The 1955 Le Mans 24 hour Race.

As regular Forum Members will know, I've mentioned in my Posts, from time to time, the experiences that my father had of war living in the U.K. during WW2 as a child. Because he was born in 1934 it meant that he was 21 in 1955 and became of age. Because he was interested in cars and motor racing at the time it was decide by his parents to pay for him to go to Le Mans to watch the 24 hr race, as part of his birthday celebrations, together with a friend. With the war well behind them, and the unpleasant experiences that my father had suffered during the war, this trip was supposed to be a happy and pleasant experience for my father.

As is well known there was a serious crash in which a Mercedes had a collision on the track and then ended up crashing into the crowd as well as catching fire. I believe that this remains the worst ever motor racing accident to this day because it claimed the lives of more than 80 people and injured nearly 180. It remains controversial to this day, that the race was allowed to continue despite the awful carnage on the trackside.

My father and his friend, thankfully escaped without any injury but the memories of the race were permanently etched onto his memory. What isn't well known or mentioned is the fantastic job that the off duty American servicemen did on that sad day helping with the rescue effort and doing anything that they could to help with the aftermath of the crash.

I was wondering if there are any of our older American Forum members who were there on that fateful day, as young servicemen, and helped with the rescue effort? It would be interesting to hear from them if there is and about their memories. I would also like to publicly thank them for the help that they gave.

I found this youtube film of the accident which may be of interest. I feel that I should give the film a health warning to anyone who is easily upset because it does show some of the aftermath of the crash as well as events leading unto the crash. The film has not been sanitised too much so anyone who may find it upsetting, please don't look at it.

Le Mans Disaster (1955) - YouTube

Jackie Stewart played a massive part in getting the organisational structure to change their way of thinking, and making the sport even safer as we see it today.

Sadly there are still deaths but nothing like those days. Horendous aftermath of hot burning parts flying through the air, killing many innocent spectators.

Bernie Ecclestone took it forward and spent a fortune revolutionising the sport of F1, recently sold it, and now a very happy retired man, with a young attractive wife.

I remember when Senna died which was I feel a sad loss to F-1 racing in the era of ground effects which they banned in the end, it was not the impact that killed him but a steering rod that penetrated his visor & head I forget what speed he was doing when the car lost control but his corrective actions were applied 1/4 of a second after he felt the car starting to lose control now that is very quick.
If you watch the Isle of Mann TT footage on the bike riders then they average nearly a death every race year it is so fraught with danger they are doing 260-275kph I had my VF 1000R flat out at 255kph on numerous occasions on the open road here in the mid 80's and can say that you get precious little time to react if it goes pear shaped infact may as well kiss your ring goodbye.
Pic of my bike after a wash & polish @1985

Hard to believe but they say that according to the onboard computer, Senna actually applied the brakes within a tenth of a second of the car beginning to go out of control. They say it takes most of us about 1-2 seconds to react to a situation and apply the brakes. When you see him at the start of that race he looks very much like he knew something was going to happen. He was struck on the head by a wheel with suspension components still attached and they say that is what actually killed him IIRC.

I was running from memory having only seen the doco on him years ago when it first come out either way his reaction time and car driving skills put him way up there with the likes of Fanjio, Moss, Schumacher, Lauda, Rossberg.

From Wiki;
On lap 7, the second lap at racing speed, Senna's car left the racing line at the 190 mph Tamburello corner, ran in a straight line off the track and struck an unprotected concrete barrier. Telemetry shows he left the track at 310 km/h (190 mph) and was able to slow the car down by braking to 218 km/h (135 mph) in slightly under 2 seconds before hitting the wall. The car hit the wall at a shallow angle, tearing off the right front wheel and nose cone and spinning to a halt.

After Senna's car stopped he was initially motionless in the cockpit. After about ten seconds, as recorded by the close-up aerial footage, his head was seen to lift to the left before returning to its original position. Thereafter he did not move again. What appeared to have happened was that the right front wheel shot up upon impact and entered the cockpit, striking the right frontal area of his helmet. The violence of the wheel's impact pushed his head back against the headrest, causing fatal skull fractures.[8] A piece of suspension attached to the wheel had partially penetrated his Bell M3 helmet and caused trauma to his head.[8] In addition, it appeared that a jagged piece of the upright assembly had penetrated the helmet visor just above his right eye.[8] Senna was using a medium-sized (58 cm) M3 helmet with a new "thin" Bell visor. Any one of the three injuries would probably have killed him.[8]

Remember also Roland Ratzenburger who also died on the same weekend; during Saturday practice.
Le Mans is an iconic race. The 1955 accident was the worst single accident in motorpsort. But there have been plenty of bad ones.
I've been a few times to the 24 hour; but prefer the Le Mans Classic. Which I've been to many times as a team mechanic.

I came across these 3 still photographs taken by my father at the race. The smoke from the crash can just about be made out on the centre picture and the picture of the Jaguar (last pic) is believed to be Mike Hawthorn winning the race.