On lap 35, Hawthorn and Fangio were racing as hard as ever. Le Mans, France: The wreckage of the death car and bodies . The weather had closed in on Sunday morning and there was no victory celebration. The pieces of the Mercedes ripped through the crowd, crushing and decapitating. The 1955 Le Mans disaster was a major crash that occurred on 11 June 1955 during the 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, Sarthe, France. In his biography, Hawthorn said he was "momentarily mesmerized by the legend of the Mercedes superiority Then I came to my senses and thought Damn it, why should a German car beat a British car. The alloy burst into white-hot flames, showering the track and crowd with magnesium embers, made worse by rescue workers unfamiliar with magnesium fires who poured water onto the inferno, greatly intensifying the fire. June 11, 2020 It is one part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, including the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix. They saw the whole catastrophe unfold. 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. The media also speculated on the violent fire that engulfed the wreck, which intensified when fire marshals poured their water-based extinguishers on the flames. At first you can see people running from the fire. The grandstand was demolished and rebuilt with new spectator terraces and a wide ditch between them and the racetrack. 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World Sports Car Championship.During the race, Pierre Levegh crashed into a crowd of spectators, killing 84 (including himself) and injuring 120 in the deadliest accident in motor racing history. Everything slows right down as if you were watching a slow-motion film. Jaguar driver Duncan Hamilton, watching from the pit wall, recalled, The scene on the other side of the road was indescribable. "Mike could have been mistaken about how fast my car was going," Macklin would tell Sports Illustrated in a 1986 interview. But I am not fully convinced that everyone was as cold to the crash then as they are now. Now it's recorded that Mercedes pulled out of the race following the crash. Jaguar concentrated their racing almost exclusively on Le Mans and had a very experienced driver line-up, including Formula 1 (F1) Ferrari driver Mike Hawthorn. The fuel fire raised the temperature of the remaining Elektron bodywork past its ignition temperature, which was lower than that of other metal alloys due to its high magnesium content. [42] The car retained the original engine SPL 261-BN,[41] but was reported to be in 'barn find' condition. When he finally made it into the pits again, past what was then the scene of the crash, tears were streaming down his face. Tirez parti du rseau mondial GettyImages, avec plus de 340 000 crateurs, pour dvelopper un contenu exclusif, cr spcialement pour votre marque. You have accepted push notifications for this content. Registered in Ireland: 523712. The car split into three pieces. Fangio never raced at Le Mans again. Putting another lap on Macklin coming up to the main straight, Hawthorn then raised his hand to indicate he was pitting and pulled across to the right (from Hawthorn's testimony). Look at how dense the crowd was. [19][20] Team manager Alfred Neubauer had already reached the same conclusion, but did not have the authority to make such a decision. Collect, curate and comment on your files. Three years ago, another Audi crashed and nearly careened over a low wall into a large row of photographers. In the end the enquiry ruled that no specific driver was responsible for the crash, and that it was merely a terrible racing incident. With the Mercedes-Benz team withdrawn and the Ferraris all broken, Jaguars main competition had gone. At a gathering for his 92nd birthday, Mercedes driver John Fitch explained just how little the drivers knew. Cole was thrown from the car and died at the scene. One of the major news stories after the 1955 Le Mans disaster was the retirement of Mercedes-Benz from future races. One marshal tried to douse the burning wreckage with water and sent huge bursts of white hot fire into the crowd, killing more as this recent history explains. In the days after the disaster, several explanations were offered by Faroux for this course of action. Having achieved that, Mercedes withdrew from motorsport. Once it was extinguished, there was nothing left but the frame. The action was still unresolved when Hawthorn was killed in a non-racing crash on the Guildford bypass in 1959, ironically while overtaking a Mercedes-Benz in his Jaguar. Organisez, contrlez, distribuez et mesurez tous vos contenus digitaux. Drivers run to their cars for the start of the Le Mans 24 hour race in Le Mans, France on June 11, 1955. Dveloppez votre marque de manire authentique en partageant son contenu avec tous les crateurs Internet. Hawthorn and his co-driver Ivor Bueb won the race the next afternoon. In the United States, the American Automobile Association (AAA) dissolved their Contest Board that had been the primary sanctioning body for motorsport in the U.S. (including the Indianapolis 500) since 1904. That was my first thought. At the Circuit de la Sarthe, the audience stands at the pits were demolished. It was the turning point in the industry as considerable changes were made towards improving the safety of drivers and spectators. It shows you not only how the crash happened, but how little stood between those watching and the flying wreckage. Showing Editorial results for le mans 1955. Newsreels show the crash itself, and police rushing to tear down advertising banners by the wreck. [37][15][38] Track safety technology and practices evolved slowly until F1 driver Jackie Stewart organized a campaign to advocate for better safety measures ten years later. . "But by overtaking me and braking sharply he forced me to overtake him again, which meant I had to pull out in front of Levegh and Fangio. As a result, Macklin's car veered across to the centre of the track, apparently briefly out of control. Large. Macklin survived the incident without serious injury, jumping out of the wreck and over the bank. The car landed on the earthen embankment between the spectators and the track, bounced, then slammed into a concrete stairwell structure and disintegrated. The French press, who knew better than most how awful the crash had been, scorned Hawthorn, blamed him for the crash, and in disgust carried pictures of him celebrating after the race, as the BBC reports. 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. A single accident that caused death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. Instead it pointed the finger of blame at the track layout which was deemed unsuitable for such high- speed racing. Browse 305 le mans 1955 stock photos and images available or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Most vehicle manufacturers focus on this particular race to test the fuel efficiency of their vehicles and know the viability of their cars and engines throughout the 24 hours rather than learning how fast their cars can go. Mike Hawthorn celebrating the 1955 Le Mans victory despite causing the deadliest accident in history of racing. Extricating the Dead and Dying. 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. The body fell one way, the engine broke free and shot off, and the hood and front axle flew further. 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. The Le Mans organizers did not actually stop the race. Browse 305 le mans 1955 stock photos and images available or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. French Memorial Site. Flying metal following the explosion killed some 80 and injured many spectators. It turned friends into enemies, fans into critics, and winners into losers. French magazin L'Auto-Journal published the image with the sarcastic laden caption, votre sant, Monsieur Hawthorn. ("To your health, Mr Hawthorn."). [36], The official government inquiry into the accident called officials, drivers, and team personnel to be questioned and give evidence. His Mercedes Benz clipped the edge of the Austin Healey and was launched skywards. . Neubauer got the French authorities to test residual fuel left in the wrecks fuel injection and the result vindicated the company. '"[6][7] The lap before, Hawthorn's pit crew had signalled for him to come in the next lap. Opinions differed widely amongst the other drivers as to who was directly to blame for the crash, and such differences remain even today. There were two key factors regarding the track layout at that time first, there was no designated deceleration lane for cars coming into the pits, and second, that just before the main straight, there was a very slight right-hand kink in the road just after which Hawthorn started braking. The wreckage was examined and tested and, finally, returned to Mercedes-Benz nearly twelve months after the catastrophe. The cars had no seat belts; the drivers reasoned that it was preferable to be thrown clear in a collision rather than be crushed or trapped in a burning car. When he pit stopped during the next lap, he staggered out of the car completely distraught, adamant that he had caused the catastrophe. The race authorities never called the race off. Pierre Eugne Alfred Bouillin (22 December 1905 - 11 June 1955) was a French sportsman and racing driver. But widen the scope of the camera, and you get a real feel that this victory had been tainted with something utterly terrible. Le Mans, France: Rescue workers pursue the grim task of extricating . 2023 Getty Images. Find Le Mans Disaster stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. "There was a doctor who was carrying his young son on his shoulders," Raymonde Galisson, a Le Mans resident who was among the spectators that day, told Sports Illustrated. [14][18] When he got to the media centre to use a telephone, he got his first inkling of the sheer enormity of the disaster, overhearing a reporter filing that 48 deaths were already confirmed. This newsreel without sound shows the crash as it actually happened. 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. [15][8], Macklin, on reading Hawthorn's 1958 autobiography, Challenge Me the Race, was embittered when he found that Hawthorn now disclaimed all responsibility for the crash without identifying who had caused it. The opening hours were a fast and furious affair with drivers battling for early supremacy. I stood as if in a dream, too horrified to even think., Mike Hawthorn and the Jaguar team kept racing. It had been Levegh's unprecedented solo drive in the 1952 race that failed in the last hour, which allowed Mercedes-Benz their first Le Mans victory. He invented traffic safety devices currently in use on highways, including the sand-and-air-filled Fitch barrels. Although Marchal was taken to the hospital, he died the following day. 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. As the Austin-Healey moved across the road, Levegh raised his hand. Search instead in Creative? Browse 63 1955 le mans disaster stock photos and images available or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. In 1957, D-Types were placed 1-2-3-4-6, with only a solitary Ferrari in 5th spoiling the parade. [25][3] Tony Rolt and other drivers had been raising concerns about the pit straight since 1953. Extricating the Dead and Dying. Extricating the Dead and Dying. Levegh's wife was inconsolable and Fitch stayed with her until she could be comforted. There was much debate over blame for the disaster. However, an inopportune press photograph showed Hawthorn smiling on the podium swigging from the victors bottle of champagne. In picture, shown on Finishing Straight, car numbered '25' (Jaguar Works, XKD 605, 'long-nose') was 6th at Le Mans in 1956. He was not aware that a barrier had been placed across the escape lane and he crashed heavily. Accounts put the death toll at 80 to 84 (spectators plus Levegh), either by flying debris or from the fire, with a further 120 to 178 injured. Vintage Everyday The deadliest crash ever in motor sports history happened in Le Mans, France, on June 12, 1955. The images may be black and white but even the faded frames of a tragedy 65 years ago still pack a powerful punch. We may earn a commission from links on this page. Eighty-three spectators and driver Pierre Levegh perished at the scene with 120 more injured in the most catastrophic accident in motorsport history Fast forward two hours and 26 minutes later, and disaster struck. "It's a most extraordinary sensation," Macklin said when recalling an incident that spun his car around and sent it skittling down the track backward. [25][26] Their retirement was briefly announced over the public address system. The investigation zeroed in on Hawthorns attempt to overtake British driver Lance Macklins Austin Healey and a sudden catastrophic decision to pit.
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