1986 Le Mans 24 Hours : 9 Porsches in the top 10

Le Mans 24Hours Porsche victory Poster

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. 

Derek Bell, Hans-Joahim Stuck and Al Holbert win the 1986 Le Mans 24 Hours in a Porsche 962C
Derek Bell, Hans-Joahim Stuck and Al Holbert win the 1986 Le Mans 24 Hours in a Porsche 962C

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