April 23, 2025 • 53 mins
What happens when a celebration of speed and technology transforms into a tragedy of unimaginable proportions? That’s the story of the 1955 Le Mans disaster, where a split-second collision sent a race car hurtling into packed grandstands, claiming 84 lives and injuring over 120 spectators in the deadliest accident in motorsport history.
Sources:
"1955 Le Mans Disaster: The Deadliest Crash in Motorsport History" by History Engine
Wikipedia page on the 1955 Le Mans disaster
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Credits:
Final Boarding Call is hosted by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas, researched and written by Alice Stern, produced and edited by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Picture this, A sunny Juneafternoon in France, a roaring
(00:06):
crowd of over 200,000 spectators.
Line, the famous circuit De for the 24hours of LeMans race, the world's most
prestigious automotive manufacturers,Mercedes, Jaguar, Ferrari, are locked
in fierce competition at speedsapproaching 170 miles per hour.
(00:30):
In a split second, a series of maneuverssends a Mercedes race, car, airborne.
It flies over a small berm, theonly protection between the track
and the packed grandstands anddisintegrates among the crowd in a
shower of deadly debris and flames.
(00:50):
In less than 30 seconds, 83 spectatorsand one driver lose their lives
in what remains the deadliestaccident in Motorsports history.
Yet in an almost unfathomable decision,the race continues for another 23 hours,
even as first responders tend to thedead and dying just yards from the track.
(01:16):
Today we're exploring the catastrophicevent that forever changed
racing the 1955 AL'S disaster.
It's a story of technologicaladvancement, outpacing safety
measures, and split second decisionswith devastating consequences.
So stow your tray tables, fasten yourseat belts, and prepare for some extreme
(01:40):
turbulence or maybe some extreme brakingzones because this is final boarding call.
Hello and welcome to Final Boarding Call.
I am your disaster obsessed host, Alice.
And as always, I am joined by myreluctant homebody husband, Zach.
(02:00):
Hello everybody.
However, Zach is a little less reluctanttoday because we are talking race cars.
I sure play the part well thatI actually enjoy these things.
No, you don't.
I don't think I, no, I don't.
You don't.
Everybody knows I dislike cars so much.
(02:20):
It's just also the only thing I love.
Oh my gosh.
Well, I'm excited.
Full transparency.
Well, Zach and I both, race cars.
Zach is a drifter and I do some timetrials and time attack style racing.
Lamont's is way outside of myarea of knowledge, so I learned
a lot researching this disaster.
(02:42):
And, , there's some crazystuff that happens in here.
All right,
so buckle up, lower your visorand get ready to hit the throttle.
Ooh, I like that.
That's a solid intro.
All right, Zach.
Today we are looking back atwhat remains the deadliest
accident in Motorsports history.
(03:04):
How crazy is that?
Well, it is crazy that itis the deadliest accident.
I mean, there's a lot of crazy races outthere, but it also seems strange to me
having been involved in motor sports for,you know, close to 20 years that I don't
really know this incident that well.
Yeah, and I didn't either.
I mean, I, I learned so much.
(03:25):
I really had no idea.
I knew a little bit of thegist, but I learned a ton.
All right, let's travel backin time, folks to the fifties
when I should have been bored.
Yeah.
Oh, you would've thrived.
Alright.
On June 11th, 1955, in a matterof seconds, 83 spectators and
(03:49):
one driver lost their lives.
With over 120 additional peopleinjured forever, changing the
landscape of motorsport safety.
So my sources for this episode includea video called 1955 ALS Disaster, the
Deadliest Crash in Motorsports History.
And that was by History Engine andalso a Wikipedia page on the disaster.
(04:15):
Thank goodness for Wikipediato understand the magnitude of
what happened at LeMans in 1955.
We need to go back even furtherto 1923, the roaring twenties
when I should have been born.
When three automobile enthusiasts firstcame up with a race that would push both
(04:36):
cars and drivers to their absolute limits.
The 24 hours of L Mom wasborn as the ultimate test of
endurance and engineering.
The premise was simple.
But brutal.
The car that covered thegreatest distance in 24 hours
of continuous racing would win.
Boom, baby.
(04:56):
Simple enough, simple enough.
The race would showcase not justspeed, but reliability, fuel
efficiency, and driver stamina.
This is why endurance racing is so cool.
Zach and I just got intoendurance racing fairly recently.
, I love it.
It's just a whole differentbreed of racing for those
(05:18):
unfamiliar with endurance racing.
It is fundamentally different fromFormula One or nascar, which everybody
is, you know, fairly familiar with,where those races last a couple of hours.
Imagine running amarathon versus a sprint.
That is really the differencebetween endurance racing and
(05:40):
other forms of motorsports.
In a 24 hour race, like LeMans, teamsof drivers take shifts behind the
wheel racing day through the night,sunrise and sunset, dealing with.
Changing temperatures, varying visibility,the immense physical and mental fatigue
(06:01):
that comes with such extended competition.
And I can confirm that after doingmy last endurance race, I felt
like I had been in a car crash.
I was the most sore that I'veever been in my entire life
was after an endurance race.
Yeah.
I don't think, and if you've never doneanything like that, you can't really
imagine pushing a car that hard andthe intense focus to stay aggressively
(06:27):
racing, while also staying safe foran extended period of time like that.
And these cars aren't exactlydesigned to be comfortable.
So you're just in a rock hard seat, nopadding and going as hard as you can.
Absolutely.
Yes.
And when you are driving the same track,you're driving the exact same course.
(06:48):
For hours and hours and hours and youknow, at some point that mental fatigue,
you start to zone and it takes a lotof mental awareness to come back to the
fact that you are a freaking race, you'reracing a car, and you need to be present.
(07:08):
You need to be focused.
But doing that for hoursis absolutely brutal.
We do have a, another friend thathas done a bunch of endurance racing
as well, that she told us abouthow she accidentally built her
grocery list while she was racing.
Yeah, yeah.
And was very far offpace for a few laughs.
Yes.
Until she realized, oh, I'm stilldriving a car, I gotta focus, I'm,
(07:32):
I'm racing a race car right now.
By 1955, Lamonts had alreadyestablished itself as the crown
jewel of endurance racing.
Winning at LeMans meant internationalprestige for manufacturers, and the
event had grown from a test of automotivesuperiority into a full blown sport
(07:53):
with a massive global following.
The 1955 running promisedto be particularly special.
It was really a showdown between theworld's premier automotive manufacturers.
Right.
This is Ferrari.
They are arriving, they'rethe reigning champions.
(08:13):
They have five teams showcasing their 121 lms, which is an absolutely iconic car.
If you have your phone, goahead and look up 1 21 lm.
You'll be like, oh yeah, I know this car.
Maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll, I will.
Probably not.
Oh my God, they're so cool again.
. And then Jaguar brought their speciallycrafted D types, which was designed
(08:37):
specifically for the Lamont circuit.
And after a two year absence,Mercedes van had returned with
their stunning new 300 SLR.
Also like a gorgeous car.
Oh my gosh.
Zach, look up the 300 SLR real quick
The Mercedes 300 SLR wasa technological marvel.
(09:01):
It featured an ultralightbody made of magnesium alloy.
Called it's electron, butit's spelled E-L-E-K-T-R-O-N.
Very futuristic and an innovative airbrake, a panel that could be raised
behind the driver to create aerodynamicdrag for better stopping power.
(09:25):
And nowadays we just usemore pistons in the brakes.
The car had proven itself earlier thatyear when Sterling Moss drove it to to
a record setting victory in the Miliaa thousand mile race across Italy.
Let me explain what an air brake is.
So it's like regular brakes usefriction to slow a car's wheels.
(09:47):
And an air brake is a large panelthat pops up from the rear of the
car, kind of like opening an umbrella.
If you've ever watched dragracing, right, if you have a.
Crazy drag car.
It has essentially a , parachute that isattached to the back of the car and it
will go off to help slow the car becausethe car is carrying so much speed.
(10:13):
So this is similar in nature to that.
, but it's not like a full on parachute.
It is like an umbrella.
And I am actually going to show Zacha picture of the SLR air brake so
that we can get a visual of kind of
what this looks like.
. So Zach, this is what we're looking at.
(10:34):
. Well, the reason I was asking forclarification is because in truck
driving things like that, thereare actually air operated brakes.
This almost looks like you were puttingdown your convertible top and it, and
it got stuck like halfway going down.
And now there's just like a stripbasically behind your car where
(10:58):
instead of going all the way down,your convertible top is just kind
of awkwardly stuck up in the air.
But the theory is great because youpicture, you put your hand out the
window when you're going interstatespeeds, and that drag that you feel
against your arm and you make it.
You know, six feet wide andfour feet tall, that's a big
surface to help slow down.
(11:19):
A hundred percent.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
. So Mercedes had put togetheran All Star driver lineup.
They are showcasing this really coolnew technology and they have drivers
that are going to bring their A game.
They have Juan Manuel Fungi,fgi already a multiple formula.
(11:41):
One world champion who would sharethe lead car with Sterling Moss.
Carl Kling was paired with AndreSimon in another 300 SLR, and
Pierre Vic, a respected Frenchracing veteran would drive
with American John Fitch.
Levek had a special historywith LeMans in 1952.
(12:01):
He had nearly won the race single handedlydriving for 23 hours without relief before
his engine failed in the final hour.
And that is such a Zach move like that is.
So you as a driver, driving 23 hours
(12:25):
that mechanical failure had handedthe victory to Mercedes-Benz.
Now, three years later, Leveque wasdriving for the German team, hoping
to finally capture the Lamont's crownthat had alluded him, but there was
another factor that would play a crucialrole in what was about to happen.
The Lamont circuit of 1955 wasessentially the same one that had been
(12:48):
used since the races inception in 1923.
It was designed for cars with topspeeds of around 60 miles per hour.
But guess what?
These cars are driving You just dowe it faster than 60 miles per hour.
Zach, can you take a guess atthe speeds that we're going
(13:09):
to see in this 1955 lamos?
Well, I'm pretty sure youactually already said it.
I think somewhere around 170 mm-hmm.
170 miles per hour they will exceed.
So you were paying attentiononly beating that by 110.
That's not bad.
(13:29):
Yeah, it's fine.
The track had been resurfaced and slightlywidened after World War ii, but the basic
layout remained completely unchanged.
Most critically, the main straight wherethe cars would reach their highest speeds.
We call this the mainstraight or the straightaway.
Front.
Straight.
Yes.
Many names for it.
(13:51):
It was a very narrow, 12 feet wide.
That's very, narrow.
There were no barriers between thepit lane and the racing surface.
And only a four foot bank separatedthe track from the packed grandstand.
(14:14):
So unlike modern day racing, driverswore no seat belts, believing that it
was safer to be thrown clear out of thewreck than to be trapped in a burning car.
Safety third folks.
Safety third baby.
To put this in perspective,12 feet is about the width of
a single modern traffic lane.
One traffic lane, a single traffic lane.
(14:36):
Imagine two high performance racecars, both traveling at over 150
miles per hour trying to pass eachother in a space that is essentially
the width of a narrow one lane road.
To make matters worse, there wasnothing substantial separating these
speeding machines from the thousandsof spectators that were feet away.
(15:01):
So, you know, as for anybody who hasbeen to a racetrack, for anybody who has
driven having proper runoff, areas andbarriers are like 1 0 1, when you are
designing a track, you wanna make surethat there's plenty of space for cars to.
(15:22):
Do something.
If they have a break failure, if theylose control, there's gonna be tons of
space and spectators are pretty darn faraway and usually separated by a giant
cement wall between the track and them.
And this case is literallywhy those rules exist.
(15:45):
Let's talk about race day.
Race day dawned on June 11th, 1955.
It was a beautiful sunnySaturday that drew over 200,000
spectators to the circuit.
200,000.
That's crazy.
At 4:00 PM the race began withthe traditional Lamont start.
(16:06):
Drivers sprinting across thetrack to their waiting cars,
jumping in and roaring off.
Have you seen video of this?
Have, yeah.
Okay.
They actually run similar, starts in alot of different stuff, some endurance
motocross , and Oh, I love that.
Just really cool stuff.
Okay.
Well this start is so fun.
It's so cute.
You can't beat it.
What is that incredible movie?
(16:28):
Ford versus Ferrari.
Okay.
That is, that's a great movie thatlike, it's, they have a scene where
they, they do that and it's, youknow, really cute and fun to watch.
For those who haven't seenit, the lamont start, it's
unlike anything in modern racing.
So all of the cars are linedup along one side of the track.
(16:49):
So they aren't even alllike lined up in a line.
They're on one side and then thedrivers are on the other side.
The flag is dropped.
Drivers run all the way across the track.
They jump into their cars, they starttheir engines, they drive off all
with, without even putting a seatbelton, you're just, they're in the cars.
(17:12):
Many drivers would actually get movingfirst and then fasten any sort of
like harnesses or anything like thatwhen they are already fully at speed.
This chaotic start method was eventuallybanned for safety reasons, but in 1955 it
was still part of the tradition safety.
(17:33):
Third from the beginning, thebattle at the front was fierce.
Mike Hawthorn in a Jaguarand Juan Manuel Fangio.
In a Mercedes, they were tradingthe lead repeatedly, setting
new lab records in the process.
That's so fun.
I like, I love that energy.
(17:54):
The pace was blistering and the spectatorswere treated to some of the most
exciting racing ever seen at LeMans.
As the race progressed into its secondhour, the leaders began approaching
their first scheduled pit stops.
Hawthorne's Jaguar team signaled forhim to come in at the end of lap 35.
(18:16):
What happened next would unfoldin less than 30 seconds and it
would change motorsports forever.
The sequence of events that led tothe disaster began as Mike Hawthorne's
Jaguar approached the main straight.
Having just completed his 35th lap,he had been locked in a fierce battle
(18:39):
with Juan Manuel Fon Geo's Mercedes,but now his pit crew was signaling
for him to make a scheduled stop.
Nothing crazy, very runof the mill for racing.
Coming out of the Mesa Blanche sectiononto the Main Street Hawthorne, rapidly
caught up to Lance Macklin in his slowerAustin healy hundred s Macklin, seeing
(19:04):
the much faster Jaguar approaching, movedto the right to let Hawthorne pass after
passing Macklin, Hawthorne suddenly raisedhis hand to signal that he was pitting and
he moved to the right side of the track.
What happened next has beendebated for decades, but what's
(19:26):
clear is that Hawthorne brakedhard to make his pit entry.
So what we just had was a littlebit of like this kind of cat
and mouse situation, right?
So.
Hawthorne caught up to this driver,Lance Macklin, who is in a slower car.
The slower car moved over to the rightto let Hawthorne pass the fast car,
(19:50):
and then after passing, Hawthorne isin the wrong lane because he went left
to pass a guy who was in the right.
The issue is he has to be in theright to exit the track, so now he
is in the right lane, the slow car.
(20:13):
Our buddy Lance Macklin is behind him.
The Jaguar was equipped with discbrakes, a technological advantage that
allowed it to stop much more quickly.
Then its competitors.
Macklin's Austin Healy, followingvery close behind had less effective
(20:38):
drum breaks caught by surprise atHawthorne's, sudden slowing Macklin
had to break hard and swerve toavoid rear ending the Jaguar.
Zach, will you explain to the peoplevery briefly the difference between
(20:58):
a disc brake and a drum break?
Well, a disc brake is what'sgonna be found on any of
your modern cars these days.
It is a circular rotor that runsas with rotation as the wheel in
between a brake caliper that will.
Especially in racing systems, usuallyhave at least four pistons that push
(21:18):
out and apply pressure onto the discto create the friction to slow down.
While on a drum break you actually haveone piston in the center of it, um,
that just expands out and it basicallytries to inside clamp the rotating drum.
So it's impossible to applyas much friction and get
(21:40):
it to stop as effectively..
Yes.
And how would speed impactthese if they get hot?
So.
Disc breaks are vented to where theycan actually absorb some air into them.
Mm-hmm.
And cool off faster, making them moreeffective over the long term while drum
breaks are almost sealed in place towhere whatever heat that metal takes in,
(22:04):
it's going to stay there until it has achance to just naturally cool over time.
Absolutely.
And that's, that's spot on.
So our slower car, which is Macklin,who had the drum brakes, they were
hot and one the, the Jaguar wasable to break better anyway, but to
(22:26):
have a hot drum break is not ideal.
So he swerved and thesudden maneuver sent.
Macklin's car fearing lefttoward the center of the track.
The timing could not have beenworse because Pierre Leveque
(22:47):
was there.
Pierre Levee's.
Mercedes 300 SLR was approachingat over 150 miles per hour with
FIA's Mercedes close behind him.
Leveque had no time to react as Macklin's.
Car slow, going slow, just wasboom, right in front of him.
(23:10):
In what may have been his final consciousact, Levek raised his hand to warn Fgi
who was following closely behind him.
So he warned him that like he wasabout to have to do a serious maneuver.
Then LAX Mercedes slammed into the back ofMacklin's Austin Healy at full race speed.
(23:37):
The physics of what happened next were,I mean, they were catastrophic, right?
The front right wheelof Lefas car rode up.
Over the sloped rear end ofMacklin's Austin Healy, which
acted essentially as a ramp, and itlaunched the Mercedes into the air.
(23:58):
At approximately 150 miles per hour, thecar sailed over the earthen berm that
was meant to protect spectators crashinginto the packed crowd, the Mercedes made
at least two major impacts within thespectator area before breaking apart.
(24:23):
Leveque was thrown onto thetrack and killed instantly
I mean, the car was going 150 milesper hour and he was just thrown.
But the horror was really just beginning.
Large pieces of debris, includingthe Mercedes engine block, radiator,
front, suspension, and hood were allsent flying into the densely packed
(24:50):
spectator area in front of the grandstand.
For anybody who has everwondered if car parts are heavy.
They are.
They really, really are.
Especially out of that list, anengine block that's terrifying.
(25:12):
Mean, the hood's scary too, because that'slike just a giant flat piece of metal.
It's just like boomerangingits way through.
And at 150 miles an hour,that is just a giant knife.
Yes, that exactly.
It is a giant knife.
Many spectators had climbedonto ladders and scaffolding to
(25:33):
get a better view of the track.
Others were crowded nearthe underpass to the pits.
These positions intended toprovide better views of the race.
Instead put them directly in the pathof this deadly debris as a final,
terrible component to this disaster.
(25:55):
The rear of Laxs car landed on theembankment and burst into flames.
Remember that special magnesium alloybody that I mentioned earlier, Zach?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Well, electron had one fatal flaw.
It was highly flammable, onceignited, and it burned at an
(26:19):
extremely high temperature.
Oh boy.
So for people who are not familiarwith magnesium fires, they are not
like normal fires that you wouldsee burning gasoline or wood.
Magnesium burns at temperaturesof up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
That is hot enough to melt, melt steel.
It produces a blindingly bright whiteflame and is basically impossible
(26:43):
to extinguish once it gets going.
Modern race cars no longer use magnesiumcomponents in large quantities precisely
because of this incident and the firerisk that we obviously encountered.
When rescue workers who were unfamiliarwith magnesium fires poured water
(27:05):
onto the burning wreckage, theyinadvertently made TheBlaze worse.
Water actually makesmagnesium burn more violently.
The fire continued to burn for hours.
Showering the entire area withwhite hot magnesium embers burst
just an absolute nightmare.
(27:25):
Meanwhile, Macklin's damaged AustinHealy had careened across the track
and into the pit lane, narrowly missingseveral other cars before hitting the
pit wall and injuring several officials.
Macklin himself was uninjured, andhe managed to escape the wreckage.
(27:47):
That's a tiny miracle out ofthis absolute shit show story.
The scene was one ofunimaginable chaos and horror.
British driver, Duncan Hamilton,watched from the pit wall.
Later recalling the scene on the otherside of the road was indescribable.
The dead and dying were everywhere.
(28:09):
The cries of pain, anguish, anddespair screamed catastrophe.
I stood as if in a dreamto horrified to even think.
In just 30 seconds.
The deadliest accident inMotorsport history had unfolded.
The official death toll would eventuallybe recorded as 83 spectators plus leveque
(28:32):
with a further 120 to 178, dependingon the source that were injured.
Some unofficial accidentsput the numbers even higher.
The aftermath presented race officialswith an unprecedented situation.
What should happen to the race itself?
(28:53):
Is that question like a longterm or this one particular race?
I mean, I guess both.
But I can tell you what happens.
You ready?
Tell me.
Okay.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash,there was understandable confusion and
shock throughout the Lamont circuit.
Hawthorne who had completed hispit stop was completely distraught.
(29:16):
According to witnesses, he staggeredfrom his car, convinced that
he had caused the catastrophe.
That's a rough pill to swallow there.
His teammate had to take overthe car as Hawthorne was in no
condition to continue driving.
John Fitch, who was supposed torelieve Leveque from the Mercedes,
remember, this is the American guy.
(29:38):
He had been standing with LA'swife when the crash occurred,
and they had witnessed the entiretragedy unfold before their eyes.
Oh my God.
I, I, mm-hmm.
No, you get bumped on trackand I like, have a meltdown.
I would not be able to function.
(30:00):
Ugh.
What happened next?
Remains.
One of, if not the most controversialdecision in Motorsport history,
despite the scale of the disaster,despite the casualties, despite the
car that's on fire, race directorCharles Farrell made the decision
(30:23):
to continue the race unbelievable.
Several explanations were lateroffered for the surprising choice.
Surprising is a generous word there.
One was that stopping the racewould've caused 200,000 spectators
to simultaneously head for theexits, potentially blocking access
(30:44):
for emergency vehicles that weretrying to reach the injured.
That sounds like a 4-year-oldcame up with that excuse as
to why they did something bad.
Yeah, I mean, truly Another wasthat race contracts obligated the
event to continue with possiblelawsuits if it were canceled.
(31:05):
I mean, the Fook folks, the actualFook Farrell himself, would later
claim that the rough law of sportdictates that the race shall go on.
And he cited the 1952, uh, FarmboroughAir Show crash as a precedent, which I
think we're actually going to cover that.
(31:26):
So I'm not gonna go, I'm notgonna go too far into that.
'cause , I do wanna do that case.
Let's keep going.
He also suggested that he didn't actuallyhave the authority to stop the race.
Only the French government'srepresentative could make that
call, which that seems weirdbecause you're the race director.
It meant a different thing at that time.
I guess so.
(31:46):
I guess so.
Whatever the true reasoning the resultwas the same as medical personnel
attended to the dead and dying, andfirefighters continued to battle the
magnesium fire, the race continued.
I don't know how I could notbe in the Headspace to do
this for the Mercedes team.
This created an agonizing dilemma.
(32:07):
Team Manager Alfred Nir immediatelywanted to withdraw from the race
out of respect for the victims.
But he didn't have the authorityto make such a decision.
An emergency telephone meeting ofMercedes-Benz directors in stuff.
Gart was called an new brewer, Alfredwaited anxiously for their verdict
(32:29):
to understand the significanceof this potential withdrawal.
It is important to note that inendurance racing manufactures invest
enormous resources, both financial, yourreputation all into their racing programs.
Very much F1, anybody who'swatched like any of the Netflix
documentaries on Formula One.
(32:51):
The amount of engineering and time,and you have a team and there's so much
money that is the same as this race.
This is the 1955 version of that,so to pull out is kind of bananas.
Just before midnight, nearly sixhours after the crash, Alfred finally
(33:15):
received approval to withdraw at 1:45AM when many spectators had left.
He quietly called his cars into the pits.
At the time Mercedes was running in firstand third positions within, honestly,
an excellent chance of winning the race.
The team's withdrawal was brieflyannounced over the public address
system, and by morning the Mercedestrucks had packed up and left.
(33:41):
What do you think, Zach?
Was that the right call?
You know, I pretend that I'm fairlyheartless most of the time, but if
one of my teammates had crashed anddied and lots of other people died at
an event I was attending, I wouldn'tcare about the event at all anymore.
I could not run it.
Yep, I agree.
The Mercedes team manager had gone tothe Jaguar pits to ask if they would also
(34:05):
withdraw out of respect for the victims.
The Jaguar team manager,lofty England declined and the
British team continued racing.
There you go.
Oh, oh seven, I guess.
And it was the only waythey ever won anything.
Stop.
Stop.
With their main competition gone.
(34:25):
Hawthorne and Bub went on towin the race by a margin of only
five laps, which is very, verysmall margin for a 24 hour race.
But there was no victory celebration.
The weather had closed in on Sundaymorning, matching the somber mood
that had descended over Lamont's.
(34:48):
However, a controversial press photolater emerged showing Hawthorne
smiling on the podium and drinkingfrom the Victor's bottle of champagne.
How's that for a look?
On the other hand, as the devil'sadvocate here, if my team made me keep
racing and I won, it is still a victory.
(35:09):
It is not as awesome asat what cost, my God.
All right.
Well, there was a French magazinethat got this photo and they
published it with the caption, andI love this to your health, Mr.
Hawthorne.
Woo, the image sparked outragein France with many feeling that
(35:31):
it showed insensitivity correctto the tragedy that had unfolded.
Hawthorne would later claim that thephotograph was taken out of context
and that he had been in a state ofshock throughout the remainder of
the race and the podium ceremony.
Oh man.
I guess I kinda get that too.
Like if you are a driver and yourteam is not pulling out, you know,
(35:53):
you have to race, you have contracts,you have all kinds of things.
They can sue you.
You have to race that's justnot how I would wanna win.
Meanwhile, a special mass was heldin the Lamont's Cathedral for the
first funerals of the victims.
The scale of the tragedy wasonly beginning to sink in.
Both for those directly involvedand for the wider motor racing
(36:16):
community around the world.
The immediate reaction was swift andsevere France, Spain, Switzerland,
west Germany, and other nationsimposed immediate temporary bans on
motorsport until race tracks could bebrought to higher safety standards.
(36:37):
Boom.
Let's see what the United States did.
They said safety third.
I'm about to tell you?
In the United States, the AmericanAutomobile Association, which had
been the primary sanctioning bodyfor motorsports in the US since
1904, including the Indianapolis 500,completely dissolved their contest board.
(37:00):
They decided that auto racingdetracted from their primary
goals of highway safety.
And travel advocacy.
The United States Automobile Club wasformed to take over race sanctioning.
So, that is, that's interesting.
I wonder if that's still the case.
I have so many questions.
(37:20):
Don't really know who does what.
That's at the national level, baby.
That's, I don't, I volunteer.
I was gonna say, I don't makeenough money for that, but I just,
I don't make any money at all.
I spend a lot of money on racing.
Okay.
Most countries lifted theirracing bands within a year.
Once safety improvements were implemented.
Switzerland, however,took a different approach.
(37:43):
The Swiss van on circuitracing persisted for decades.
In fact, it was notfully lifted until 2022.
2022, a full 67 years after Lamonts,the crash had profound effects on
many of the individuals involved.
(38:04):
Several drivers, including Americans,John Fitch, Phil Walters, and Sherwood
Johnston decided to retire from racing.
Lance Macklin also retired afterbeing involved in another fatal
crash later that same year.
Juan Manuel Fangio already one of thegreatest drivers in history, never raced
(38:27):
at Lamonts again, and for Hawthorne.
The events of that day cast a shadow overthe remainder of his career, despite his
continued success in Formula One, wherehe would become world champion in 1958.
Who's to blame in the days, weeks,and months following the disaster?
There was intense speculation and fingerpointing about who was to blame for this
(38:51):
catastrophe, much of it was directedat Mike Hawthorne with claims that he
had suddenly cut in front of Macklanand slammed on the brakes near the
entrance to the pits, forcing Macklanto take evasive action into LAX path.
This became the semi-officialposition of the Mercedes team and
(39:14):
Macklin's own account of the events.
So.
As somebody who leads a lot ofdriver's meetings and does a lot of
driver coaching and instructing, oneof the first things that I tell a
new driver is that the safest thingyou can be on track is predictable.
(39:35):
Predictability is key.
And in my opinion, from the brief amountof research that I did on this, I mean
there's like a lot of stuff out there.
It seems to me like the large cause ofthis is that somebody was unpredictable
on track, and that is dangerous.
(39:56):
The Jaguar team in turn questionedthe fitness and competence of both
Macklan and Leveque as drivers.
That's a real bold approach.
The media accounts in the immediateaftermath were widely inaccurate,
and it wasn't until years later whenphotographic evidence was properly
analyzed that a clearer picture emerged.
(40:17):
The media also speculated aboutthe unusually violent fire that
had engulfed the Mercedes wreck,particularly how it had intensified
when fire marshals poured water on it.
Some suggested that Mercedes-Benz hadtampered with the fuel supply, adding an
explosive additive for better performance.
(40:39):
That's more than water wetter
or any of the cool new fuel additivesyou can do that make your car smell like
cotton candy when they run cotton candy.
It is worth noting that in the 1950s,fuel regulations and racing were
much less strict than they are today.
Modern race fuels, they'recarefully controlled and regulated
(41:00):
with specific formulationsallowed for each racing category.
Back then, it was akind of a free for all.
You could mix your own fuel, you couldrun whatever you wanted, you could do
some additives to boost performance.
All of it was totally fine.
This accusation deeply concerned Mercedesteam manager Alfred, who convinced French
(41:27):
authorities to test residual fuel leftin the wrecks fuel injection system.
The results vindicated the company.
There was nothing weird with the fuel.
Fuel is fine.
It was purely the magnesiumalloy construction of the
chassis that led to a crazy fire incident.
So opinions really differedwidely among other drivers as to
(41:51):
who was to blame for the crash.
Was it the fact that a car suddenlyslammed on his brakes, perhaps?
Was it the fact that there was a caron track that couldn't break very well?
Perhaps there were a lot of factorsthat played into this, and of course,
(42:13):
both Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz issuedofficial statements mainly defending
themselves and their drivers.
No, you know, the situationbecame even more contentious.
In 1958 when Hawthorne published hisautobiography challenged me the race
on reading it, Macklin was furious todiscover that Hawthorne now disclaimed
(42:36):
all responsibility for the crashwithout specifically identifying
who had caused it with Leveque dead.
Macklan felt Hawthorne was implyingthat he Macklan was to blame, and
he actually began a libel lawsuit.
The legal dispute was never resolved.
In 1959, Mike Hawthorn was killed in aroad accident on a street in England.
(43:01):
In a tragic coincidence, he died whileovertaking a Mercedes-Benz in his Jaguar.
Mm, that's crazy.
The official government inquiry intothe LeMans disaster called officials,
drivers, and team personnel tobe questioned and give evidence.
The wreckage was examined and testedand finally returned to Mercedes-Benz
(43:25):
nearly 12 months after the catastrophe.
In the end, the inquiry ruled thatno specific driver was responsible
for the crash, concluding that it wassimply a terrible racing incident.
The death of the spectators wasblamed on inadequate safety standards
for the track design, which,yes, this verdict highlighted a
(43:47):
critical aspect of the disaster.
It wasn't just about drivererror or mechanical failure.
It was a systemic failure of safetyprotocols and infrastructure.
The track design was outdatedfor the kinds of speeds that
these cars were capable of.
The spectator areas werecompletely inadequately protected.
(44:09):
Emergency procedures wereinsufficient to say the least.
In many ways, the Lamont's disaster waswhat safety experts today would call
a system accident, a catastrophe thatoccurs when multiple failures align in
precisely the wrong way at the wrong time.
(44:31):
Do you remember the Swiss Cheese Theory?
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
This is a lot like theSwiss Cheese theory.
Over the year following the disaster,the organization that runs the LeMans
race implemented extensive trackimprovements and infrastructure changes.
So the pit straight was redesigned andwidened, remove the kink just before the
(44:51):
start finish line and to provide room fora deceleration lane, which makes sense.
So for our, not driver people, think ofthe deceleration lane as an exit ramp.
So it is an additional area whereyou can get over and then you
(45:12):
are able to apply the brakes.
You're able to slow downbefore you go into pit lane.
The pits are where you get gasand you change your tires and you
check your oil and like all of thatstuff that happens in pit lane.
So adding that is critical basedon what we saw from this disaster.
The pits complex was demolishedand then it was rebuilt,
(45:35):
giving more space to the teams.
Though this reduced the maximumnumber of entries from 60 to 52,
because each one gets more space.
The grandstand was also demolished andrebuilt with a new spectator terraces in a
wide ditch between them and the racetrack.
So beyond physical changes, the lamont'sdisaster marked a turning point in
(45:59):
how Motorsport approaches safety.
It really began kind of this slow andsteady evolution toward the safety focused
approach that we see in most racing today.
But that evolution was notalways quick or consistent.
It would take another decade and theadvocacy of drivers like Jackie Stewart
(46:22):
in the late 1960s for truly comprehensivesafety measures to take hold.
And there were some other pretty majordeaths, during that time that really
enforced the lamonts at accident safetyprotocol john Fitch, who was supposed
(46:43):
to relieve leveque in the ill-fatedMercedes, became a major safety advocate.
Following the disaster, heactually began developing safer
road cars and racing circuits.
Which is really cool.
And he invented traffic safetydevices that are still in use on
highways today, including the sandand air-filled Fitch barriers that
(47:09):
you have probably seen on highways andon racetracks, which is pretty cool.
If you have ever been on a highway andnoticed those yellow barrels filled with
sand in front of concrete dividers orbridge supports, those are fitch barriers.
How cool is that?
(47:30):
Which is very, very cool, but justknow hitting those is still rough.
Yeah, I'll fuck your shit up.
Are designed to absorb impact energygradually in a crash, slowing a vehicle
down before it hits something solid.
Um, and they will absolutely stilldo some serious damage, but they will
do less damage than a concrete wall.
(47:53):
So, yeah.
For Mercedes-Benz, the disaster ledto their withdrawal from Motorsport.
A hiatus that would lastuntil 19 85, 30 years.
When they did return initially asan engine supplier and later as a
works team, they approached racingwith a new philosophy that really
(48:17):
balanced performance with safety.
As somebody who races, and Zach can alsospeak to this, even at the amateur level,
you know, the legacy of Lamont's 1955 is.
Very embedded in motor sportsculture, particularly the
safety elements of racing.
(48:39):
So when we go to the track, we'rereally benefiting from the aftermath
of a horrible tragedy that happened.
The helmets that we wear, roll cages,barriers that line, every single
corner, all of those things are theresult of people looking at disasters
(48:59):
similar to LeMans and saying, Nope,we're not gonna do that again.
So this was 1955, obviously, and the carswere going about 170 in the straightaway.
So modern cars right now thatdo LeMans, they're in speeds,
(49:22):
averaging about 225 miles per hour.
So the fact that the track isevolving for safety and to take,
those considerations in mind iscritical to keep everybody safe.
And here's what's interesting.
It's, it's working.
(49:44):
The most recent fatal accidentat Lamonts was in 2013.
So, at the time of this recording,we are over a decade with no
fatal accident at Lamont's,
which is an incredible thing.
(50:04):
I mean, it's, it is absolutely verypossible to die on a racetrack.
Oh, yeah.
And things can happen and go wrong,not just track, but, you know,
car specific or driver error.
And having none in over a decade is, andarguably one of the hardest races in the
(50:25):
world because you're just, you get tooexhausted, you're burnt out, you can't
focus, and that's when mistakes happen.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Well that is our story for today.
If you enjoyed this episode,please rate, review, and subscribe
wherever you get your podcasts.
(50:46):
final boarding call is an aviationdisaster podcast, but we do like to
sprinkle in every once in a while theseinteresting other transportation disaster
stories because they are fascinating.
I mean, just like airplanetravel is fascinating.
Cars are fascinating whenyachts sink, it's fascinating.
(51:10):
When trains derail.
That's fascinating.
So we are going to do all of the above.
But it's just gonna besprinkled in as a little accent.
So we'll be back to our normalaviation stuff next week.
Don't panic.
You can follow us on Instagramat Final Boarding Call Pod.
We do some behind the scenescontent, whenever we travel.
(51:33):
We'll update you on futureepisodes, all that good stuff.
And then, we have a Facebook discussiongroup where you can share your thoughts.
Yell at me.
Tell me my French pronunciationswere embarrassing.
And that is Final BoardingCall podcast Discussion group.
It's, you'll find it, it's on Facebook.
Alright.
All right, Zach, I'm curious, as a racer,how do you feel about this episode?
(51:57):
Well, I still love racing.
Can't that be problematic if youwere just like, well, I'm out.
I think the reality is, is that you haveto have some sort of appreciation for.
Terrible, terrible things like thisthat have happened because everything
in the world, safety wise was developedbecause something bad happened.
(52:19):
So it doesn't matter if you'reinto flying planes or building cars
or racing cars or anything else.
If there is danger, something atone point happened and that's how
they figured out how to avoid it.
So a terrible, moment inhistory now makes it to where
people can enjoy it much safer.
I mean, it is safer to be on trackthan it is driving down the highway.
(52:41):
I agree.
All right, folks.
Join us next time when we'll be exploringanother aviation disaster story.
Until then, remember to stow your traytables, fasten your seat belts and
prepare for the unexpected because notevery trip reaches its final destination.
(53:03):
Goodbye.
Picture this, A sunny Juneafternoon in France, a roaring
(00:06):
crowd of over 200,000 spectators.
Line, the famous circuit De for the 24hours of LeMans race, the world's most
prestigious automotive manufacturers,Mercedes, Jaguar, Ferrari, are locked
in fierce competition at speedsapproaching 170 miles per hour.
(00:30):
In a split second, a series of maneuverssends a Mercedes race, car, airborne.
It flies over a small berm, theonly protection between the track
and the packed grandstands anddisintegrates among the crowd in a
shower of deadly debris and flames.
(00:50):
In less than 30 seconds, 83 spectatorsand one driver lose their lives
in what remains the deadliestaccident in Motorsports history.
Yet in an almost unfathomable decision,the race continues for another 23 hours,
even as first responders tend to thedead and dying just yards from the track.
(01:16):
Today we're exploring the catastrophicevent that forever changed
racing the 1955 AL'S disaster.
It's a story of technologicaladvancement, outpacing safety
measures, and split second decisionswith devastating consequences.
So stow your tray tables, fasten yourseat belts, and prepare for some extreme
(01:40):
turbulence or maybe some extreme brakingzones because this is final boarding call.
Hello and welcome to Final Boarding Call.
I am your disaster obsessed host, Alice.
And as always, I am joined by myreluctant homebody husband, Zach.
(02:00):
Hello everybody.
However, Zach is a little less reluctanttoday because we are talking race cars.
I sure play the part well thatI actually enjoy these things.
No, you don't.
I don't think I, no, I don't.
You don't.
Everybody knows I dislike cars so much.
(02:20):
It's just also the only thing I love.
Oh my gosh.
Well, I'm excited.
Full transparency.
Well, Zach and I both, race cars.
Zach is a drifter and I do some timetrials and time attack style racing.
Lamont's is way outside of myarea of knowledge, so I learned
a lot researching this disaster.
(02:42):
And, , there's some crazystuff that happens in here.
All right,
so buckle up, lower your visorand get ready to hit the throttle.
Ooh, I like that.
That's a solid intro.
All right, Zach.
Today we are looking back atwhat remains the deadliest
accident in Motorsports history.
(03:04):
How crazy is that?
Well, it is crazy that itis the deadliest accident.
I mean, there's a lot of crazy races outthere, but it also seems strange to me
having been involved in motor sports for,you know, close to 20 years that I don't
really know this incident that well.
Yeah, and I didn't either.
I mean, I, I learned so much.
(03:25):
I really had no idea.
I knew a little bit of thegist, but I learned a ton.
All right, let's travel backin time, folks to the fifties
when I should have been bored.
Yeah.
Oh, you would've thrived.
Alright.
On June 11th, 1955, in a matterof seconds, 83 spectators and
(03:49):
one driver lost their lives.
With over 120 additional peopleinjured forever, changing the
landscape of motorsport safety.
So my sources for this episode includea video called 1955 ALS Disaster, the
Deadliest Crash in Motorsports History.
And that was by History Engine andalso a Wikipedia page on the disaster.
(04:15):
Thank goodness for Wikipediato understand the magnitude of
what happened at LeMans in 1955.
We need to go back even furtherto 1923, the roaring twenties
when I should have been born.
When three automobile enthusiasts firstcame up with a race that would push both
(04:36):
cars and drivers to their absolute limits.
The 24 hours of L Mom wasborn as the ultimate test of
endurance and engineering.
The premise was simple.
But brutal.
The car that covered thegreatest distance in 24 hours
of continuous racing would win.
Boom, baby.
(04:56):
Simple enough, simple enough.
The race would showcase not justspeed, but reliability, fuel
efficiency, and driver stamina.
This is why endurance racing is so cool.
Zach and I just got intoendurance racing fairly recently.
, I love it.
It's just a whole differentbreed of racing for those
(05:18):
unfamiliar with endurance racing.
It is fundamentally different fromFormula One or nascar, which everybody
is, you know, fairly familiar with,where those races last a couple of hours.
Imagine running amarathon versus a sprint.
That is really the differencebetween endurance racing and
(05:40):
other forms of motorsports.
In a 24 hour race, like LeMans, teamsof drivers take shifts behind the
wheel racing day through the night,sunrise and sunset, dealing with.
Changing temperatures, varying visibility,the immense physical and mental fatigue
(06:01):
that comes with such extended competition.
And I can confirm that after doingmy last endurance race, I felt
like I had been in a car crash.
I was the most sore that I'veever been in my entire life
was after an endurance race.
Yeah.
I don't think, and if you've never doneanything like that, you can't really
imagine pushing a car that hard andthe intense focus to stay aggressively
(06:27):
racing, while also staying safe foran extended period of time like that.
And these cars aren't exactlydesigned to be comfortable.
So you're just in a rock hard seat, nopadding and going as hard as you can.
Absolutely.
Yes.
And when you are driving the same track,you're driving the exact same course.
(06:48):
For hours and hours and hours and youknow, at some point that mental fatigue,
you start to zone and it takes a lotof mental awareness to come back to the
fact that you are a freaking race, you'reracing a car, and you need to be present.
(07:08):
You need to be focused.
But doing that for hoursis absolutely brutal.
We do have a, another friend thathas done a bunch of endurance racing
as well, that she told us abouthow she accidentally built her
grocery list while she was racing.
Yeah, yeah.
And was very far offpace for a few laughs.
Yes.
Until she realized, oh, I'm stilldriving a car, I gotta focus, I'm,
(07:32):
I'm racing a race car right now.
By 1955, Lamonts had alreadyestablished itself as the crown
jewel of endurance racing.
Winning at LeMans meant internationalprestige for manufacturers, and the
event had grown from a test of automotivesuperiority into a full blown sport
(07:53):
with a massive global following.
The 1955 running promisedto be particularly special.
It was really a showdown between theworld's premier automotive manufacturers.
Right.
This is Ferrari.
They are arriving, they'rethe reigning champions.
(08:13):
They have five teams showcasing their 121 lms, which is an absolutely iconic car.
If you have your phone, goahead and look up 1 21 lm.
You'll be like, oh yeah, I know this car.
Maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll, I will.
Probably not.
Oh my God, they're so cool again.
. And then Jaguar brought their speciallycrafted D types, which was designed
(08:37):
specifically for the Lamont circuit.
And after a two year absence,Mercedes van had returned with
their stunning new 300 SLR.
Also like a gorgeous car.
Oh my gosh.
Zach, look up the 300 SLR real quick
The Mercedes 300 SLR wasa technological marvel.
(09:01):
It featured an ultralightbody made of magnesium alloy.
Called it's electron, butit's spelled E-L-E-K-T-R-O-N.
Very futuristic and an innovative airbrake, a panel that could be raised
behind the driver to create aerodynamicdrag for better stopping power.
(09:25):
And nowadays we just usemore pistons in the brakes.
The car had proven itself earlier thatyear when Sterling Moss drove it to to
a record setting victory in the Miliaa thousand mile race across Italy.
Let me explain what an air brake is.
So it's like regular brakes usefriction to slow a car's wheels.
(09:47):
And an air brake is a large panelthat pops up from the rear of the
car, kind of like opening an umbrella.
If you've ever watched dragracing, right, if you have a.
Crazy drag car.
It has essentially a , parachute that isattached to the back of the car and it
will go off to help slow the car becausethe car is carrying so much speed.
(10:13):
So this is similar in nature to that.
, but it's not like a full on parachute.
It is like an umbrella.
And I am actually going to show Zacha picture of the SLR air brake so
that we can get a visual of kind of
what this looks like.
. So Zach, this is what we're looking at.
(10:34):
. Well, the reason I was asking forclarification is because in truck
driving things like that, thereare actually air operated brakes.
This almost looks like you were puttingdown your convertible top and it, and
it got stuck like halfway going down.
And now there's just like a stripbasically behind your car where
(10:58):
instead of going all the way down,your convertible top is just kind
of awkwardly stuck up in the air.
But the theory is great because youpicture, you put your hand out the
window when you're going interstatespeeds, and that drag that you feel
against your arm and you make it.
You know, six feet wide andfour feet tall, that's a big
surface to help slow down.
(11:19):
A hundred percent.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
. So Mercedes had put togetheran All Star driver lineup.
They are showcasing this really coolnew technology and they have drivers
that are going to bring their A game.
They have Juan Manuel Fungi,fgi already a multiple formula.
(11:41):
One world champion who would sharethe lead car with Sterling Moss.
Carl Kling was paired with AndreSimon in another 300 SLR, and
Pierre Vic, a respected Frenchracing veteran would drive
with American John Fitch.
Levek had a special historywith LeMans in 1952.
(12:01):
He had nearly won the race single handedlydriving for 23 hours without relief before
his engine failed in the final hour.
And that is such a Zach move like that is.
So you as a driver, driving 23 hours
(12:25):
that mechanical failure had handedthe victory to Mercedes-Benz.
Now, three years later, Leveque wasdriving for the German team, hoping
to finally capture the Lamont's crownthat had alluded him, but there was
another factor that would play a crucialrole in what was about to happen.
The Lamont circuit of 1955 wasessentially the same one that had been
(12:48):
used since the races inception in 1923.
It was designed for cars with topspeeds of around 60 miles per hour.
But guess what?
These cars are driving You just dowe it faster than 60 miles per hour.
Zach, can you take a guess atthe speeds that we're going
(13:09):
to see in this 1955 lamos?
Well, I'm pretty sure youactually already said it.
I think somewhere around 170 mm-hmm.
170 miles per hour they will exceed.
So you were paying attentiononly beating that by 110.
That's not bad.
(13:29):
Yeah, it's fine.
The track had been resurfaced and slightlywidened after World War ii, but the basic
layout remained completely unchanged.
Most critically, the main straight wherethe cars would reach their highest speeds.
We call this the mainstraight or the straightaway.
Front.
Straight.
Yes.
Many names for it.
(13:51):
It was a very narrow, 12 feet wide.
That's very, narrow.
There were no barriers between thepit lane and the racing surface.
And only a four foot bank separatedthe track from the packed grandstand.
(14:14):
So unlike modern day racing, driverswore no seat belts, believing that it
was safer to be thrown clear out of thewreck than to be trapped in a burning car.
Safety third folks.
Safety third baby.
To put this in perspective,12 feet is about the width of
a single modern traffic lane.
One traffic lane, a single traffic lane.
(14:36):
Imagine two high performance racecars, both traveling at over 150
miles per hour trying to pass eachother in a space that is essentially
the width of a narrow one lane road.
To make matters worse, there wasnothing substantial separating these
speeding machines from the thousandsof spectators that were feet away.
(15:01):
So, you know, as for anybody who hasbeen to a racetrack, for anybody who has
driven having proper runoff, areas andbarriers are like 1 0 1, when you are
designing a track, you wanna make surethat there's plenty of space for cars to.
(15:22):
Do something.
If they have a break failure, if theylose control, there's gonna be tons of
space and spectators are pretty darn faraway and usually separated by a giant
cement wall between the track and them.
And this case is literallywhy those rules exist.
(15:45):
Let's talk about race day.
Race day dawned on June 11th, 1955.
It was a beautiful sunnySaturday that drew over 200,000
spectators to the circuit.
200,000.
That's crazy.
At 4:00 PM the race began withthe traditional Lamont start.
(16:06):
Drivers sprinting across thetrack to their waiting cars,
jumping in and roaring off.
Have you seen video of this?
Have, yeah.
Okay.
They actually run similar, starts in alot of different stuff, some endurance
motocross , and Oh, I love that.
Just really cool stuff.
Okay.
Well this start is so fun.
It's so cute.
You can't beat it.
What is that incredible movie?
(16:28):
Ford versus Ferrari.
Okay.
That is, that's a great movie thatlike, it's, they have a scene where
they, they do that and it's, youknow, really cute and fun to watch.
For those who haven't seenit, the lamont start, it's
unlike anything in modern racing.
So all of the cars are linedup along one side of the track.
(16:49):
So they aren't even alllike lined up in a line.
They're on one side and then thedrivers are on the other side.
The flag is dropped.
Drivers run all the way across the track.
They jump into their cars, they starttheir engines, they drive off all
with, without even putting a seatbelton, you're just, they're in the cars.
(17:12):
Many drivers would actually get movingfirst and then fasten any sort of
like harnesses or anything like thatwhen they are already fully at speed.
This chaotic start method was eventuallybanned for safety reasons, but in 1955 it
was still part of the tradition safety.
(17:33):
Third from the beginning, thebattle at the front was fierce.
Mike Hawthorn in a Jaguarand Juan Manuel Fangio.
In a Mercedes, they were tradingthe lead repeatedly, setting
new lab records in the process.
That's so fun.
I like, I love that energy.
(17:54):
The pace was blistering and the spectatorswere treated to some of the most
exciting racing ever seen at LeMans.
As the race progressed into its secondhour, the leaders began approaching
their first scheduled pit stops.
Hawthorne's Jaguar team signaled forhim to come in at the end of lap 35.
(18:16):
What happened next would unfoldin less than 30 seconds and it
would change motorsports forever.
The sequence of events that led tothe disaster began as Mike Hawthorne's
Jaguar approached the main straight.
Having just completed his 35th lap,he had been locked in a fierce battle
(18:39):
with Juan Manuel Fon Geo's Mercedes,but now his pit crew was signaling
for him to make a scheduled stop.
Nothing crazy, very runof the mill for racing.
Coming out of the Mesa Blanche sectiononto the Main Street Hawthorne, rapidly
caught up to Lance Macklin in his slowerAustin healy hundred s Macklin, seeing
(19:04):
the much faster Jaguar approaching, movedto the right to let Hawthorne pass after
passing Macklin, Hawthorne suddenly raisedhis hand to signal that he was pitting and
he moved to the right side of the track.
What happened next has beendebated for decades, but what's
(19:26):
clear is that Hawthorne brakedhard to make his pit entry.
So what we just had was a littlebit of like this kind of cat
and mouse situation, right?
So.
Hawthorne caught up to this driver,Lance Macklin, who is in a slower car.
The slower car moved over to the rightto let Hawthorne pass the fast car,
(19:50):
and then after passing, Hawthorne isin the wrong lane because he went left
to pass a guy who was in the right.
The issue is he has to be in theright to exit the track, so now he
is in the right lane, the slow car.
(20:13):
Our buddy Lance Macklin is behind him.
The Jaguar was equipped with discbrakes, a technological advantage that
allowed it to stop much more quickly.
Then its competitors.
Macklin's Austin Healy, followingvery close behind had less effective
(20:38):
drum breaks caught by surprise atHawthorne's, sudden slowing Macklin
had to break hard and swerve toavoid rear ending the Jaguar.
Zach, will you explain to the peoplevery briefly the difference between
(20:58):
a disc brake and a drum break?
Well, a disc brake is what'sgonna be found on any of
your modern cars these days.
It is a circular rotor that runsas with rotation as the wheel in
between a brake caliper that will.
Especially in racing systems, usuallyhave at least four pistons that push
(21:18):
out and apply pressure onto the discto create the friction to slow down.
While on a drum break you actually haveone piston in the center of it, um,
that just expands out and it basicallytries to inside clamp the rotating drum.
So it's impossible to applyas much friction and get
(21:40):
it to stop as effectively..
Yes.
And how would speed impactthese if they get hot?
So.
Disc breaks are vented to where theycan actually absorb some air into them.
Mm-hmm.
And cool off faster, making them moreeffective over the long term while drum
breaks are almost sealed in place towhere whatever heat that metal takes in,
(22:04):
it's going to stay there until it has achance to just naturally cool over time.
Absolutely.
And that's, that's spot on.
So our slower car, which is Macklin,who had the drum brakes, they were
hot and one the, the Jaguar wasable to break better anyway, but to
(22:26):
have a hot drum break is not ideal.
So he swerved and thesudden maneuver sent.
Macklin's car fearing lefttoward the center of the track.
The timing could not have beenworse because Pierre Leveque
(22:47):
was there.
Pierre Levee's.
Mercedes 300 SLR was approachingat over 150 miles per hour with
FIA's Mercedes close behind him.
Leveque had no time to react as Macklin's.
Car slow, going slow, just wasboom, right in front of him.
(23:10):
In what may have been his final consciousact, Levek raised his hand to warn Fgi
who was following closely behind him.
So he warned him that like he wasabout to have to do a serious maneuver.
Then LAX Mercedes slammed into the back ofMacklin's Austin Healy at full race speed.
(23:37):
The physics of what happened next were,I mean, they were catastrophic, right?
The front right wheelof Lefas car rode up.
Over the sloped rear end ofMacklin's Austin Healy, which
acted essentially as a ramp, and itlaunched the Mercedes into the air.
(23:58):
At approximately 150 miles per hour, thecar sailed over the earthen berm that
was meant to protect spectators crashinginto the packed crowd, the Mercedes made
at least two major impacts within thespectator area before breaking apart.
(24:23):
Leveque was thrown onto thetrack and killed instantly
I mean, the car was going 150 milesper hour and he was just thrown.
But the horror was really just beginning.
Large pieces of debris, includingthe Mercedes engine block, radiator,
front, suspension, and hood were allsent flying into the densely packed
(24:50):
spectator area in front of the grandstand.
For anybody who has everwondered if car parts are heavy.
They are.
They really, really are.
Especially out of that list, anengine block that's terrifying.
(25:12):
Mean, the hood's scary too, because that'slike just a giant flat piece of metal.
It's just like boomerangingits way through.
And at 150 miles an hour,that is just a giant knife.
Yes, that exactly.
It is a giant knife.
Many spectators had climbedonto ladders and scaffolding to
(25:33):
get a better view of the track.
Others were crowded nearthe underpass to the pits.
These positions intended toprovide better views of the race.
Instead put them directly in the pathof this deadly debris as a final,
terrible component to this disaster.
(25:55):
The rear of Laxs car landed on theembankment and burst into flames.
Remember that special magnesium alloybody that I mentioned earlier, Zach?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Well, electron had one fatal flaw.
It was highly flammable, onceignited, and it burned at an
(26:19):
extremely high temperature.
Oh boy.
So for people who are not familiarwith magnesium fires, they are not
like normal fires that you wouldsee burning gasoline or wood.
Magnesium burns at temperaturesof up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
That is hot enough to melt, melt steel.
It produces a blindingly bright whiteflame and is basically impossible
(26:43):
to extinguish once it gets going.
Modern race cars no longer use magnesiumcomponents in large quantities precisely
because of this incident and the firerisk that we obviously encountered.
When rescue workers who were unfamiliarwith magnesium fires poured water
(27:05):
onto the burning wreckage, theyinadvertently made TheBlaze worse.
Water actually makesmagnesium burn more violently.
The fire continued to burn for hours.
Showering the entire area withwhite hot magnesium embers burst
just an absolute nightmare.
(27:25):
Meanwhile, Macklin's damaged AustinHealy had careened across the track
and into the pit lane, narrowly missingseveral other cars before hitting the
pit wall and injuring several officials.
Macklin himself was uninjured, andhe managed to escape the wreckage.
(27:47):
That's a tiny miracle out ofthis absolute shit show story.
The scene was one ofunimaginable chaos and horror.
British driver, Duncan Hamilton,watched from the pit wall.
Later recalling the scene on the otherside of the road was indescribable.
The dead and dying were everywhere.
(28:09):
The cries of pain, anguish, anddespair screamed catastrophe.
I stood as if in a dreamto horrified to even think.
In just 30 seconds.
The deadliest accident inMotorsport history had unfolded.
The official death toll would eventuallybe recorded as 83 spectators plus leveque
(28:32):
with a further 120 to 178, dependingon the source that were injured.
Some unofficial accidentsput the numbers even higher.
The aftermath presented race officialswith an unprecedented situation.
What should happen to the race itself?
(28:53):
Is that question like a longterm or this one particular race?
I mean, I guess both.
But I can tell you what happens.
You ready?
Tell me.
Okay.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash,there was understandable confusion and
shock throughout the Lamont circuit.
Hawthorne who had completed hispit stop was completely distraught.
(29:16):
According to witnesses, he staggeredfrom his car, convinced that
he had caused the catastrophe.
That's a rough pill to swallow there.
His teammate had to take overthe car as Hawthorne was in no
condition to continue driving.
John Fitch, who was supposed torelieve Leveque from the Mercedes,
remember, this is the American guy.
(29:38):
He had been standing with LA'swife when the crash occurred,
and they had witnessed the entiretragedy unfold before their eyes.
Oh my God.
I, I, mm-hmm.
No, you get bumped on trackand I like, have a meltdown.
I would not be able to function.
(30:00):
Ugh.
What happened next?
Remains.
One of, if not the most controversialdecision in Motorsport history,
despite the scale of the disaster,despite the casualties, despite the
car that's on fire, race directorCharles Farrell made the decision
(30:23):
to continue the race unbelievable.
Several explanations were lateroffered for the surprising choice.
Surprising is a generous word there.
One was that stopping the racewould've caused 200,000 spectators
to simultaneously head for theexits, potentially blocking access
(30:44):
for emergency vehicles that weretrying to reach the injured.
That sounds like a 4-year-oldcame up with that excuse as
to why they did something bad.
Yeah, I mean, truly Another wasthat race contracts obligated the
event to continue with possiblelawsuits if it were canceled.
(31:05):
I mean, the Fook folks, the actualFook Farrell himself, would later
claim that the rough law of sportdictates that the race shall go on.
And he cited the 1952, uh, FarmboroughAir Show crash as a precedent, which I
think we're actually going to cover that.
(31:26):
So I'm not gonna go, I'm notgonna go too far into that.
'cause , I do wanna do that case.
Let's keep going.
He also suggested that he didn't actuallyhave the authority to stop the race.
Only the French government'srepresentative could make that
call, which that seems weirdbecause you're the race director.
It meant a different thing at that time.
I guess so.
(31:46):
I guess so.
Whatever the true reasoning the resultwas the same as medical personnel
attended to the dead and dying, andfirefighters continued to battle the
magnesium fire, the race continued.
I don't know how I could notbe in the Headspace to do
this for the Mercedes team.
This created an agonizing dilemma.
(32:07):
Team Manager Alfred Nir immediatelywanted to withdraw from the race
out of respect for the victims.
But he didn't have the authorityto make such a decision.
An emergency telephone meeting ofMercedes-Benz directors in stuff.
Gart was called an new brewer, Alfredwaited anxiously for their verdict
(32:29):
to understand the significanceof this potential withdrawal.
It is important to note that inendurance racing manufactures invest
enormous resources, both financial, yourreputation all into their racing programs.
Very much F1, anybody who'swatched like any of the Netflix
documentaries on Formula One.
(32:51):
The amount of engineering and time,and you have a team and there's so much
money that is the same as this race.
This is the 1955 version of that,so to pull out is kind of bananas.
Just before midnight, nearly sixhours after the crash, Alfred finally
(33:15):
received approval to withdraw at 1:45AM when many spectators had left.
He quietly called his cars into the pits.
At the time Mercedes was running in firstand third positions within, honestly,
an excellent chance of winning the race.
The team's withdrawal was brieflyannounced over the public address
system, and by morning the Mercedestrucks had packed up and left.
(33:41):
What do you think, Zach?
Was that the right call?
You know, I pretend that I'm fairlyheartless most of the time, but if
one of my teammates had crashed anddied and lots of other people died at
an event I was attending, I wouldn'tcare about the event at all anymore.
I could not run it.
Yep, I agree.
The Mercedes team manager had gone tothe Jaguar pits to ask if they would also
(34:05):
withdraw out of respect for the victims.
The Jaguar team manager,lofty England declined and the
British team continued racing.
There you go.
Oh, oh seven, I guess.
And it was the only waythey ever won anything.
Stop.
Stop.
With their main competition gone.
(34:25):
Hawthorne and Bub went on towin the race by a margin of only
five laps, which is very, verysmall margin for a 24 hour race.
But there was no victory celebration.
The weather had closed in on Sundaymorning, matching the somber mood
that had descended over Lamont's.
(34:48):
However, a controversial press photolater emerged showing Hawthorne
smiling on the podium and drinkingfrom the Victor's bottle of champagne.
How's that for a look?
On the other hand, as the devil'sadvocate here, if my team made me keep
racing and I won, it is still a victory.
(35:09):
It is not as awesome asat what cost, my God.
All right.
Well, there was a French magazinethat got this photo and they
published it with the caption, andI love this to your health, Mr.
Hawthorne.
Woo, the image sparked outragein France with many feeling that
(35:31):
it showed insensitivity correctto the tragedy that had unfolded.
Hawthorne would later claim that thephotograph was taken out of context
and that he had been in a state ofshock throughout the remainder of
the race and the podium ceremony.
Oh man.
I guess I kinda get that too.
Like if you are a driver and yourteam is not pulling out, you know,
(35:53):
you have to race, you have contracts,you have all kinds of things.
They can sue you.
You have to race that's justnot how I would wanna win.
Meanwhile, a special mass was heldin the Lamont's Cathedral for the
first funerals of the victims.
The scale of the tragedy wasonly beginning to sink in.
Both for those directly involvedand for the wider motor racing
(36:16):
community around the world.
The immediate reaction was swift andsevere France, Spain, Switzerland,
west Germany, and other nationsimposed immediate temporary bans on
motorsport until race tracks could bebrought to higher safety standards.
(36:37):
Boom.
Let's see what the United States did.
They said safety third.
I'm about to tell you?
In the United States, the AmericanAutomobile Association, which had
been the primary sanctioning bodyfor motorsports in the US since
1904, including the Indianapolis 500,completely dissolved their contest board.
(37:00):
They decided that auto racingdetracted from their primary
goals of highway safety.
And travel advocacy.
The United States Automobile Club wasformed to take over race sanctioning.
So, that is, that's interesting.
I wonder if that's still the case.
I have so many questions.
(37:20):
Don't really know who does what.
That's at the national level, baby.
That's, I don't, I volunteer.
I was gonna say, I don't makeenough money for that, but I just,
I don't make any money at all.
I spend a lot of money on racing.
Okay.
Most countries lifted theirracing bands within a year.
Once safety improvements were implemented.
Switzerland, however,took a different approach.
(37:43):
The Swiss van on circuitracing persisted for decades.
In fact, it was notfully lifted until 2022.
2022, a full 67 years after Lamonts,the crash had profound effects on
many of the individuals involved.
(38:04):
Several drivers, including Americans,John Fitch, Phil Walters, and Sherwood
Johnston decided to retire from racing.
Lance Macklin also retired afterbeing involved in another fatal
crash later that same year.
Juan Manuel Fangio already one of thegreatest drivers in history, never raced
(38:27):
at Lamonts again, and for Hawthorne.
The events of that day cast a shadow overthe remainder of his career, despite his
continued success in Formula One, wherehe would become world champion in 1958.
Who's to blame in the days, weeks,and months following the disaster?
There was intense speculation and fingerpointing about who was to blame for this
(38:51):
catastrophe, much of it was directedat Mike Hawthorne with claims that he
had suddenly cut in front of Macklanand slammed on the brakes near the
entrance to the pits, forcing Macklanto take evasive action into LAX path.
This became the semi-officialposition of the Mercedes team and
(39:14):
Macklin's own account of the events.
So.
As somebody who leads a lot ofdriver's meetings and does a lot of
driver coaching and instructing, oneof the first things that I tell a
new driver is that the safest thingyou can be on track is predictable.
(39:35):
Predictability is key.
And in my opinion, from the brief amountof research that I did on this, I mean
there's like a lot of stuff out there.
It seems to me like the large cause ofthis is that somebody was unpredictable
on track, and that is dangerous.
(39:56):
The Jaguar team in turn questionedthe fitness and competence of both
Macklan and Leveque as drivers.
That's a real bold approach.
The media accounts in the immediateaftermath were widely inaccurate,
and it wasn't until years later whenphotographic evidence was properly
analyzed that a clearer picture emerged.
(40:17):
The media also speculated aboutthe unusually violent fire that
had engulfed the Mercedes wreck,particularly how it had intensified
when fire marshals poured water on it.
Some suggested that Mercedes-Benz hadtampered with the fuel supply, adding an
explosive additive for better performance.
(40:39):
That's more than water wetter
or any of the cool new fuel additivesyou can do that make your car smell like
cotton candy when they run cotton candy.
It is worth noting that in the 1950s,fuel regulations and racing were
much less strict than they are today.
Modern race fuels, they'recarefully controlled and regulated
(41:00):
with specific formulationsallowed for each racing category.
Back then, it was akind of a free for all.
You could mix your own fuel, you couldrun whatever you wanted, you could do
some additives to boost performance.
All of it was totally fine.
This accusation deeply concerned Mercedesteam manager Alfred, who convinced French
(41:27):
authorities to test residual fuel leftin the wrecks fuel injection system.
The results vindicated the company.
There was nothing weird with the fuel.
Fuel is fine.
It was purely the magnesiumalloy construction of the
chassis that led to a crazy fire incident.
So opinions really differedwidely among other drivers as to
(41:51):
who was to blame for the crash.
Was it the fact that a car suddenlyslammed on his brakes, perhaps?
Was it the fact that there was a caron track that couldn't break very well?
Perhaps there were a lot of factorsthat played into this, and of course,
(42:13):
both Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz issuedofficial statements mainly defending
themselves and their drivers.
No, you know, the situationbecame even more contentious.
In 1958 when Hawthorne published hisautobiography challenged me the race
on reading it, Macklin was furious todiscover that Hawthorne now disclaimed
(42:36):
all responsibility for the crashwithout specifically identifying
who had caused it with Leveque dead.
Macklan felt Hawthorne was implyingthat he Macklan was to blame, and
he actually began a libel lawsuit.
The legal dispute was never resolved.
In 1959, Mike Hawthorn was killed in aroad accident on a street in England.
(43:01):
In a tragic coincidence, he died whileovertaking a Mercedes-Benz in his Jaguar.
Mm, that's crazy.
The official government inquiry intothe LeMans disaster called officials,
drivers, and team personnel tobe questioned and give evidence.
The wreckage was examined and testedand finally returned to Mercedes-Benz
(43:25):
nearly 12 months after the catastrophe.
In the end, the inquiry ruled thatno specific driver was responsible
for the crash, concluding that it wassimply a terrible racing incident.
The death of the spectators wasblamed on inadequate safety standards
for the track design, which,yes, this verdict highlighted a
(43:47):
critical aspect of the disaster.
It wasn't just about drivererror or mechanical failure.
It was a systemic failure of safetyprotocols and infrastructure.
The track design was outdatedfor the kinds of speeds that
these cars were capable of.
The spectator areas werecompletely inadequately protected.
(44:09):
Emergency procedures wereinsufficient to say the least.
In many ways, the Lamont's disaster waswhat safety experts today would call
a system accident, a catastrophe thatoccurs when multiple failures align in
precisely the wrong way at the wrong time.
(44:31):
Do you remember the Swiss Cheese Theory?
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
This is a lot like theSwiss Cheese theory.
Over the year following the disaster,the organization that runs the LeMans
race implemented extensive trackimprovements and infrastructure changes.
So the pit straight was redesigned andwidened, remove the kink just before the
(44:51):
start finish line and to provide room fora deceleration lane, which makes sense.
So for our, not driver people, think ofthe deceleration lane as an exit ramp.
So it is an additional area whereyou can get over and then you
(45:12):
are able to apply the brakes.
You're able to slow downbefore you go into pit lane.
The pits are where you get gasand you change your tires and you
check your oil and like all of thatstuff that happens in pit lane.
So adding that is critical basedon what we saw from this disaster.
The pits complex was demolishedand then it was rebuilt,
(45:35):
giving more space to the teams.
Though this reduced the maximumnumber of entries from 60 to 52,
because each one gets more space.
The grandstand was also demolished andrebuilt with a new spectator terraces in a
wide ditch between them and the racetrack.
So beyond physical changes, the lamont'sdisaster marked a turning point in
(45:59):
how Motorsport approaches safety.
It really began kind of this slow andsteady evolution toward the safety focused
approach that we see in most racing today.
But that evolution was notalways quick or consistent.
It would take another decade and theadvocacy of drivers like Jackie Stewart
(46:22):
in the late 1960s for truly comprehensivesafety measures to take hold.
And there were some other pretty majordeaths, during that time that really
enforced the lamonts at accident safetyprotocol john Fitch, who was supposed
(46:43):
to relieve leveque in the ill-fatedMercedes, became a major safety advocate.
Following the disaster, heactually began developing safer
road cars and racing circuits.
Which is really cool.
And he invented traffic safetydevices that are still in use on
highways today, including the sandand air-filled Fitch barriers that
(47:09):
you have probably seen on highways andon racetracks, which is pretty cool.
If you have ever been on a highway andnoticed those yellow barrels filled with
sand in front of concrete dividers orbridge supports, those are fitch barriers.
How cool is that?
(47:30):
Which is very, very cool, but justknow hitting those is still rough.
Yeah, I'll fuck your shit up.
Are designed to absorb impact energygradually in a crash, slowing a vehicle
down before it hits something solid.
Um, and they will absolutely stilldo some serious damage, but they will
do less damage than a concrete wall.
(47:53):
So, yeah.
For Mercedes-Benz, the disaster ledto their withdrawal from Motorsport.
A hiatus that would lastuntil 19 85, 30 years.
When they did return initially asan engine supplier and later as a
works team, they approached racingwith a new philosophy that really
(48:17):
balanced performance with safety.
As somebody who races, and Zach can alsospeak to this, even at the amateur level,
you know, the legacy of Lamont's 1955 is.
Very embedded in motor sportsculture, particularly the
safety elements of racing.
(48:39):
So when we go to the track, we'rereally benefiting from the aftermath
of a horrible tragedy that happened.
The helmets that we wear, roll cages,barriers that line, every single
corner, all of those things are theresult of people looking at disasters
(48:59):
similar to LeMans and saying, Nope,we're not gonna do that again.
So this was 1955, obviously, and the carswere going about 170 in the straightaway.
So modern cars right now thatdo LeMans, they're in speeds,
(49:22):
averaging about 225 miles per hour.
So the fact that the track isevolving for safety and to take,
those considerations in mind iscritical to keep everybody safe.
And here's what's interesting.
It's, it's working.
(49:44):
The most recent fatal accidentat Lamonts was in 2013.
So, at the time of this recording,we are over a decade with no
fatal accident at Lamont's,
which is an incredible thing.
(50:04):
I mean, it's, it is absolutely verypossible to die on a racetrack.
Oh, yeah.
And things can happen and go wrong,not just track, but, you know,
car specific or driver error.
And having none in over a decade is, andarguably one of the hardest races in the
(50:25):
world because you're just, you get tooexhausted, you're burnt out, you can't
focus, and that's when mistakes happen.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Well that is our story for today.
If you enjoyed this episode,please rate, review, and subscribe
wherever you get your podcasts.
(50:46):
final boarding call is an aviationdisaster podcast, but we do like to
sprinkle in every once in a while theseinteresting other transportation disaster
stories because they are fascinating.
I mean, just like airplanetravel is fascinating.
Cars are fascinating whenyachts sink, it's fascinating.
(51:10):
When trains derail.
That's fascinating.
So we are going to do all of the above.
But it's just gonna besprinkled in as a little accent.
So we'll be back to our normalaviation stuff next week.
Don't panic.
You can follow us on Instagramat Final Boarding Call Pod.
We do some behind the scenescontent, whenever we travel.
(51:33):
We'll update you on futureepisodes, all that good stuff.
And then, we have a Facebook discussiongroup where you can share your thoughts.
Yell at me.
Tell me my French pronunciationswere embarrassing.
And that is Final BoardingCall podcast Discussion group.
It's, you'll find it, it's on Facebook.
Alright.
All right, Zach, I'm curious, as a racer,how do you feel about this episode?
(51:57):
Well, I still love racing.
Can't that be problematic if youwere just like, well, I'm out.
I think the reality is, is that you haveto have some sort of appreciation for.
Terrible, terrible things like thisthat have happened because everything
in the world, safety wise was developedbecause something bad happened.
(52:19):
So it doesn't matter if you'reinto flying planes or building cars
or racing cars or anything else.
If there is danger, something atone point happened and that's how
they figured out how to avoid it.
So a terrible, moment inhistory now makes it to where
people can enjoy it much safer.
I mean, it is safer to be on trackthan it is driving down the highway.
(52:41):
I agree.
All right, folks.
Join us next time when we'll be exploringanother aviation disaster story.
Until then, remember to stow your traytables, fasten your seat belts and
prepare for the unexpected because notevery trip reaches its final destination.
(53:03):
Goodbye.
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