Race
The 1994 race was won by a car that had its roots in a 10 year old design. Porsche exploited an unusual quirk in the GT regulations at the time, using German fashion magnate Jochen Dauer in a plan to have a street-legal version of the outdated and now illegal Porsche 962 built. Using this road car design, Porsche entered two racing modified Dauer 962s in the GT category. With factory support, the Dauer 962 was able to take the win, the sister car coming in a close third. Toyota, having themselves dusted off a pair of Group C chassis after its 3.5-litre engined TS010 was no longer eligible, suffered transmission problems with 90 minutes to go, leaving Eddie Irvine to finish 2nd in his 94C-V.
This was also supposed to be Derek Bell's swansong Le Mans, driving a Porsche-powered Kremer with Gulf Oil sponsorship. However, the lure of driving a McLaren F1 GTR with son Justin the following year proved too strong. Additionally, Roland Ratzenberger was originally scheduled to drive the eventual second place-finishing Toyota before he was killed in qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix. Eddie Irvine took his place on the team, and Ratzenberger's name was left on the car in tribute.
Read more about this topic: 1994 24 Hours Of Le Mans
Famous quotes containing the word race:
“Wilful sterility is, from the standpoint of the nation, from the standpoint of the human race, the one sin for which the penalty is national death, race death; a sin for which there is no atonement.... No man, no woman, can shirk the primary duties of life, whether for love of ease and pleasure, or for any other cause, and retain his or her self-respect.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)
“Before we shall again behold
In his diurnal race the world’s great eye,
We may as silent be and cold
As are the shades where buried lovers lie.”
—Sir William Davenant (1606–1668)
“The Jew is neither a newcomer nor an alien in this country or on this continent; his Americanism is as original and ancient as that of any race or people with the exception of the American Indian and other aborigines. He came in the caravels of Columbus, and he knocked at the gates of New Amsterdam only thirty-five years after the Pilgrim Fathers stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock.”
—Oscar Solomon Straus (1850–1926)