The 1990 season was a tough one for Repsol and Jesus Pareja. The Brun team had gone off the boil, with a car not equipped to challenge for wins. Of the nine races in the season, Pareja and Walter Brun would retire from six. The three that they completed –Silverstone, Dijon and Donington– saw them only place inside the top ten once, with a seventh at Silverstone. The championship would go to Sauber Mercedes and Jean Louis Schlesser, who would share a second title with Mauro Baldi.
The biggest highlight for Pareja and Repsol came at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as Pareja, Larrauri and Brun shared a Porsche which, miraculously, had a perfect setup for the race. They would take off from the front row of the grid, alongside one of the Nissans.
Larrauri started the race and, after stalking Julian Bailey for the opening three laps, would overtake him to put the Porsche Repsol into the lead. It was a magical moment, but one soured with Larrauri suffering from a stomach bug and Brun not up to the pace of the race. The team would remain in the top four, and a night stint from Pareja brought them back up to second place –behind one of the Jaguar cars.
They continued in a close second place, despite the Jaguar possessing a superior gearbox and on paper looking to be the superior vehicle. That was until just 15 minutes remained, and the Porsche stopped at Mulsanne. Pareja, who had been in the car for some 12 hours, was out of the race and his team were denied a possible victory.
The other standout moment was at Montreal. There, when the Porsche Repsol broke down, Brun put Pareja in Bernard Santal’s car. A huge crash saw Pareja escape with burns on his face in an awful incident, as the vehicle burst into flames.
