The Le Mans 24 hour race is the most gruelling and demanding car race known to man, a race that tests not only a driver’s speed and cornering, but their energy, endurance and indeed their sanity.
As you might expect from a race that lasts for an entire day and traditionally has a field of approximately 50 cars, the Le Mans Race has thrown up some memorable incidents over the years. JOE recalls a few particular events that will forever be associated with Le Mans.
1955 Pierre Levegh crash
On June 11, 1955, tragedy struck the famous race when driver Pierre Levegh and over 80 spectators were killed in a series of devastating events at Circuit de la Sarthe, which remains the most catastrophic accident in the history of motorsport.
The Jaguar of Mike Hawthorn was leading the race after two hours when he was signalled to come into the pits. He was leading the famous Juan Manuel Fangio in the Mercedes who was separated from Hawthorn by the already-lapped Pierre Levegh in another Mercedes.
On his way into the pits, Hawthorn passed another already-lapped driver, Lance Macklin and braked sharply in order to enter the pit area. This manoeuvre startled Macklin who swerved into the centre of the track and straight into the path of the oncoming Levegh and Fangio.
Levegh couldn’t avoid collision and went right up the back of Macklin’s Austin Healey. His vehicle was flung into the air and subsequently somersaulted several times while numerous parts of his Mercedes were sent spiralling into the crowd.
Levegh’s skull was crushed in the incident and the Frenchman was killed instantly. The fuel tank in his car exploded and sent burning debris into the mass of spectators. Fire fighters attempting to control the flames only served to fan them even further due to the presence of magnesium.
Macklin’s car crashed into a barrier and although the driver himself walked away with only minor injuries, a spectator was killed in the incident. Fangio also escaped unhurt, thanks to a signal from Levegh warning him of the danger ahead before he crashed into Macklin.
The final death toll was confirmed at 83 people. No blame was attached to anyone involved with authorities ruling it as a ‘racing incident’.
1966 Bruce McLaren/Chris Amon victory
The closest finish in the history of the Le Mans race turned out to be a disaster for the Ford team of Ken Miles and Denny Hulme in 1966. The race overall was a triumph for Ford, whose Mk. II cars finished in the top three places.
Miles and Denny Hulme were leading at the end when it was decided to stage a publicity photo of all three Mk. II’s crossing the finish line. For the photo to be shot, the distance between the three cars had to be minimal and Miles and Hume had to slow down so that all three cars would be framed.
Unfortunately for Miles and Hulme, even though they crossed the line first, they finished runners up due to the fact that the winner of the Le Mans race back then was determined by the amount of distance covered.
Members of the Ford team at Le Mans 1966. Hulme and Miles are second and third from the right.
Because McLaren and Amon started several places behind Miles and Hulme in the grid, they emerged as winners by a distance of only eight metres. Tragically, Miles was killed in a car crash two months later. The rules have since been changed with the winner now determined by the number of laps covered in the 24 hours.
1967 Dan Gurney
The time-honoured tradition of celebrating victory by spraying champagne all over everyone present began at Le Mans in 1967, when Ford driver Dan Gurney took the opportunity to splash some bubbly over Ford CEO Henry Ford, team owner Carroll Shelby and a host of journalists waiting below him.
The journalists had doubted Gurney’s ability to co-operate with fellow American AJ Foyt because of a rivalry between the pair, but whatever rivalry existed was on this occasion put behind them for the good of the team. The spraying champagne tradition is now a mainstay of every sporting event.
1969 Jacky Ickx
The method of starting the race was a particular topic of controversy during the 1960’s. Traditionally, the cars would be lined up against the pit wall in the order in which they were qualified. Drivers would then run across the track to their car and have to start it without assistance.
In order to get a fast start, competitors did whatever they could in order to gain an advantage, including Stirling Moss’ method of starting the car in first gear without using the clutch, while many drivers didn’t strap themselves into their safety harnesses until well into the race.
Jacky Ickx
Belgian driver Jacky Ickx believed this method to be unsafe and in 1969, made a point of walking slowly across the track to his car and strapping himself in correctly, meaning he was the last driver to leave the starting grid. His concerns proved prophetic as in the first lap of the race, John Wolfe was killed, while another driver Willie Mairesse ended his career later in the race in another accident. Neither driver had properly harnessed themselves in. Ickx went onto win the race.
The starting method was altered the following year and from 1971, a rolling start (or Indianapolis start) was implemented at Le Mans.
1999 Peter Dumbreck crash
Following the disaster involving Pierre Levegh in 1955, Mercedes and their CLR model were again the subject of controversy 44 years later. The difficulty started in practise sessions when an aerodynamic flaw in the car caused driver Mark Webber’s car to be flung airborne on two separate occasions.
Both incidents happened on the same stretch of the track on a hump in the road on the Mulsanne straight. When following another car and when going up a hill, large amounts of air built up underneath the nose of the car, causing it to head skyward.
Although the warm-up incidents were embarrassing, Mercedes were spared somewhat by the fact that they were not shown on live television. The team made some tweaks to the suspension of the car and were confident that it would be able to compete.
Unfortunately for the German car giant, only a few hours into the race, the CLR of Peter Dumbreck met the same fate as Webber’s in the warm up and was flung into the air at the Mulsanne straight, over the safety barriers and into the trees alongside.
Dumbreck escaped unhurt, but Mercedes immediately withdrew the other CLR from the race and dropped out of sports car racing for a lengthy period.
Conor Heneghan
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