The 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 56th Grand Prix of Endurance as well as the fifth round of the 1988 World Sports-Prototype Championship. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on the 11 and 12 June 1988. At their third attempt, Jaguar arrived with five cars to take on the strong Porsche works team of three cars, in their only race for the Championship season. The other potential rival was Sauber, now formally backed by Mercedes-Benz, but after a major high-speed tyre-blowout in practice, their two-car team was withdrawn.
From the start, it was a close duel between the two works teams. Even though Hans-Joachim Stuck had put in a blazing qualifying lap to lead a 1-2-3 grid for Porsche, it was Jan Lammers in his Jaguar who muscled his way up to the front. A blocked fuel-filter cost Klaus Ludwig two laps in the pole-sitting Porsche. Thereafter the chase was picked up by his teammate Bob Wollek, and he took the lead in the fourth hour. Along with the third works car run by the Andretti family and the Joest Porsche, these four cars continued dicing well into the night, constantly swapping positions. However, this year the usual Porsche reliability was missing: the Andretti car lost three laps repairing their water pump, then Wollek's car retired just before half-distance with engine failure. Jaguar did not have easy sailing either, as Boesel had retired at midnight with a broken gearbox. Meanwhile, hard driving by Stuck, Ludwig and van der Merwe had them back into the race, and the second half would be a duel between them and the Jaguar of Lammers, Dumfries and Wallace. A light shower late in the morning just added to the tension with Stuck, a wet-weather master, getting ever closer.
Once the rain passed, the Jaguar drivers were able to stabilise the gap, and going into the last hour had a comfortable 1-lap lead. That was until the gearbox broke. Lammers, mindful of what Boesel had told him about his own cars demise, had the presence of mind to select fourth gear and not shift for the rest of the race. The last drama was their final pitstop, but Lammers dropped the clutch and with a shove from his pit crew, got back on the track. Ludwig, unaware of the dire situation facing the Jaguar, had little fuel left himself and could not put pressure on to force a mistake. Lammers led home a formation finish with his remaining two team-mates, as the track was invaded by delirious British fans. After twenty-four hours, the margin of victory was one of the tightest in the race's history - less than half a lap. The Joest Porsche finished third, nine laps behind.
There was another major milestone in this race. The small WM Secateva team had always built their cars for speed and never foresaw outright victory. Their current goal was to be the first car to break the 400 km/h barrier at Le Mans. Now with significant backing from Peugeot for their twin-turbo engine, they had their best opportunity. As the evening cooled, the two team-cars had already had several issues. Roger Dorchy was called in and the crew taped up all the vents to minimise air-friction and wound the turbo-boost right up. Knowing he only had several laps, Dorchy went out to give his best effort. On his second lap, he broke the radar speed trap on the Mulsanne straight at 405 km/h (252 mph). Sure enough, the engine soon gave up, but it was mission accomplished for the team.
Regulations The French central and local governments cooperated to do major upgrades on the Hunaudières back straight. With laser technology, it was resurfaced with high-grip asphalt along its whole length, with a gradient of 2 percent. Over 12,500 tonnes of material was removed from the roadway, including a reduction of the problematic hump approaching Mulsanne corner. This all contributed to increase the maximum speeds of the cars, and following recent alarming accidents on the straight, it was also fitted with high, three-tier Armco fencing.Spurring 2012, p.304Williams 2023, p.317 During practice, Porsche works driver Hans-Joachim Stuck commented:
Concerned with the increasing impact of greater downforce, the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) set maximum dimensions for the underbody ground-effect tunnels. The other change was to increase the fuel allocation for the C2 class up to 1815 litres – still quite restrictive, precluding the full power of turbo engines. The ACO (Automobile Club de l'Ouest) cancelled the test day from the general lack of interest from the contestants over the past two years, given the cost for closing public roads. This year, the race start was moved to 3pm to give the local spectators time to vote in the French elections held over the same weekend.
There had been notable changes in the organisation of the international racing bodies following the re-signing of Concorde Agreement in 1987. Max Mosley, recently-appointed president of FISA, convinced FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre to bring Bernie Ecclestone (co-signatory of Concorde for the rival FOCA group) into the fold as an FIA vice-president responsible for the sport's promotion. This was a move that would have far-reaching ramifications for sports-car racing in the future.
Entries Including the specialist racing manufacturers, there were fully 27 factory cars in the Le Mans entry list. They were headlined by the five Jaguars, up against Porsche, Nissan, Toyota and Sauber-Mercedes in C1, while Mazda had the GTP class to itself.
Class Quantity Turbo+Rotaryengines Group C1 39 / 29 34 / 24 IMSA-GTP 5 / 3 3 / 3 Group C2 25 / 17 3 / 2 IMSA-GTXP 1 / 0 0 / 0 Total Entries 70 / 49 40 / 29 Note: The first number is the number accepted, the second the number who started.
Group C1
Defending champion, Porsche, was now focused on its F1 TAG-engine program with McLaren and moving into the US IndyCar series (being directed by Al Holbert).Clarke 1997, p.93 Autocar Jun 8 1988 The works team had left the World Sportscar Championship in the middle of the previous year. They chose the prestigious Le Mans 24-hours as their only race in the championship this year. Three cars again were entered, along with a test-car, all decked out now in the red and yellow livery of their long-time sponsor Shell.Spurring 2012, pp.309-10 The engines were fitted with the new iteration of the Bosch Motronic 1.7 engine-management system, giving 50 more horsepower.Henry 1988, p.245 A new chassis was given to Derek Bell and Hans-Joachim Stuck, bringing in Joest driver Klaus Ludwig as their third driver – one of the greatest driving combinations seen, with ten Le Mans victories between them. Ludwig's erstwhile teammate Bob Wollek was partnered with Vern Schuppan and Sarel van der Merwe in a late-'87 chassis. The final car was the one that had taken pole position the year before. It was driven by the Andretti family: Mario Andretti back with his son Michael and this time joined by his nephew John. The winning car from 1987 was used as the T-car.
The heavy lifting during the season for Porsche was carried by the loyal customer teams. The 3.0-litre engine had now been released to them and a number of the teams picked them up. Two of them went to Brun Motorsport, who had brought their cars from last year. Regular team drivers Sigala/Pareja/Schäfer had the lead car.Spurring 2012, pp.312-3 Team-owner Walter Brun stayed on the pit-wall this year, with his attention this season now also diverted by his EuroBrun foray into Formula 1, with his lead driver Oscar Larrauri.Clarke 1997, p.94 Autocar Jun 8 1988 The team had boycotted the Silverstone round, protesting the Porsche works team keeping the new Motronic system to itself. By contrast, the Joest Racing team had their own 2.8-litre engines. With the two lead drivers commandeered by the works team, the first car was driven by their other drivers: Frank Jelinski and wealthy former-winner "John Winter" (Louis Krages) with Swede Stanley Dickens. The other car was a converted 956 chassis for David Hobbs/Didier Theys/Franz Konrad. The Kremer brothers had two honeycomb/carbon chassis built by the British TC Prototypes company. The brand new 3-litre car was given to Nissen/Grohs/Fouché. The 2.8-litre WSP car was the modified K6 with its vertical fin, driven by Bruno Giacomelli and Japanese champions Kunimitsu Takahashi and Hideki Okada. Vern Schuppan was running in a works car, but his team in the All-Japan Championship was entered this year. His drivers were the veteran crew of Brian Redman, Eje Elgh and Jean-Pierre Jarier. The small Obermaier Racing team, that had done a giant-killing act the previous year to finish second, was back with Jürgen Lässig joined by Pierre Yver and Dudley Wood. In contrast, as an example of the fragility and expense of racing, the otherwise well-performing Richard Lloyd Racing team had to withdraw their entries when sponsorship fell through just days before the start of the season.Henry 1988, p.239
An adage was that it took at least three attempts for a manufacturer to win Le Mans – as evidenced by Ford and Renault, and longer for Porsche, Matra and Aston Martin.Laban 2001, p.205 The notable exception was Ferrari who won at their first attempt – the inaugural post-war Le Mans in 1949. This sentiment was acknowledged by Tom Walkinshaw himself – in charge of the Jaguar team operations.Clarke 1997, p.101 Autocar Jun 15 1988 Following the example of Ferrari, Ford and Porsche themselves, this year Jaguar brought quantity as well as quality to the event, in their efforts to get the elusive victory. Tom Walkinshaw bought five cars and fourteen drivers to Le Mans. Their weapon this year would be the new XJR-9, designed by Tony Southgate.Williams 2023, p.316 The car featured a number of aerodynamic and mechanical improvements, including a reduction of the air tunnels to meet the new regulations. Covers over the rear wheels contributed an estimated extra 10% to the downforce. Now fitted with a Zytek management system, TWR's engine-specialist, Allan Scott, was able to lift its output to 730 bhp with a top-speed 15 km/h faster than last year's car.Clarke 1997, p.105 Motor Sport Jul 1988 Jaguar had entered this year's IMSA GTP series and to meet those regulations, was now sporting four 17" wheels all round.Spurring 2012, p.306 One of the IMSA cars was brought across to join the three WSC cars, along with a new chassis destined for the USA.
Eddie Cheever and Martin Brundle had won three of the four Championship rounds to date, but with Cheever unavailable due to Formula 1 commitments, Brundle was paired with John Nielsen. The second car now ran Jan Lammers with new team-members Johnny, Earl Dumfries and Andy Wallace, while the third car (fitted with an in-car camera) had 1987 champion Raul Boesel (now racing in the American CART series) and French veteran Henri Pescarolo join team regular John Watson. The IMSA chassis had the all-American crew of Price Cobb, Davy Jones and Team Penske lead-driver Danny Sullivan while the new chassis was given to Irishman Derek Daly, Australian Larry Perkins and American Kevin Cogan. Confidence on the cars reliability was gained when the XJR-9 finished first and third in the Daytona 24-hours, with victory going to Brundle/Nielson/Boesel.Clarke 1997, p.92 Autocar Jun 8 1988
At the start of the year, Mercedes-Benz formally returned to motor-racing, in partnership with the Sauber team. The C9 design of Leo Ress got a major development, fine-tuning its aerodynamics and airflow with the new regulations. The refined 5.0-litre twin-turbo M117 engine could now put out well over 700 bhp. As a works project, a full team of engineers and personnel joined the pit-crew under new team manager Dave Price. The effects were immediate with strong results in the opening races from the improved reliability, including a victory at Jerez.Spurring 2012, pp.322-3Henry 1988, p.239