The 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 65th Grand Prix of Endurance and took place on 14 and 15 June 1997. It was won by Michele Alboreto, Stefan Johansson, and Tom Kristensen, driving a TWR-Porsche WSC-95. The race was the first of a record 9 Le Mans wins for Kristensen, on what was his La Sarthe debut. This was only the third time in the races history that it was won by the same car and same chassis as the previous year, and in a unique ‘double-double’ one of those other times (1984–85) was also by Joest Racing.

Once again, it was at the expense of the works Porsche team who had dominated most of the race. But when the second team car stopped in flames with just two hours to go, it was the Joest team who had the fortune to be in the right place to pick up the pieces. New GT1 cars arrived from Nissan and the small new American Panoz company. Initially, the TWR held the lead for the first two hours, until the two works Porsches asserted their dominance and led into and through the night, with the TWR and the best of the McLarens gradually giving away ground. Come the new dawn though and the Porsche challenge faltered. Bob Wollek, hounded by his teammate, hit a curb and wrecked the suspension on their leading car. The other car took over and was looking comfortably at the front until, with two hours to go, Ralf Kelleners radioed the team to report an engine issue and then had to almost immediately pull over as the car burst into flames. From there, the TWR-Porsche moved up to the lead which it held to the finish, with the Gulf and works BMW McLarens coming home in second and third. The GT2 class was a battle between the Chrysler Vipers and Porsche 911s but in a race of attrition which, in the end, fell to the Haberthur Porsche team.

Regulations

The circuit was adjusted very slightly, at the request of the FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) – the governing body for motorcycle racing – to modify the chicane after the Dunlop Bridge and increase the run-off area for improved safety, as part of the Bugatti Circuit used in motorcycling events. This extended the lap length by 5 metres.Spurring 2014, p.264 The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) made no notable changes this year to their technical specifications. They did decree that Prototype and GT1 cars would have white headlights, while the GT2s had yellow ones to aid in nighttime identification. GT2 cars were also now allowed carbon brakes if their base road car was fitted with them. The list of automatic entries was changed from an arbitrary choice of manufacturers to nominated class-victories of specific races.

The success of the BPR Global GT Series convinced the FIA to promote it to full World Championship status, and 1997 was the inaugural year of the FIA GT Championship. Organisation stayed with the Stéphane Ratel Organisation, with this year to consist of 8 races in Europe, 1 in Japan and the final 2 rounds in the USA. Alongside that, a new embryonic prototype series was set up. The 1997 International Sports Racing Series was a non-championship event of 4 races in Europe that would commence after the Le Mans 24 Hours.Bernard et al 2023, p.275

Once again, the ACO lined up the first ten cars of each class behind each other, with prototypes on the left and GT cars on the right.Williams 2023, p.352Bernard et al 2023, p.98

Entries The ongoing strength of the GT championships meant there were 86 applications, of which 76 were accepted for the Pre-Qualifying weekend in May for the 46 starting spots. From those who turned up, there were 13 prototypes for 10 places, 29 GT1s for 22 and 21 GT2s for 16 slots.Spurring 2014, p.263Clarke 2000, p.117 Autocar Jun 11 1997 The ACO only gave automatic entry to a further 6 cars this year, as follows:Spurring 2014, p.262 1996 Le Mans 24hr Prototype class-winner (Joest Racing) 1996 Le Mans 24hr GT1 class-winner (Porsche AG) 1996 Le Mans 24hr GT2 class-winner (Roock Racing) 1996 Coupe d’Automne 4hr Prototype class-winner (Welter Racing) 1996 Coupe d’Automne 4hr GT1 class-winner (Larbre Compétition) 1996 BPR Global GT Series winner (Gulf Racing) Fully half the cars coming from the Pre-Qualifying could be called works entries, and there were ten different manufacturers in GT1:

Class Quantity Turbo andRotaryengines LM-P875 13 / 10 11 / 8 LM-P650 2 / 0 2 / 0 LM-GT1 35 / 22 17 / 11 LM-GT2 26 / 16 13 / 8 Total Entries 76 / 48 43 / 27 Note: The first number is the number that pre-qualified, the second the number who started.

LM-P875

Joest Racing returned with the victorious TWR-Porsche from last year. The second car had been returned to the Porsche factory. Neither had been raced since but Reinhold Joest availed himself of the automatic entry to defend their title, this time without the factory back-up.Clarke 2000, p.123 Autocar Jun 18 1997 Very little extra work was done on the car. Michele Alboreto was now the lead driver and was reunited with his former F1 Ferrari teammate Stefan Johansson. Their rookie co-driver this year was Tom Kristensen, who was to become, over the next decade, Le Mans' most successful driver. At this time, he was leading the F3000 championship after 3 races.Spurring 2012, pp.266-7Bernard et al 2023, p.39 He was approached by Joest just nine days before the race, to replace an injured Davy Jones who had won for Joest in 1996, but was still unable to race after a single-seater accident in January.Williams 2023, p.351

Courage Compétition put together another big effort to try and get the overall win. Four cars were entered including the new C41, now adapted to the ACO prototype regulations. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Michel Vaillant, the French motor-racing comic, the car was called the Courage-Vaillant and painted by the comic's publisher Studio Graton.Bernard et al 2023, p.91 It was entrusted to junior F3000 drivers Didier Cottaz, Marc Goossens and Jérôme Policand.Clarke 2000, p.128 Autosport Jun 19 1997 The other three were their C36 spyders, with one again driven by Mario Andretti with his son Michael, and former F1 and Indycar driver Olivier Grouillard as their co-driver. Another C36 was again sponsored by the Elf La Filière young-driver academy. Joining the veteran Henri Pescarolo this year were Jean-Philippe Belloc and Emmanuel Clérico.Spurring 2012, pp.275-6 Kremer Racing brought the same pair of K8 Spyders from last year. With the teams focus now on their GT cars in the BPR series, little work was done on the K8s. Regular Kremer GT drivers Tomás Saldaña and Carl Rosenblad were joined by Jürgen Lässig. The second car had former Minardi F1 driver Giovanni Lavaggi and Jean-Luc Maury-Laribière and Bernard Chauvin.Spurring 2014, p.289

There was a sizeable entry from the IMSA GT Championship headlined by Ferrari. Two of the Ferrari 333 SP cars were entered. Gianpiero Moretti had bought the chassis run the previous year as the “Racing for Belgium” car from Team Scandia, while Michel Ferté's Pilot Racing had purchased their car from the EuroMotorsports team. Both cars arrived with the original body kit and although the Pilot car had not raced since the 1994 IMSA season (when it had scored the first victory for the 333 SP), Moretti's Momo Racing had proven competitive, recently winning the Lime Rock Park round in May. Moretti, now 57-years old, was back at Le Mans for the first time since he was in a Ferrari 512S in 1970, and raced with his regular co-drivers in 1996, Didier Theys and Max Papis.Spurring 2012, pp.279-80Clarke 2000, p.130 Motor Sport Aug 1997

Mazdaspeed worked again with their American representative Jim Downing. The tenth Kudzu chassis, the DLM4 was designed around the Mazda R26B quad-rotor engine that had formerly fitted in the 1991-winning Mazda 787B. Downing had finally convinced IMSA to allow the quad-rotor into the WSC. The ACO in turn required the car to run in the LM-P875 class, set up to the WSC regulations.Spurring 2012, pp.283-3 Designed by Dave Lynn, the chassis had a longer wheelbase for the bigger engine. It had to run with a 5-speed gearbox and iron brakes, and the engine was limited to 560 bhp. The issue with rotary engines was the greater heat they generated, so the aerodynamics had to accommodate airflow to the engine. However, the drag created hobbled the top speed, not helped by the 150 kg increase in weight from the previous ultralight P2 DLM. Further engine issues meant the car failed pre-qualifying until a reprieve came from the withdrawal of the WR team. Extensive mechanical and aerodynamic work were done to improve the design. Downing once again raced with the same drivers, Yojiro Terada and Franck Fréon, that he had for the past two years.

In 1992 BRM entered Le Mans with its model P351 and it returned again this year. The chassis had been bought Keith Wiggins for his Pacific Racing team that had recently left Formula 1 after an unsuccessful foray. Rebranded the P301 it had a major revamp from Pacific engineer Peter Weston to comply to the new regulations. Converted to an open-top, spyder format, the rear-end was modified to replace the 3.5-litre V12 with the more compact Nissan 3.0-litre V6 turbo. Harri Toivonen, who had driven the BRM back in 1992, was lead driver, alongside veterans Eliseo Salazar and Jesús Pareja.Spurring 2014, p.288

LM GT1

The Porsche 911 GT1 had made a big impact in its debut in the 1995 race. Porsche brought a pair of their next iteration, the GT1 Evo. The chassis and engine remained the same, as was the suspension except to widen it slightly and that its ABS brakes were banned. The main changes were improvements to the bodyshell with a more smoothly-curved aerodynamic shape. However, the FIA imposed smaller air restrictors on the car and banned ABS brakes that made it much less competitive in the Championship.Spurring 2014, p.268 However, with the ACO running lighter restrictions on turbo power, the water-cooled 3.2-litre engine could still make 590 bhp. The suspension was also upgraded to improve the sometime difficult handling.Clarke 2000, p.125 Autosport Jun 19 1997 Hans-Joachim Stuck, Thierry Boutsen and Bob Wollek were again teamed up in one car, while Emmanuel Collard and Ralf Kelleners joined Yannick Dalmas in the other. Meanwhile, over the close season Porsche had opened up its 911 GT1 for customer sales. Thirty road-going versions had been produced, selling for about £450,000 each. Six customer cars were entered at Le Mans. Porsche stalwarts Kremer Racing backed up their prototypes with a GT1, with Le Mans winners Christophe Bouchut (with Peugeot, 1992) and Bertrand Gachot (with Mazda, 1991) along with IMSA owner Andy Evans. The fellow German teams of Roock Racing and Franz Konrad stepped up from the GT2 class this year in the GT Championship, bringing those cars to France. Roock had their regular team-driver Stéphane Ortelli with former Sauber F1 driver Karl Wendlinger and rookie Allan McNish. Konrad piloted his car with 1994 winner Mauro Baldi and Robert Nairn.Spurring 2014, pp.284-5 Giuseppe Lucchini's BMS Scuderia Italia team had competed in Formula 1 from 1988 to 1993 without success. Coming into touring cars, this year they entered the GT Championship with Pierluigi Martini and Christian Pescatori. Also new to GT1 were the French JB Racing (of former F1 Renault driver Jean-Pierre Jabouille) and Schübel Rennsport (with Pedro Lamy/Armin Hahne/Patrice Goueslard).