17 replies to this topic

[rdrcr]

I was just curious ~

For many, many years, the famous endurance events were begun with the "running start" - though not with the cars moving, but rather with the drivers sprinting across the track where the cars were lined up in their qualifying order.

I know why this type of starting procedure was eliminated. The dangers of drivers being hit and not to mention, most of the field flying off down the track while still sorting out their belts along the way... But how did this practice start and why? Was it some sort of physical equalization thing or to prove that racing car drivers were in fact fit and could actually run?

Thanks for your insights...

[WDH74]

I've always called this kind of start a "LeMans Start", and if I remember correctly the 24 hour race at the Sarthe was where this practice started. At the time (very early in the event's history), the cars were supposed to be fully road legal, and have full weather equipment (unless the car was a coupe). Apparently, the drivers were required to sprint across the track, put the top up, and complete the first laps with the hoods erected (forget how many laps at the moment). Plus, since the cars were supposed to essentially be road cars, they should be capable of starting and driving off at a moment's notice, right? Your reasons for the practice ending are quite correct, though-I've read stories about drivers roaring off and completing the first lap without belts, with doors not properly latched, lights not on, etc. Wasn't it Jacky Ickx who famously opposed the practice by strolling sedatley across the starting straight, avoiding the sprinters, and was just about the last one to take off?
-William

[lanciaman]

Moss famously wanted to be first across the track, though I thought it was Hawthorne who stolled to the car.

[dbltop]

Didn't someone die in a first lap wreck of a 917 because his seatbelts were undone? I forget what year it was. The starting procedure was changed after that.

[Felix Muelas]

You mean John Woolfe?

Was his accident related -as either the origin of or the last drop of water in the jar- to the change of starting procedure at Le Mans? Does any of our experts know?

[WGD706]

1970 saw the first non Le Mans start as the drivers started strapped into their cars, although still starting from the side of the pit wall.
1971 saw the introduction of the now familiar rolling start.

In 1969, 3 917s entered Le Mans but none were to finish, 2 were works teams and one was a privateer driven by John Woolfe and Digby Martland. The first lap was to see disaster for the the private team and was also to have an effect on the Works teams, John Woolfe had pushed to be driving the first lap. He was a relatively unknown driver with little experience in international racing at this level and the 917 on this circuit was not a car for the inexperienced. The car spun at the White House bend after Woolfes wheels touched the grass, the car hit the barriers and the car exploded with full fuel tanks. Sadly John Woolfe died from his injuries. This was a bitter and disheartening blow for all the Porsche teams. The 2 works teams continued on only to be put out of the race by clutch bell housing problems. the only significant place for Porsche was a second place for a Porsche 908 behind a Ford GT40 driven by Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver. Starting 13th, Ickx protested the traditional Le Mans start. Instead of running across to his machine, he calmly walked across the track. He and teammate would win the race by the smallest of margins, 100 yards.
Whether Ickx's protest had any major role in abandoning the Le mans start,I don't know. From what i can find, it was due to the compulsory wearing of seat-belts and a newly-constructed armco barrier between the pit lane and the track, the 1970 race started with drivers strapped into their cars with the engine 'dead'.
Warren

[rdrcr]

Thanks William,

I never knew about the machinations prior to getting into one's car in the early days. Sort of like when riders pushed their motorcycles to get them started. It all seems insane now. Not like the activity isn't dangerous as hell to begin with.

That's true about Jacky Ickx. I'm sure the safety aspects made a lot of sense to a man like Ickx, who knew that a lot could happen in 24 hours. Seems like the 5 time winner had the right idea.

Regarding Woolfe, I don't know if that was the last straw or not for the Le Mans type start. I've read that he was going to take it easy in the 917 because he was a bit unnerved by it. During the excitement of the start he neglected to fasten his belts and was killed when he crashed. That was 1969 wasn't it?

Thanks Warren for those insights too...

[Barry Boor]

I have 2 favourite Le Mans start stories.

Without looking either one up, I may well have the facts wrong (oh what a surprise, I hear!) but these are they.

One driver, I think Fangio, managed to leap into his car during one Le Mans start, only to find that the gear lever had gone up his trouser leg. I imagine he was fairly slowly away. I would guess this has happened more than once.

The second is the race in 1958 when Hawthorn started to run to his car well before the flag fell in order to beat Stirling away. Apparently Stirling shouted "You bastard, Hawthorn!" which caused Mike to have near hysterics, and thus be unable to get away because he was laughing so much.

[WDH74]

I seem to recall reading that during one LeMans start (forget which event), Harry Schell tackled the driver next to him in order to be first away (or in order to be a smartaleck), to cries of "Schell you b@$&@*d!"
Many moons ago I saw a series of action shots of a LeMans start, from one of Colin Chapman's last races as a driver. Chapman managed to be first to the cars, despite the nickname "Chunky", and managed to get hung up trying to squeeze into his Lotus Eleven. By the time he was settled in, everyone else had scuttled off.
-William

[oldtimer]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
I have 2 favourite Le Mans start stories.

Without looking either one up, I may well have the facts wrong (oh what a surprise, I hear!) but these are they.

The second is the race in 1958 when Hawthorn started to run to his car well before the flag fell in order to beat Stirling away. Apparently Stirling shouted "You bastard, Hawthorn!" which caused Mike to have near hysterics, and thus be unable to get away because he was laughing so much.

Barry, that was the 1958 Nurburgring 1000Km race, with Hawthorn on pole position.

There were also high jinks at Goodwood when Duncan Hamilton meandered over to Archie Scott-Brown's Lister-Jag and switched off the fuel pumps. Archie was not amused by the second attempt, but the last laugh was on Hamilton, who did a 180 degree loop on his take off.

[Alan Lewis]

This thread reminds me of the Brockbank cartoon reproduced in DSJ's Automobile Year Book of Sportscar Racing .

A driver (who looks uncannily like Graham Hill) is arguing with a fellow competitor over something or and continues the tirade as they sprint to their cars. Cue the last frame with the field speeding away - all save the car of "Graham" who is rather nonplussed to find himself in the passenger seat of his victim's machine.

...OK, it works better in pictures...

APL

[Catalina Park]

Originally posted by Alan Lewis
This thread reminds me of the Brockbank cartoon reproduced in DSJ's Automobile Year Book of Sportscar Racing .

A driver (who looks uncannily like Graham Hill) is arguing with a fellow competitor over something or and continues the tirade as they sprint to their cars. Cue the last frame with the field speeding away - all save the car of "Graham" who is rather nonplussed to find himself in the passenger seat of his victim's machine.

...OK, it works better in pictures...

APL

I have always loved this Brockbank cartoon.

[Alan Lewis]

Thank you, I knew someone would come to the rescue.

APL

[Geoff E]

I saw a minute's recording of the 2003 Le Mans motorcycle 24 hours race on TV this morning. The race started with the riders running across the track, like they used to do with the cars.

[D-Type]

Once upon a time Stirling Moss was being interviewed by a US radio commentator just before the start of a sports car race with a Le Mans start.
The flag dropped.
Moss said "Sorry, got to go" and took off!

Not all sports cars had user-friendly door handles. For example you opened the door of some MGA's by reaching inside and pulling on a wire. So the more athletic drivers would jump over the door. Who was it who broke a windscreen?
For the less gymnastic, the fix was simple - you wedged a penny in the latch so you just pulled the door and it opened.

I have heard the Nurburgring 1958 and Duncan Hamilton tales before. Surely there must be an Innes Ireland story there somewhere. Anybody?

[Frank S]

There is something poignant embodied in the program cover photo, Sebring, 1958.
The image must have been made at the start of 1957's edition.




Driven to be at the center of things, the principal component of the thick personage standing on track sacrificed safety (his own and that of a minion) and decorum in choosing his place and function. Who could choose such a spot and stand in it? Who could suggest standing in such a spot and not be laughed off the premises? Somebody at the very top of the organization chart, I reckon.

Imagine being told by the boss-man that you were expected to snuggle up to him at a location likely to be in the trajectory of angry machinery. Small-bore, but angry nevertheless.

Or is there something else going on here? I notice the green flag is still up, and all but that part of the field near the starter is at full lean, at least. It is to laugh.


Frank S

[Macca]

The other cartoon about Le Mans starts that springs to mind is a Brockbank in 'Motor' where the little man is tying his shoelace as the flag drops and by the time he gets across the track there are no cars left at all!

Regarding accidents after a Le Mans start, IIRC Willy Mairesse crashed his GT40 on the Mulsanne Straight on the first lap in 1968 after his unlatched door came open and he suffered the arm and head injuries that ended his career and, ultimately, his will to live - but were his seatbelts undone also?

Graham Hill was another driver who, like Moss, had Le Mans starts worked out - he took the lead for the first lap in the Aston DP212 in 1962 and in the Alan Mann Ford MkII in 1966, this despite his famously bowed leg as a result of a road motorbike crash as a young man.

And as for dodgy places to stand, 'Toto' Roche used to start races at Rheims while standing in the middle of the road, and then run, or waddle, out of the way - unfortunately in 1959 he was standing in front of France's great hope Jean Behra in the works Ferrari, who, in an act of unusual humanity declined to run the fat fool down and consequently dropped to the back of the field and blew his engine while trying to catch the leaders (which led to his leaving the Ferrari team as a result of ending the ill-timed rantings of the Ferrari team manager about over-revving with a well-timed right hook - but that belongs on the fisticuffs thread!)


PM

[WDH74]

Something occurred to me in rereading this thread-that the movie LeMans (someone had to go there!) was off by a year in showing a LeMans start. The year they filmed (1970), a sort of Quasi-LeMans Start was used- the cars were parked in echelon along the straight, but the drivers were strapped in, engines off, waiting for the flag. And, if you've ever seen the film, that pre-race sequence-drivers sitting in the silent cars, checking things work, that eerie silence as someone slams the door shut-is just great.
A real "What-If?" scenario. What would Steve McQueen and Co. have come up with had they done a "proper" LeMans start that year?
-William