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How Sauber upset the odds to win Le Mans

Sauber was the dominant manufacturer as Group C came to a close, but twice in three years its cars didn't make the start of the biggest sportscar race of them all. When its one and only Le Mans victory finally came, it was amid unlikely circumstances

James Newbold Jun 11, 2020, 3:18 PM

When the #63 Sauber Mercedes C9 of Jochen Mass, Manuel Reuter and Stanley Dickens crossed the finish line to win the 1989 Le Mans 24 Hours, it did so at a crawl. But rather than due to any mechanical maladies, such as those that forced Al Holbert's factory Porsche 956 to come to a shuddering halt yards after taking the flag in 1983 with its engine seized, there was an altogether different reason for Mass slowing almost to a stop.

Throngs of crowds had gathered on the pit straight to greet the flotilla of Silver Arrows, Mass followed by the sister #61 of Mauro Baldi, Kenny Acheson and Gianfranco Brancatelli that had finished second and fifth-placed #62 of Jean-Louis Schlesser, Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Alain Cudini.

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Author James Newbold

James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.