Dauer-Porsche 962LM - 1994

The last Group C winner at Le Mans was not, in fact, a Group C car. The category had already been suspended for over a year when this car appeared in 1994, but the situation had upset manufacturers so much that the 1993 World Sportscar Championship was cancelled due to a lack of competitors. Only the 24 Hours of Le Mans provided a final opportunity for the ‘old’ Group C cars such as the Porsche 962. The following year, the premier class with LMP1 prototypes was the GT1, which had similar characteristics but was based on production models. Meanwhile, former driver Dauer produced a road car version of the 962 that Porsche liked so much that it wanted to revive it in racing as a GT1.

The interesting thing about the GT1 is that it is a car derived from the ‘series’, at least on paper, since the regulations stipulated so many modifications that it effectively became a true prototype, keeping only a vague resemblance to the road cars. Porsche took advantage of the situation in 1995 by launching the 911 GT1, keeping only the central cell of the passenger compartment from the road model. But the Dauer-Porsche 962LM was an endurance car adapted for road use, so getting it back on the track was probably a fairly easy task. The parent company provided Dauer with five chassis, engines and other components useful for the development of ‘its’ 962. And it was still the Porsche team, under the supervision of technical manager Norbert Singer, that was responsible for developing the competition version called ‘Sport’.

To homologate a GT1 in 1974, 25 units of the road car had to be produced. However, in reality, it was not mandatory to have them completed, so a single ‘production’ Dauer presented in Frankfurt was enough for the 962LM to be officially registered. Subsequently, the regulations changed and stipulated that at least 25 examples of the production model had to be built in a year, a standard that Porsche had no trouble meeting with the 911 GT1. The 962LM made its debut at the May testing sessions at Le Mans, entered by an official team conveniently named ‘Le Mans Porsche Team’ ( although it was partly made up of technicians from partner team Joest). The sole model completed in time, driven by Hans-Joachim Stuck, Mauro Baldi and Thierry Boutsen, achieved the third fastest time overall and the best in the GT1 category.

[ THE DAUER WINS WITH THE TOYOTA 94C-VV ]

A month later, the team entered three models of the Dauer-Porsche 962LM in the race, of which one only ran during the test sessions. Painted white, they were sponsored by Shell and FATurbo Express respectively. Stuck and Boutsen were in charge of the first car at the May tests, number 35, with American Danny Sullivan, while Mauro Baldi teamed up with Yannick Dalmas and Hurley Haywood in car number 36. During qualifying, the two cars only managed fifth and seventh places, but in the race, the two Dauer cars proved to be stronger and were involved in a fierce battle with the powerful Toyota 94C-Vs, which dominated the LMP1 category and seemed slightly faster.

With only two hours to go, the N°1 car of Team Sard, driven by F1 champion Eddie Irvine (who finished fourth at Le Mans in 1993), Mauro Martini and Jeff Krosnoff, was effectively defending its lead... until the gearbox started to cause problems, forcing the drivers to slow down. This allowed the Dauer No. 36 driven by Baldi, Dalmas and Haywood (which also experienced transmission problems) to take the lead and ultimately win, by just one lap. The second Dauer, finishing third, gave the team a second podium finish in what would later be described as ‘the last victory of the 962’. In fact, it would score another victory in 1999 at Spa-Francorchamps during the Ferrari Days in early May.

Yannick Dalmas is the most successful of the three drivers who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1994. His record includes four victories at Le Mans with different cars and teams: in addition to the 1994 edition, he won the 1992 edition of the 24 Hours in a Peugeot 905, the 1995 edition in a McLaren F1 GTR and the 1999 edition in a BMW V12 LMR. Hurley Haywood joined Dauer because Porsche had confidence in him, as he had already won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, first with the 936 in 1977 and then with the 956 in 1983. He also claimed five outright victories at Daytona plus a sixth in his class (his first in chronological order) between 1972 and 1991. Italian Mauro Baldi began his career in rallying in the early 1970s, then moved on to Formula 3 and Formula 1. In the 1980s, he switched to sports prototypes, achieving several successes, including victory in the 1990 World Championship for Sauber-Mercedes alongside Frenchman Jean-Louis Schlesser, with whom he won six races. His list of achievements includes victories at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. At Le Mans, his sole victory was in 1994 with Dauer, making him the 100th driver to win the race.