1972 24 Hours of Le Mans
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1972 24 Hours of Le Mans |
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The 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 40th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 10 and 11 June 1972. It was the ninth round of the 1972 World Championship for Makes. This year's marked the start of a new era with revised Sports-Prototype regulations putting a 3-litre limit on engine size. There was also a significant change to the track with the construction of the new technical section subsequently named the Porsche Curves bypassing the dangerous Maison Blanche corner, which had been the site of many serious accidents in the past. Having already won the Manufacturers’ Championship Ferrari chose not to contest the race. Matra were strong favourites for the outright win after not running the other races to focus on its Le Mans preparation. Once the challenge from Alfa Romeo and Lola had dissipated overnight, Matra were able to ease off to secure a popular 1–2 victory for the home country – France's first since 1950. Henri Pescarolo and Graham Hill were the winners, with a healthy 11-lap margin over teammates François Cevert and Howden Ganley. However the victory was tarnished by the death of veteran Formula One racer Jo Bonnier who died when his Lola prototype collided with a Ferrari GT and flew over the barriers into the trees on the Sunday morning. Once again, the CSI (Commission Sportive Internationale - the FIA’s regulations body) overhauled its FIA Appendix J, redefining its motorsport categories. The former Group 6 Prototypes and Group 5 Sports categories were combined into a new, third-generation, Group 5 Sports-Prototype class with a 3-litre engine limit (or 2142cc if turbo-powered, using the x1.4 equivalency) with a minimum weight of 650 kg (1,433 lb 0.08 oz). There was also no minimum production required. Not for the last time, the FIA’s idea was to encourage manufacturers to build, develop and use engines based around the current Formula One 3.0-litre standard. Recognising the growing interest in touring car racing, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) opened the entry list to Group 2 Special Touring Cars, alongside the Group 4 Special GTs and the new Group 5. Entries for the Group 2 and 4 categories had a 2-litre minimum but no upper limit on engine size. They also revamped the minimum distance and speed requirements. No longer a set lap-time to qualify, all cars had to be within 140% of an average of the three best practice laps put up. Also the sliding scale of target distances was discarded. Now cars had to achieve at least 70% of its class winner to be classified. Therefore the Index of Performance, now redundant, was discontinued. Also, the Index of Thermal Efficiency now only applied to Group 2 and 4. But the biggest change was to the track layout, with a new series of curves being built between Arnage and the Ford chicane bypassing the dangerously fast Maison Blanche section. Financed by Porsche, it therefore became known as the “Porsche curves”. The Ford chicane was also redesigned with a second chicane added just up the track to allow a dedicated pit-lane entrance lane to be built. This allowed cars to decelerate off the racing line and off the main track, greatly increasing safety. Although the modifications only added 71 m (232 ft 11.28 in) to the overall track length, there was a noticeable change in lap times and average speed slowing the prototypes' speeds by 30 km/h (18 mph). The circuit still had cars using full throttle for over 65% of the lap however. Prizemoney this year included FF80000 (£6400) for outright victory, and half that to the respective winners of the GT category and Index of Thermal Efficiency. Where we have not had a model of the car through the business as raced I've added another example of the car as an illustration (where I have one)
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| Last Edit: 24/04/2022 | Page Created 23/04/2022 |
