A big win – and serious injuries
Le Mans 1968 proved conclusively that Porsche had the pace to win the great race – but it wasn’t yet ready to go the distance. The 908s dominated the early stages, pole position winner Jo Siffert sailing off into a dominant lead after two hours. But a broken clutch accounted for his hopes at 7pm, while electrical problems cost his team-mates. By 10pm, Ford led Le Mans once again and JWA’s chassis #1075 would hold it all the way to the finish.
But these were dark times for motor racing, and in a year that had already witnessed the loss of Jim Clark, Jo Schlesser and Ludovico Scarfiotti, Le Mans was far from immune to tragedy. The first accident occurred on the opening lap and would have significant repercussions for a traditional, but sorely outdated, key feature.
As they always had, drivers sprinted across the track and jumped into their cars to start the race, but on this occasion Willy Mairesse was struggling. He failed to properly shut the door of his Ford GT40 and at the end of the Mulsanne straight crashed into the trees, suffering appalling injuries that left him in a coma for two weeks. Mairesse survived, but knew his racing career was over. His story ended tragically a year later when he took his own life.
The accident was the final straw that prompted Jacky Ickx to make his famous walking protest at the start of Le Mans 1969, the Belgian still fuming at the needless accident that had cost his countryman so dear. Ickx had made his point and the traditional run across the track was abandoned from 1970.
Accidents and injury seemed to dominate that era. The winning drivers in 1968 were the great Mexican maestro Pedro Rodriguez and Italian-born Lucien Bianchi – but they were only in #1075 because its regular drivers, Ickx and Brian Redman, had been ruled out by injury after surviving awful accidents in Formula 1: Ickx at Mont Tremblant in Canada, Redman at Spa. And at the finish, it must have been impossible for Bianchi to take much pleasure from the greatest win of his life. Just after 11am his brother Mauro had crashed in a fireball, sustaining terrible career-ending burns.