Pages:
Click on one of the following images to open up the page:
Page 1 - Introduction - Explanatory Notes etc.
Page 2 - The Cast (In Alphabetical Order)
Page 3 - Preparations
Page 4 - Practice and Qualifications
Page 5 - The Race I: Before The Crash
Page 6 - The Crash
Page 7 - The Race II: After The Crash
Page 8 - Conclusion
Page 9 - Credits And Bibliography
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THE FASTLANE :: Features :: Le Mans 1955 Tribute :: Page 4
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4. Practice and Qualifications
During practice sessions several incidents occurred which are worth mentioning.
On Wednesday evening a rather foreboding accident happened in pit lane. Moss, for some reason in the Levegh #20 Merc, despite gesticulations and warning shouts from 2 officials was waved out of the pits by Neubauer, just as one of the D.B.-H.B.R. Panhards was moving to the right on the pit straight to allow an overtaking Ferrari. The result was that the Panhard brushed against the Merc, hit the parked Osca, and then hit the pit counter, injuring two journalists and Jean Behra, who sustained serious enough leg injuries to keep him out of the race - and everyone knows Behra as one of motor racing's ultimate hardmen, so we may safely assume that those injuries were considerable. The incident proved that Rolt's earlier statement about the dangers of the narrow entry to the pits was entirely justified. Levegh had also in a private moment in the days up to the race remarked to John Fitch that he "always had an uneasy feeling" on entering the funnel-like pit straight.
John Fitch taking over from Levegh, during practice, supervised by Neubauer:
Ferrari "preparations"...Castellotti his own direct relaxed opposite, when out of the car:
Porsche press chief Baron Rodenstein von Hanstein took the Olivier/Jeser Porsche for a spin, and hit a sand wall, possibly that at Arnage, which caused gravel to enter the radiator. The Porsche didn't work properly on race day, and von Hanstein had "forgotten" to mention his off to the drivers...
The Mercs were doing exceptionally well, and were actually breaking Froilan Gonzalez' 1954 lap record of 4:16.8 minutes. These times were not official race times, and as such didn't count, but were an indication of the amazing power of the 300SLR. On a humourous note, the new lever-operated air brake was a source of annoyance to the other drivers* who claimed they couldn't see ahead when a Mercedes was in front of them, applying the brake. Apparently, this caused Neubauer at one point to install a "window" in them - and if you look at one of the following pre-crash action shots of the Levegh Mercedes, you will see this "transparent air brake". In any case, it's definitely true that the air brake on several occasions scared competing drivers, who hadn't seen such a thing before, and thought that the bodywork was coming off the car...
Karl Kling's Mercedes leaving pits. There are spectators everywhere opposite, but no skid marks from Macklin's accident, which happened right outside the Mercedes pits, which eliminates the possibility of this being a race pic, because Kling didn't pit until the time of the accident. Someone just outside the pic to the right is leaning a flag or an umbrella or something against the track in front of the car:
Friday night practice saw the awful Gordini accident of Elie Bayol. The session was yellow-flagged after the car had crashed and half overturned approaching Maison Blanche, and Hawthorn, Levegh and Simon in succession had to evade the wreck blocking the track, at very high speeds (around 150km/h). One cannot somewhat cynically perhaps but wonder how little it might have taken for Levegh to have just slammed into the Gordini, quite possibly killing himself and Bayol - but ultimately sparing the lives of 81 spectators and rewriting motor racing history. Such speculations are not really in the interest of this post, so I'll leave that alone from now on.
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| In the testing sessions, Elie Bayol was stuck in his car after a bad accident. Help was unacceptably late in arriving, and during the next few days he hovered between life and death. The sympathetic driver is recovering these days. Here is his car after the wreck which dangerously blocked the track. |
This meant Robert Manzon didn't get to drive:
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| At the end of 1954 Amédée Gordini contacted Robert Manzon to convince him to “return home” for 1955. Manzon accepted. Nevertheless, the situation had not changed - the team were still in dire straits and unable to manufacture a competitive car. The results were poor as the French driver’s best result was a 5th place in Bordeaux, a minor F1 race... He even failed to drive at Le Mans as his team mate, Elie Bayol, destroyed the car during practice. |
- http://www2.arnes.si/~pflorj2/robertmanzon0.htm
Levegh or Fitch at Mulsanne Corner, possibly during night practice on Friday:
An accident for Peter Taylor's Arnott which happened under the Dunlop Bridge later ended the small Arnott Sports team's aspirations. He spun wildly on the finishing straight, then hit the barrier and was ejected from the car, but remained uninjured.
Still, 60 cars were ready at 4 o'clock on race day, with, somewhat surprisingly, Ferrari as fastest, due to the energetic efforts of the (tempera)mental Italian driver Castellotti, who'd clocked the best time at 4.14.1. He had a fiery temper, and took an early race lead, but couldn't sustain the fight, and was overtaken by the duelling Fangio and Hawthorn, sometime before the accident happened.
All in all, the spectators were from the start given something to talk about. They regarded the pit, Taylor and Bayol accidents as an accepted "part and parcel" of motorsport - an inherent risk of the game - which only the included the drivers. Nobody for a minute imagined that they were in any sort of danger.
Article about the practice and qualifying sessions:
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FOOTNOTES:
* = Mainly, of course, the Jaguar. "Lofty" England supposedly demanded that the window in the air brake be installed.
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