Larrousse Named Grand Marshal for Six Hours of COTA

One of France’s most celebrated racing names, Gerard Larrousse, has been named as Grand Marshal for the 6 Hours of Circuit of The Americas in Austin on Sept. 20.

The fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship will be the grand finale to the Lone Star Le Mans weekend, with racing going into the night alongside a host of other off-track entertainments.

The former rally, sports car and Formula One driver, who hails from Lyon, enjoyed huge success in the 1960s in rallying, but it was in international sports car racing that he really made his mark.

With Vic Elford, Larrousse won the 1971 12 Hours of Sebring in a Porsche 917, before going on to become a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1973/4) alongside Henri Pescarolo for Matra-Simca.

Following victories on both sides of the Atlantic, and a brief affair with Formula One, Larrousse hung up his helmet and moved into racing management. This culminated in not only running the factory Renault F1 team in 1984/5, but also owning his own Grand Prix team.

As Grand Marshal, he will wave off the start of the 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas which signals the beginning of the second half of the FIA WEC season.

The race will not only feature high technology hybrid action from the Audi, Porsche and Toyota LMP1 teams, and some of the world’s most beautiful and high performing GTE cars from Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche, but will also include three teams from the USA.