3rd (172 laps) and the Lins/Marko 908 in 4th (171 laps) had a handy 5-lap lead in the Group 6 category over Stommelen's Alfa Romeo in 5th. Morning At dawn the weather turned from heavy rain to a storm. At 6am, after 16 hours, Porsches still held the top four places: Herrmann/Attwood leading with the Elford/Ahrens ‘longtail’ back up to second, the Lins/Marko 908 in third (and first prototype) and the Larrousse/Kauhsen Martini-‘longtail’ in fourth. Fifth was the Stommelen/Galli Alfa Romeo, ahead of the Ferraris of NART (Posey/Bucknum) and Ecurie Francorchamps (Fierlandt/Walker) and the NART 312P (the Alfa's rival in the Prototype category). The French Porsche 914 was leading the GT category, in 10th, in a terrific tussle with Greder's Corvette and the Ecurie Luxembourg 911. Half the field were now retirements. At 8am the Stommelen/Galli Alfa, just overtaken by the NART Ferrari, was unable to get away from its pitstop without a push-start, for which it was subsequently disqualified within the hour. Then at 8.30am, after 18 hours, Elford's 917 was stopped by engine problems. The rain finally eased off and the track was virtually dry by 9.30am. That allowed Larrousse/Kauhsen to pick up their pace and they moved up to second place by midday and set about trying to catch the leaders. The field was widely spread: Herrmann/Attwood had a 5-lap lead (282 laps) over the two Martini Porsches, a comfortable 15 laps ahead of the Posey/Bucknum Ferrari and a further 12-laps to the Belgian Ferrari (250) with the NART 312P of Adamowicz/Parsons in 6th (237 laps). Finish and post-race Going into the last hours, most of the leading positions remained unchanged. The two remaining Chevrons had been running at the back of the field for much of the latter half of the race after both needing engine rebuilds. After the BMW engine failed one, the faster Cosworth-engined car carried on as the only survivor in the 2-litre Prototype class. However it was stopped with only 90 minutes to run. The Healey prototype, which had been battling gearbox issues for most of the race, requiring a rebuild. With less than a quarter-hour, and two laps, to go and still in 14th, Roger Enever headed out on a final lap, but for the sake of a 10-cent part, the engine stopped on the Mulsanne Straight and the car would not restart. Outlasting the Matras and Alfas, the NART 312P