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Half a dozen of
Porsche 917´s in modified version that included a flat nose cone a la
908/03 "Targa", long tail rear end with vertical fins
maintaining a long horizontal wing, careened back wheels and an
inexplicably homologated 6 litre engine, monopolized the greater
amount of lead and ink, in the cover of the most important newspapers
of the world in the last weekend, on the basis of speeding though the
five kilometers of the Hunnaudieres straight at almost 400 km/h,
turning everywhere like authentic "scalextric" slot cars and
to win a race that already was "in the pocket" even before
the start, due to the total absence of considerable opposition.
Jackie
Oliver was in charge to show the intentions that Porsche had, when in
the practice sessions he managed the best lap time clocked in Le Mans
to the present day: 3m13s9/10
at 250.069 km/h average speed, and reaching, during night practice,
the barbaric top speed of 396.004 km/h in the Hunnadieres straight,
managing to shadow his famous co driver Pedro Rodriguez -star of the
race- in the pre-race prognoses.
Vic
Elford, however, won the qualifying sessions with Team International
Martini’s 917, setting a lap time of 3m14s9/10 at 248.786 km/h
average speed.
The
special 917´s which were going to dispute the race between
themselves, were those of Elford-Larrousse, Rodriguez-Oliver,
Siffert-Bell, Attwood-Müller and Van Lennep-Marko, whereas the only
non-Porsche machinery that had a slight possibility of obtaining the
triumph were, peculiarly, Ferraris that, although private entries,
were all transformed into 512M with the best spare available for that
model, arranged by the factory. Their more fierce drivers were paired
like this: Vaccarella-Juncadella with the Escudería Montjuich
machine, Parkes-Pescarolo with the Scudería Filippinetti car,
Posey-Adamowicz with one of the North American Racing Team cars, and
as a last minute entry, the other NART machine, driven by Donohue and
Hobbs, Sunoco drivers, that, with permission of Roger
Penske, traveled
to La Sarthe to help out with the anti-Porsche effort.
On
June 12th, 1971 at exactly four o clock in the afternoon, the pace car
led the way to the 49 cars that had entered the marathon, with Pedro
Rodriguez taking the lead immediately, while the cars at the back of
the pack, were still whirling trying to sort out the quite ridiculous
chicane of the main straight. The pace imposed by the Mexican was not
as expected, according to its previous declarations: "We
are going to use the consistency as a basis of our performance for the
24 hours. This is an endurance test, not a Grand Prix".
But Pedrito blasted away immediately, and it wasn’t long before he
had built a solid advantage on Elford, Siffert and the rest.
After four hours of
race, in which the abandonments were not important, and the Porsches
ran in howling groups, almost in a demonstrative formation of their
power, the meteorological services announced the rain possibility
during the night; one of the most nervous moments seen at pit lane,
happened when under the dark sky, every team was prepared to change
-in record time- the dry wheels by apt rubbers to circulate under
rain.
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Mark Donohue
with its Ferrari 512M, was giving at that time a chilling
spectacle, trying to stay in draft with the Porsche 917´s in
the long back straightaway, and replacing with hands, the
absence of power in the twisty sections. |
Ferrari #22
managed second place, but only while the German cars stopped in pits,
alas, when it was his turn for refueling, the slow pit crew of the
NART team -nothing to do with the matchless organization, almost
scientific, of Roger Penske´s crew- ended up not only losing the
accumulated advantages but allowing tenths of seconds until the car
was back on the track.
Siffert and Bell did
not have luck. After the first pitstop of the race, they managed to
lead the pack for a while during the second hour, but from there on,
they gradually started to lose ground due to inopportune pitstops, and
finally at the seventh hour of the race, the motor of the 917 could
not take more and abandoned.
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Joseph Siffert and Derek
Bell´s weapon for the 24 hours, 1971
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Elford-Larrousse of
Team International Martini had been doing a good race, based among
other things on the refueling system that the team used.
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This
system was the fastest of all. Using tilted cans they managed to
refuel so quickly that their stops, including driver change,
tyres, etc. did not last more than 20 seconds, against 30
seconds of Team Wyer and approximately 50 seconds of
Filippinetti or NART.
See more about
refueling in the "Miscelaneous" Section (Under
construction) |
To
the fifth hour of the race, Elford-Larrousse that were running third,
and Donohue-Hobbs had abandon the race with their motors burst by the
effort, hence the advantage kneaded by Rodriguez-Oliver (with lap
record scored by Oliver), was unbeatable by Attwood-Müller, who were
second.
At
three o clock in the morning, while Pedro Rodriguez, satisfied,
savored a coffee back in the paddock, Jackie Oliver entered the pits
suddenly with a broken wheel hub, vanishing his teammate’s dreams of
glory. Half an hour later, Rodriguez would go back to the track with
the problem solved to try to recover some ground - they were sixth,
but it would stop later on, now definitively. The oil conduits were
broken flooding the cockpit and spilling hot oil everywhere; and with
the motor practically melted, there was no other alternative than to
abandon.
To
all this, Van Lennep and Marko had been gaining terrain on the
leaders, and took the lead almost at the same time that Wyer´s
mechanics pushed the broken car of Rodriguez-Oliver. From that moment
on, 4:20 in the morning, and to the end of the race, those that in the
end would be the winners, continued with the steady pace of the
beginning, and thus without haste and pause, they managed to beat the
average speed record and therefore, the distance traveled was the
highest of the test, surpassing by four kilometers per hour and almost
one hundred kilometers crossed, the numbers obtained by Foyt-Gurney
back in 1967.
Gijs
Van Lennep and Helmut Marko obtained, peculiarly, their first
triumph in Sport, on the basis of running a steady -
although quick- pace, and applying what the favorite Rodriguez had
said that was going to do and didn’t do. On
the picture above, we can see the galant winner, with the scars of a
job well done,
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Photo courtesy of Philippe Moriniere
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The
winning car seen from behind, an unusual scene.
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Photo courtesy of Andrés Solerno
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Huge
pack, leaded by whom eventually would win the 24 hour race.
Amongst others, 917 #23 of Kahusen/Jöst, and #19 of
Attwood/Müller,
of the Gulf-Wyer Team. |
In second place, and
two laps behind the winners, were Attwood-Müller with John
Wyer´s 917K #19. On the picture below, Team Wyer-Gulf
staff members can be seen geting the cars prepared.
The Wyer-Gulf cars revised by team members. First on
917 # 19 of Attwood/Müller. Behind, car #18 of Rodríguez/Oliver and
further back, car # 17 of Siffert/Bell. - (Photo
courtesy of Philippe Moriniere)
Third place was for North American Racing Team´s Ferrari
512S, driven by americans Sam Posey and Tony Adamowicz,
who finished 31 laps behind the leaders.
La Ferrari 512S del NART conducida por
Posey-Adamowicz. (Foto cortesía de Philippe
Moriniere)
Le
Mans however, has won very little. So it is that the confusion arises
and instead of changing the rulebook forbidding those leviathans
capable of speeds near 400 km/h, they think to destroy the Hunnadieres
straight and to replace it by a winding section less quick than the
infamous fastest straight of the championship. Little by little, Le
Mans is becoming less like Le Mans to become a race as expendable as
any other.
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