Race 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans

1 race

1.1 start
1.2 night
1.3 morning
1.4 finish , post-race

race
start

after rain in practice, race-day started wet dry start. tom cole’s allard first away, @ end of first lap, talbot of gonzález ahead of moss , cole. after 3 laps young, fast, stirling moss dashed lead , took on role become signature - hare sent out break pursuing hounds, running assigned pace. tragedy struck on sixth lap: french driver jean larivière crashed ferrari 212 heavily sandbank @ tertre rouge, getting airborne. killed instantly when virtually decapitated wire fence.

the race continued though, , moss set blistering pace, repeatedly lowering rosier’s 1950 lap record (eventually, on 6 seconds quicker). after hour, moss led gonzález, ahead of jaguars of biondetti , walker, talbots of chaboud , rosier. end of second hour, moss had put lap on whole field. @ four-hour mark moss & fairman had lead of on 2 laps, jaguar team running 1-2-3, ahead of talbots of gonzález , fangio.

soon afterward, rain returned , stayed rest of night. pace starting take toll: both allards had gone off track, , repairing damage put them down. chaboud’s talbot out radiator problems, , loss of oil pressure caused similar problem stopping biondetti jaguar. louis chiron, running in top 10, ran ferrari out of gas on-track, when officials found out mechanic had driven out him tank of fuel top disqualified.

in smaller classes, 1500cc gordinis comfortably ahead of english competition (the jowetts , mg) – @ times 40 seconds lap faster - manzon , trintignant running high 15th , 16th respectively, mixing bigger cars until both put out engine problems after 4 hours.

night

just before midnight, after car had held lead more 7 hours, moss’ impressive run came end – conrod broke due, biondetti, due major loss of oil pressure. after, rosier stopped split oil tank. remaining works jaguar of walker/whitehead inherited lead, lap ahead of gonzález/marimón. britons extended lead 7 laps, matching talbot’s pace through night until latter car retired blown head gasket @ halfway mark.

the ferrari challenge never materialised, although wealthy englishman eddie hall, had driven solo previous year 2nd place, had ferrari 340 high 3rd during night. big heavy cunninghams suffered in greasy wet conditions; 2 had been held in first couple of hours , down order. huntoon, co-driving boss’ car, slid off @ indianapolis wrecking steering, afterward rand spun car in traffic @ dunlop curve. missed other cars slammed roadside bank. third car though, of fitch/walters, had been in top 10 throughout, steadily picking places others fell out, , 2nd when talbot retired. allard/cole car had charged through field 4th after initial delay, stopped @ end of night broken gearbox.

back in junior classes, reserve-entry jowett left, gordinis making progress, 9-lap lead, when disaster struck – both remaining gordinis retired late in night yet more engine problems.

morning

as dawn broke, jaguar had comfortable 8-lap lead on cunningham, macklin/thompson aston martin , rolt/hamilton nash-healey. hall’s ferrari gave flat battery , not restart. 2 talbots of mairesse/meyrat , bouillin/marchand followed, trying stage fightback, split abecassis/shawe-taylor aston martin. order stayed constant through morning, until midday when cunningham hit pits engine problems. crew made repairs , crawled around doing occasional slow laps, waiting race-end. pushing hard, mairesse , meyrat picked off nash-healey in morning, passed aston martin 3rd 11am, became 2nd when cunningham stopped.

meanwhile, being sole survivor of s1500 class, still took jowett on hour overtake leading gordini on distance – cruised home finish 21st.

finish , post-race

in end, jaguar won @ canter, 9-lap lead on talbot. despite 16 hours of rain, jaguar broke distance record, covering on 3600 km. though mairesse put in fastest lap in last hour, , covered 2 more laps rosier’s winning talbot last year, meyrat , mairesse not going catch jaguar , again finished second. debutants pierre bouillin (racing under pseudonym levegh) , rené marchand, driving mairesse’s 1949-race talbot finished creditable 4th. aston martins again proved extremely reliable: 5 entered, 5 finished 3 works cars coming in 3rd, 5th , 7th , 1-2-3 in class. macklin & thompson in 3rd less lap behind talbot, having spent 10 minutes in pits during whole race. previous year, anglo-american nash-healey of rolt/hamilton had proven reliable. bigger engine, heavier weight meant never compete jaguars , talbots in class pace, reliability had got 4th in morning, until overtaken talbot , leading aston martin , finishing 6th. 1 of big ferraris finished – chinetti’s own, in 8th, although 3 of smaller ones did make end. lancia had run clockwork finishing 12th. incredibly had covered 2000 miles on single set of tyres, , driven turin after race.

after tribulations getting start, new porsche of auguste veuillet (the porsche agent in paris) won class @ first attempt; promising start exceptional association le mans. second year running biennial cup , index of performance both went works monopole pierre hérnard & jean de montrémy despite best attempts, neither fitch’s cunningham, second allard nor bentley classified – former 2 not final laps done in minimum time , latter missed minimum required distance 4 miles (half lap!).

the popular american adage of time – “win on sunday, sell on monday” – particularly apt jaguar. later estimated sales of us$12 million generated in usa alone le mans win. contrast, negative press gordini’s failure led simca withdrawing engine supply team.

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