24h Le Mans
The Group C era was, of course, renowned for the clashes between Porsche, Lancia, Jaguar, Sauber-Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota and Mazda in the battle for overall victory. Then, in the late 1980s, the C2 prototype category was introduced. It could be described as the predecessor to today’s LM P2 class and included names such as Tiga, a constructor and team founded by two former racing drivers.
Tiga is an acronym formed from the names of its two founders, Australian Tim Schenken and New Zealander Howden Ganley. They were born in 1943 and 1941 respectively and both competed in Formula One and at Le Mans in the 1970s.
Schenken was a Ferrari prototype works driver in La Sarthe in 1973. However, in four Le Mans races, he only reached the chequered flag once, finishing sixteenth in 1976. The previous year, he had teamed up with Ganley but their Porsche Carrera RSR had to pull out with gearbox issues in the 21st hour. Ganley also competed in the world’s greatest endurance race four times, coming second in 1972 when he was paired with François Cevert at the wheel of a Matra MS 670.
In 1984, the Tiga chassis made its Le Mans debut in the C2 class. The next year, Gordon Spice, Ray Bellm and Mark Galvin (Tiga GC85) took the class win at the 24 Hours, finishing fourteenth overall.
Tiga recorded its best ever overall result in 1987, featuring twice in the top 10 with ninth place for Costas Los/Dudley Wood/Tom Hessert and tenth for John Sheldon/Ian Harrower/Thorkild Thyrring (third and fourth in the C2 class).
That same year, Slim Borgudd, Swedish racing driver and former ABBA drummer, also entered a Tiga but failed to get beyond qualifying.
Photo: In 1985, the GC285 raced by Will Hoy, Nick Nicholson and Paul Smith was the first Tiga to be classified at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (P21).
