Jacky Ickx takes a walk in 1969 - Le Mans' greatest moments
From the first race in 1923 to the battles of today, we count down the greatest moments in Le Mans history - with a new entry every day
Jacky Ickx walks to his car as a protest at the start of the 1969 race
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Le Mans is unlike any other race. Run continuously since 1923, it has produced moments of genius, heartbreak and sheer improbability that no other event in motor sport can match – a century of stories that refuse to be forgotten.
Ahead of this year’s 94th running, we are recalling some of the most memorable episodes the race has seen. Today, we look back to the moment the flag dropped on the 1969 race.
1969 – Jacky Ickx takes a walk
There’s some irony that it should be Jacky Ickx who should end a grand old Le Mans tradition on the grounds of safety. Over in F1, he and Jackie Stewart grated regularly over the rising campaign that enough was finally enough. Not that Ickx was against improving his survival chances. He was just, as he put it, “conservative” in his approach. Yet here he was, at the start of the world’s most famous endurance race, posting a safety protest in the most sensational (yet naturally stylish) manner.
Aggrieved at the practice of drivers only doing up their belts on the Mulsanne – or even not at all after the running start – Ickx chose to walk across the track towards his Gulf Ford GT40 when the flag dropped. “In fact I did have to run the last few metres to my car, or I would have been run over!” he smiles. “A lot of people were upset with me, because that start was a great Le Mans tradition.”
But his point was proven in the darkest manner just minutes later when John Woolfe, his belts still undone, lost control of his Porsche 917 at the high-speed kink at Maison Blanche and triggered a multi-car accident. Woolfe died in the crash, and with him went the signature running start. Not before time.
Le Mans: over a century of triumph, tragedy and endurance
Other events may offer sharper competition over their duration, more concentrated drama in a shorter window of time, but none can match the breadth and weight of history that the Circuit de la Sarthe has accumulated across a century of racing.
Since André Lagache and René Léonard nursed their Chenard-Walcker to victory in the inaugural running of 1923, the Grand Prix de Vitesse et d’Endurance has been the stage for some of the most extraordinary stories the sport has ever produced.
They are stories of ambition and heartbreak, of manufacturers spending fortunes in pursuit of glory only to find the 24 hours utterly indifferent to their investment.
They are stories of individual brilliance stretched to its limit, of mechanics working through the night against the clock, of racing cars pushed to – and sometimes beyond – the edge of what engineering should permit.
The race has witnessed the very worst that motor sport can produce, and has also given us moments of such beauty and improbability that they have never been forgotten.
Motor Sport has been covering Le Mans for over a century, and over the years we have built an archive that spans virtually every chapter of its history.
To celebrate that legacy, we have compiled 100 of the moments that have shaped the race – the defining scenes, the forgotten footnotes, the controversies, the catastrophes and the victories that made Le Mans what it is.