1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10 victory for Porsche at the 1986 Le Mans 24 Hours
Porsche has been dominating the Le Mans 24H in the early and mid-eigthies as never seen before. Back in 1983, it already scored an almost perfect result with 9 out of 10 Porsches finishing in the top 10. That was unseen before and led back then to the iconic and collectible poster “Porsche : nobody’s perfect”. Even though Porsche celebrated convincing victories after 1983 too, the next close-to-perfect result in the Le Mans 24 Hours was in 1986.
The race was rather early at the year, with the start on Saturday May 31st. The trio Bob Wollek / Jochen Mass / Vern Schuppan started in pole-position in the factory Porsche 962C ,followed by the other Porsche factory Porsche 962C with Hans-Joachim Stuck / Derek Bell / Al Holbert at the wheel. 3rd on the start grid was a Porsche 956 of the Joest Racing Team, driven by Klaus Ludwig / Paolo Barilla / John Winter.

In the end, the result was overwhelming for Porsche with no less than 9 cars in the first 10.
Results of the 1986 Le Mans 24 Hours
Pos. | No. | Drivers | Car | Entrant | Laps | Distance | Km/h | Pos. | Gr. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | 1 | Stuck / Bell / Holbert | Porsche 962 C | Rothmans Porsche | 368 | 4972.731 kms | 207.197 | 1st | C1 |
2nd | 17 | Larrauri / Pareja / Gouhier | Porsche 962 C | Brun Motorsport | 360 | 4856.731 kms | 202.363 | 2nd | C1 |
3rd | 8 | Follmer / Morton / Miller | Porsche 956 | Joest Racing | 355 | 4796.734 kms | 199.863 | 3rd | C1 |
4th | 33 | de Villota / Velez / Fouché | Porsche 956B | Danone Porsche Espana | 349 | 4720.555 kms | 196.689 | 4th | C1 |
5th | 9 | Lässig / Ballabio / Wood | Porsche 956 | Obermaier Racing | 345 | 4658.297 kms | 194.095 | 5th | C1 |
6th | 63 | Brunn / Schuster / Seher | Porsche 936C | Ernst Schuster | 344 | 4641.672 kms | 193.403 | 6th | C1 |
7th | 180 | Ballot-Léna / Metge | Porsche 961 | Porsche AG | 321 | 4335.983 kms | 180.665 | 1st | GTX |
8th | 75 | Clements / Dodd-Noble / Harrower | Gebhardt JC843 Ford | ADA Engineering | 318 | 4295.236 kms | 179.968 | 1st | C2 |
9th | 14 | Baldi / Cobb / Dyson | Porsche 956 GTi | Liqui Moly | 318 | 4286.802 kms | 178.741 | 7th | C1 |
10th | 55 | Alliot / Romero / Trollé | Porsche 962 C | John Fitzpatrick Racing | 312 | 4220.321 kms | 175.846 | 8th | C1 |
11th | 90 | Mercer / Winther / Jensen | URD C83 BMW | Jens Winther | 310 | 4186.799 kms | 174.449 | 2nd | C2 |
12th | 100 | Haldi / Pessiot / Dorchy | WM P83B Peugeot | WM Secateva | 301 | 4070.801 kms | 169.616 | 3rd | C2 |
13th | 47 | Menant / Grand / Goudchaux | Rondeau M482 Ford | Graff Racing | 299 | 4043.613 kms | 168.483 | 9th | C1 |
14th | 21 | Robert / Newsum / Cleare | March 85G Porsche | Richard Cleare Racing | 299 | 4040.834 kms | 168.359 | 1st | GTP |
15th | 78 | Delano / Petery / Hotchkis | Ecosse C285 Ford | Ecurie Ecosse | 293 | 3961.575 kms | 165.065 | 4th | C2 |
16th | 32 | Weaver / Hasemi / Wada / Suzuki | Nissan R85V | Nissan Motorsport | 285 | 3850.511 kms | 160.437 | 10th | C1 |
17th | 102 | del Bello / Sotty / Rossiaud | Rondeau M379C Ford | Lucien Rossiaud | 278 | 3751.832 kms | 156.326 | 5th | C2 |
18th | 13 | Raphanel / De Cadenet / Courage | Cougar C12 Porsche | Primagaz Team Cougar | 267 | 3599.712 kms | 149.988 | 11th | C1 |
19th | 70 | Bellm / Martin / Spice | Spice SE86C Ford | Spice Engineering | 258 | 3485.328 kms | 145.222 | 6th | C2 |
Death of Jo Gartner overshadows race and results
The Porsche 962C of the Porsche Kremer Racing Team that started in 15th position went of the road at the Mulsanne straight at 3am in the morning. The car caught fire and the unlucky driver Jo Gartner paid the highest price and lost his life. During later research on the wrecked Porsche 962C, one learned that a mechanical failure was the cause of the fatal accident. The sole remaining Porsche 962C of the Porsche Kremer Racing Team left the race.
Pictures courtesy Porsche AG and unknown