kp/h (185 mph) and was a genuine contender, having won two of the three rounds outright. However, many in autosport saw it as a cynical exploitation of the rules. The Martini team brought back their regular Formula One drivers for the race: Michele Alboreto and Teo Fabi with Rolf Stommelen and Riccardo Patrese and Piercarlo Ghinzani with Hans Heyer. Through the late 1970s the 2-litre class had been predominantly made up of fields of Lolas and Chevrons. After the death of Chevron's founder, Derek Bennett in 1978, the company had struggled. A consortium of enthusiasts and drivers, including Martin Birrane, were trying to restore the brand. Birrane entered a B36, equipped with a Cosworth BDX engine, as a works entry. His co-drivers were John Sheldon and Neil Crang. The six-year-old design would always struggle against the brand-new Lancias. Group 5 With Group 5 being phased out, the over and under 2-litre divisions were merged into a reduced class this year. It was dominated by four Porsche 935s. Dieter Schornstein's Vegla team again worked with Reinhold Joest to run their 935J, while Kremer-kit cars were entered by German Edgar Dören and last year's class winner, Charles Ivey Engineering. The fourth car was Claude Haldi's four-year old 934/5. Against the Porsches there was limited opposition. The only BMW this year came from Hugues de Chaunac's French ORECA team. The Scuderia Sivama di Galliate had bought a pair of Lancia Montecarlos from the factory, to by run in the WEC by the Scuderia Vesuvio team of Daniele Audetto. For Le Mans, they worked with the race-entries of two French privateer regulars, Thierry Perrier and Jean-Marie Lemerle who would share the driving with the Scuderia drivers. IMSA GTX There was a strong field in the GTX class, with Porsches, Ferraris, Mazdas and BMW all entered. This year the Joest workshop had produced two replicas of the Porsche 935/78 (colloquially known as "Moby Dick"), using plans supplied by the works factory. One of the distinctive long-tail models was sold to Gianpiero Moretti's Momo Racing, while the other went to John Fitzpatrick with its race-debut at Le Mans, with co-driver David Hobbs. Team manager Tim Schenken had a Joest 2.6-litre engine to fit for race. Two Kremer 935/K3s were entered by the American teams of Bob Garretson and Ralph Kent-Cooke. Both had 3.2-litre engines for qualifying, before being changed over to the fuel-efficient 2.8-litre version for