Release n°6 - Saturday 18h00 - 20h00

Toyota - Porsche, Porsche - Courage,
Chrysler - Porsche : sunset duels...

The no.27 Toyota still figured in the‚ overall classification but appeared to have lost all chance of a win, and no.28 was 8 laps behind the leaders as the fourth hour ended. Even though André de Cortanze's team had lost two-thirds of its strike force no.29 was well in the lead. While one of their rivals had been eliminated early on the threat came from the nos 25 and 26 Porsche 911 GT1 s and the Nissans nos 30 and 31 which were well-placed in 4th and 5th places. The quickest of the protos, the LMP 1 Porsche no. 8, was in 6th position just ahead of the no.13 Nissan-engined Courage in the hands of Cottaz, Goosens and Belloc.
The Oreca-entered Chrysler Vipers dominated in the GT2 Category but there was still a threat from the Roock Racing Porsche 911 no.64 in the hands of Hurtgen-Ligonnet-Nearn and the Chéreau-Larbre GT2 driven by Jarier-Rosenblad-Donovan.
In the Panoz camp no.44, which had already been held up by several stops, was reported going slowly at 18h35. However, no.45 the Brabham-Wallace-Davies car was running like clockwork, its Rousch prepared V8 Ford echoing among the trees. Around 18h5O it got into the top ten before being edged out by the quickest Ferrari no.3 in the hands of Moretti-Theys-Baldi.

Battles in all categories

The battle for the lead between the Toyota and the two 911 GT1 Porsche was still in full swing and the gaps varied between 10 seconds and a minute !.
Behind the leading trio there was an intense struggle between the no.30 Nissan (no.31 had dropped back down to fifteenth place) and the LMP 1s, in particular the no. 8 Porsche and the Courage Nissan no. 13 which went into the lead in this category just before 19h00 but it was soon repassed in the pits by its German rival. Wayne Gardner went off at Indianapolis in his Riley & Scott and Philippe Gache had to hit the loud pedal to make up lost ground.
At 19h45, the Roock Racing Porsche managed to split the two leading Chrysler Vipers. The no.40 McLaren, which had been moving up the leadership board, was reported crawling along out on the circuit. Eric Hélary, down in 28th place was quicker than the leaders. After 6 hours the battle was raging in all categories.

At 18h15, The no.70 Porsche driven by Nick Ham left the track and after several somersaults went over the fencing.
A few spectators were slightly injured after being hit by stones as well as parts of the car's spoilers. They were treated on the spot by the medical intervention teams.
The driver was also slightly hurt and treated in the Circuit Medical Headquarters.