1969 24 Hours of Le Mans
|
|
|
|
1969 24 Hours of Le Mans |
|
|
The 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 37th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 14 and 15 June 1969. It was the eighth round of the 1969 World Sportscar Championship season. It was the last year with the traditional "Le Mans" style start, in which the drivers run across the track to enter their cars, start them, and race away. The previous year, Willy Mairesse crashed on the first lap while trying to properly close the door of his car at speed on the Mulsanne Straight; the crash would have been avoided entirely if not for the Le Mans-style start, and it ended Mairesse's racing career. During the 1969 start, eventual winner Jacky Ickx famously staged his own one-man protest by walking to his car, and taking his time doing up his belts. Meanwhile, privateer John Woolfe ran with the other drivers, flipped his car on the opening lap near Maison Blanche corner, and not yet strapped in properly, was killed when the car broke up. The race was one of the most exciting in the event's history. Porsche had already wrapped up the World Sportscar Championship, and were strong favourites to achieve their first outright win. More than one-third of the starting cars were Porsches, and the mighty 917s held the lead for 90% of the race. But when the Elford/Attwood car's gearbox broke at 11 a.m., it was the Ford of Ickx and Jackie Oliver that took over the lead. The race ended in a 3-hour sprint, with the Ford battling the pursuing Porsche 908 of Hans Herrmann and Gérard Larrousse non-stop. In the end, the Ford GT40 – the same chassis that had won the previous year – took the chequered flag by just 120 metres after 24 hours. Heeding the calls of race promoters worried about diminishing fields, the FIA sought to fix things by reducing the minimum production figure to run in Group 4 from 50 to 25. Even though they had an unlimited engine capacity, it was reasoned that it would not be a difference as the cars were not usually as competitive as the Group 6 Prototypes. This however, left a large flaw in the system for big manufacturers with the resources to exploit the regulations. Porsche were able to construct 25 chassis of their new 917 prototype, with its 4.5-litre engine, to get it homologated for Group 4. This year the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) brought the start-time forward to 2pm, to allow time for the largely French crowd to still be able to get to vote in the Presidential Elections on the Sunday afternoon. New Armco crash barriers were installed around the circuit, including on the Mulsanne Straight, where there was previously no protection from the trees, houses and embankments in the event of a car leaving the track. Sandbanks were replaced by barriers. Where we have not had a model of the car through the business as raced I've added another example of the car as an illustration (where I have one)
|
| 24 Hours of Le Mans Home | Site Home |
| Last Edit: 18/04/2022 | Page Created 16/04/2022 |
