In 1949, a little known Italian sportscar manufacturer took an unlikely and astonishing victory in what is arguably the world’s most gruelling motor race. And it was all because of one man.
It’s the summer of 1949. Europe is finally emerging from a post-war slumber, a slumber fuelled by the six years of devastation and tragedy of the second world war that had ended four years earlier.
The city of Le Mans, about 200km south-west of the French capital, Paris, is undergoing its own awakening. Famed for its annual 24-hour long car race, the 24 Heures du Mans, the city is getting ready once again to host the world’s best drivers and their cars in a test of stamina, both human and mechanical, for the first time since 1939.
The tragedy of the war years of 1939-45 had taken their toll on Europe, on its people, and on its landscape. The 13.492km long Circuit de la Sarthe, skirting the edges of Le Mans, wasn’t immune from the ravages of war.
With France under German occupation and with the Luftwaffe (German air force) taking over the small airport adjacent to the circuit, it’s little wonder the region became a target for Allied bombers.
The sustained bombing raids damaged much of the La Sarthe’s infrastructure, including the 6km long Mulsanne straight, once a test of courage and bravery for racecar drivers and their machines, but now reduced to a shellshocked stretch of tarmac. The Mulsanne had been used by the Luftwaffe as a runway during the war, and the Allied air forces bombed it to smithereens accordingly.
Like the rest of Europe, France in the immediate post-war years turned its energies and finances to rebuilding essential infrastructure. La Sarthe, and its annual motor race, was way down the list of priorities.
But with the help of a government grant, by 1949 the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, organisers of the Le Mans 24 hours, had not only repaired the pit garages, rebuilt the grandstand and totally resurfaced the track, but had also undertaken major infrastructure work, adding a 1000-seat restaurant and an administration building.
The Circuit de la Sarthe was once again ready to host the world’s greatest endurance race, even if a section of the outfield remained off limits thanks to the presence of landmines.
It was into this renewed field of optimism that British aristocrat Peter Mitchell-Thompson, or Lord Selsdon as he was better known, entered a privateer Ferrari 166 LM. He would share co-driving duties with two-time Le Mans winner Luigi Chinetti.
Mitchell-Thompson, the very definition of a gentleman racer, had two previous Le Mans starts against his name, with a best result of fourth outright (and second in class) in 1939, the last Le Mans 24 hour before the outbreak of war.
The 2nd Baron of Selsdon, to grant Mitchell-Thompson his official title, made two astute decisions when he decided to enter Le Mans as a privateer in 1949.
First, he hired Chinetti, already a two-time winner of the race, having triumphed twice for Alfa Romeo in the pre-war years including in 1934 which remains the last victory at Le Mans for the Italian marque.
And secondly, Mitchell-Thompson took a punt on a fledgling Italian carmaker out of Maranello.
Ferrari in 1949 was still a young company, incorporated just two years earlier, in time to start building cars bearing its own name.
Company founder Enzo Ferrari, of course, had a long history in motorsport, his Scuderia Ferrari outfit having entered and run Alfa Romeos in pre-war grand prix racing since 1929 and with plenty of success with superstar drivers of the day like Tazio Nuvolari, Achille Varzi and Louis Chiron. Household names then, and etched into the Pantheon of grand prix racing greatness today.
But the outbreak of World War II curtailed Ferrari’s racing endeavours and when the war ended in 1945, Ferrari struck out on his own. It was time to start building cars.
By 1948, Ferrari was building prototype sportscars designed for competition. And they were immediately successful and that same year had clocked up impressive wins in the Targa Florio and Mille Miglia.
History doesn’t record why Mitchell-Thompson chose Ferrari for his Le Mans assault in 1949. Perhaps it was the growing reputation of the Prancing Horse. Or maybe it was the allure of the 166 MM’s sleek lines and arresting red body? What we do know is Lord Selsdon bought his 166 MM, chassis number 0008M which had already won the Mille Miglia (and remains the only car ever to win both the Miglia and the Le Mans 24 hour) direct from the factory in Maranello.
The recipe for an unlikely and heroic victory was in place.
The Ferrari 166 MM was unlike its rivals. Powered by a very small block V12 (displacement was just 2.0-litres), the 166 MM squared off against larger and more powerful rivals from established French and British manufacturers.
The pre-race favourites were the Talbot-Lagos and Delahayes, both powered by big 4.5-litre inline sixes. And the practice form guide suggested the French cars would be unstoppable, the top 10 fastest competitors dominated by French blue with the Talbot-Lago of Louis Rosier posting the fastest lap of them all.
The race started at 4pm on Saturday 25 June, Chinetti behind the wheel of the Ferrari 166 MM, swamped by an army of French and British cars.
As Motorsport magazine recorded in its 1949 race report, “A hush fell as the drivers lined up opposite their cars and Charles Faroux instructed the timekeeper to raise the tricolour.
“As it swept down the line of the men broke and, in what seemed a moment, Chaboud’s Delahaye, a vicious two-seater with vast aerodynamic wings, swept off in the lead, followed by Paul Vallée’s Talbot, which overtook Hay’s Rolls-Bentley as it got away.
“Next came Rosier (Talbot), Grignard (Delahaye), Veuillet’s Delage, Johnson in the 2.5-litre Aston Martin, Chinetti’s Ferrari, Dreyfus’s Ferrari and Leblanc’s Delahaye.”
But outright speed is one thing, mechanical stamina another and as one by one the leading cars ran into trouble, Chinetti and his little Ferrari soon found themselves in podium contention, trailing only the twin Delahayes of Eugène Chaboud and Pierre Flahaut.
Disaster was about to strike the French duo, however. As legendary motor racing journalist Denis Jenkinson wrote in Motorsport, “Flahault’s Delahaye commenced a series of pit-stops, the engine reluctant to restart, so that 43.2 minutes were lost, the symptoms suggesting slipped timing.
“And, as if that wasn’t enough, Pozzi [now] in the leading Delahaye caught fire at Mulsanne, and it must have been half-an-hour before, amid a feverish ovation, he coaxed his stricken car to the pits, in the dusk sans lights!”
That left Chinetti taking the lead in his Ferrari 166 MM shortly after nightfall. It was a lead he would never relinquish.
As the hours ground on and the lap counter ticked over, Chinetti set about building a sizeable lead. At midnight, eight hours into the race, the Chinetti’s lead was two minutes. At 4:26am, 12 hours and 26 minutes into the race, Chinetti had stretched the Ferrari’s lead to three laps.
What is remarkable about that is Chinetti had been behind the wheel for every minute of those 12h26m, only handing the car over to his aristocratic co-driver at 4:26am. Mitchell-Thompson knew Chinetti was the better driver, and with a sniff of a first-up win was happy to leave the 47-year-old behind the wheel as long as possible.
As it was Mitchell-Thompson completed just 72 minutes at the wheel, just enough time for Chinetti to take a nap before getting back in the car – refreshed – at 5:38am for the run home to the finish.
That chequered flag was still almost nine hours away but Chinetti was up to the task, overcoming mechanical gremlins, like a slipping clutch and a lengthy pitstop to replace fouled spark plugs.
It mattered little and at 4pm on Sunday 26 June, Chinetti took the flag to claim his third and Ferrari’s first victory at the Le Mans 24 hour.
It was a remarkable win, not only for the still infant Italian carmaker, making its Le Mans debut, but also for Chinetti’s feat of human endurance.
In all, the Italian had spent 22 hours, 48 minutes behind the wheel of the Ferrari, an astonishing achievement and a then record for a race winner.
Chinetti’s record lasted just 12 months, though, with Louis Rosier at the wheel for a total of 23h15m on his way to victory in 1950, the same year Edward Ramsden Hall took the wheel of his Bentley for the entire 24 hours on his way to finishing eighth overall.
Ferrari’s first-ever Le Mans win, at its first attempt no less, set the tone for the next two decades, the Italian marque chalking up a further eight victories, including six in a row from 1960-65.
That 1965 win, the last of nine total outright victories, remains the Prancing Horse’s most recent.
This weekend, the Scuderia returns to La Sarthe to contend for outright victory for the first time in 50 years. Despite the decades-long absence, Ferrari remains the third-most winning manufacturer at Le Mans, its nine wins behind only the 19 of Porsche and Audi’s 16 triumphs.
A 10th win for Ferrari in this new era of endurance racing – against high-tech hybrid hypercars from a host of manufacturers including Toyota, Cadillac, Peugeot and Porsche – isn’t out of the question.
About the only certainty on this, the 100th anniversary of the first 24 Heures du Mans is that no matter who ends up victorious, no single driver will have matched the 22h48m behind the wheel of Luigi Chinetti, the first ever Ferrari Le Mans winner. Legend.
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