009, 2002 Le Mans 24 Hours |
Although bona fide 360 GT's had been racing since the beginning of 2001, it wasn't until later in the year that an ACO-approved version was homologated. Three cars were subseuently entered for 2002's Le Mans, two of which were for JMB Racing who had already contested the Sebring 12 and Daytona 24 Hour races. The third car, 009, was from Auto Palace and split the JMB cars in qualifying although with five of the seven Porsche's ahead of the quickest JMB Ferrari, victory looked out of the question. JMB's Short / Wagner / Hancock entry (008) was out after just 16 laps while 003 (Earle / MacAllister / Schultheis) ran at the back before retiring at 3am on Sunday. 009 meanwhile had run well within the class top ten during the first 12 hours but unfortunately for the all-French line-up of Gomez, Fukuda and Cazenave, electrical maladies forced them out at 6am. All in all it was a rather disappointing year, but regardless, a pleasure to see the prancing horse back at Le Mans. |
