The deadliest accident in motorsport history

motorsport is enormous ly popular in the world today aren't any given Sunday there might be as many as 500 million fans tuning in to watch a formula warm the world's most popular form of motorsport in the United States are an estimated 75 million fans of NASCAR an industry that brings in more than two and a half billion dollars in annual revenue motorsport began almost as soon as the invention of motor vehicles began and over its history to serve to both develop and advertise developments in automotive technology and yet much of the way that we manage modern motorsport was defined in a single moment an incident that is surprisingly not all that well known among the world's hundreds of millions of motorsport fans the 1955 disaster at LeMans the deadliest motorsport accident in history the accident that changed everything deserves to be remembered organized motorsport racing started as early as at least 1894 with the Paris to rule motor race sponsored by the newspaper loop a teacher now with the hopes of spurring automotive development the prizes were actually determined by ideal including ease of driving not just fastest speed first prize in the 126 kilometers share between two automobile manufacturers Pinard and lava soar and the fee to Pooja Frey although the fastest finish was by Joel's Albert the counter Dion in his steam-powered de dion-bouton the winning cars mustered between three and four horsepower and managed speeds between 17 and 19 km/h but racing on open roads between cities was dangerous as automobiles became faster and crowds of spectators grew the 1903 Paris to Madrid race included a number of accidents that caused the death of five drivers and three spectators and caused the French parliament to call off the race when the drivers reached the city of Bordeaux the accidents were attributed to insufficient crowd control and dust obscuring vision but also the result of automobile development where cars were now powered by as much as 45 horsepower engines and reached speeds of up to 140 km/h faster than the fastest trains at the time at the time some fear that the accidents in the Paris to Madrid race would spell the end of automobile racing what it did instead is she driving from public roads to racing on a circuit or multiple laps along a circle of closed public roads and the development of private racetracks such as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway completed in 1909 by the mid 1920s cars like the Bugatti type 35 possibly the most successful racing car model in history had supercharged engines providing more than 120 horsepower and could achieve top speeds of over 200 km/h and what had become commonly known as Grand Prix racing but the problem was that Grand Prix racing which focused on the manufacturers ability to build the fastest car and was the forerunner of today's Formula One racing was diverting more and more from production models and thus the motorsport of endurance racing developed as a production based alternative to the pure bred racing machines of Grand Prix racing endurance racing differs from Grand Prix and that the goal is to test both the durability of the automobile and driver endurance either by covering a set long distance as fast as possible or by covering the most distance in a set amount of time the format encourages innovation in reliability and fuel efficiency which offers more benefits to manufacturers in terms of production design distances could be truly spectacular such as the 16 thousand kilometer 1908 New York to Paris auto race but one of the most popular formats was a 24 hour race in May of 1923 the first of what was then called the 24 hour Grand Prix of endurance was held in LeMans France the winning car was a Shannara a walker that averaged 92 km/h that race became what would become known as the most prestigious endurance race in Motorsports the 24 Hours at LeMans run annually since 1923 with the exception of 1936 due to general strikes in France and the 10-year period between 1939 and 1940 9 due to the Second World War 24 hours at LeMans is the world's oldest active sports car race in endurance racing following the combined path of private roads and closed public streets the circuit called the Circuit de la Sarthe is one of the longest circuits in the world originally 17.2 six kilometres long but shortened to 13 point four six nine kilometers or about eight and 1/3 miles in 1932 it is known as a particularly fast track with nearly 85% of the lap time spent at full throttle placing stress on the engine and drivetrain while the famously sharp turn at the village of Milan causes tremendous wear on the brakes and suspension the circuit had a pitch straight that was described as frightening li narrow at just three point seven meters or 12 feet wide the pit was merely part of the track not separated by a pit lane and there was no deceleration lane for cars that were pitting aside from resurfacing the 1932 circuit had been little changed by the time of the race on a brilliant sunny day June 11th of 1955 but the cars had changed in practice runs the top quality field had blown away track records with a Ferrari 120 LM clocking a maximum speed of over 290 km/h down the Mulsanne straight it was one of the best entry lists in race history in the Golden Age of sports cars and one of the most eagerly anticipated races in a decade hundreds of thousands of spectators were expected the 1955 race had changed from rules lifting the replenishment window for fuel oil and water from 30 to 32 laps but increase in the allotment for fuel that generated extra interest in the pits that year and attracted more crowds to that section of the track the race in 1954 had been closed between the winning Ferrari team and second-place Jaguar but the big news in 1955 was to the return of a Mercedes team Mercedes had won the race in 1952 but had been absent in 1953 and 1954 in 1955 mercedes-benz had taken the sportscar world by storm with the innovative Mercedes 300 SLR or sport light racing 300 SLR s were rated by many experts as the best sports cars in the world the sleek design was based on the company's Formula One car the engine was longitudinally mounted just behind the front axles and the car used a welded aluminum tube spaceframe chassis and ultralight electron magnesium alloy body work the car lacked disc brakes instead using extra-large drum brakes and an innovative windbreak that hinged up in the back to slow the car at the end of straightaways the 300 SLR had taken the sportscar world by storm in 1955 Italy's Mille Miglia and setting an event record further win secured the 1955 World Sportscar Championship the three cars of the mercedes-benz team were managed by the legendary Alfred Neubauer who had led the mercedes-benz Silver Arrows through a period of racing dominance in the 1930s for the 1955 race neubauer had put together an international team of drivers which included French racing legend Pierre Levegh a Levay had placed many times at 24 hours at LeMans but in 1952 Vevey had been four laps ahead when his car suffered engine failure in the last hour of the race and that had prevented him from becoming the first and only driver to win the 24 Hours of LeMans single-handedly neubauer had been so impressed that he told the Veii that the next time that mercedes returned to the race at the 24 Hours of LeMans lavae would be on the team LaVey who was also a world-class ice hockey player and tennis player was nearly 50 years old in 1955 Vevey and his co-driver American John Fitch had decided to keep a regular pace on the first day and attack on day two when the other drivers were tired in the third hour of the race around lap 35 for the leaders another mercedes-benz team was vying for the lead versus Jaguar and Levay was driving running sixth Jaguar driver Michael Hawthorn who had already run the fastest lap in race history at four minutes 6.6 seconds had just passed Levay and driver Lance Macklin driving an austin-healy 100 when he got called to pit the track had a slight kink just before the pit following the rules Hawthorn raised his hand to show that he was pitting and braked hard to get into the narrow pit lane the events disc brakes of the Jaguar slowed the car quickly Macklin haven't been overtaken by Hawthorn in the Jaguar was more likely concerned with Lovaza Mercedes coming from behind him and also had to brake quickly to avoid the collision with Hawthorn as he braked his wheel slipped over the right-hand edge of the track it is still not clear if Macklin briefly lost control because of going off the track or if he was simply reflexively swerving as a result but he came across the central track right in front of LaVey who had been closing at over 200 km/h the fast braking in the foray off the track threw up a cloud of smoke and dust obscuring the Bey's view there was no time for lavatory he slammed into Macklin's austin-healey reportedly lavey had time to throw up his hand signaling argentinian driver Juan Manuel Fangio in the Mercedes following him allowing him time to react and saving his life Macklin's car careened across the track and struck a wall killing a spectator but Macklin got out unscathed Lovaza front wheel had ridden up the back of the left rear of Macklin's austin-healey the car careened into the air tumbling drivers were no seatbelts then positing that they were better off being thrown clear than caught in a burning wreck 49 year old Pierre la veille was thrown from the car crushing his skull killing him instantly the car hit the 4 foot embankment separated the track and spectators because of the kink in the track the car was on a trajectory straight into the spectators who were masked up to watch the cars entering the pit area as it bounced off the barrier it flew into a concrete stairwell part of the stands and disintegrated parts of the car the engine the radiator the front axle careened into the packed crowd the bonnet or engine hood flew through the air like a knife a driver in the pit said of the scene the dead and dying were everywhere the cries of pain anguish and despair screamed catastrophe I stood as if in a dream to horrify to even think sources still disagree over the total death toll but most indicate that in addition to Pierre la veille at least 83 spectators were killed in more than a hundred twenty others were injured it was the deadliest accident in the history of motorsport the Mercedes team decided that they would quit the race in respect for those who were killed across the large track many of the spectators didn't even know the accident had occurred until the announcement that Mercedes was quitting the race lovasco driver American John Fiske and Levesque wife Denise beyond witnessed the accident from the pit area race organizers decided that they would not end the race they were afraid if the hundreds of thousands of spectators started going home it would clog the roads and emergency vehicles wouldn't be able to come the Jaguar team was invited also to quit but they declined and Hawthorn ended up winning the race and setting a new track record although he received quite a lot of criticism in the French press for celebrating his victory and many people blamed the accident on Hawthorn in response several countries immediately banned auto racing including France Spain Germany and Switzerland until safety was improved for spectators Switzerland still has a ban on circuit racing in force today except for electric vehicles the race organisers at LeMans made significant changes widening the pit adding a deceleration lane and eliminating the track kink the impact would be on LeMans and endurance racing track safety became a defining movement in Formula One the United States formed an entirely new motorsport governing body the United States Auto Club as a result of the accident as an industry motorsport became more focused on track safety and technology practices the tragedy has been described as the accident that changed everything there was a protracted official investigation that eventually cleared Hawthorn of any wrongdoing and decided that no driver was at fault it was they decided simply a racing accident however they did blame the death of the spectators on poor track design and safety standards to this day people still disagree over who was responsible for the crash but one thing is certain the 1955 LeMans disaster deserves to be remembered i'm the history guy and i hope you enjoyed this edition of my series of short snippets of forgotten history about ten minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button which is there on if you have any questions or comments feel free to write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond and if you'd like more snippets of cotton history all you need to do is subscribe

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 863,069

Rating: 4.918016 out of 5

Keywords: history, the history guy, france, history guy, le mans, motorsport, auto racing

Id: 0n8pv9L1fko

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 18 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Massive-Gas]

I'm a motorsport fan that just found your channel yesterday. Even though I knew about this disaster already, I was still compelled to watch. Great research and delivery; keep it up!

[u/Tiny_Pay]

Excellent presentation...indeed , tragedies such as the one at the 1955 Lemans need to be remembered...spectators at racing events need to know the potential dangers.

[u/MorganSteele]

Le Mans '55 was a watershed moment in motorsports racing but it would take another 15 years for the sport to progress and not without valiant efforts and sacrifices of those including Sir Jackie Stewart. Ultimately, I tend to look at Le Mans 55 as less a failure of individual decisions and more of a clash of cultures and technology (e.g., race cars with drum brakes vs. race cars with disk brakes and, of course, the use of magnesium). The ultimate lesson is that we must always be vigilant and not think that technology can remove the drivers from the real dangers that face them.