There is no question that racing cars today are almost infinitely safer than those of 1955. Fifty-nine years ago, the 1955 Le Mans 24-hour race started like any other. [2] Sixteen during the race itself, five during pre-race practice and testing sessions, and one en route to the race. Find Le Mans Disaster stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. They argued that if the accident was announced, panic might sweep through the spectators and flood the streets, and that will make crowd control extreme and might have made rescue efforts very difficult. Norman Dewis ventured the opinions that Macklins move around Hawthorn was careless and that Levegh was not competent to meet the demands of driving at the speeds the 300SLR was capable of. Tap into Getty Images global-scale, data-driven insights and network of over 340,000creators to create content exclusively for your brand. The announcer claims that the sand trap has "claimed another victim." That was my first thought. "Then there was a hell of a bang like a bomb had hit.". His Monopole flipped at Maison Blanche, trapping and killing the driver. Chief engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut had gone to the Jaguar pits to ask if the Jaguar team would respond in kind, out of respect for the crash victims. Collect, curate and comment on your files. Getting out, he was immediately ordered by his team to get back in and do another lap to get away from the total confusion and danger. It is one part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, including the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix. With Levegh dead, Macklin presumed that Hawthorn's implication was that he (Macklin) had been responsible, and he began a libel action. Entering the straight, his Matra veered off the inside of the track and exploded into flames. The Lola was completely destroyed, debris from the car were all around the forest, Bonnier had been killed upon impact. You have accepted push notifications for this content. The 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 23rd 24 Hours of Le Mans and took place on 11 and 12 June 1955 on Circuit de la Sarthe.It was also the fourth round of the F.I.A. France kept the ban until they they made safety improvements to the tracks, such as breaking down the grandstands at the crash site. The 1955 Le Mans disaster occurred during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race, when a crash caused large fragments of racing car debris to fly into the crowd. The car overturned and exploded in flames following impact, killing Enjolras instantly. Hawthorn and Bueb won the race by a margin of five laps from Aston Martin. Leveghs car, which was estimated to be travelling at over 150mph (240khm), flipped over and flew on before slamming into the bank by the spectator enclosure. I stood as if in a dream, too horrified to even think. 77 deaths at Le Mans Mon 13 Jun 1955 04.33 EDT Le Mans, June 12 Le Mans is in mourning today for the 77 people killed when the blazing wreckage of a Mercedes sports car crashed through. 312 Le Mans 1955 Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images EDITORIAL All Sports Entertainment News Archival Browse 312 le mans 1955 stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Supposedly they were concerned that crowds of people leaving the track would keep ambulances from getting to those in need. This newsreel without sound shows the crash as it actually happened. The car rolled over during the incident. Even after modifications had been made to the Circuit de la Sarthe after 1955, Louis Hry was killed on his own just a year later. Les tableaux sont le meilleur endroit pour sauvegarder des images et des vidos. [25][26] Their retirement was briefly announced over the public address system. Millions of high-quality images, video, and music options await you. With two other drivers still in the race, Mercedes-Benz continued, but after so many calls for them to abandon the meeting and with the desire to avoid a PR disaster, they pulled out of the race in the wee hours of the morning and went home. Waiting until 1:45 am, when many spectators had left, he stepped onto the track and quietly called his cars into the pits, at the time running first and third. There was the inevitable finger-pointing as to whose fault this event was, but everyone was absolved of blame after a thorough investigation. Macklin's car hit the unprotected pit-wall, just short of the Cunningham and Mercedes-Benz pits where Shell and Lockheed equipment were stationed, running down a policeman, a photographer and two officials (all seriously injured), then rebounded back across the track again to end up skating down the left-side fence for a second time. The significant chunk of the car slammed into a concrete structure and disintegrated, causing the fuel tank to explode. The first media accounts were wildly inaccurate, as shown by subsequent analysis of photographic evidence conducted by Road & Track editor (and 1955 second-place finisher) Paul Frre in 1975. Its sloping back acted like a ramp for Levegh's Mercedes, however, which flew into the air. The 300 SLR featured a body made of an ultra-lightweight magnesium alloy called Elektron. 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans - Wikipedia They included: After an emergency meeting and vote of Mercedes-Benz company directors by telephone in Stuttgart, West Germany, Neubauer finally got the call approving his team's withdrawal just before midnight. It's hard to say just how many people died in the crash. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. In the current world of social distancing, it is hard to imagine the crowd of. Organise, control, distribute, and measure all of your digital content. Only two cars were involved in the disaster. Le Mans, France: The wreckage of the death car and bodies of some of the victims felled by the explosion on Saturday. Showing Editorial results for le mans 1955. In other racing events where a car's ability is based on how fast it moves and in record time, this is a test of car reliability. The other team cars were being kept on tighter leashes to conserve the cars, but still racing in the top ten. The pieces of the Mercedes ripped through the crowd, crushing and decapitating. One newsreel, minutes after describing the crash, goes on to talk about a car getting stuck in a sandy embankment. Search instead in Creative? I did not discuss who might have been to blame but said that I believed the organizers had been right to continue the race and that Mercedes, having continued to race for more than six hours after the accident, I could not see the point in them withdrawing, and I did not intend to pull out the cars. 1955 Le Mans disaster - Wikipedia Fangio never raced at Le Mans again. RELATED: These Le Mans Racers Dominated The Worlds Most Famous Race. Once it was extinguished, there was nothing left but the frame. An American soldier at the race, Jimmy Prickett, was at the scene and took pictures immediately following the crash. Extricating the Dead and Dying. "As I was rolling along backward I saw Levegh's car following me in the air, with Levegh sort of hunched over in the cockpit. In 1957, D-Types were placed 1-2-3-4-6, with only a solitary Ferrari in 5th spoiling the parade. Mike-Hawthorn.org.uk hosts right here a 1993 report on the race, and includes a comment from 'Lofty' England, the Jaguar team boss. The Worst Accident in Motorsports History (1955 Le Mans Disaster . Your brain acts so fast you can see everything, and I can remember as I was spinning I saw the timekeepers watching me from their booth. The weather had closed in on Sunday morning and there was no victory celebration. They suggested that Mercedes-Benz had tampered with the official fuel-supply with an explosive additive, but the intensity of the fire was due instead to the magnesium-alloy construction of the chassis. But you quickly start to see people running towards the smoldering wreck, hoping to rescue anyone still alive. Macklin is startled at not having the more technologically advanced disc brakes as the Jaguar, which leads him to move to the right, kicking up dirt before veering towards the center of the track. Opinions differed widely amongst the other drivers as to who was directly to blame for the crash, and such differences remain even today. Flying metal following the explosion killed some 80 and injured many spectators. The body fell one way, the engine broke free and shot off, and the hood and front axle flew further. Shortly before he died, he wrote of the race: "It was as though we were at the point where a great rock had been hurled into a pond, sending out waves of shock and horror and indignation which would later flow back, bringing consequences which no one could foresee. Race car at Le Mans crashes into spectators, killing 82 Footage of the 1955 Le Mans Disaster. Maybe that's what makes these pictures still so very chilling. Cole was thrown from the car and died at the scene. When Mercedes pulled out, they approached the Jaguar team. [8] Coming out of the Maison Blanche portion of the course, he rapidly caught Lance Macklin in his Austin Healey 100S, who had seen him and moved over to the right to let him pass. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. Other observers estimated the toll to be much higher. The AP states that it's unclear how this body ended up as it lay. In 1969, it was bought for 155 (equivalent to 2,714 in 2021). A reporter for Life magazine recounted that: the Mercedes took off like a rocket, struck the embankment beside the track, hurtled end over end and then disintegrated over the crowd. It was the most catastrophic crash in motorsport history, and it prompted Mercedes-Benz to withdraw from motor racing until 1989. Other bodies are scattered near the picket fence where the Mercedes racer crashed. They suggested that Mercedes-Benz had tampered with the official fuel-supply with an explosive additive, but the intensity of the fire was due instead to the magnesium-alloy construction of the chassis. Le Mans 1955 Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images By 1955, top speeds for the leading cars were over 270km/h (170mph). [14] Levegh's lifeless body, severely burned, lay in full view on the pavement until a gendarme hauled down a banner to cover it. Last year, Aston Martin GT driver Allan Simonsen died when he crashed into an insufficiently protected tree. The 1955 Le Mans disaster occurred during the 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race in Le Mans, France in June 1955, when a crash caused large fragments of debris to fly into the crowd. Le Mans, France: The wreckage of the death car and bodies . Last edited on 19 February 2023, at 23:30, "Historic Motor Racing - historicracing.com", "Lucien Bianchi Profile - Drivers - GP Encyclopedia - F1 History on Grandprix.com", "Race Car Driver Deaths: The Medical Causes of Racing Deaths w Examples", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans_fatalities&oldid=1140404005, Guilbert was making his way to the circuit during the morning of the race in his Ravel, a car designed by. Le Mans Motor Racing Disaster (1955) | British Path Watch on At least 83 spectators were killed and over a hundred more injured in the 1955 Le Mans Disaster. Despite expectations for the race to be red-flagged and stopped entirely, race officials, led by race director Charles Faroux, kept the race running. 1955 - the Le Mans Crash in 90+ pictures from the Mike Hawthorn Tribute Site. Bianchi decided to start early as organisers were speculating a wet session later in the day. [15][8] The Jaguar team in turn questioned the fitness and competence of Macklin and Levegh as drivers. Another 120 were "maimed," according to current writing, though initial news stories estimated around 70. I stood as if in a dream, too horrified to even think., Mike Hawthorn and the Jaguar team kept racing. [3][25][27], Hawthorn and the Jaguar team kept racing. Le mans 1955 hi-res stock photography and images - Alamy [43] It was then restored to its original condition.[44]. If you would like to manage your push notification preferences, you can do so here. That being said, while the Audi successfully protected its driver, it hit an unprotected, hard wall. Just behind Hawthorn was a much slower Austin-Healey, actually a lap down on Hawthorn. Mercedes team manager Alfred Neubauer assembled a multinational team for the race: pairing his two best drivers Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss in the lead car, 1952 race-winner Karl Kling with Frenchman Andr Simon (both also in the current F1 team) and American John Fitch with one of the elder statesmen of French motor-racing, Pierre Levegh. The 1955 Le Mans disaster of 11th June 1955 during the 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, Sarthe, France. [25][3] Tony Rolt and other drivers had been raising concerns about the pit straight since 1953.
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