Despite a rather wet weather, the 109,000 spectators were treated to a superb Le Mans Classic. The battles within each of the grids was fierce. Here is a brief overview of the various winners.

In the first grid (1923-1939), the Talbot Lago No.20 of C. Traber and B. Trenery finished first in the aggregate of results of the three races, followed by the Talbot 105 No.20 of J. Bonson / G. Burnett / R. Evans and the Alfa Romeo 8C No.23 of R. Iteren of / J. Lalmand.

No surprises in Grid. 2 where one of the most legendary cars of the 50's prevailed. G. Pickering with his Jaguar D Type No.5 won the Le Mans Classic 2012 ahead of an identical Jaguar, the No.6 of C. Monterverde / G. Pearson / A. Smith and the Mercedes Benz 300 SL No.68 of P. Mulder / P. Simon / H. Kleissl.

For the 1957 to 1961 in grid 3, the No.6 Lotus 15 dominated the rest of the pack with R. Wills, J. Twyman and five times winner of Le Mans 24 Hours, E. Pirro at the wheel. This was followed by an Aston Martin DBR1, the No.35 driven by H Leventis and two regulars of Le Mans: G. Fisken and Nick Leventis, seen three weeks ago driving a HPD LM P1, V. Gaye in his Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta No.23 took third place.

In grid 4, for the cars that raced between 1962 and 1965, the dominance of the Ford GT 40 was indisputable, with three of them in the first three places. The No.14 of L. Voyazides / R. D'Abel de Libran who wins at the No. 8 and No. S.Lynn 10 H. Hugenholtz / D. Hart.

In the penultimate plateau (1966 to 1971), it was a car that had never yet won the Classic Le Mans the Lola T70 Mk III  No.38  B. Thuner, followed by the Porsche 908/3 in the famous Gulf colours R. Goethe / F. Giroix and the Alpine A220 of S. Stepak and F. Bourdin.

For the most recent cars (1972-1979), the Gulf Mirage No.39 of C. MacAllister won the aggregate of three races, beating the BMW M1 No.4 of M Hinderer / Stretton / P. Hinderer and the Lola T286 of D. Guenat.

The page of Le Mans Classic 2012 has now been turned, and the next big event on the circuit will be the Le Mans 24 Hours Moto which will be held on 8th and 9th of September. As for Le Mans Classic, we will have to wait until 2014 ...!

David Bristol

Photo 1: 24 HOURS CIRCUIT (Le Mans), LE MANS CLASSIC, Saturday, July 7, 2012. Despite a rather gloomy weather, the 109,000 spectators were treated to a superb Le Mans Classic.