1992 LE MANS 24 HOURS
PEUGEOT 905 EVO 1 BIS LM STARTED 2ND | RESULT 1ST
After twice narrowly missing out on the world sportscar title with Jaguar, Warwick got the job done with Peugeot in 1992, and the Le Mans 24 Hours was the undoubted highlight. Having suffered a disaster in the race the year before,
Jean Todt’s Peugeot squad left little to chance, completing extensive testing and arriving with three spare cars as well as the trio of race 905Bs.
Warwick had regular co-driver Yannick Dalmas and 1990 polesitter Mark Blundell in the #1 car and enjoyed the build-up. “It was my choice to get Mark in, as you can imagine we had a lot of fun heading into Le Mans,” he says. “I was doing one of many stints at a Paul Ricard test and we’d put in a chicane before Signes – we wanted to simulate the two chicanes that were at Le Mans. It was late into the night and I turned into the first part of the chicane to find Yannick and Mark both pulling moonies! I chuckled to myself for the rest of the lap.”
Come the 24 Hours, the main opposition came from Toyota and the sister 905 of Philippe Alliot/ Mauro Baldi/jean-pierre Jabouille. “Alliot and co wanted pole, but we didn’t care about that, we wanted a good race set-up in all conditions,” continues Warwick. “The car’s weakness was the gearbox, which was fragile and all I kept saying in ‘our’ car’s briefings was, ‘Gearbox, gearbox, gearbox’. During driver changes, we shouted, ‘Gearbox, gearbox’.”
Volker Weidler grabbed an early lead in the quickest of the Mazdas, but the two leading Peugeots were never far behind. Warwick took over during a quick pitstop in the third hour and emerged in the lead, while one of the Toyotas and the third Peugeot had already been involved in an incident that dropped them from contention.
The Michelins on the Peugeots and Mazdas also had an edge over Toyota’s Goodyears in the damp conditions and Warwick led throughout a triple stint. During the night, the #2 Peugeot moved into second, and there was some concern for Blundell in the misty, spray-filled conditions.
“The weather was dreadful during the night,” confirms Warwick. “Mark had done very little night racing and I’m not sure he’d driven the car in the wet and he was a little bit off the pace, so I got back in the car. But Mark gave us everything and definitely did his bit.”
At dawn they led the sister car by two laps, avoiding errors as many others – including Alliot – fell off the slippery circuit. Aside from an electrical problem, the trio continued serenely on. And Warwick was given the honour of the final stint, despite this being a French team with a French driver in the line-up.
“Jean put me in the car so I could finish the race,” says Warwick, who took the flag six laps clear of the second-place Toyota. “He knew there was something I wanted to pin Paul’s memory to.
“It was one of the hardest races I’ve had. We raced hard against Toyota and the other Peugeot for 22 and a half hours, then they had problems and we could ease off. And then you start hearing noises because the pressure is off.”