EuroNASCAR champion-winning drivers Loris and Liam Hezemans made a sensation in the 2025 Le Mans Classic with the highlight reel performances in their Bizzarrini 5300 GT.
EuroNASCAR stars Loris and Liam Hezemans created headlines in Le Mans Classic as they and elder brother Mike brought their Bizzarrini 5300 GT to a spectacular victory at Circuit de la Sarthe.
Loris in particular made a sensation with his race start from Race 1 on Saturday. The two-time EuroNASCAR champion left a trail of rubber and smoke as he left off the grid during the traditional Le Mans start procedure used for the Classic.
Loris’ spectacular start was filmed by Liam from the pit wall. The clip quickly became a trend once it got uploaded to social media.
On Instagram, the official post on Loris’ account attracted more than 235,000 likes after three days. Autosport’s Instagram repost further boosted the numbers, with it gaining more than 49,000 likes as of the writing of this article.
Another repost by @Carroll_NIR on Twitter also gained plenty of traction. More than 14,000 accounts liked the post and it gained 1.3 million views, according to the count showcased on the Tweet.
The Hezemans brothers – competing under the Team Hezemans banner – was one of the 81 teams participating in the Grid 4 category. Grid 4 is reserved for models that raced at Le Mans from 1962 to 1965 – be it the actual cars or derivatives of it.
The Bizzarrini 5300 GT was raced in the 1964 and 1965 editions as the Iso Grifo A3C. The Bizzarrini/Grifo finished the race both times – 14th in 1964 after a lengthy stop for brake issues and ninth in 1965.
Hezemans’ Bizzarrini actually had a poor start to the weekend. Just minutes after Loris’ spectacular start in Race 1, the engine died before they even completed a single lap.
Their early retirement from Race 1 left them all the way down in row 38 of the grid for Race 2. The grid itself was set by the ordering of fastest lap from the previous race, something that the Hezemans brothers are familiar with from their time in EuroNASCAR.
Another thing that the Hezemans brothers are familiar with is the service from Hendriks Motorsport. Hendriks, who led both Loris and Liam to championship glory in EuroNASCAR, is in charge of maintaining Team Hezemans’ historic racing program.
With the Dutch team’s help, Team Hezemans was able to get the Bizzarrini repaired in time for Sunday’s Race 2.
This allowed Team Hezemans to fight their way back to 16th at the checkered flag. Their fastest lap time from this race was also good enough to have them start 11th for Race 3.
Race 3’s weather condition turned out to be perfect for Team Hezemans. The rain suits the Bizzarrini well and they passed the more powerful cars to take the lead of the race.
They were still leading when the race was red flagged and ultimately stopped on lap 5 due to deteriorating weather conditions. The rollback to lap 4 initially pegged them back to fourth, but further timing corrections resulted in them being declared as the winner of the race.
This result meant that Loris, Liam and Hendriks Motorsport are now officially a proven race winner at one of the biggest historic racing events in the world.
“In a debut weekend for us, together with Team Hezemans at Le Mans Classic, we managed to take victory with the Bizzarrini 5300 GT driven by Loris and Liam Hezemans!” said Hendriks Motorsport in their official social media post.
“The weekend started off well, qualifying in P5 for the first race of the weekend. The race started with an iconic ‘Le Mans start’ displayed in a spectacular way by Loris, but unfortunately the race was cut short by a mechanical failure.”
“The team managed to get the spare engine in time and the drivers, starting P76, crossed the line in 13th in race 2.”
“Sunday started early, with Loris taking the start of a wet third race at 6:30 AM. Coming from P11 he drove his way to the front and after a perfectly timed pit stop Liam crossed the line in P1!”
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.