company developed five special F1 LMs for customers to mark the five finishers. The winning car, which was driven by Yannick Dalmas, Masanori Sekiya, and JJ Lehto, was retained by McLaren and never raced again. Returning in 1996, competition from the Le Mans Prototypes was stiffer as Porsche had a factory team in the class. GT1 class itself was also more competitive, again with Porsche having a factory team with their new 911 GT1s. McLaren had seven entries again, but were unable to repeat on their success, although they were only beaten by the two new 911 GT1s and the overall winning Porsche LMP. Six of the seven McLarens finished, taking the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, and 11th places. With the upgraded 1997-spec cars, McLaren returned with six entries the following year. Now facing not only Porsche, but also Lister, Panoz, and Nissan, the McLarens again performed well. Only two entries managed to finish, taking 2nd and 3rd overall (1st and 2nd in the GT class) behind the repeat winner, the Porsche LMP. In 1998, only two McLaren F1 GTRs were entered, both by privateer teams, with only one car managing a fourth place. The following year, the GT1 class was abandoned and the McLarens no longer eligible. However, in an ACO sanctioned event in Japan in 1999, a McLaren F1 GTR was entered by Hitotsuyama Racing in the new LMGTP class for closed-cockpit prototypes. Had the McLaren won its class, it would have earned an automatic entry to Le Mans as a prototype in 2000, however the car failed to finish and the eventual class winner, a Toyota GT-One, declined the automatic invitation as Toyota decided to end the GT-One program in favour of Formula One. Other competitions At the close of the 1996 seasons, Bigazzi Team SRL, Giroix Racing Team, and David Price Racing took their F1 GTRs to Brazil to compete in races at Curitiba and Brasília. Bigazzi took both victories just ahead of the other two McLarens. Bigazzi would return to Brazil again in 1997 to take victory at the Mil Milhas. Team Davidoff raced in a number of events outside of the mainstream in 1997, appearing at the 6 Hours of Vallelunga with drivers Thomas Bscher and John Nielsen (racing driver) taking a 21 lap victory over the nearest competitor. Later, the car appeared at the Le Mans Autumn Cup, finishing second in combined