“Start, start, run” remember? That's how racing started in high school.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans, until the 1969 edition, was not much different. Drivers ran wildly to cars like children at playground. But there was one pilot who dared to defy that rule.
In 1969, more than 400,000 people watched the opening of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. At the starting signal, all the drivers started running to their cars but one... Jacky Ickx.
Walking calmly in his Ford GT40 while the other drivers ran was the way that Jacky Ickx, aka “Monsieur Le Mans”, found to protest against that kind of departure.
He wasn't safe. To save a few seconds, the pilots even took off without properly fastening their belts.
It was precisely under these circumstances that Jacky Ickx's compatriot Willy Mairesse was seriously injured in the previous edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The after-effects of that accident led the ill-fated Belgian driver to commit suicide, facing the impossibility of returning to racing.
Due to his protest walk, Jacky Ickx was the last to take off. And in one of those sad coincidences, even during the first round of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, this type of start claimed another life in an accident. The injuries suffered by pilot John Woolfe (Porsche 917) were fatal. Injuries that could have possibly been avoided if Woolfe had put on his seat belt.
double win
Despite having dropped to last place at the start of the race, Jacky Ickx would eventually win the 24 Hours of Le Mans together with Jackie Oliver at the wheel of a Ford GT40. It was one of the most contested victories in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The margin of Ickx and Oliver (Ford GT40) for Hans Herrmann and Gérard Larrousse (Porsche 908), who followed in second place, was only a few seconds after 24 hours!
Jacky Ickx's 1969 victory was just the first of many (a total of six victories) in this mythical endurance race. Another victory for Ickx, no less important, was the end of the race match. Its sui generis protest and the obvious security breaches brought about the end of this type of motor sport match. Until today.
Two-time Endurance world champion, two-time Formula 1 world runner-up and Dakar winner, Jacky Ickx is a true living motorsport legend. A gentleman on and off the slopes.