The world-renowned “24 Heures du Mans” is a long-distance race for sports cars held annually ever since 1923 by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) near the French town of Le Mans. The “Circuit de la Sarthe” track, named after the river Sarthe, is composed partly of public roads and currently measures slightly less than 14 kilometres in length. Spending almost 75% at full throttle and achieving maximum speeds in excess of 340 km/h, the fastest vehicles cover more than 5000 km during the 24 Hours. To this day, these key data represent precisely what the Le Mans 24 Hours was originally planned as: a long-distance race during which automotive manufacturers can put the reliability and development status of their vehicles to the test and prove their capabilities.

No wonder that Porsche has written its name into the annals of this race as a record participant and a record winner: Since 1951, there has always been at least one Porsche on the starting grid of the Le Mans 24 Hours. This means that a total of more than 600 Porsche vehicles have taken part in this race. To date, with prototypes and GT vehicles, 16 overall victories and 96 class wins have been achieved. The first victory was back in 1951 with a 356 aluminium-bodied coupe, and the most recent was in 2008 with a RS Spyder driven by the Dutch private team Van Merksteijn Motorsport and the drivers Peter von Merksteijn, Jos Verstappen and Jeroen Bleekemolen.

In accordance with the latest ACO technical regulations, two prototypes classes (“LMP1” and “LMP2”) and two GT classes (“GT1” and “GT2”) are hoping to drive their way to victory. LMP1 and GT1 are intended primarily for works teams, while LMP2 and GT2 are aimed at private teams. Since Porsche places such great emphasis on customer motor racing, the RS Spyder is an LMP2 sports car, while the 911 GT3 RSR is classed as a GT2 vehicle.

In 2008, for the first time ever, two private teams started the Le Mans 24 Hours with the RS Spyder, immediately chalked up a double victory in the LMP2 class. Peter van Merksteijn, Jos Verstappen and Jeroen Bleekemolen from the Van Merksteijn Motorsport team were the first to cross the line, followed by John Nielsen, Casper Elgaard and Porsche works driver Sascha Maassen from Team Essex.