“There was no euphoria, I was absolutely drained" Richard Attwood on winning Le Mans '70

Despite the ever-present risk of a catastrophic crash, Attwood found himself leading the 1969 race, thanks to the pace of the car until, in the 21st hour, a gearbox failure ended his race. He says that he wasn’t disappointed for a second.

“I was quite happy when it broke. We were only three hours away from the win but I wasn’t concerned about that. I was concerned about me. I couldn’t have cared less about the race.”

So, the following year saw Attwood in the 917K, opting against the power upgrade used by other Porsche entries, in the hope of avoiding a repeat gearbox failure.

“The car was a lot slower than anyone else’s 917 and the Ferrari,” he says. “Mulsanne corner and Arnage – two really short corners – we must have been losing 2-3 sec out of just those each, and then we were losing time all round the rest of the lap as well.”

Expectations dampened, Attwood watched Herrmann start the race in their No23 car. “Just before the race the whole place goes completely quiet. That doesn’t happen any more because of the rolling start, but to have all those cars lined up – before the flag drops, the silence was just deafening. It was an incredible atmosphere.”

It was the first year that drivers did not start in the traditional manner of running to their cars, and Denis Jenkinson was unimpressed, describing the dropping of the flag as the moment that the race fell over and died.

Attwood recalls the first laps somewhat differently. “The start of the race was like a grand prix,” he says. It was just ridiculous – everybody else was quite stupid.

“They were all trying to get round on the first lap in the lead – and the second and the third laps. All these guys realised they could win it with the cars they got but they had to last the race as well.

“The pace was just stupid and the race came to us, as Le Mans does. It either comes to you or it doesn’t.”

After 30 minutes the rain began, and car No23 began moving up the field.

“Four Ferraris went off in one accident,” says Attwood. “One of the Porsche factory drivers [Siffert] missed a gear and over-revved it. The other driver [Porsche’s Mike Hailwood] didn’t come in when it was raining. He had dry tyres on and crashed.”

By the early hours of the morning, Attwood’s Porsche was leading. “We had done nothing for that to happen,” he says. Everybody had made way for us to be the leader.

“The others might think they had bad luck, but you make your luck and a lot of them made mistakes – silly really.”

As the rain lashed down, Attwood was busy ensuring that his luck didn’t run out. “It was so wet that you might hit a puddle that wasn’t there the lap before and you’re out of that race.

“You couldn’t lack a fraction of a second of concentration because the car was ready to break away. There were so many times when I thought, ‘Am I going to get the car straight in time?’

“We weren’t really in any race per se, we were trying to drive in safe mode but the weather was so bad that to drive in safe mode was unbelievably complicated.

“I remember those [‘69 and ‘70] races so vividly because they were massively dangerous.”

Attwood was also suffering from mumps, but didn’t know it at the time. Unable to eat, he just drank milk to keep him going during the race.

The end of the race would bring victory, but as with the previous year, Attwood was just relieved that it was over.

“If we had a big one in those cars you needn’t bother going to look for the driver because he wouldn’t be there.”

“There was no euphoria, I was absolutely drained,” he says. “My wife and I drove to a Porsche party for 7.30pm and I just couldn’t stay awake.

“I stayed there for 20 minutes and I went. It was just ridiculous, I thought, ‘I’m a real wimp’. The combination of my illness and fatigue with what I’d done, I was completely gone and I missed it, so I went home. There was nothing left in the tank.”

Victory was momentous, but Attwood maintains that it didn’t mean as much as it does today. “There have been another 50 races [since then] and the euphoria is bigger and the ballyhoo and bullshit is bigger than it was,” he says. “Those 50 extra years of history has made more of an impact on the race itself.”

He does remain proud of his achievements in an era where drivers had to balance speed with the need to nurse their car to the finish, and where a single missed gearchange or error could end the race – and their lives – instantly

“Today the cars are totally stable,” he says. “They have downforce and massive weight to hold the car to the ground. They can’t miss a gear, they can’t over-rev the engine.