1969 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans was a motor race staged at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France on 14 and 15 June 1969. It was the 37th Grand Prix of Endurance and was the eighth round of the 1969 International Championship for Makes. The race was open to Group 6 Prototype Sports Cars, Group 4 Sports Cars and Group 3 Grand Touring Cars.

Porsche surprisingly had produced no less than 25 mighty Porsche 917 as Gr. 4 sports cars which were eligible to race with 4.5-litre 12-cylinder engines. As Porsche also had sorted out the 3-litre 8-cylinder Porsche 908, won 5 heats in a row, and already had wrapped up the International Championship for Makes, they were strong favourites to achieve their first outright Le Mans win. The 917 was offered to privateers, and John Woolfe acquired one just before the race.

It was the last year with the traditional "Le Mans" style start, in which the drivers run across the track to enter their cars, start them, and race away. The previous year, Willy Mairesse crashed on the first lap while trying to properly close the door of his car at speed on the Mulsanne Straight; the crash would have been avoided entirely if not for the Le Mans-style start, and it ended Mairesse's racing career. During the 1969 start, eventual winner Jacky Ickx famously staged his own one-man protest by walking to his car, and taking his time doing up his belts. Meanwhile, privateer John Woolfe ran with the other drivers, but with little experience in the very fast 917, he flipped on the opening lap near Maison Blanche corner, and not yet strapped in properly, was killed when he was ejected from the car that broke up.

The race was one of the most exciting in the event's history. Including several 911, more than one-third of the starting cars were Porsches, and the two mighty factory-entered 917s held the lead for 90% of the race before the drivetrains failed, like in most 908.

When also the Elford/Attwood 917's gearbox broke at 11 a.m., it was the Ford of Ickx and Jackie Oliver that took over the lead. The race ended in a 3-hour sprint, with the Ford battling the pursuing Porsche 908 of Hans Herrmann and Gérard Larrousse non-stop. With both cars having issues, in the end, the Ford GT40 – the same chassis that had won the previous year – took the chequered flag just 120 metres ahead of the Porsche after 24 hours of racing.