4/8/1936 - 29/11/1999
Record updated 19-May-14
Ballot-Léna started competing in Rallies. He was already 29 years old when he first raced at Le Mans driving a Mni Marcos in 1966. The Mini Marcos was built using a rally-spec Cooper 'S' engine from the BMC Competitions Department. Driving with Jean-Louis Marnat they were the last classified finisher in 15th and last at an average speed of 144.351 km/h. The Marcos was the only British car to finish that year and the only Marcos ever to be classified as a finisher.
In 1969 he won the Spa 24 Hours in a Porsche 911 and in 1983 he won the 24 Hours of Daytona in a Porsche 935 Turbo
In 1971 he was one of the drivers in the Steve McQueen film, Le Mans.
He made his 23rd appearance at the Sarthe circuit in 1989 finishing sixth with Henri Pescarolo and Jean-Louis Ricci.
He was a versatile driver who apart for rallying also competed in hillclimbs, tourings cars, sports cars and even NASCAR in 1978 and 1979.
In NASCAR he drove six races for G.C. Spencer, 4 in 1978 in a Dodge and 2 in 1979 in an Oldsmobile.
He was a class winner at Le Mans on six occasions including with the IMSA Group 44 Jaguar in 1985. In 1977 he had hisbest overall finish with Peter Gregg in a Porsche 395.
Claude succumbed to cancer in 1999.