One of South Australia’s richest businessmen has won his class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on debut.
Yasser Shahin claimed LMGT3 honours alongside factory Porsche driver Richard Lietz and 19-year-old Morris Schuring of the Netherlands.
It was a historic triumph for Shahin and Porsche, who won the first year of the new LMGT3 regulations.
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The 92nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans was littered with incidents and punctuated by a lengthy safety car period during the night due to rain and track repairs.
Through all the chaos came the No.91 Manthey EMA-run Porsche 911 GT3 R, which took the lead of the race late before blitzing the field to win by a lap.
“Emotional. Over the moon. It’s incredible,” said Shahin on Stan Sport’s coverage.
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“What a feeling to do this on your first time. You gave us everything – rain, sun, night, all good.”
Shahin is the chairman of the Peregrine Corporation, which this year sold the OTR service station business to Viva Energy that owns the Shell-branded fuel stations across Australia.
Peregrine Corporation founding family members Khalil, Sam and Yasser Shahin are reportedly worth a combined $1.84 billion.
It was also a debut win for Shahin’s Dutch teammate Schuring.
“It was a dream come true for me! I’m only 19, so I didn’t even dare to think about winning a class at my first Le Mans start,” he said.
“I think we drove an almost flawless race with my teammates and the Manthey squad.
“No mistakes, no penalties and almost always the right tyre choice – that feels like the textbook example of a successful 24-hour race. We can be proud of that.”
More than 300,000 spectators braved the conditions to witness Ferrari take back-to-back wins.
Outright honours were slogged out between the Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche, and Cadillac.
In a race of attrition, the top five all remained a realistic shot of victory going into the final hour.
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The No.8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi, and Ryo Hirakawa was dealt a massive blow when it suffered a slow pit stop after the tyre changer struggled to get his wheel gun working.
That dropped Hartley back into the clutches of the No.51 Ferrari, who made contact with the No.8 at the end of the Mulsanne straight as it tried to get past. That sent the Toyota into a spin and all but dashed their hopes. For the incident, the No.51 Ferrari was given a five-second penalty.
That left the No.50 Ferrari and the No.7 Toyota to duel for the win. With two hours to go, the Ferrari was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop after one of its doors came ajar. There were tense moments when it appeared the Ferrari had been released from its pit bay unsafely. However, the stewards deemed there was no foul play.
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Toyota didn’t help its chances when the No.7 spun on its own at turn one and gifted the race-leading Ferrari an even bigger advantage.
The No.50 Ferrari was the first to make its final pit stop. There were concerns the car might not have enough fuel to make it to the finish. However, they were able to conserve fuel to the chequered flag and win.
There were emotional scenes as Nicklas Nielsen crossed the finish line. Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina cried and embraced each other as the reality of their win sunk in.
Toyota’s Jose Maria Lopez finished 14 seconds in arrears with Kamui Kobayashi and Nick De Vries. The sister No.51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi finished third.
Australia’s sole Hypercat entrant Matt Campbell finished sixth for Porsche alongside Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki.
LMP2 racer James Allen failed to finish after his Duqueine Team car went up in flames in the middle of the night.