History Of The Marathon De La Route

Endurance races are exactly what they entail: endurances. They are made to be extremely long events that test drivers’ skill, patience, and stamina, along with cars’ speed and durability. The longest endurance race as of today is the Maxi Endurance 32 Hours at the Algarve circuit in Portugal, but it isn’t the longest endurance circuit race.

In 1931, the Liège – Rome – Liège was held for the first time. A road race from Belgium to Italy and back, this was a fairly standard road race from point to point. It usually started around 11pm on a Wednesday and the cars arrived back around 4pm on Sunday. The race was not held in 1936 due to a contestation of when to hold it, and was also not held between 1940 and 1949 for obvious reasons. It was a pretty average endurance race, there wasn’t much to it, it was another interesting challenge for drivers. Winners included Johnny Claes and Olivier Gendebien,

In 1961, the race’s destination moved from Rome to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, however the race was still out of and to Liège. This didn’t last much longer, however, as the race was going to move to a more permanent circuit. There was little particular reason behind the move, it was simply time to move on, and move on they did – to the Nordschleife at the Nurburgring – in 1965.

The 1965 race was an interesting one, lasting 82 hours, but the grid was surprisingly small. Despite being an endurance race and despite the old road races usually having massive grids, sometimes into the low hundreds, the 1965 Marathon De La Route only garnered 35 starters. The race was conducted with a little help from the Belgian military, who helped out with medical. The race itself was pretty quiet, won by Henri Greder and Johnny Rives in a Mustang. Rainer Ising and Bernd Degner were the GT class winners, in a Porsche. Their major competitor for said class fell out of the race due to a busted rear axle with less than an hour to go.

The race itself had some very strange rules. To be classified, teams had to complete the same amount of laps in the last twelve hours as they had in the first twelve. Also, the 14-mile course had to be lapped in 30 minutes in the first four hours, and 24 minutes in the proceeding hours. Refueling was done in a separate spot just before the pit lane proper, and tire changes were done in the pit lane. Most bizarrely, if a driver came across a part in the road, they were permitted to pull to the side, get out their tools from the toolbox each team carried, and use it to repair their car. Drivers could also do said repairs in an area a little beyond the pit lane, where they could receive verbal assistance from one of their crewmen (only verbal assistance though). Lastly, they could always just bring the part back to the pit lane and do repairs there, however any pit stops that lasted more than a minute would cause the team to lose a lap, though compared to the 1965 winner’s lap count of 310, one lap wasn’t an incredible amount. Additionally, every 75 laps, teams were given a five-lap window during which they could do up to 20 minutes worth of repairs in the pits without a penalty. Teams would be parked if they were stationary for more than 20 minutes in the pits.

The 1966 race was extended to 84 hours but was otherwise calm, being won by Julien Vernaeve and Andrew Hedges in an MG. Lucien Bianchi and Eric De Keyn had been the favorites to win, but their Ferrari was knocked out of the race by an accident caused by exhaustion.

Credit to Porsche Road & Race

The 1967 race was dominated by Porsche. Vic Elford, Hans Hermann, and Jochen Neerpasch brought the race home. Vic had come close to winning in 1966, but the car had blown up with 12 hours left. The race itself was marred by a fatal crash, when endurance racing veteran Georges Berger ran off the road and crashed his Porsche about a day into the race.

Credit to Porsche Road & Race

1968 saw a heated race, once again mostly dominated by Porsches. Once again, all of the Porsches’ major competitors had simply fallen off or had made major mistakes. Possibly the most interesting mistake was made by an MG C driven by Julien Vernaeve, Andrew Hedges and Tony Fall. During a late pit stop, they first overshot their stall, knocking over an official, then stopped to see what the problem was. It turned out to be blown brakes, and since cars could not reverse in the pit lane (they’d be disqualified if they did), had to do a lap before returning to the pits. The repairs lasted 18 minutes, costing them 17 laps.

The Porsche of Herbert Linge, Dieter Glemser and Willi Kauhsen won the race. They’d finished four laps ahead of their nearest opponent, but because they’d been docked four laps due to pit penalties, officially their margin of victory was less than a second.

Despite being a big road race, grids still weren’t picking up. 43 cars had started the 1967 race, and the 1968 race saw the same amount of starters. However things were about to change for 1969, 64 cars showing up for the race. For the 1969 race, a cavalry of Argentine IKA Torinos showed up, alongside a few Mercedes 220 Ds, which ran on diesel. These two cars ran in a special prototype class. In all, 21 different manufacturers were represented.

Credit to Racehistorie.nl

This iteration in particular was a little messy. The fastest two qualifiers, both Torinos, crashed out of the race, and Innes Ireland’s race ended with his Lancia Fulvia on its roof. The race, which was almost cancelled by local police due to one of the Torinos having a faulty exhaust, was eventually won by Harry Källström, Tony Fall, and Sergio Barbasio in a second Lancia Fulvia.

The 1970 race was extended slightly, to 86 hours, but the race itself was little different from how it had been. 64 cars showed up, however it was little contest after the first 24 hours. After their competition fell to the wayside, the Porsche 904 of Gérard Larrousse, Helmut Marko, and Claude Haldi led the whole way. Porsche had brought three 904s to the race, and they swept the top three. Their only real opponent was a works Rover that had dropped out after half a day.

Credit to Pinterest

The 1971 race was the beginning of the end. Only 39 entries showed to the track, none of the big Porsches or other works teams among them. Due to this, and the race being extended to an amazing 96 hours, few spectators showed up. Jacques Henry, Jean-Luc Thérier, and Maurice Nusbaumer won the race in an Alpine A110. Absolutely nothing notable happened, and the race as it was was not repeated.

The event isn’t dead, however. It is still going today, using the old Liège – Rome – Liège name, as a historical tour. The revival event itself runs through Belgium and France, lasting four days, though not without breaks of course. It has been very successful, and captures the spirit of the old event – well, partially, because there will likely never be something as wild as when they ran at the Green Hell, and with that, the Marathon De La Route will likely remain a thing of the past.

Source:

https://liege-rome-liege.org/en/

1967 – Marathon de la Route

https://touringcarracing.net

Porsche Road and Race

That Time A Porsche 996 Won The 24h Of Daytona

It’s off to the 24 Hours Of Daytona this weekend. This endurance race, held on a 3.56 mile road course combining the oval and an infield road course at Daytona, is one of the true classics, a mainstay on the schedule, a test of man and machine at one of the United States’ best facilities.

The 24 Hours Of Daytona, however, is also known for occasionally providing a massive upset, and this came to a head in 2003, when, despite a playing field consisting of both sports racers and the brand new Daytona Prototypes, the winner was a Porsche 996 which reportedly started with a key. We’ll be taking a gander at that today.

Credit to Road And Track

There was a major rearrangement of classes in between 2002 and 2003 for the Grand Am Road Racing Series. Gone were the Sports Racer Prototype and AGT classes, though the Sports Racer Prototype II class remained. Introduced for 2003 was the new Daytona Prototype. Unlike the LMP cars of the day, the Daytona Prototype is a closed cockpit car. Sleek, fast, and made with both American and international interests in mind, the Daytona Prototype, or DP, was to make its debut at the 2003 24 Hours of Daytona. Teams were free to either create their own car, or modify a Sports Racer Prototype class chassis to Daytona Prototype rules, though in 2004 they would be required to do the former.

The embracing of the Daytona Prototype, however, was very sluggish, and development was maybe even more so. The 2002 24 Hours Of Daytona, with its combined five classes, managed a grid of 74 cars, with 17 Sports Racer Prototypes and six SRP IIs. The removal of the SRP and AGT classes (AGT had gathered eight entries in the 2002 race), alongside a variety of other reasons such as waning interest and high development costs for what was perceived at the time to be little benefit, meant only 45 cars showed up to the 2003 race. Among them, only five SRP IIs and only six Daytona Prototypes lined up for the race, which started on February 1, 2003 at a bit past one in the afternoon.

The six Daytona Prototypes were as follows:

• #3 Fabcar FDSC/03 Toyota
•  #8 Picchio DP2 BMW
•  #54 Doran JE4 Chevrolet
•  #58 Fabcar FDSC/03 Porsche
•  #59 Fabcar FDSC/03 Porsche
•  #88 Multimatic MDP1 Ford

Credit to racingsportscars

The Multimatic was the polesitter on race day, and with all six DPs lining up at the front it appeared to be a smooth getaway for the sextet of streamliners. The Multimatic led one lap but the Brumos Porsche teammates, running the #58 and #59 Fabcar Porsches, shot ahead and traded the lead a couple of times. The cars, however, were not too much quicker than the GTs. In fact, not only were the DPs about eight seconds slower than the SRs the year prior in qualifying, but the fastest qualifier in 2003 was actually the #40 Chevrolet Corvette GTS Derhaag team. The Heritage Motorsports #48 Ford Mustang GTS set the second fastest time, about a second behind the Corvette, with the #88 Multimatic a half second behind the Mustang in third. The Corvette and Mustang started seventh and eighth respectively, as the GTS were the second wave, mixed with the GTs and the SRP IIs. The #48, however, was a very early retirement, the car’s engine expiring after about 50 laps.

An early caution for the #22 Ferrari 360 Modena of Dr. Stephen Earle catching fire led to a pit cycle in which the #83 Rennworks Porsche 996 GT3RS took the lead. The #83 had started at the back but, through strategy and a quick car, had worked its way up front. The Brumos Porsche cars took the lead on the restart and, with the exception of one lap led by the #83 during the next pit cycle, they dominated the next few hours. One of the DPs, the #54 Doran, had fallen out after 67 laps due to an engine failure.

Around lap 150, a heavy accident occurred in the small ess bend after entering the infield when Larry Oberto spun the #21 Lola B2K/40 Nissan SRP II owned by Archangel Motorsports. He found himself facing backwards, looking directly into traffic, and was soon greeted by the #67 The Racer’s Group Porsche 996 GT3RS GT class car driven by Andrew Davis. Davis’ car shot skyward and landed hard on the ground, though thankfully no injuries were reported. The #67 was done, but surprisingly, the #21 car was repaired and returned to the race.

Credit to Motorsport Images

Not ten laps later, on its 162nd lap, late into hour six, the #58 Brumos Porsche Fabcar’s engine shut off completely while driver David Donohue was rounding the infield bends. The leader was done for the race. The #59 had been involved in a spinoff earlier in the race that required repairs to the car, setting it back a little, so the one promoted to first was the #66 car, the primary The Racer’s Group Porsche 996 GT3RS GT class. The Racer’s Group, a club racing team who had made the step up to the big ranks in the mid-90s, had scored a class win at Daytona the year prior and had run Le Mans in the past. Its lead wasn’t particularly large, with the #59 surging back to the front, and within a couple dozen laps, the second Brumos Porsche was back to the lead around lap 208. The #59 boxed and gave the #66 the lead back around lap 215.

The race’s fifth safety car towards the end of hour eight, flown for the Scuderia Ferrari of Washington #33 Ferrari 360 Modena GT crashing with Brent Martini at the wheel, saw another pit stop by the #66. The long line of lapped cars in between it and the #59 were waved by, and the Brumos reassumed the lead for a short while. The car, however, was not very healthy, and quickly the #66 took the lead. The Porsche was back in the pits with some sort of mechanical failure that was easily resolvable a bit past lap 325, but on lap 341 the Brumos suffered a failure and had to pull into the pits as well. This problem, diagnosed as an electrical issue, cost the Brumos innumerable laps. The #66 shot back to the lead after this. Also during the night, a worn throttle spring cost the #88 Multimatic several laps.

Around lap 400, another DP car retired, the #3 Fabcar Toyota caught fire and had to drop out. The #8 Picchio had generally had a dreadful day, so the #88 and #59 were the only ones in any sort of contention to win. However, the #88 had suffered from low oil during the day and a tire rub during the night (though the team didn’t find anything) and had lost a lap. The running order at 6:00am, when the leader had completed 490 laps, was:

1. #66 Porsche 996 GT3RS (GT)
2. #83 Porsche 996 GT3RS (GT, -1 lap)
3. #88 Multimatic MDP1 Ford (DP, -1 lap)
4. #20 Ferrari 360 Modena (GT, -6 laps)
5. #97 Lucchini SR2002 Nissan (SRP II, -8 laps)

The #59 was down to seventh, back by 15 laps, and the top GTS car, the #46 Morgan-Dollar Chevy Corvette, ran ninth, 29 laps down. They had also had a quick car, but a collision had sent them to the pits. Less than 20 cars were still on track, though 26 were still officially in the race according to the commentary.

The Fabcar, though quick, was running into a great many failures, and it was soon back in the pits with a busted oil line. Luckily it got a caution for a BMW stalling out, and speaking of cautions, about one hour later…

Credit to Motorsport.com

The #68 The Racer’s Group Porsche had suffered some sort of failure (though the driver said he’d been hit in the rear) rounding the switchback after the first turn and found itself shooting off the course at full speed and slamming into a guardrail. The car tipped onto its side in the grass, having come very close to completely cutting across the infield. Luckily, the man behind the wheel, Jim Michaelian, an occasional driver better known for being the CEO of the Long Beach Grand Prix, stepped out of the Porsche unhurt. About 20 minutes later, another mechanical failure hit, this time striking the #97 Lucchini SRP II class leader, and shortly thereafter, the #59 suffered its own failure. The Lucchini was done with an oil system failure, the Fabcar was able to return to the race with radiator damage.

After 568 laps, the #66 found its lead shrinking. It only had a gap of 40 seconds over the Multimatic, which, while faster, wasn’t the most reliable and wasn’t as fast as expected. However, the Porsche had run incredibly consistently, its laps during the first couple hours apparently not varying by more than a second, and had proved itself more durable. The Multimatic then made its brake pad change, and during this vital pit stop, a massive failure on the car in the form of another worn throttle spring confined it to the pit lane for several more laps. From this point forward, there was absolutely no touching the Porsche. It destroyed the field from that point onward, and drivers Kevin Buckler, Michael Schrom, Timo Bernhard, and Jorg Bergmeister were the ones in victory circle.

1. #66 Porsche 996 GT3RS (GT, 695 laps)
2. #35 Ferrari 360 Modena (GT, -9 laps)
3. #83 Porsche 996 GT3RS (GT, -11 laps)
4. #88 Multimatic MDP1 (DP, -16 laps)
5. #59 Fabcar FDSC/03 (DP, -34 laps)

The #5 Lola B2K/40 was the top finisher in the SRP II class, finishing seventh. The top GTS car was the #24 Mosler MT900R, finishing ninth. 20 cars finished the event, 16 cars having finished 600 laps or more.

Buckler would go on to form TRG Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2007, which ran until 2011. It ran the #71 car, most notably driven by Andy Lally. He also ran a NASCAR Truck for a few seasons, for which Donny Lia scored an upset win at Mansfield in 2008. The Racer’s Group is still in operation, running occasional IMSA events and Blancpain GT America races. The precise Porsche the team had run was last used for racing at the 2003 12 Hours Of Sebring. It was put in storage, though it later was used for the Monterey Car Week in 2009.

As testing continued, Daytona Prototypes got faster and faster. They won every race overall for the rest of the season and, though only four showed up to the next race at Homestead, the finale, another Daytona round, saw ten. 2006’s 24 Hours of Daytona saw a whopping thirty. SRP II, however, was dying. Most races saw only one entry from the class, some saw none, and one saw two. It was discontinued at year’s end.

Daytona Prototypes were retired after 2016. It was replaced with DPi, a fusion of LMP2, the old DPs, and a new set of regulations. The LMP2s were split off into their own class for 2019. The Prototypes of today are incredibly fast and only on one occasion since has a race that contained the top Prototype class been won by a GT car, that being the 2015 Petit Le Mans, which was cut short by rain and won by a GTLM class Porsche 911 RSR that, besides being fairly quick, had been able to comfortably stay on the lead lap due to frequent yellows and had found itself up front when the checkers waved after a pit gamble. The 2003 24 Hours of Daytona will likely be the last time a GT car will score an overall win in a race in America’s top sports car racing series without the race being cut short, and yet it was still unexpected that, despite the Ferraris and Moslers, the winner was a Porsche that apparently still started with a key.

Sources:

“An Interview With Kevin Buckler, 2003 Rolex 24 Winner”, Nov. 8, 2012 article to Road And Track

“GrandAm: Daytona Prototypes 2003 rules announced”, Jan. 30, 2002 article to motorsport.com