Iconic Racing brings former Jo Bonnier, David Brabham and Alain Prost cars to Le Mans Classic

Le Mans Celebrates its centenary, the ACO and Peter Auto have prepared what will surely be an unforgettable edition of Le Mans Classic. Art & Revs and its racing team Iconic Racing will be entering three prestigious cars.

In plateau 5 we will race the Lola T70 MKIIIb chassis SL76/141 that was campaigned in the 1969 WSC driven by Jo Bonner and Ulf Norinder. It did not enter Le Mans in period however, but has a Le Mans history at the end of its career. It was sold to Mc Queen’s Solar Production for the « Le Mans » movie and rebodied into a 917 to do the high speed stunts. This car was restored by Martin Birrane ( owner of Lola Cars in the 90-00s ) and has had a great career in vintage racing, it also set the pole position at Le Mans Classic in 2018 with an amazing 4,18min lap ! It will be driven by Le Mans winner Eric Hélary who celebrates the 30th Anniversary of his win with Peugeot and ex F1 team owner and prolific car collector Gerard Lopez who is keen on debuting at Le Mans. 

In the highly successful Endurance Racing Legends, the Saleen S7R chassis 029R raced in the 2004/2005 ALMS driven By David Brabham, Johnny Mowlen and Terry Borcheler will be looking to battle at the front of the pack. This fast GT1 and highly rewarding car was the only serious contender in period to the dominating factory Corvettes. Now an extremely popular and successful car in vintage racing, it scored many wins since 2019. It will be driven in anger for another top result after winning Daytona Classic in 2022 in the hands of the same duo, Eric Hélary and Gérard Lopez.

Another GT1 will car will be entered, a real curiosity : the Alain Prost Viper GTS-R chassis C51. After an immense career and four F1 titles, Alain decided to celebrate his 50th anniversary by entering the 2005 French GT championship. Exagon Engineering’s genius Luc Marchetti completely re-engineered the Viper to the maximum FIA regulation, turning it into an ultra fast car for sprint races. Alain won at Dijon with Jean Pierre Jabouille and drove the end of the season with his son Nicolas, driven faster than any other GT1 car back then. It clearly is part of the family racing legacy. The car has just been finished last week, and briefly tested to finally debut in vintage racing this week-end.

Gérard Lopez :

It has always been a dream of mine to race at le Mans with historic machines. I have done some testing in the past, but this will be a first and I can’t wait to be part of this event.

Eric Hélary :

30 years after my victory with Peugeot, I am very keen on driving again on the Le Mans track, this gonna be special.
After commenting Le Mans 24 Hours for Eurosport, I am expecting from this 24h Classic that we finally talk about me !
More seriously I am very impatient to be reunited with Gerard and the team.

Florent Moulin

To drive an Alain Prost car at the Le Mans Classic centenary race is probably more that a dream coming true.
You know in my Childhood, I used to live 100 meter from him in my hometown Saint Chamond, he is clearly my childhood hero. This Viper I bought 16 years ago but never raced yet is something special technically, historically and emotionally.

I just cannot wait for the big thrill to take its wheel on this mythical track.