24 Hours of Le Mans Tag

By Jeff Olson, NASCAR / IMSA Wire Service SEBRING, Fla. – It’s been nearly 46 years since a NASCAR entry competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Jim France remembers talking to driver Dick Brooks shortly afterward. “He said, ‘No. 1, the fans love the car,’” said France, NASCAR’s chairman and CEO. “‘No. 2, it was a fantastic experience. No. 3, it’s a hell of a challenge.’”  NASCAR is about to relive that Le Mans challenge. In conjunction with Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet, IMSA and Goodyear, NASCAR intends to fieldRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer IMSA and the ACO have announced a preliminary set of rules that will see sports car teams be able to compete in both 24 hour races at Daytona and Le Mans in the same prototype car. The new category, called LMDh (Le Mans, Daytona, yet to be identified h), is built around both IMSA’s DPi and the ACO’s Hypercar formula. From the IMSA release, the new LMDh car: “Based on a new chassis common to both ACO and IMSA, using elements of the Le Mans HypercarRead More

By IMSA Wire Service Patrick Lindsey, whose team fields the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship, and six-time IMSA champion Joerg Bergmeister are now winners of the GTE Am class in the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans. Lindsey and Bergmeister teamed with Norwegian driver Egidio Perfeffi in the No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR at Le Mans and took the checkered flag in second place at the end of the race on Sunday behind the No. 85 Keating MotorsportsRead More

By IMSA Wire Service Texas car dealer Ben Keating and his team have shown prowess in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship endurance races over the past several years. Keating and his longtime full-season co-driver Jeroen Bleekemolen won both the 2017 and 2018 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup in the GT Daytona (GTD) class. In fact, Keating’s overall performance in the 2018 WeatherTech Championship earned him the Bob Akin Award as the top sportsman driver in the GTD class, which comes with an automatic invitation from IMSA to the following year’s 24 HoursRead More

By IMSA Wire Service If you’re a regular follower of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans might seem a little bit like a high-speed version of musical chairs. We’re accustomed to seeing Renger van der Zande driving car No. 10 in the top class, but this one’s quite a bit different. Instead of sharing the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R with Jordan Taylor, van der Zande will be driving the No. 10 DragonSpeed BR Engineering BR01-Gibson LMP1 car with Ben Hanley and HenrikRead More

By IMSA Wire Service What do Hurley Haywood, Oliver Gavin, Paul Newman and Patrick Long all have in common? Well, for starters, they all were named among the list of “50 Great IMSA Drivers” in the “IMSA: Celebrating 50 Years” book produced last year by RACER Studio to help commemorate IMSA’s 50th Anniversary of celebration. They’re also among 30 drivers on the list with at least one victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The list also includes 12 drivers with at least one overall victory in the twice-around-the-clockRead More

By IMSA Wire Service Between them, they have nine class victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is one more than their team’s impressive win total heading into this weekend’s twice-around-the-clock battle on the Circuit de la Sarthe. Corvette Racing drivers Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen have celebrated victories atop the Le Mans podium in front of a sea of fans three times together – in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Gavin also won once prior, in 2002, and one time since, in 2015 with co-drivers Tommy Milner andRead More

By IMSA Wire Service Cooper MacNeil already has a respectable record in the 24 Hours of Le Mans as he returns this week to the Circuit de la Sarthe. “I’ve done Le Mans five times, this is my sixth time, and I’ve finished top five three of those times, so it’s all about consistency,” said the driver of the WeatherTech Ferrari. “It takes really good, hard, precise driving from the drivers as well. Luckily, this year, my two co-drivers have won the race at least one time. One of themRead More

By IMSA Wire Service His father won his class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998. His brother won his class at Le Mans in 2015. Making his sixth appearance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend, Ricky Taylor is looking to add to his family’s legacy of success in the prestigious French endurance race. He should have a good shot at it, too. He will be competing in the LMP2 class. With a 20-car entry list, it’s the largest of the four competing classes, butRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer Juncos Racing announced today that former Pro Mazda racer Will Owen has secured a seat in the team’s Cadillac DPi-V.R entry in the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The Denver, Colorado native raced in the European Le Mans Series in 2017 and 2018 and raced twice at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing fourth in the LMP2 class in 2017 and third in the same class in 2018. “I am so happy to announce that I will be returning to Juncos Racing in 2019 toRead More