No. 55 had an outrageous bright orange and green scheme in honour of a main sponsor, Renown, a Japanese clothing manufacturer that had been supporting the team since 1988 by providing all their clothing for the events. Mazda was not the favourite to win, but the three Mazdas started 19th (No. 55), 23rd (No. 18) and 30th (No. 56), despite being the 12th, 17th and 24th fastest qualifiers respectively. The new 3.5 litre cars were given the first grid positions, moving everyone else back by seven places. On the day before the race, team manager Ohashi decided to drop his usual conservative strategy and instructed the drivers of the No. 55 car to drive as if it were a short sprint race. The decision was made based on the reliability of the cars demonstrated in the Paul Ricard tests, as well as the car's exceptional fuel economy, which meant that the carefully learned driving techniques intended to preserve the fuel allowance were no longer a critical part of the team's strategy. In the early stages of the race, the No. 55 car made its way to third place with the No. 18 car behind it two laps down. The No. 18 had a lower gear ratio setup meaning the car used less fuel but was slower. The No. 55 moved into second place when the Mercedes-Benz C11 of Michael Schumacher, Fritz Kreutzpointner and Karl Wendlinger spun off and later pitted with a gearbox problem. It soon became obvious that the leading car had slowed down to preserve its fuel allowance and an air of disbelief spread around the Mazda pit as it became obvious with six hours to run that there was a chance of victory. At the 22nd hour, the No. 55 car took the lead after the C11 of Alain Ferté was forced to pit with mechanical problems. At the last pit-stop, Herbert asked to stay in the car, and went on to take the 787B across the finish line first, completing 362 laps and covering 4,932.2 km (both new records for the recently modified circuit). The two other cars finished sixth (No. 18) and eighth (No. 56). Three Jaguar XJR-12s and a sole Mercedes filled out positions two through five. Herbert was so dehydrated that he had to be assisted out of the car and taken to the circuit's medical centre. As a result, he was unable