The Automobile Club de l'Ouest had revised its regulations to close the performance gap between GT and Sports Prototype categories. The LM-GT1 class was renamed LM-GTP; homologation approval was no longer required, nor was the three-year notice period for major technical modifications. Both GTPs and Prototypes shared a maximum width of 200 cm, with the flat-bottom floor required to cover the full width. Maximum engine size was 4.0 litres if turbocharged; for naturally aspirated engines, 6.0 litres applied to Prototypes and 8.0 litres to GTS cars. Traction control, ABS brakes, automatic gearboxes and electronically or hydraulically controlled differentials were all banned. Fuel tanks were standardised at 90 litres, previously 80 and 100 litres respectively. Prototype tyre widths were 16 inches against the GTP's 14 inches. The prototype class was split into two divisions on minimum weights of 900 kg and 650 kg.
The LM-GT2 class was renamed LM-GTS, with metal chassis construction required and air-restrictor and turbo-boost limits loosened. A new LM-GT class was introduced beneath LM-GTS to attract privateers running near-production cars. The minimum weight for LM-GTS and LM-GT was set at 1100 kg.
Designer Tony Southgate described the effect: "Now that the sportscars have the same fuel tank, they've come much, much closer to GTs. They also have rear diffusers, which gives them about 10% more downforce. Some cars now have F3000 type roll-hoops, which gives them a little less drag than before. Generally, the GTs have a little less drag, so they should be quicker on the straight. They are slightly more efficient, although it's not night and day. However, they use 14% smaller tyres, so theoretically they should be slower round corners. GTs also have bigger engine restrictors, so they have more power."
The notable absentee was the Porsche works team, having achieved its aim with victory in 1998. Its place was taken by Audi, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. This created a contest between three German companies — Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi — and two major Japanese teams, Toyota and Nissan, alongside entries from Panoz and Courage.
BMW had won Le Mans as an engine manufacturer with McLaren in 1995. The V12 LMR was a thorough overhaul: Graham Humphrys was hired as chief designer and the new car was again built by Williams Grand Prix Engineering. Only 68 of approximately 3,500 components were carried over. The carbonfibre/honeycomb monocoque was completely new, the engine was set further back to improve weight distribution, and the upgraded 6.0-litre V12 was tuned to 570 bhp, capable of 325 kph. The cars were run by Team Schnitzer under Charly Lamm in conjunction with BMW Motorsport directors Mario Theissen and former F1 winner Gerhard Berger. The lead car was driven by JJ Lehto, Jörg Müller and Tom Kristensen, who had won the Sebring 12 Hours together in March; the second carried triple Le Mans winner Dalmas, Martini and Winkelhock. Two 1998 cars were sold to privateers Thomas Bscher and Kazumichi Goh.
The Mercedes CLR was designed as a dedicated GT prototype. The new engine was a 5.7-litre 32-valve V8 producing around 600 bhp. The CLR had a shorter wheelbase than the CLK-LM with longer front and rear overhangs. Design began in September and the first chassis was ready in February; it underwent almost 30,000 miles of high-speed testing at Fontana, Magny-Cours and Hockenheim. Drivers included Bernd Schneider, Franck Lagorce, Christophe Bouchut, Pedro Lamy, Nick Heidfeld, Peter Dumbreck and Mark Webber.
Toyota Motorsport Europe returned with three revised GT-One chassis. The problematic gearboxes had been heavily revised and strengthened, ABS and traction control removed, and aerodynamic refinements allowed the cars to reach 350 kph on the Mulsanne Straight. The driver line-ups included Martin Brundle, Emmanuel Collard, Vincenzo Sospiri, Thierry Boutsen, Ralf Kelleners, Allan McNish, Ukyo Katayama, Toshio Suzuki and Keiichi Tsuchiya.
Audi entered two R8R open-top spyders and two R8C closed coupés. The R8R was built around a new 3.6-litre DOHC turbocharged engine — the first purpose-built race engine from Audi in 60 years — limited to 550 bhp. The rear suspension and gearbox were merged into a single unit enabling rapid change-out. The hull was built by Dallara Automobili. The R8C shared the basic chassis and engine but was limited to 600 bhp; road-testing only started in April and the untested gearboxes on the coupés would prove their downfall. The spyders were run by Joest Racing, drivers including Rinaldo Capello, Laurent Aïello, Emanuele Pirro, Frank Biela, Didier Theys and Michele Alboreto.
In GTS, Chrysler arrived with eight Viper GTS-Rs. The works ORECA team had four entries; lead drivers Olivier Beretta and Karl Wendlinger had won the two GTS championship races coming into Le Mans. The new LM-GT class was the sole preserve of Porsche; four 911 GT3s entered for Manthey Racing, Champion Racing and two privateers.
In pre-qualifying, Brundle set the pace at 3:31.9 — six seconds faster than Toyota's best in 1998. On the first day of race-week qualifying, Eric van der Poele's Nissan R391 had a stuck throttle approaching Tertre Rouge and was slammed into the tyre barrier; van der Poele suffered several compressed vertebrae and spent the next month in traction.
On Thursday, Mark Webber was pulling out to pass a slower car on the fast run to Indianapolis when, coming over an undulation at 320 kph (200 mph), the Mercedes CLR nose lifted and the car got airborne. It completed a full 360° loop before twisting, landing hard on its nose and then thumping the Armco barrier. Webber emerged unharmed and the undamaged monocoque was repaired overnight. Small diveplane winglets from the standard wet-weather set-up were hastily added to the nose sections of the remaining cars to increase downforce.
Brundle set pole with a lap of 3:29.9 — the first sub-3:30 lap since 1993 and the 3.5-litre formula — with Boutsen second at 3:30.8. Lehto put the BMW third at 3:31.2. The Audi spyders qualified 9th and 11th, both faster than Schneider's 1998 pole time; the coupés managed only 20th and 23rd after multiple gearbox changes. The Beretta Viper took GT class pole at 3:56.6, three seconds faster than his own 1998 time.
On race morning, during the warm-up, Webber was again at the wheel of the #4 Mercedes when on his out-lap the car lifted its nose at the bosse — the final hump before the braking area for Mulsanne corner — somersaulted and slid on its roof to the Mulsanne escape road. Webber emerged shocked and bruised. The team decided to carry on, drawing significant criticism given the parallels with the 1955 Le Mans disaster.
A crowd of 180,000 attended the 4pm start. Brundle seized the lead immediately, his first flying lap setting a new record of 3:37.3. The early running placed the two Toyotas ahead of the two Mercedes, with the BMW and others close behind. Within 20 minutes Wallace's Audi GTP pitted for a new gearbox after losing second gear on the opening lap; the stop cost 45 minutes and 13 laps.
After four hours, four cars remained on the lead lap: BMW, Toyota, Toyota, Mercedes. The first Toyota then lost 25 minutes to a power-steering fluid leak into the gearbox, resuming nine laps down and without power steering.
At 8:45 pm on lap 75, in the fifth hour, Peter Dumbreck was following Brundle on the fast straight to Indianapolis when his #5 Mercedes suffered the same aerodynamic failure as Webber had in practice, at almost the same location. The car got airborne, somersaulted three times to near treetop height and hurtled over 60 metres into the fir trees lining the track. By extraordinary fortune the car missed a marshal's post and landed on its wheels in a clearing where trees had been felled only a fortnight earlier. Dumbreck was briefly knocked unconscious but was able to exit the car unaided and wait for the emergency services. The accident was broadcast live on television. The corpus notes the parallel with Jo Bonnier's fatal crash at the same location in the 1972 race. Immediately, Mercedes called in their remaining car from second place and withdrew from the race.
The safety car was deployed. The lead became a contest between McNish in the Toyota and Kristensen in the BMW; Kristensen moved the lap record to 3:35.9 at dusk. The Toyotas were compromised by overheating fuel injectors causing stalls on pit exit. The BMWs ran longer stints thanks to superior fuel economy.
Shortly before midnight, Brundle — already 10 laps behind — ran over debris, suffered a puncture, and was spun into the Armco at the back-straight chicane. With both rear tyres destroyed and the gearbox dragging on the ground, the car had to be parked. At midnight, after eight hours, the leading BMW and Toyota had each completed 123 laps.
At 3:10 am, Boutsen — charging to recover a three-lap deficit — moved to overtake a GTS car at the Dunlop curve and braked for the chicane. The Porsche he was passing, being heavier and lacking the same stopping power, rammed the rear of the Toyota and sent it airborne into the barriers. Boutsen was trapped for half an hour and airlifted to hospital with several broken vertebrae. It took a further hour to clear the track and repair the barrier; the race ran behind the safety car and only went green again at dawn.
With the Lehto BMW holding a three-lap lead into the morning, approaching midday his right-front suspension collapsed and the stuck throttle drove the car into the barriers at the Porsche Curves. Lehto suffered a concussion and a gashed knee. This left the Dalmas BMW and the Suzuki-driven Toyota barely two minutes apart and on the same lap.
With four hours remaining the Bscher privateer BMW lost 45 minutes to a clutch replacement but emerged close behind the second Audi. In the Toyota, Katayama and Martini were lapping in the low 3:36s as the day cooled, setting up a dramatic chase. With an hour to go Katayama was closing at two to three seconds per lap. Coming up on Bscher's BMW at the first chicane, Katayama was baulked, took a kerb and suffered a puncture approaching Indianapolis at speed; he kept the car on the track but the pit stop for repairs cost four minutes and ended the chase. Dalmas eased off and took the chequered flag one lap clear, running his final circuit at a sedate 4:20.
Third and fourth were the Audi spyders. The Biela/Pirro/Theys car had been trouble-free; the second spyder survived three gearbox changes to finish 14 laps back. The coupés did not finish: the Abt car stopped at Tertre Rouge with a broken differential; McCarthy halted on the Hunaudières with a broken gearbox.
In GTS, all six top positions were taken by Chrysler Vipers. Beretta, Wendlinger and Dupuy led from start to finish in the ORECA car, winning by a seven-lap margin. The Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 won the LM-GT class by 25 laps, finishing 13th overall.
Winning distance: 4,983.0 km (3,096.3 mi) at 207.6 km/h (129.0 mph)
Pole position: M. Brundle, #1 Toyota GT-One, 3:29.9 at 233.3 km/h (145.0 mph)
Fastest lap: U. Katayama, #3 Toyota GT-One, 3:35.0 at 227.8 km/h (141.5 mph)
Attendance: 160,000
This was Dalmas's fourth Le Mans victory from eight starts, unique in that he had won with four different manufacturers. The team spent only 33 minutes in the pits over the 24 hours.
Following the race, Henri Pescarolo announced his retirement after a record 33 starts, four of them victories — including a consecutive triple with Matra Sport (1972–74) and a fourth in 1984 with Klaus Ludwig in a Joest Racing Porsche. Thierry Boutsen also retired from his hospital bed. The 1999 race marked the end of factory racing programmes for Toyota, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, who all turned their attention to Formula 1. Financial austerity at Nissan led to the closure of the NISMO prototype project. Audi and Panoz would continue as the leading factory challengers.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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