24h Le Mans
The 67th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which took place on 13 and 14 June 1999, was one of the most exciting races of the decade. No less than six constructors took part, namely BMW, Toyota, Chrysler, Mercedes, Nissan and Audi. The drivers on the grid included an array of former and future Le Mans winners.
There were 17 former and future 24 Hours of Le Mans victors in the race, driving for BMW, Toyota, Mercedes and Audi.
- At BMW, there were three previous winners at the wheel of the BMW V12 LMR: Yannick Dalmas (with three victories to his name, in 1992, 1994 and 1995), JJ Lehto (Dalmas’s teammate in 1995) and Tom Kristensen (1997 winner). Alongside them, Pierluigi Martini and Joachim Winkelhock, Dalmas’s teammates for the 1999 win. And Kristensen, of course, would subsequently score another eight victories and break the record for the highest number of Le Mans wins ever. In 2005, for his seventh triumph, the Dane teamed up with Lehto once again (a second win for him).
- Over at Toyota, the GT-One was raced by Martin Brundle and Allan McNish, both winners in 1990 for Jaguar and 1998 for Porsche. The former took pole at the 24 Hours in 1999 while the latter clinched a further two victories with Audi in 2008 and 2013.
- There was one former winner among the crew of the Mercedes CLR: Christophe Bouchut, who took the top podium spot on his maiden Le Mans appearance in 1993 at the wheel of the Peugeot 905, shared with Eric Helary and Geoff Brabham.
- Nonetheless, Audi was the team featuring the highest number of former or future winner, with two of the 1998 victors, Laurent Aiello and Stéphane Ortelli, as well as Michele Alboreto and Stefan Johansson, teammates of Tom Kristensen, who claimed the top spot in 1997, and Andy Wallace, winner with Jaguar in 1988. Audi’s line-up also included three future winners: Frank Biela, Dindo Capello and Emanuele Pirro.
- French team Oreca fielded an official Chrysler Viper driven by one of the greatest GT drivers of the time, Monaco’s Olivier Beretta. Three years after his maiden outing at Le Mans, Beretta took his first class win in 1999. He would go on to become one of the driving forces of Corvette’s 24 Hours comeback. Today, his list of Le Mans achievements includes six victories in the various GT classes: two with the Viper Oreca (1999 and 2000) and four as a Corvette works driver (2004, 2005, 2006 and 2011).
- Two other former winners also lined up on the grid at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999: Dutchman Jan Lammers, Andy Wallace’s teammate in 1988, and Henri Pescarolo, four-time winner (1972, 1973, 1974 and 1984). Dalmas equalled Pescarolo’s achievement with a fourth victory at that year’s race and the pair can still claim to be the two French drivers with the highest number of Le Mans wins.
Read more about the 1999 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans:
Le Mans 1999 (1) - Knocked for six!
Photo: Between 2000 and 2007, teammates of Belgian driver Didier Theys in the #8 Audi R8R that finished third in 1999, Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela subsequently bagged five of the four-ring manufacturer’s thirteen Le Mans victories.
