WEC: Porsche scores 1st LMP1 win in Sao Paulo; Tom Kristensen finishes 3rd in final race

By Nov 30, 2014, 4:37 PM EST
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Porsche has taken its inaugural LMP1 victory in World Endurance Championship competition, but perhaps not in the way they would’ve preferred.

With less than half an hour to go in the season-ending Six Hours of Sao Paulo, Mark Webber’s No. 20 Porsche 919 Hybrid was destroyed in a brutal accident that also involved the No. 90 8Star Ferrari (GTE-Am) of Matteo Cressoni.

Thankfully, both drivers are awake and alert following the crash, which ultimately caused FIA race officials to have the race end under safety car conditions.

That gave the overall/LMP1 victory to Porsche’s No. 14 919 Hybrid of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas, and Marc Lieb, which battled back from a mid-race tire puncture to score a huge win for their manufacturer.

The No. 8 Toyota of WEC driver champions Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi finished second, and coming home third was the No. 1 Audi with nine-time 24 Hour of Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen at the controls, closing out his superb racing career with a podium finish.

Kristensen isn’t the only one that’s leaving the Audi team, either. Radio Le Mans reported during its post-race broadcast that Audi race engineer Howden Haynes is also stepping down from his position as well after what was his 100th race with the 4-Rings.

But the spotlight in post-race was rightfully on Kristensen, who was joined in a celebration by former teammates Allan McNish and Dindo Capello.

Together, the trio was considered a “dream team” and stands as one of the most successful driver partnerships in the history of international sports car racing. Now, Kristensen is the last of them to hang up his helmet.

In LMP2, the No. 47 KCMG Oreca of Richard Bradley, Matt Howson, and Alex Imperatori claimed the race win by a margin of 18 laps over SMP Racing’s No. 27 Oreca.

A minor mid-race crash involving Howson had caused the KCMG team to fall back, but the No. 37 SMP Oreca came to a stop on track while leading, allowing KCMG to take and hold point the rest of the way.

No. 27 pilot Sergey Zlobin and SMP locked up the LMP2 driver and team titles simply by finishing the race after G-Drive Racing’s No. 26 Ligier crashed out at the end of the first hour with Olivier Pla driving. The WEC’s live Twitter account said that a locking brake led to that incident.

As for the GT classes, Aston Martin Racing had a doubly good day at Interlagos with victories in both the GTE-Pro and GTE-Am categories.

In Pro, the duo of Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke earned the second class win of the year for the No. 97 Vantage V8, and in Am, Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana, and Christoffer Nygaard got the No. 98 Vantage its third win of 2014.

Ford unveils a new Mustang for 2024 Le Mans in motorsports ‘lifestyle brand’ retooling

Associated PressJun 9, 2023, 7:00 PM EDT
Ford Mustang Le Mans
Ford Performance
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LE MANS, France — Ford has planned a return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with its iconic Mustang muscle car next year under a massive rebranding of Ford Performance aimed at bringing the automotive manufacturer “into the racing business.”

The Friday unveil of the new Mustang Dark Horse-based race car follows Ford’s announcement in February (and a ballyhooed test at Sebring in March) that it will return to Formula One in 2026 in partnership with reigning world champion Red Bull.

The Mustang will enter the GT3 category next year with at least two cars in both IMSA and the World Endurance Championship, and is hopeful to earn an invitation to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The IMSA entries will be a factory Ford Performance program run by Multimatic, and a customer program in WEC with Proton Competition.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, also an amateur sports car racer, told The Associated Press the Mustang will be available to compete in various GT3 series across the globe to customer teams. But more important, Farley said, is the overall rebranding of Ford Performance – done by renowned motorsports designer Troy Lee – that is aimed at making Ford a lifestyle brand with a sporting mindset.

“It’s kind of like the company finding its own, and rediscovering its icons, and doubling down on them,” Farley told the AP. “And then this motorsports activity is getting serious about connecting enthusiast customers with those rediscovered icons. It’s a big switch for the company – this is really about building strong, iconic vehicles with enthusiasts at the center of our marketing.”

Ford last competed in sports car racing in 2019 as part of a three-year program with Chip Ganassi Racing. The team scored the class win at Le Mans in 2016 in a targeted performance aimed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ford snapping Ferrari’s six-year winning streak.

Ford on Friday displayed a Mustang with a Lee-designed livery that showcased the cleaner, simplified look that will soon be featured on all its racing vehicles. The traditional blue oval with Ford Performance in white lettering underneath will now be branded simply FP.

The new mark will be used across car liveries, merchandise and apparel, display assets, parts and accessories and in advertising.

Farley cited Porsche as an automaker that has successfully figured out how to sell cars to consumers and race cars in various series around the world while creating a culture of brand enthusiasts. He believes Ford’s new direction will help the company sell street cars, race cars, boost interest in driving schools, and create a merchandise line that convinces consumers that a stalwart of American automakers is a hip, cool brand.

“We’re going to build a global motorsports business off road and on road,” Farley told the AP, adding that the design of the Mustang is “unapologetically American.”

He lauded the work of Lee, who is considered the top helmet designer among race car drivers.

“We’re in the first inning of a nine inning game, and going to Le Mans is really important,” Farley said. “But for customer cars, getting the graphics right, designing race cars that win at all different levels, and then designing a racing brand for Ford Performance that gets rebranded and elevated is super important.”

He said he’s kept a close eye on how Porsche and Aston Martin have built their motorsports businesses and said Ford will be better.

“We’re going in the exact same direction. We just want to be better than them, that’s all,” Farley said. “Second is the first loser.”

Farley, an avid amateur racer himself, did not travel to Le Mans for the announcement. The race that begins Saturday features an entry from NASCAR, and Ford is the reigning Cup Series champion with Joey Logano and Team Penske.

The NASCAR “Garage 56” entry is a collaboration between Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear, and is being widely celebrated throughout the industry. Farley did feel left out of the party in France – a sentiment NASCAR tried to avoid by inviting many of its partners to attend the race so that it wouldn’t seem like a Chevrolet-only celebration.

“They’re going right and I’m going left – that NASCAR thing is a one-year deal, right? It’s Garage 56 and they can have their NASCAR party, but that’s a one-year party,” Farley said. “We won Le Mans outright four times, we won in the GT class, and we’re coming back with Mustang and it’s not a one-year deal.

“So they can get all excited about Garage 56. I almost see that as a marketing exercise for NASCAR, but for me, that’s a science project,” Farley continued. “I don’t live in a world of science projects. I live in the world of building a vital company that everyone is excited about. To do that, we’re not going to do a Garage 56 – I’ve got to beat Porsche and Aston Martin and Ferrari year after year after year.”

Ford’s announcement comes on the heels of General Motors changing its GT3 strategy next season and ending its factory Corvette program. GM, which unlike Ford competes in the IMSA Grand Touring Prototype division (with its Cadillac brand), will shift fully to a customer model for Corvettes in 2024 (with some factory support in the IMSA GTD Pro category).