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Season Review

Sportscar365’s Race of the Year

Sportscar365 staff selects 24 Hours of Le Mans as its Race of the Year…

Photo: Charly Lopez/DPPI

Sportscar365 is recognizing the top performers and moments from the 2024 sports car racing season. Next up is the Race of the Year, as selected by website staff.

Race of the Year – 24 Hours of Le Mans

While last year’s centenary running of the world’s biggest endurance race was a tough act to follow, the 2024 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans turned out to be a true classic that will surely be remembered for decades to come.

Before this year’s race, no more than two cars had ever finished on the lead lap at the Circuit de la Sarthe, but thanks in part to a long mid-race rain shower that led to a protracted safety car period, no fewer than nine cars did so this time around. The final winning margin of 14.221 seconds wasn’t quite a record, but it could have very easily been, such was the closeness of the competition in Hypercar.

While Balance of Performance had been a thorny topic at many of this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship races, most observers agreed that the organizers got it more or less right when it really mattered for the blue riband, as Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche and Cadillac all went into the closing stages with one or more cars in the mix.

In the end, the race came down to a straight showdown between the LMH machines of Ferrari and Toyota, and on sheer performance it could have gone either way.

But a clash between Alessandro Pier Guidi’s No. 51 Ferrari 499P and Brendon Hartley’s No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid at Mulsanne corner dealt a major blow to Toyota’s hopes of avenging its 2023 defeat, before the Japanese marque’s fate was finally sealed by Jose Maria Lopez’s spin at the Dunlop chicane.

Ferrari suffered dramas of its own as the No. 50 car of Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina had to deal with a loose door just before its penultimate pit stop, with Nielsen performing some heroic fuel-saving to seal the deal for the Prancing Horse.

A typically fierce LMP2 battle also went more or less down to the wire, as United Autosports came out on top ahead of Inter Europol Competition, while Manthey EMA beat out Team WRT for the honor of the first-ever LMGT3 class win at Le Mans.

A record 329,000-strong crowd was present to witness the action at Le Mans, and judging by the quality of this year’s race, it would be little surprise to see an even greater number of fans flocking to the Circuit de la Sarthe for the 2025 running.

Honorable Mentions

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

***A thrilling conclusion to this year’s Motul Petit Le Mans was a fitting way for Cadillac’s partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing to conclude, as Renger van der Zande passed the Penske Porsche of Nick Tandy into Turn 1 with just 15 minutes on the clock after a caution period set up a 35-minute run to the checkered flag. Van der Zande then had to deal with his Cadillac V-Series.R’s headlights shutting off once he had completed the winning move, narrowly averting a trip to the pits that would have cost he and teammates Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon a fairytale victory after recovering from an early mechanical black flag for a sensor problem.

***Outside of Le Mans, the WEC served up plenty of other memorable races, but perhaps best of all was a rain-affected 6 Hours of Imola that culminated in a thrilling battle for the win between Kamui Kobayashi’s Toyota GR010 Hybrid and Kevin Estre’s Porsche 963, with Kobayashi hanging on by just two seconds on the road, and seven seconds in the final reckoning after a late penalty for Estre. Ferrari meanwhile was left to reflect on a home race that it should have dominated, and yet threw away with a misguided call to leave all three of its 499Ps out on slicks in the worsening rain.

***The European Le Mans Series produced many entertaining races this year, but the 4 Hours of Portimao finale stands out among them as two titles, LMP2 Pro-Am and LMGT3, were decided with final-lap overtakes. A pass by Bent Viscaal on Alex Quinn paved the way for AF Corse to prevail in LMP2 Pro-Am, while LMGT3 went down to the final corner as Andrea Caldarelli got by Michelle Gatting to seal Iron Lynx the crown. AO by TF Sport meanwhile took the overall title by finishing second after a controversial ‘phantom’ penalty for closest rivals Inter Europol Competition.

***This year’s Indianapolis 8 Hour was officially settled by a mere 0.260 seconds, although that was only after a penalty for the race-leading Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R for a pit stop infraction. That set up a nail-biting finish as Dries Vanthoor in the Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 chased down Laurin Heinrich’s Porsche, doing just enough to clinch a victory to cap off teammate Charles Weerts’ title-winning Intercontinental GT Challenge season, although Porsche clung on to the manufacturers’ prize from BMW despite not having a full factory Pro car entered.

***The 3 Hours of Monza round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup also deserves a mention not only for producing an unusual result, with OQ by Oman Racing scoring a first ever outright win for a non-Pro team, but also for a thrilling three-way finish as Jens Klingmann held on in the closing stages against fellow BMW driver Dries Vanthoor and Ferrari’s Alessandro Pier Guidi.

The latest news, photos and video features from the trusted Sportscar365 web staff.

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