86 Stats in 86 Days Until 86th 24 Hours of Le Mans – Day 8, Most Races by a United States-Born Driver (March 29, 2018)

The 86th annual 24 Hours of Le Mans is 79 days away! This is the eighth day of the 86 Stats in 86 Days Until the 86th 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Each day from now until the Friday before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, we’ll post a list of stats related to the race. Some are well-known statistics, while others are a little more in-depth.

Here is a look at the drivers born in the United States that have raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans the most times overall. Each of the 10 drivers listed have raced in the event at least 10 times, with at least one caveat. Masten Gregory holds the record at 16, between 1955 and 1972.

24 Hours of Le Mans, Most Races by a United States-Born Driver (Top 10)

- Masten Gregory: 16 (First Race: 1955/Last Race: 1972)

- Johnny O’Connell: 15 (First Race: 1994/Last Race: 2016)

- Phil Hill: 14 (First Race: 1953/Last Race: 1967)

- Hurley Haywood: 14 (First Race: 1977/Last Race: 1994)

- Patrick Long: 14 (First Race: 2004/Last Race:  2017)

- Tracy Krohn: 12 (First Race: 2006/Last Race: 2017)

- Briggs Cunningham: 10 (First: 1950/Last: 1963)

- Dan Gurney: 10 (First: 1958/Last: 1967)

- Sam Posey: 10 (First: 1966/Last: 1978)

- Ed Hugus: 10* (First: 1956/Last: 1965*)

Notes of Interest

- Masten Gregory, at the age of 23, competed for the first time in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the fate-filled 1955 race, and co-drove with French driver Mike Sparken in a Ferrari 750 Monza. The duo completed only 23 laps before retirement. Gregory skipped the 1957 race, then contested the next 10 races the Circuit de la Sarthe, with a class win in 1961 with Bob Holbert in the S 2.0 class and overall in the 1965 race with Jochen Rindt in a Ferrari 250.

- And that 1965 win for Gregory is where the caveat lies. Ed Hugus, one of the team’s reserve drivers, said he drove in the race, taking over for Gregory for a nighttime shift, but is not acknowledged officially as a race winner. In any event, if it wasn’t true, Hugus still drove in at least nine 24 Hours of Le Mans races, which would tie him for 10th with Bob Grossman, John Morton, Seth Neiman and Tommy Milner Jr. Milner has competed in each of the last seven races at Le Mans and expects to return this year.

- Patrick Long holds the record for most consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans by an American, with all 14 of his races coming in succession. He has not missed a race since 2003, and has two class victories (2004, GT; 2007 GT2) and five class podiums in the race.

- Johnny O’Connell has been entered in at least 16 events. He pre-qualified for the 1997 race but did not take part in the event. Otherwise, he competed in the race 15 times, including 13 consecutive races between 1998 and 2010. O’Connell owns four class victories at Le Mans.

- Cunningham not only competed in 10 races, but also constructed cars that went on to win the race in class, notably the S 8.0 class in 1952 (he won with co-driver Bill Spear), 1953 (with Americans Phil Walters and John Fitch) and 1954 (Spear and fellow American, Sherwood Johnston).

- Phil Hill, Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert all recorded three overall victories at Le Mans, the most by an American all-time. Hill and Haywood each competed in 14 races all-time, while Holbert competed in half as many – seven.

- Like A.J. Foyt, the legendary 1967 race was also Dan Gurney’s final race at Circuit de la Sarthe, however, Gurney made nine more appearances than Foyt, who only raced in the French classic once.

- Of the top 10 drivers with most starts, at least seven of them have won the race either overall or in their class: Gregory, O’Connell, Hill, Haywood, Long, Cunningham and Gurney. Posey never won but earned overall and class podiums on a number of occasions, while Krohn has three career class podiums in the race. All 12 of Krohn’s races have been alongside Swedish co-driver Nic Jonsson, giving them the race record for most races as co-drivers.