The 1972 Le Mans 24 Hours will not go down as one of the more exciting events, but it will have its place in history for featuring the first victory by a French car since 1950, when Louis Rosier and his son won with a Lago-Talbot. This year it was Matra that won, success coming at last after a number of tries. It was very much a ‘typical’ Le Mans, about the only thing missing being the stifling Sunday morning heat. This year the weather fluctuated from heavy rain to brief sunny periods, but never became stable. As so often happens, Saturday afternoon opened with a ‘sprint’, then things settled down, then troubles began with continuous retirements through the night. Inevitably when 55 cars set out to race for 24 hours some of them crash, and equally inevitably when racing cars crash someone gets hurt, or worse, and this year’s event was overshadowed by the tragic death of Joakim Bonnier. The bearded Swedish driver who had been racing since 1954, was 42 years old and had probably raced in a greater variety of events and cars than most people. His Lola T280-Cosworth V8 was in collision with a GTB Ferrari at 150mph and was projected into the air, over the guard-rails and into a wood, where the car literally burst asunder. Vic Elford, who was following in an Alfa Romeo said he thought Bonnier made a slight error of judgement, other people reckoned that the inexperienced Swiss Ferrari driver moved over to let the Lola through, and got in difficulties on the loose edge of the track and skidded back into its path. Whatever happened, it was an accident, unfortunate and unforeseen. It all happened shortly after 8am on Sunday on the flat-out right-hand bend before Indianapolis, and at the time the Lola was in eighth position having been delayed the previous afternoon by gearbox trouble after leading early on.
During the months preceding the race it looked as though it was going to be one of the classic events, for the Matra team was putting all its efforts into it, even to the point of foregoing all other sports car races. It entered four cars, and backed its chances every possible way with variations of body shape, engine power, known engine reliability, fuel consumption, tyre sizes, gearbox variations and so on, the arrangement of the variables meaning that whatever conditions prevailed for the race, one of the four cars would be at an advantage for one reason or another. The eight drivers selected also seemed to cover every contingency, being Amon/Beltoise in car number 12, Cevert/Ganley in car #14, Hill/Pescarolo in #15, and Hobbs/Jabouille in #16, and it was such a complete team effort that all prize money was to be pooled and shared eight ways, so that anyone who felt they had the wrong car for the conditions could not grumble about the pay. As far as the glory was concerned there was no discussion, it was to be for Matra and France. The pre-race testing was remarkably thorough and no expense was spared in the workshops, the laboratories, or the test-track and the Paul Ricard circuit near Marseilles was used for 24-hour test runs. 

– Matra guns for glory –

Without any question Matra was out to win and the reason it chose 1972 for this onslaught was because at last the FIA rules were on its side, with a 3-litre limit on all sports and prototype cars. It will be recalled that a limit of 3-litres was brought in for 1968 by a certain amount of jiggery-pokery in order to help Matra win Le Mans, but an oversight on the sports car regulations, as distinct from the prototype regulations, allowed Porsche and Ferrari to build 5-litre ‘production’ sports cars, which soon became 5-litre ‘works’ cars and the 3-litre prototypes could not hope to beat the Porsche 917 or Ferrari 512, and as it took two years to re-write and implement new rules to get rid of the 5-litre cars, this year was the first one where 3-litre prototypes could be certain of winning. As always Ferrari was not slow off the mark and its 3-litre prototypes have swept the board all this season, so that its entry of three cars for Le Mans – for his own factory team, plus an extra one for Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team – introduced a big factor into Matra’s plans, but even though they did not participate in any earlier races against Ferrari, they were very confident, especially on the reliability score. The first little skirmish of this interesting confrontation took place back in March at the Le Mans test weekend and Ferrari was fractionally faster than Matra, but clearly more fragile. It was hoped they would enter a car apiece in the 4-hour race that weekend, but they both withdrew saying they could not spare the time.
Added to the Matra versus Ferrari battle was the entry of four Alfa Romeos by Autodelta, two cars from the Gulf-Mirage team and two Lola T280 cars from the Bonnier team. It all fell very flat though when Ferrari withdrew its cars a week before the event, for a number of reasons; among them were the facts that its flimsy F1-style cars were not built for 24-hour races, the flat-12-cylinder engines failed to stand up to long flat-out tests. Ferrari had won the 1972 Manufacturers’ Championship anyway, so a failure at Le Mans would do more harm than good, and by withdrawing it left Matra with a hollow victory—if it failed to win Matra would have been the laughing stock of racing. Added to all that Enzo Ferrari is still a law unto himself and always will be. As the race drew nearer it became very obvious that Alfa Romeo was not going to provide much opposition, and it reduced its entry to three, and at the last moment the Gulf-Mirage pair were withdrawn as John Wyer did not reckon the Cosworth V8 to be suitable for Le Mans, and the new Weslake-Ford V12 was not ready.

By 4pm on Saturday the prospects for any sort of race were very thin and it looked as though all the Matra team had to do was to arrange the order of its four cars and put on a 24-hour demo in front of the large crowd. There was no shortage of enthusiasm for the event, for the maximum of 55 cars was easily reached, but the quality of driving experience among the 110 or so drivers was rather alarming. Fortunately the 55-car limit got rid of some really slow stuff during practice.

In addition to the eight Matra drivers the Alfa Romeo drivers comprised Elford/Marko, Vaccarella/de Adamich and Galli/Stommelen, while Bonnier’s team of fast but fragile Lolas were driven by himself and Van Lennep, Larrousse/de Fierlant, Cabral/de Bagration. The rest of the entry of sports cars was made up of private owners, the long-tailed Porsche 908 of Joest/Weber/Casoni having full factory support. A last-minute entry was a British Standard Special designed and built by a small group in a London mews garage under the direction of Alain de Cadenet. Taking a standard F1 Cosworth V8/Hewland gearbox they attached it to a conventional monocogue, added F1-type suspension and brakes, with Brabham hubs and wheels, covered it with a fibreglass body like a Chevron or Lola and had a car ready to race, but without a name. As the Duckhams Oil Company had given some financial support to the project it was called a Duckhams-Ford. Their first satisfaction was to get through practice and de Cadenet and his co-driver Craft approached the whole thing in the true spirit of Le Mans, to keep going, handle the engine and gearbox with care and delicacy, avoid any heroics and still be running on Sunday morning, and with a bit of luck on Sunday afternoon as well.

While the outright winner is expected to come from the sports car ranks, there are equally serious class races going on at the same time. The GT category was full with Ferrari GTB4s from agents in America, Britain, France, Belgium and Switzerland opposing four De Tomaso Panteras and a row of 911 Porsches as well as four thundering 7-litre Chevrolet-Corvettes, while the Group 2 saloon class comprised three factory Ford Capri RS2600 models with fuel-injected 3-litre V6 Weslake modified engines, and a similar privately owned one, as well as a lone BMW 3000 CS.

An insidious small wind blew in before the start in the form of an FIA official being appointed to decide whether the race should be abandoned at any time should rain conditions become extreme. With the new safe, open and clinical stretch of track replacing the dangerous, blind brow and deceptive ess-bend at White House, the lap distance is altered so all records were waiting to be rewritten. The classic Le Mans start was abandoned in 1970 and replaced by a ridiculous rolling start in which the cars straggle round behind a pace car before starting. The President of France, Monsieur Pompidou, was not only guest of honour but actually gave the signal for the field to set off on their pace lap.

Fortunately, Le Mans is still big enough to withstand small nibblings of its former grand self, for 55 car attempting to race for 24 hours must provide enough excitement and drama to over-rule the changes that keep being made, but how long this balance will remain is open to doubt. As the 55 cars straggled away to start their first serious lap, everyone settled down to watch the Matra demo run, the only speculation being as to what average speed they would settle for and what the team order would be. As the field finished the first lap it was Matra, Matra, Matra, Lola, Matra, Alfa Romeo and down the field a Chevrolet-Corvette was leading all the GTB Ferraris. Waiting for the fourth Matra to get into position on lap two and for the team to then get with the right order, there was suddenly consternation in the packed grandstand for Matra #12 did not accelerate away from the Ford chicane with the shrill scream expected. Instead it crept past the pits going slower and slower. It staggered up the slope towards the top of the Dunlop Curve and expired in a cloud of smoke. It was Jean-Pierre Beltoise and his V12 had lasted a mere two laps. That was bad enough, but when the leaders reappeared at the end of the third lap there was worse, for a yellow Lola was leading, driven by Bonnier, and the whole scene had gone to pot. It got even worse before it got better for de Fierlant then took his Lola into the lead and Cevert, Pescarolo and Jabouille began to wonder what had gone wrong, especially when it started to rain and the Lola went even further ahead. Such an absurd state of affairs could not last and fortunately for the French, Bonnier’s car pitted after 53 minutes when he could no longer select all five gears, and three minutes later de Fierlant joined him for his first routine stop for fuel as the consumption of the Cosworth V8 was a rather unknown factor. As the first hour passed all was in order with the three Matras leading the three Alfa Romeos, while further back order had been restored when the Ferrari GTB4 of Rouveyran/Migault took the GT lead from the unruly Chevrolet-Corvette of Cudini/Darniche and Fitzpatrick was leading all the Porsches in the Kremer car.

From this point onwards the excitement for the lead was over, for one or other of the Matras led for the next 23 hours, but for the rest of the runners it was nothing like so cut and dried. Results are published at every hour, and on paper Matra #14, the car of Cevert/Ganley, dominated just ahead of Matra #15, the car of Hill/Pescarolo, and rain or shine, darkness or daylight, these two blue cars hummed round, the V12s turning at 10,500rpm. The third Matra, car #16, of Jabouille/Hobbs caused a panic early on Saturday evening when it stopped out on the circuit, out of petrol, but it turned up at the pits five laps late. The reserve fuel tap had been knocked partially ‘on’ before it was due to be used, by the passenger seat moving forward, and the fuel system had become confused and had dried up. Jabouille had rocked and tipped the car until the remaining fuel had sorted itself out and the pumps primed and he was able to get going again, but the delay had dropped the car down to 12th place. Once refuelled it steadily climbed back up to reach third place by 4am Sunday. The three Alfa Romeos were never really in the picture, being quite unable to match the speed of the Matras, and all they could do was to run reliably and hope everyone else would break down. As things turned out they broke down themselves, clutches and gearboxes giving trouble in the early hours of Sunday morning so that at 6.30am all three were in the pits. The Elford/Marko car had been taken apart and a new clutch fitted, and went back into the race after losing just over half an hour, and the Vaccarella/de Adamich car was having similar things done. Later the Galli/Stommelen car was taken apart to replace the clutch but it was then discovered that the gearbox had broken so it was screwed together again and pushed round the back of the pits.

The two yellow Lola T280s of Ecurie Bonnier made their mark in the first hour and then fizzled out, the pit work on refuelling being slow compared to the works teams, so that #7, which de Fierlant started off driving, dropped back even though Larrousse took over in place of Cabral and de Bagration. As van Lennep was sharing #8 with Bonnier, the two ‘paying customers’ were very bitter about the Swede’s handling of the arrangements. Soon after dark on Saturday evening while lying in fifth place de Fierlant had a spin on the wet surface and stalled the engine. When he came to restart he found the clutch had gone solid and would not free, so he abandoned the car and returned to the pits. Larrousse, who is more mechanically minded, went out to the abandoned car, put it in second gear and drove off on the starter motor until the engine fired and he returned with a perfectly healthy car, but unable to continue as driver changes are only permitted at the pits. The second Lola kept going through the night until the dreadful accident just after 8am on Sunday, when Bonnier lost his life.

– Life in the old dog –

Behind all the works cars and running reliably was the old long-tailed 908 Porsche coupé that had been borrowed by Reinhold Joest and prepared at the Porsche factory. It was running like a Swiss watch and moving up steadily as the works cars ran into trouble. The only anxiety being an excess of oil mist coming out of the breathers and a tendency for the tail to come adrift at high speed, so pit stops involved a lot of cleaning of the perspex panels in the tail and meticulous sealing of the body joints with masking tape. It climbed steadily from ninth at the end of the first hour to third at the end, and was as fast as anyone, even the Matras. Another car running incredibly well, the drivers setting out to be running at the finish come what may, was the Duckhams-Ford, which started off in 10th, albeit a lap behind the leader at the end of the first hour. But by running regularly and not wasting time at refuelling it climbed to fifth overall by Sunday morning, though now 31 laps behind the leading Matra. But Le Mans is that sort of event, and keeping going pays off.

Throughout the closing hours intermittent rain showers caught out many drivers who were now getting tired, and at midday on Sunday it rained heavily and Ganley was driving the leading Matra. Without rain tyres he was going relatively slowly, not taking any chances, when French driver Marie-Claude Beaumont in a great Chevrolet-Corvette ran slap into the back of the Matra! Unbelievably, but with justice, the Corvette came off second best and had to retire, while the Matra suffered a smashed rear wheel and tyre, suspension derangement and shattered bodywork, but Ganley was able to limp to the pits. Things were sorted out, another fibreglass tail fitted and Cevert rejoined the race, now in second and victory seemed assured for the Graham Hill/Henri Pescarolo car, especially as Cevert was soon back in the pits with a misfiring engine due to water getting in the electrics during the slow journey back by Ganley. All this lost them nine laps on the leading Matra, but so poor was the opposition that even that distance did not lose them second place.

In those damp closing stages Craft had an excursion before Tertre Rouge and damaged the front suspension of the Duckhams Ford, but he managed to creep back to the pits. The car had been fifth at this point but all they could hope to do was to patch up the front end, where the wishbone mounting points had been wrenched from the monocoque and make the car just drivable so that de Cadenet could drive slowly round for one lap and be classified at the finish. This last-minute disaster dropped them back to 12th, which gives no indication of how steadily the car had gone. Around the same time the last remaining Alfa Romeo spun in the wet and damaged the bodywork, but got back to have a new nose cowling fitted. As the last minutes ticked away, with Matras first, second and third, and about to form up for a triumphant ending to months of hard work and planning, the junior member of the team went missing as the ZF gearbox on Jabouille’s car broke and stranded him out on the circuit.

At 4pm a French car won Le Mans for the first time since 1950, as the Matras took the flag in a formation finish, prompting jubilant scenes from the patriotic French crowd. It also marked a moment of history for Britain too, as Graham Hill achieved something no other had done before, adding a Le Mans victory to his Formula 1 World Championship and Indianapolis 500 victory, creating the triple crown of motor racing. — D. S. J.

Originally published in Motor Sport, July 1972