best one among the
competing Ferrari.
 
Another French 333 SP was the car of
Pilot Racing. Team boss Michel Ferté shared the
wheel with Pascal Fabre and Francois Migault.
They eventually dropped out in the 17th hour,
after the Ferrari had already fought against
various problems and was running on 20th
position. The Pilot Racing car, too, ended up
with a damaged gearbox. This 333 SP was the only
competing car of the first production series
which had been made by Dallara. The remaining
three 333 SPs at Le Mans were examples out of the
2nd series built by Michelotto in winter of
1997/1998.
 
As already mentioned, the American
Doyle-Risi Racing Team took the 1st in class in
the LMP-category, plus an 8th OA. This 333 SP had
been piloted by Wayne Taylor, Eric van der Poele
and Fermin Velez. Despite of the class win, the
team was not completely satisfied and claimed
that the LMP-category was disadvantaged compared
to the GT1-category.
The
only problem that caused some trouble to the
Ferrari with race number 12 was a lost wheel.
 
Results:
1st:
26 GT1 McNish/Aiello/Ortelli Porsche GT1 98
24:00,0.00 351 laps
2nd: 25 GT1 Muller/Alzen/Wollek Porsche GT1 98 -1
lap
3rd: 32 GT1 Hoshino/Suzuki/Kageyama Nissan R390
GT1 -4 laps
4th: 40 GT1 O'Rourke/Sugden/Auberlen McLaren F1
GTR -8 laps
5th: 30 GT1 Nielsen/Lagorce/Krumm Nissan R390 GT1
-9 laps
6th: 31 GT1 Comas/Lammers/Montermini Nissan R390
GT1 -9 laps
7th: 45 GT1 Brabham/Wallace/Davies Panoz GT-R1
-16 laps
8th: 12 PRO Taylor/van der Poele/Velez Ferrari
333 SP -19 laps
9th: 27 GT1 Katayama/Suzuki/Tsuchiya Toyota
GT-One -25 laps
10th: 33 GT1 Kurosawa/Motoyama/Kageyama Nissan
R390 GT1 -32 laps
11th: 53 GT2 Bell/Donahue/Drudi Chrysler Viper
-34 laps
12th: 16 PRO Agusta/Coppelli/Pompidou Kremer K8/2
-37 laps
13th: 51 GT2 Beretta/Lamy/Archer Chrysler Viper
-39 laps
14th: 03 PRO Moretti/Theys/Baldi Ferrari 333 SP
-40 laps
DNF: 10 PRO Ferté/Fabre/Migault Ferrari 333 SP
203 laps/gearbox
DNF: 05 PRO Sospiri/Boullion/Policand Ferrari 333
SP 187 laps/gearbox
Text Gregor Schulz
Translation Andreas Birner
Photos Rainer W. Schlegelmilch
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