2004 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 72nd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 12 and 13 June 2004.

Race

With the end of the Bentley project, there were no official factory teams from major manufacturers in LMP at this year's race, theoretically leaving it open to anyone. However, the Audi R8s proved their abilities, even in privateer hands, by taking a 1-2-3 victory over the competition.

Once again, Tom Kristensen was in the winning car, an Audi entered by the Japanese Team Goh, setting a record fifth straight victory and tying Jacky Ickx with 6 overall wins.

The GTS-class Corvettes avenged their loss to Ferrari the previous year by winning the class following mechanical difficulties for the Ferraris late in the race. GT-class also went to an American squad, White Lightning Racing, which featured three Porsche factory drivers. LMP2 was again a test of survival as only two cars finishing, with Intersport Racing completing the American trifecta. Dodge ended its participation this year.

Official results

The race-winning Audi R8, entered by Team Goh.

Class winners marked in bold. Cars not completing 70% of the winner's distance are listed as Not Classified (NC).

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Laps
					Engine
1	LMP1	5	Audi Sport Japan Team Goh	Seiji Ara Rinaldo Capello Tom Kristensen	Audi R8	M	379
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
2	LMP1	88	Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx	Jamie Davies Johnny Herbert Guy Smith	Audi R8	M	379
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
3	LMP1	2	ADT Champion Racing	JJ Lehto Marco Werner Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8	M	368
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
4	LMP1	18	Pescarolo Sport	Soheil Ayari Érik Comas Benoît Tréluyer	Pescarolo C60	M	361
					Judd GV5 5.0L V10
5	LMP1	8	Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx	Allan McNish Frank Biela Pierre Kaffer	Audi R8	M	350
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
6	GTS	64	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin Olivier Beretta Jan Magnussen	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	M	345
					Chevrolet 7.0L V8
7	LMP1	15	Racing for Holland	Jan Lammers Chris Dyson Katsutomo Kaneishi	Dome S101	D	341
					Judd GV4 4.0L V10
8	GTS	63	Corvette Racing	Ron Fellows Max Papis Johnny O'Connell	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	M	334
					Chevrolet 7.0L V8
9	GTS	65	Prodrive Racing	Darren Turner Colin McRae Rickard Rydell	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	M	329
					Ferrari F133 5.9L V12
10	GT	90	White Lightning Racing	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Long Sascha Maassen	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	M	327
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
11	GTS	66	Prodrive Racing	Alain Menu Peter Kox Tomáš Enge	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	M	325
					Ferrari F133 5.9L V12
12	GT	77	ChoroQ Racing Team	Haruki Kurosawa Kazuyuki Nishizawa Manabu Orido	Porsche 911 GT3-RSR	Y	322
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
13	GT	85	Freisinger Motorsport	Stéphane Ortelli Ralf Kelleners Romain Dumas	Porsche 911 GT3-RSR	D	321
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
14	GTS	69	Larbre Compétition	Christophe Bouchut Patrice Goueslard Olivier Dupard	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	M	317
					Ferrari F133 5.9L V12
15	GT	84	Seikel Motorsport	Anthony Burgess Philip Collin Andrew Bagnall	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Y	317
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
16	GT	72	Luc Alphand Aventures	Luc Alphand Christian Lavieille Philippe Alméras	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	M	316
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
17	LMP1	14	Team Nasamax McNeil Engineering	Robbie Stirling Werner Lupberger Kevin McGarrity	Nasamax (Reynard) DM139	D	316
					Judd GV5 5.0L V10 (Bioethanol)
18	GT	81	The Racer's Group	Lars-Erik Nielsen Ian Donaldson Gregor Fisken	Porsche 911 GT3-RSR	M	314
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
19	GT	92	Cirtek Motorsport	Frank Mountain Hans Hugenholtz Rob Wilson	Ferrari 360 Modena GTC	D	311
					Ferrari F131 3.6L V8
20	LMP1	4	Taurus Sports Racing	Christian Vann Benjamin Leuenberger Didier André	Lola B2K/10	M	300
					Judd GV4 4.0L V10
21	GT	89	Chamberlain-Synergy Motorsport	Bob Berridge Michael Caine Chris Stockton	TVR Tuscan T400R	D	300
					TVR Speed Six 4.0L I6
22	GT	96	Chamberlain-Synergy Motorsport	Lawrence Tomlinson Nigel Greensall Gareth Evans	TVR Tuscan T400R	D	291
					TVR Speed Six 4.0L I6
23	GT	75	Thierry Perrier Perspective Racing	Ian Khan Nigel Smith Tim Sugden	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	D	283
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
24	LMP1	20	Lister Racing	John Nielsen Casper Elgaard Jens Møller	Lister Storm LMP	D	279
					Chevrolet LS1 6.0L V8
25	LMP2	32	Intersport Racing	William Binnie Clint Field Rick Sutherland	Lola B2K/40	P	278
					Judd KV675 3.4L V8
26	LMP2	24	Rachel Welter	Yojiro Terada Patrice Roussel Olivier Porta	WR LM2001	M	270
					Peugeot 2.0L Turbo I4
27 NC	GT	80	Morgan Works Race Team	Adam Sharpe Neil Cunningham Steve Hyde	Morgan Aero 8R	Y	222
					BMW B44 (Mader) 4.5L V8
28 DNF	LMP1	16	Racing for Holland	Tom Coronel Justin Wilson Ralph Firman	Dome S101	D	313
					Judd GV4 4.0L V10
29 DNF	LMP1	17	Pescarolo Sport	Sébastien Bourdais Nicolas Minassian Emmanuel Collard	Pescarolo C60	M	282
					Judd GV5 5.0L V10
30 DNF	LMP1	25	Ray Mallock Ltd. (RML)	Thomas Erdos Mike Newton Nathan Kinch	MG-Lola EX257	D	256
					MG (AER) XP20 2.0L Turbo I4
31 DNF	LMP1	6	Rollcentre Racing	Martin Short Rob Barff João Barbosa	Dallara SP1	D	230
					Judd GV4 4.0L V10
32 DNF	GT	87	Orbit Racing BAM!	Leo Hindery, Jr. Marc Lieb Mike Rockenfeller	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	M	223
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
33 DNF	LMP1	9	Kondo Racing	Hiroki Kato Ryo Fukuda Ryo Michigami	Dome S101	Y	206
					Mugen MF408S 4.0L V8
34 DNF	GTS	62	Barron Connor Racing	Mike Hezemans Ange Barde Jean-Denis Délétraz	Ferrari 575-GTC	P	200
					Ferrari F133 6.0L V12
35 DNF	LMP1	22	Zytek Engineering, Ltd.	Andy Wallace David Brabham Hayanari Shimoda	Zytek 04S	M	167
					Zytek ZG348 3.4L V8
36 DNF	GTS	61	Barron Connor Racing	John Bosch Danny Sullivan Thomas Biagi	Ferrari 575-GTC	P	163
					Ferrari F133 6.0L V12
37 DNF	GT	83	Seikel Motorsport	Gabrio Rosa Peter van Merksteijn Alex Caffi	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Y	148
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
38 DNF	LMP2	36	Gerard Welter	Tristan Gommendy Jean-Bernard Bouvet Bastien Brière	WR LM2004	M	137
					Peugeot ES9J4S 3.4L V6
39 DNF	GT	70	JMB Racing	Jean-René de Fournoux Jaime Melo Stéphane Daoudi	Ferrari 360 Modena GTC	M	133
					Ferrari F131 3.6L V8
40 DNF	LMP2	31	Courage Compétition	Alexander Frei Sam Hancock Jean-Marc Gounon	Courage C65	M	127
					JPX 3.4L V6
41 DNF	LMP2	35	Epsilon Sport	Renaud Derlot Gunnar Jeannette Gavin Pickering	Courage C65	M	124
					Willman (JPX) 3.4L V6
42 DNF	LMP1	29	Noël del Bello Racing	Bruno Besson Sylvain Boulay Jean-Luc Maury-Laribière	Reynard 2KQ	M	122
					Volkswagen HPT16 2.0L Turbo I4
43 DNF	LMP2	37	Paul Belmondo Racing	Paul Belmondo Claude-Yves Gosselin Marco Saviozzi	Courage C65	M	80
					JPX 3.4L V6
44 DNF	GT	86	Freisinger Motorsport	Alexey Vasilyev Nikolai Fomenko Robert Nearn	Porsche 911 GT3-RSR	D	65
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
45 DNF	LMP1	11	Panoz Motor Sports Larbre Compétition	Patrick Bourdais Jean-Luc Blanchemain Roland Bervillé	Panoz GTP	M	54
					Élan 6L8 6.0L V8
46 DNF	LMP1	10	Taurus Sports Racing	Phil Andrews Calum Lockie Anthony Kumpen	Lola B2K/10	D	35
					Caterpillar 5.0L Turbo V10 (Diesel)
47 DNF	LMP1	27	Intersport Racing	Jon Field Duncan Dayton Larry Connor	Lola B01/60	G	29
					Judd XV675 3.4L V8
48 DNF	GT	78	PK Sport Ltd.	Jim Matthews David Warnock Paul Daniels	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	D	27
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6

Statistics

• Pole Position - #88 Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx - 3:32.838
• Fastest Lap - #88 Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx - 3:34.264
• Distance - 5169.9 km
• Average Speed - 215.415 km/h
• Highest Trap Speed — Nasamax DM139 - 330 km/h (race), Dome Judd S101 - 335 km/h (qualifying)