1971 24 Hours of Le Mans

39th 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race
the 1971 race

The 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 39th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 12 and 13 June 1971. It was the ninth round of the 1971 International Championship for Makes. This year would be the swansong of the mighty 5 litre engines – the incoming regulations would put a 3 litre limit on engine capacity for Group 5 Sports Cars. As it turned out, there was a perfect confluence of the fastest and most powerful racing cars yet seen at Le Mans, a long fast track and extended good weather to produce the fastest race in the event's history to date setting a record that would stand for almost 40 years. Although there were few accidents this year, there were many cars delayed or forced to retire with mechanical problems and only twelve cars were classified at the finish. Winners, at a record speed, were Gijs van Lennep and Helmut Marko in their Team Martini Porsche 917.

With the imminent ban of engines over 3 litres for the upcoming 1972 season, the FIA made no changes to their standing regulations. The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) likewise made very few changes. The experiment of the standing start in echelon from the previous year was discarded. A 2 by 2 rolling start behind a safety car became the most preferred way, which remains the tradition up to the modern day. This allowed an Armco guardrail to be erected between the pits and the main straight, greatly increasing the safety of the pit crews. Drivers were also now permitted to stay in their cars during refuelling. On race week plans were unveiled for an extensive realignment of the circuit, making it self contained. It included a new Mulsanne straight alongside the public highway and a new series of curves to cut out the dangerous Maison Blanche corner – the scene of many major race accidents over the years. Finally, after fourteen years, the ban on female drivers was lifted with the ACO accepting top French rally driver Marie Claude Beaumont in the Greder Corvette entry – the first female driver at Le Mans since 1951.

The ACO received 80 entries for the race, which it reduced to 63 for qualifying, though only 53 cars arrived to practice. Noticeable was the very low turnout from manufacturers' works teams. Given the dominance of the big Sports Cars on fast tracks like Le Mans, there were few Prototypes entered. Ferrari and Alfa Romeo withdrew their works teams to concentrate on next year's models. Porsche also supplied a slightly larger 5.0 litre engine (vs 4.9L) using high performance nickel silicon cylinder liners from NSU that improved oil consumption and reduced wear. This pushed its output up to 620 bhp. The cars and equipment of the previous year's successful Porsche Salzburg team was purchased for the Martini Racing Team by Conte Gregorio Rossi di Montelera (of the Martini & Rossi company).) The third was an experimental short tail version. The 917/20 was built as a test bed for future Can Am parts and aerodynamic low drag concepts. Shorter and much wider than the 917K, it was designed and tested by Robert Choulet and the SERA wind tunnel, after their other work on the 917. Nicknamed "the Pig" by the company, it was driven by Reinhold Joest/Willi Kauhsen. Following up the psychedelic paintjob of their car the previous year Martini, with tongue in cheek, had the chunky car painted in pink for the race with names of pieces of meat written across it. A number of quick change modifications were added for wheels, brakes and refuelling to save valuable minutes in the pits. The blue, Sunoco sponsored, car was driven by Mark Donohue/David Hobbs. José Juncadella of Escuderia Montjuich had employed 1964 winner Nino Vaccarella. Ecurie Francorchamps, Georg Loos and Corrado Manfredini also returned with their modified cars. Just after the 1970 Le Mans, Chrysler completed the takeover of Simca creating Chrysler Europe, and this also meant the Matra company was renamed Matra Simca. Matra entered only one 660 for its F1 drivers Chris Amon and Jean Pierre Beltoise. Beltoise had recently recovered his racing license after investigation in an accident at January's Buenos Aires 1000km that had killed Ferrari driver Ignazio Giunti. After a poor race the previous year, the engine was strengthened and now put out 420 bhp. While Guy Ligier's GT car was on hold pending homologation, he entered a one off special – the JS3. Fitted with the Ford Cosworth DFV F1 engine (that only arrived at the start of race week, making its Le Mans debut) that was limited to 8800 rpm, allowing around 400 hp. The under 2 litre classes in both Group 5 Sports Cars and Group 6 Prototype Sports Cars were poorly supported, with no entries in the Sports category. Team Huron could not supply their new cars, so Guy Edwards took one of their entry spots with his Lola T212. With no Chevrons present, its only competition was an older Porsche 907 from the André Wicky team. In the GT category, the Grand Touring trophy was split into over and under 2.0 litre classes. In the Over 2 litre class, the two French Corvettes were set to take on the veritable army of privateer Porsche 911s. Once again, rally specialist Henri Greder and Claude Aubriet's Ecurie Léopard bought their Chevrolet Corvettes as the biggest cars in the entry list. Greder also made waves by nominating his French female rally driver teammate, Marie Claude Beaumont, as his co driver. Female racers had been banned after the death of Annie Bousquet in the 1956 12 Hours of Reims. The American Troy Promotions team had also intended to bring its two Yenko prepared cars over after strong showings in the American races but were later withdrawn. Effectively a GT road car, its 4.4 litre V12 (developing 350 bhp) put it head to head against the Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s. NART entered a single car for Bob Grossman and Luigi Chinetti Jr., son of team owner Luigi Chinetti. Porsche had now made available a new 2.4 litre engine, alongside the current 2.25 and 2.2 litre versions. It developed 245 bhp that now got the car up to about 255 kp/h (160 mph) on the Mulsanne Straight. Eight of these uprated Porsches were present, including ones for race winner turned team manager Masten Gregory and the German Kremer Racing team. Kremer himself rejoined Nic Koob in another 2.4, along with Günther Huber in what was the first example of a triple driver combination. Honorary starter this year was Hollywood actor Steve McQueen with the opening of his film "Le Mans" that had been shot with footage from the 1970 race. Left in the pits was the Piper Ferrari and the NART Ferrari spyder with fuel system problems. The Piper car fired up and joined the back of the field, but was delayed again at 5pm when the fuel pump packed up again dropping it well down the field. At 3am, Oliver bought his JWA car with the same issue and while it was spending 30 minutes getting repaired (dropping it to 4th) the second placed Attwood/Müller car came in without fifth, needing a half hour gearbox change. This put the Montjuich Ferrari into the lead for an hour until it in turn broke its gearbox right on halftime. The Marko/van Lennep Martini Porsche took first, with a five lap lead now over the Matra of Beltoise/Amon, delighting the partisan crowd. Eighth placed Guy Chasseuil crashed the French Sonauto Porsche 908 at Maison Blanche. Although the car caught fire, the driver escaped uninjured. Given the Porsche 911's reputation for reliability it was surprising that by 1am, after 9 hours of racing, already nine of the eighteen entries were out of the race. It was also the last run on a circuit layout that had been essentially unchanged for 39 years, with a new part of the track opened in the next year that bypassed the dangerous and fast Maison Blanche stretch. Class Winners are in Bold text. Class Team Drivers Chassis Engine Tyre 1 S5.0 22 Martini InternationalRacing Team Gijs van Lennep Dr. Helmut Marko Porsche 917K Porsche 4.9L F12 397 2 S5.0 19 JW Automotive Engineering Richard Attwood Herbert Müller Porsche 917K Porsche 4.9L F12 395 3 S5.0 12 North American Racing Team Sam Posey Tony Adamowicz Ferrari 512M Ferrari 5.0L V12 366 4 S5.0 16 David Piper Autorace D. Weir (private entrant) David Weir Chris Craft Ferrari 512M Ferrari 5.0L V12 355 5 S5.0 58(reserve) North American Racing Team Bob Grossman Luigi Chinetti Jr. Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Ferrari 4.4L V12 314 6 GT+2.0 63(reserve) ASA Cachia Bundi Raymond Touroul André Anselme Porsche 911S Porsche 2.4L F6 306 7 P2.0 49 Wicky Racing Team Walter Brun Peter Mattli Porsche 907 Porsche 1958cc F6 306 8 GT+2.0 38 R. Mazzia(private entrant) René Mazzia Jürgen Barth Porsche 911E Porsche 2.4L F6 303 9 GT+2.0 42 J. Mésange(private entrant) Jean Mésange "Gédéhem" (Gérard Darton Merlin) Porsche 911S Porsche 2.2L F6 298 10 GT+2.0 26 N. Koob (private entrant) Porsche Kremer Racing Nicolas Koob Erwin Kremer Günther Huber Porsche 911S Porsche 2.4L F6 292 11 GT+2.0 39 A. G. A. C. I. Guy Verrier Gérard Foucault Porsche 911S Porsche 2.2L F6 290 12 GT+2.0 44 Paul Watson Race Organisation Paul Vestey Richard Bond Porsche 911S Porsche 2.2L F6 286 N/C * P3.0 24 Automobiles Ligier Guy Ligier Patrick Depailler Ligier JS3 Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0L V8 or

Pos Class No Team Drivers Chassis Engine Tyre Reason DNQ GT+2.0 45 C. Laurent(private entrant) Claude Laurent Jacques Marché Porsche 911S Porsche 2.2L F6 Did not qualify DNQ GT2.0 52 Écurie Léopard Jacques Bourdon Maurice Nussbaumer Alpine A110 Renault 1596cc S4 Did not qualify DNQ GT+2.0 64(reserve) Porsche Kremer Racing Claude Buchet Jean Paul Agére Porsche 911S Porsche 2.4L F6 Did not qualify DNQ GT+2.0 68(reserve) Paul Watson Race Organisation John Chatham Mike Coombe Porsche 911S Porsche 2.2L F6 Practice accident DNA GT+2.0 3 Troy Promotions Inc Don Yenko Tony DeLorenzo Chevrolet Corvette C3 Chevrolet 7.0L V8 Did not arrive DNA GT+2.0 4 Troy Promotions Inc Dick Thompson John Mahler Chevrolet Corvette C3 Chevrolet 7.0L V8 Did not arrive DNA S5.0 5 Scuderia Filipinetti Jean Pierre Jabouille Ronnie Peterson Ferrari 512M Ferrari 5.0L V12 Did not arrive DNA S5.0 19 Escuderia Nacional C. S.(private entrant) Alex Soler Roig Porsche 917K Porsche 4.5L F12 Did not arrive DNA P2.0 54 F. Migault(private entrant) François Migault Huron 4A Ford Cosworth FVC 1798cc S4 Did not arrive DNA P2.0 55 Scuderia Filipinetti Lola T212 Ford Cosworth FVC 1798cc S4 Did not arrive DNA S5.0 61(reserve) North American Racing Team Jacky Ickx Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 512M Ferrari 5.0L V12 Reserve

Pos Class No Team Drivers Chassis Score 1 S5.0 58(reserve) North American Racing Team Bob Grossman Luigi Chinetti Jr. Ferrari 365 GTB/4 1.12 2 S5.0 22 Martini InternationalRacing Team Gijs van Lennep Dr. Helmut Marko Porsche 917K 1.08 3 S5.0 19 JW Automotive Engineering Richard Attwood Herbert Müller Porsche 917K 1.01 4 S5.0 12 North American Racing Team Sam Posey Tony Adamowicz Ferrari 512M 0.96 5= GT+2.0 38 R. Mazzia(private entrant) René Mazzia Jürgen Barth Porsche 911E 0.91 5= GT+2.0 63(reserve) ASA Cachia Bundi Raymond Touroul André Anselme Porsche 911S 0.91 7 GT+2.0 42 J. Mésange(private entrant) Jean Mésange "Gédéhem" Porsche 911S 0.89 8 P2.0 49 Wicky Racing Team Walter Brun Peter Mattli Porsche 907 0.85 9 GT+2.0 39 A. G. A. C. I. Guy Verrier Gérard Foucault Porsche 911S 0.83