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 International Championship for Makes.
1969 was the last event 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. For 1969, new metal crash barriers were installed around the circuit, especially (again) at the Mulsanne Straight, where there was previously no protection from the trees, houses and embankments in the event of a car leaving the track.
Video 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans
Pre-race
During 1969, the minimal production figure to compete in the Sport category was reduced from 50 to 25. Starting in July 1968, Porsche made a surprising and very expensive effort to conceive, design and build a whole new car for the Sport category with one underlying goal: to win its first overall victory at Le Mans. In only ten months, the Porsche 917 was developed, which incorporated remarkable technology: Porsche's first 12-cylinder engine and many components from titanium, magnesium and exotic alloys. The 917 included another feature which would prove to be controversial in the days leading up to the race: movable aerodynamic wings. 25 identical models were manufactured, and were intended to be sold mostly to private racing teams at $35,000 each. Only one, however, was purchased by a private interest by the time of the Le Mans race, that of Britian John Woolfe. Despite the fact that no solution was found to fix instabilities of the car, three 917s were set to enter Le Mans. Two were Porsche Works teams and the third was entered by Woolfe.
On 30 March, Lucien Bianchi was killed during a second day of Le Mans practice sessions, while testing a 3-liter Alfa-Romeo. He lost control of the car on the Hunaudières straight at over 305 km/h (190 mph). The car crashed into a telephone pole and a transformer station, and exploded. Bianchi was killed instantly.
French team Matra ordered the aerodynamic engineer Robert Choulet to conceive a low-drag Long Tail Coupe specially designed for the Le Mans, the Matra 640. On 16 April, Matra brought the car to the Sarthe circuit. Henri Pescarolo took it to the track, and at the first kilometres in the Hunaudières the car took off and was pulverised, Pescarolo was pulled out alive but severely burned. In parallel, Matra was experimenting with roadster bodywork. This led to a new car, the 650. Some 630 chassis were converted in roadster; they were christened 630/650.
Matra entered four cars: a new 650 roadster, a 630 coupe and two 630/650.
The Ferrari prototypes made a comeback with the 3.0 L 312P.
John Wyer's team entered two Ford GT40s, and would be managed by David Yorke. Jacky Ickx would share driving duties with Jackie Oliver of GT40 1075, which they had nicknamed "The Old Lady". It was the car that won the previous year, then piloted by Pedro Rodríguez and the late Lucien Bianchi.
One of the features of the Porche 917, movable aerodynamic wings, had been previously barred by the Commission Sportive Internationale (FISA) from motorsport competition as "dangerous", and in particular had not been allowed in the 1969 Monaco Grand Prix a month earlier. A last-minute decision the day before Le Mans by the FISA allowed them for this race. Team Matra was particularly upset by this decision, but in a statement said they did not intend to protest. It was widely believed that if the ban was again reinstated because of a protest by other teams, Porche would have pulled out of the 1969 race entirely.
Even with Porche's participation, only 45 of a traditional 55 entries took the start of the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans, which was the smallest field in the race's history to that date. Alfa-Romeo and Abarth factory entries dropped out because of a customs strike, and Ferrari North America also scratched some entries. Lola withdrew its entries after the death of Paul Hawkins.
Maps 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans
Race
The Kurt Ahrens/Rolf Stommelen Porche 917 qualified on pole.
At the race start, Jacky Ickx, with former teammate Willy Mairesse's first lap 1968 Le Mans crash in mind, rebelled against the traditional starting procedure. In a Le Mans style start, drivers were required to run across the track to their cars, climb in, start the car, and move the car as quickly as possible to pull away from the grid. Ickx walked slowly to his car, properly put on his safety belts, and only then moved the car. Doing so effectively relegated Ickx to the back of the starting grid.
On the very first lap, the poor handling of the Porsche 917 and the inexperience of one of its drivers resulted in a drama: the death of British driver John Woolfe. Woolfe's purchased his 917 for $40,000 only days earlier and was quoted by a colleague as having said its power "scared the pants off me". Porche racing manager Rico Steinemann was quoted as having pled with Woolfe before the race to allow his teammate Herbert Linge to drive the first stint, but he demurred. Woolfe crashed past Maison Blanche, near the entrance to the Ford chicane. Woolfe was thrown free of the car as it spun, rolled, hit an embankment, and exploded. Woolfe was taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital, but was dead on arrival.
The nearly full fuel tank from Woolfe's car became dislodged and landed, burning, in front of the oncoming Ferrari 312P of Chris Amon. Amon ran over it, and Woolfe's fuel tank jammed underneath Amon's, causing Amon's to rupture and explode as well. Amon was uninjured but forced to retire the car. The race was stopped for 2 hours due to these two first lap incidents, but was eventually restarted. 11 of the 45 cars in the field had been retired in the first four hours.
The 2 official 917s were put out of the race by clutch bell housing problems, but the 908 of Hans Herrmann and Gérard Larrousse remained a serious candidate for the victory.
In a dramatic finish, Ickx and Herrmann repeatedly overtook each other as the Porsche 908 had brake problems and the Ford GT40 suffered from exhaust problems. In the last lap, Ickx let Herrmann pass him early on the Mulsanne Straight, faking a lack of power from fuel starvation. Ickx used the slipstream of Herrmann to pass him again just before the end of the 5 km straight. Ickx managed to hold on and beat Herrmann by a few seconds, and a distance of about 120 metres (390 feet). Ickx and Oliver won with the GT40 chassis 1075, the same car that had won the previous year. This was second time the same car had won two years in a row; a Bentley Speed Six had done it in 1929 and 1930. Ickx dedicated the John Wyer Automotive Engineering team's victory to Lucien Bianchi. Bianchi had been killed in Le Mans testing earlier in the year, and had helped the Wyer team win the Le Mans the previous year.
Post-race
Jacky Ickx had a road accident near Chartres while driving to Paris on the Monday morning after the race. A car pulled in front of his Porsche 911. Ickx's car ended up crushed against a utility pole. Ickx unbuckled his seat belt and stepped unharmed from the wrecked Porsche.
Official results
Class winners are denoted with bold.
Footnotes
Statistics
- Pole Position: #14 Porsche System Engineering (Rolf Stommelen) - 3:22.90
- Fastest Lap: #12 Porsche System Engineering (Vic Elford) - 3:27.20
- Distance: 4,998.00 km (3,105.61 mi)
- Winner's average speed: 208.250 km/h (129.401 mph)
Trophy Winners
- Index of Performance: #50 Société des Automobiles Alpine
- Index of Thermal Efficiency: #6 John Wyer Automotive Engineering
In media
La Ronde Infernale: Le Mans 1969 (commissioned by Castrol)
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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