THE Porsche TWR team lead by American Davy Jones and co piloted by German Manuel Reuter and Austrian Alexander Wurz won the Le Mans 24 hour motor race in Le Mans yesterday, completing 354 laps (4,786 km).
It was Reuter's second victory in the event - he won in 1989 - and the 14th victory for Porsche. At 22 years of age, Wurz is the youngest driver ever to win the event.
The factory Porsche GT1 driven by Belgian ex formula one driver Thierry Boutsen, German Hans Stuck and Frenchman Bob Wolleck came second, one lap behind on the 12km Sarthe circuit.
Another factory Porsche, driven by former Le Mans three time winner Frenchman Yannick Dalmas, Austrian Karl Wendlinger and Canadian Indy car driver Scott Goodyear, took third. Twenty five cars from the original field of 48 finished the race, but there were very few serious accidents.
The fastest lap of the race was three minutes 46.958 seconds by Erik Van Der Poele in a all Belgian driven Ferrari that crashed out of the race just after dawn.
McLarens took fourth and fifth. Dane John Nielsen, German Thomas Bscher and Dutchman Peter Kox combined for fourth, with Briton Lindsay Owen Jones, Frenchman Pierre Henri Raphanel and Australian David Brabham taking fifth.
The two British drivers in the McLaren BMW GTR, Ray Bell and James Weaver, were in third position at one stage. However, they were forced to push their car to the pits, suffering gearbox problems with only a few hours to go in the event.
