IThey are the glorious heroes of a legendary race. Repeated winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (Tom Kristensen, Jacky Ickx, Henri Pescarolo…), winner after an improbable scenario like Louis Rosier or even an unusual and famous competitor. Paul Newman was no trickster behind the wheel, second in the general classification and first in class during the 1979 edition, for his only participation!
On the occasion of the centenary of the legendary race, on June 10 and 11, a look back at these incredible stories that have made the legend of the most famous event in motorsport.
Paul Newman, the star who almost won!
The American actor multiplied his starts in US Grand Touring races for almost thirty years, starting in 1973. Brilliantly, winning the last of his four national SCCA titles at… 61 years old. He was already fifty-three when he took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, sharing with ex-Formula 1 driver Rolf Stommelen and team owner Dick Barbour an impressive red Porsche 935 Silhouette (number 70), looking like a bodybuilt 911. Far from a role of composition, therefore: faced with the factory Porsche 936 sport-protos and the pretty little French Rondeaus, there were around fifteen 935s of this type, at the start; only half finished the race, marked by many rainy passages. No small feat!
READ ALSOLe Mans 1923: the birth of a legendNewman’s car could even have won. At three and a half hours from the finish, the leading car (another Porsche 935 which had a long lead) lost almost sixty minutes, the time that its pilot, alone at the edge of the track, repaired a pump belt. injection. The Hollywood 935 could overtake it if the team had not also encountered a mechanical problem during a refueling stop: the blocked left front wheel required dismantling the suspension in order to change the tire. After June 10, 1979, Paul Newman continued to race until he was 80 (three years before his death): a few last laps at the 24 Hours of Daytona, on a small Crawford prototype.
Louis Rosier, the solo feat
It must be said that on the other side of the Atlantic, the 24 Hours of Le Mans have always been appreciated and renowned. Land of mechanical exploits and wonderful human adventures. Like that of Louis Rosier, driving his 1950 Talbot almost alone for twenty-four hours, only leaving the wheel to his son for… two laps. Time to swallow a sandwich. In the lead from the 3e hour, at the 6th (2 laps ahead), at the 12e (6 laps ahead), Rosier won by having “held the wheel of his Talbot for 23 h 49”, wrote Maurice Henry in The Team Monday, June 26, 1950. Despite a 44-minute stop in the early morning during which, guided by his mechanic Marcel Beauchet, he changed the rocker arm ramp of his engine before giving up the wheel for these famous two laps, Rosier regained the lead of the race before the 18e hour ! Ankylosed and half deaf on arrival, claiming “the fatigue record” in addition to that of the distance covered, he will explain: “It was too serious. My son was unaccustomed to the race and could have lost time. It was not very indicated after my prolonged stop. Louis Rosier could have added that the famous regulations required him to give up the wheel for at least one lap!
Pescarolo, the giant of the 24 Hours
The race with two – rather than three riders these days – is the one that Henri Pescarolo has always preferred. Rhythm, osmosis, confidence, challenge… This giant in the green helmet, record holder of participations (33 behind the wheel between 1966 and 1999 before entering his own cars), embodies the event and above all, the great period of the Matra. He knew it all: the exploit of a night spent driving in the rain without a windshield wiper, in 1968 (“every overtaking was a lottery”); the horror of a car that flies off during testing, crashes among the trees and catches fire (1969); the disappointments then the release of a triple victory (1972, 1973 and 1974) with Graham Hill and Gérard Larrousse. The second was undoubtedly the most beautiful, won after a hard fight against the prestigious Ferrari team. The Matra MS670B was not free from trouble, you had to go fast and at the same time watch the brakes and this Ferrari of Ickx-Redman who didn’t want to let go. Cold sweat. In the Sarthe, the pilot has also earned a nickname, infallible proof of popularity: “Pesca”. Ten years after his last Matra victory, he won a fourth time with Porsche.
Jacky Ickx, victory while walking
The runner Jacky Ickx was first a… walker. This is even how he made himself known. At the start of the 1969 24 Hours, the drivers were still racing across the track to join their car, lined up on the cob, on the side of the pits. They hurriedly jumped behind the wheel, started the engine and started without taking the time to fasten their safety harness until the first refueling stop. Excessively risky! In 1969, therefore, for his third participation, a 24-year-old boy decided not to run like the others but to walk! To protest against danger.
READ ALSO24 Hours of Le Mans, WEC: Hypercars, LMP2, GT… The guide to find your way around“Just like that, on a whim. Nothing premeditated, says the Belgian champion, who started last. Imagine if 24 hours later, I had lost for 120 meters! Because on Sundays, the Ford GT40 MK 1 in the beautiful colors of the Gulf oil tanker (those of Steve McQueen in 1970 in the wonderful film Le Mans), only outstripped the Porsche 908 of Hermann-Larrousse by just as little. On the last lap, Ickx had cheated the German driver, making him believe he had run out of gas, prompting him to overtake him on the Mulsanne Straight and thus take advantage of his aerodynamic slipstream to better overtake him further on – and to good ! – before the Mulsanne bend. This sleight of hand has built the legend of Jacky Ickx even if of his six successes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (the first driver to achieve them), he prefers to highlight that of 1977, quickly passing on the second car within of a faltering Porsche team, driving like crazy all night to come back from the bottom of the rankings and keep this feeling “so strong to unite around you an entire team, over-motivated by the scent of the feat that was being accomplished . I will never forget the spirit that reigned that year. » That of endurance races and 24 Hours.
Tom Kristensen, proof by 9
Jacky Ickx… “Monsieur Le Mans” forever, although his record of six victories was then beaten by Tom Kristensen (nine). The Danish driver doesn’t take offense at this honorary title which escapes him beyond the statistics, willingly paying homage to his eldest and in the end, keeping his… unrivaled track record to his advantage. He inaugurated it in the best possible way: first participation, first victory! What followed showed that it was not just a fluke. The small TWR-Porsche barquette which he shared with two more experienced team-mates – Michele Alboreto and Stefan Johansson – only crossed the finish line one lap ahead (out of 361) ahead of the McLaren F1 GTR of Frenchman Raphanel and Gounon. A very small gap which is quite rare in this 24 Hour race and a record edition for the number of retirements, 31 out of 48 starters. But if the little Porsche-Joest had not valiantly held third position all night, it would not have been able to take advantage, in the morning, of the withdrawal of the two factory Porsche 911 GT1s…
Kristensen will begin his harvest of laurels with Audi and Bentley (2003) for six victories in a row between 2000 and 2005. As much as Jacky Ickx in his entire career! Undisputed “captain” of the car, undisputed and listened-to team leader. Kristensen was in all the victorious campaigns with Audi: the first R8 prototypes discovered, the first diesel engines at Le Mans, the first hybrid engines. He signed two more successes, in 2008 with the R10 TDI and in 2013 with the R18 e-tron quattro, benefiting from the formidable confidence of the Audi Sport team and the reliability of its cars. Tom has often ticked the right box. “The quality of the Audis, the one that saved us a few victories, he recalls, was their ease of mechanical intervention. Whatever the problem, we had to be able to solve it. The mechanics changed a complete, pre-assembled rear axle (gearbox included) in less than five minutes at the pits. Another race against time.