Christopher Hilton documents the race that caused the worst crash
in motor racing history in this new and full study of the fateful
day. Through a host of interviews - with drivers, team members,
journalists and spectators - and original research at Le Mans,
Hilton examines the aftermath of the crash that has affected what
we see of motorsport on our television screens today. The worst
crash in motor racing history - killing more than 80 people - was
produced by a ferocious and haunting combination of circumstances:
nationalism, raw speed, the nature of a 24-hour race, and chance.
The crash drew in Mike Hawthorn, the blond playboy from Farnham, in
a Jaguar, and Juan-Manuel Fangio, one of the greatest drivers of
all, in a Mercedes. A crowd of 250,000 watched hypnotised as
Hawthorn set out to break Fangio, the two cars going faster and
faster...and faster. Another English playboy, Lance Macklin, was
caught up in the crash in his Austin-Healey, along with a
50-year-old Frenchman driving under the assumed name of Pierre
Levegh. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It cost him
his life, even as his car was torn to pieces that scythed into the
dense crowd. After 6.2 7pm on 11 June 1955 nothing would ever be
the same again and the consequences of the momentous crash are
still being felt. In this new and full study of the fateful day,
Christopher Hilton sets the race itself in the context of the
1950s. Through a host of interviews - with drivers, team members,
journalists and spectators - and original research at Le Mans and
in the Mercedes archive in Stuttgart, he recreates every aspect of
the race and the crash. Much of the material has never been seen
before. He examines the aftermath - the bitter blame game, the
conflicting testimonies, the direct threat to motorsport in Europe
- and chronicles the beginning of the culture of safety that has
affected what we see of motorsport on our television screens today.
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