<< Prev Page 2 of 3 Next >> Even before the first car was constructed two additional orders were placed. The five customer cars and a development prototype were built on tubs that had originally been destined for road car use. The Bellm and Owen-Jones GTRs were run by GTC Motorsport with backing from Gulf Oil in the UK. Veteran team manager David Price was responsible for the Bscher car, which was raced in West colours and the Harrods backed example provided by Moody Fayed. The fifth car was sold to a French privateer and was entered by BBA Competition. A sixth car was also on the books and headed to Swiss Enthusiast Jean-Denis Deletraz. Only the three cars for the original backers were ready for the BPR season opener at Jerez. The other three were delivered in the following weeks.
Easily the quickest car out there, the brand new F1 GTRs set the three fastest times during qualifying at Jerez. The race was not without problems and only the Bellm and Maurizio Sandro Sala example managed to make it to the finish. They did give the McLaren a victory at its debut against the latest Porsche 911 GT2s and the ferocious Ferrari F40 LMs. The F1 GTR would go on to dominate the BPR series, winning 10 of the 12 rounds. The teams decided to skip the Nogaro race altogether due to its proximity to the 24 Hours of Le Mans but on Anderstorp the car was actually beaten on merit by one of the Ferraris. With five victories Bellm and Sandro Sala dominated the season but consistency and two victories gave the title to Bscher and his co-driver John Nielsen.
Le Mans was a completely different story with purpose built prototype racing cars joining the fray. Over a single lap these were quite a bit quicker but that was somewhat compensated by the better fuel economy and the larger fuel tank of the GT1 cars. In addition to the six familiar F1 GTRs, a seventh example was entered under the Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing banner and run by Paul Lanzante. The chassis used was the original prototype, which was still owned by McLaren. This did not sit very well with the other teams as they were all promised equal support from the factory and now feared that the additional entry would be favoured. Signed to drive the seventh McLaren were Yannick Dalmas, Masanori Sekiya and J.J. Lehto.
As expected the prototypes dominated qualifying with the fastest McLaren starting 9th on the grid. The race was run under torrential conditions, which all but neutralised the advantage the prototypes had over the GT1 cars. Of the seven McLarens entered, five held the top position at one point during the race. What finally made the difference was not so much the possible factory support but the brilliant drive of Lehto during the night. There were laps where he was 20 seconds faster than anybody else in the field. At the end of the 24-hour race, the Ueno Clinic liveried machine was one lap ahead of the second placed Courage prototype. The only other time a manufacturer had won at Le Mans at their first attempt was obviously during the first race and in 1948 when a Ferrari 166 MM took the much coveted victory. Four other McLarens had survived and they were placed 3rd, 4th, 5th and 13th. << Prev Page 2 of 3 Next >>
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Even before the first car was constructed two additional orders were placed. The five customer cars and a development prototype were built on tubs that had originally been destined for road car use. The Bellm and Owen-Jones GTRs were run by GTC Motorsport with backing from Gulf Oil in the UK. Veteran team manager David Price was responsible for the Bscher car, which was raced in West colours and the Harrods backed example provided by Moody Fayed. The fifth car was sold to a French privateer and was entered by BBA Competition. A sixth car was also on the books and headed to Swiss Enthusiast Jean-Denis Deletraz. Only the three cars for the original backers were ready for the BPR season opener at Jerez. The other three were delivered in the following weeks.