Race 1961 24 Hours of Le Mans

1 race

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

race
start

the day of race started light showers, time 4pm came around overcast conditions had dried out circuit. moss, always, quick dint of starting further grid, jim clark’s aston martin first car under dunlop bridge. 2 of last away mike parkes’ ferrari , augie pabst’s maserati. @ end of first lap, ginther in 246 sp led hill’s testarossa, hansgen’s maserati pedro rodriguez in nart ferrari, clark, moss & salvadori. within 5 laps, rodriguez had got front , ginther , hill built gap chasing pack, swapping places often. first pitstops , driver-changes came after 90 minutes of racing. 246sp able run 15 minutes longer before refuelling, therefore building bit of lead.

the showers returned around 6pm, wet enough make track slippery. walt hansgen went off @ speed @ tertre rouge, while running fourth. impact broke arm , cracked vertebrae. bill halford, running 7th in ecosse cooper after taking wheel, went off @ dunlop curve, hitting embankment @ 200kph (120mph). car rolled, throwing halford out luckily escaped scratches , bruises. bill mckay crashed ecosse sprite @ maison blanche breaking arm.

stirling moss & graham hill had been putting in incredible lap-times ferrari gt, leading gt division, ahead of aston martin , maserati prototypes. moss recorded 7th fastest racing lap ever on circuit. 7pm running fifth overall.

at 8pm, after 4 hours , 2 pitstops, race order ferraris of von trips, p.rodriguez, p.hill , parkes. salvadori 5th, last car on lead lap. came ferrari gts of moss, tavano , noblet clark in 9th. udt lotus leading index of performance, von trips in second .

night

the rain continued evening. 10.30pm ginther had pit have lights fixed cost them 10 minutes , several laps. left hill/gendebien ahead of rival rodriguez brothers team-mates parkes/mairesse. prevented race becoming dull, repetitive procession inter-team rivalry between nart , works team. close racing in damp night meant lead changed repeatedly through night. @ 1am, after 9 hours, 2 leading cars had done 123 laps, parkes-mairesse 3 laps back, ginther/von trips, moss/hill , salvadori/maggs on 118 laps. seventh pabst/thompson maserati 2 laps further back.

however, @ 1.30am walker ferrari nobbled dislodged fan blade slicing radiator hose, ending fine run. ferrari gt prototype had been running well, staying in top ten, stalking walker 250gt, in hours of sunday retired engine issues. not long before clark’s aston martin had blown engine on mulsanne straight while running 5th. essex aston martin of salvadori/maggs moved fifth place.

at 4am, rodriguez brothers led 3 works ferraris, aston martin , recovering maserati. noblet’s ferrari gt 7th, ahead of tavano’s gt prototype, leading porsche (bonnier/gurney) , trintignant’s gt. privateer db of masson/armagnac leading index of performance contrillier/foitek abarth.

morning

by dawn track drying again. @ 7.30am, nart car came pits bad misfire, , took half hour fix. von trips , ginther had driven hard after delay , managed second place, 4 laps behind hill/gendebien. @ 8am, bad miscalculation ferrari team ran von trips out of fuel in consecutive le mans. essex aston martin had been lapping consistently, moving 4th when ferrari retired. retired mid-morning split, leaking, oil tank.

another hard pursuit, time nart ferrari trying make lost half hour, kept spectators interested. midday had overtaken mairesse , in second. strain told on engine , @ 2pm, 2 hours go, rodriguez’ ferrari crawled pits terminal engine issues. bonnier , gurney had been running strong 5th became first porsche retirement when engine broke after 12.30pm. french aston martin gt had been running well, 3rd in class behind ferraris , 9th overall. hour go, @ last pitstop, mechanic left spanner in engine , short-circuited battery.

finish , post-race

from there on, team ferraris held station race finishing under soft rain. hill , gendebien, 1958 winners, won again finishing 3 laps (37.86 km (23.53 mi)) ahead of team-mates parkes/mairesse. third place, , thirteen laps further back, privateer ferrari gt of noblet/guichet ahead of pabst/thompson maserati. porsche had better race year, all-american gregory/holbert works car finishing excellent 5th, after consistently running in top-10 saturday night. herrmann/barth car came in 7th, while porsche gt of linge/pon 10th, winning class.

briggs cunningham had uncomplicated race in 2-litre maserati, never missing beat finished 8th. in fact, car spent shortest time in pits during race. triumph again staged formation finish, year 3 cars classified, best 1 finishing 9th. in competitive 850cc class, 2 ‘kiwis’ in abarth 850 beat chasing dbs home clear 6 laps. foitek/condrillier abarth had great misfortune break oil-pipe on penultimate lap preventing italian marque claiming 1-2 class finish.

this 5th win ferrari put on equal footing bentley , jaguar victories. win contributed significant year ferrari. bandini , scarfiotti won final round @ new race @ pescara securing world championship. baghetti went on purple streak winning first 3 f1 races , becoming driver win f1 world championship race in first opportunity, @ reims. ferrari won f1 constructor’s championship , phil hill , wolfgang von trips 2 contenders driver’s title sadly decided when von trips killed @ monza.

this last le mans stirling moss had career-ending crash @ goodwood in next year. in ten appearances never won, speed , competitiveness highlight spectators.

the index of performance again went db, not works team. instead small equipe chardonnet won prize. special sunbeam coupé won index of thermal efficiiency, , company promptly produced short run of “harrington le mans” model capitalise on success.

this last year of sportscar world championship (in current form) fia had decreed going forward, championship based around gt cars.