1959 24 Hours of Le Mans

Significant changes occurred with the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) regulations this year. The FIA had issued its revamped and revised Appendix J rules for Grand Touring (GT) cars and the ACO followed other endurance races and opened its entry-list to the GT categories for the first time. Each GT model had to have a minimum production run of 100 cars over 12 consecutive months. Those not meeting those requirements were put into the Sports Prototypes category. Both GT and SP ran to the same engine categories within their respective divisions. The ACO also introduced a new competition to measure optimal car performance. The Index of Thermal Efficiency (Indice au Rendement Énergétique) took into account a car's weight, speed and fuel consumption (using standard 95/100-octane supplied fuel). Surprisingly, it did not include engine size in the calculation. This ran alongside the regular Index of Performance handicap competition, whose target distances were increased. Regarding the track and organisation, the ACO installed IBM calculators to help with the administration. As well as considerable re-surfacing, a number of signalling lights were installed. ==Entries==

The increase in potential classes to 10 created a lot of interest with manufacturers and drivers and a total of 97 entries applied for the event. From this the ACO accepted 60 to practise, to qualify for the 54 starting places. This year there were seven manufacturer works teams, led by Ferrari and Aston Martin as well as Porsche, Lotus, DB, OSCA and Triumph. They were joined by the sports-car specialist Lister, Cooper and Stanguellini teams. It meant that half of the cars in the race were 'works' entries. Defending champions Scuderia Ferrari brought their latest version of the Ferrari 250 TR. The chassis had been redesigned, made shorter and 77 kg lighter. The 3-litre V12 had a new 5-speed gearbox and now developed 306 bhp. Also, after six years Enzo Ferrari had finally relented and installed Dunlop disc brakes on the works cars. His squad of drivers included 1958 winners, Phil Hill/Olivier Gendebien, joined by Jean Behra/Dan Gurney and Hermano da Silva Ramos/Cliff Allison. There were also three 1958-models entered by private teams including the Equipe Nationale Belge and North American Racing Team. A subsidiary team, Scuderia Eugenio Castellotti, was entrusted with a new prototype to take on the Porsches in the 2-litre division – the V6-engined Dino 196 S that produced 195 PS. It would be driven by Castellotti's close friend Giulio Cabianca with Giorgio Scarlatti. As in the previous year, Aston Martin arrived with victory in the 1000km of Nürburgring with their DBR1/300. Led by director John Wyer and team manager Reg Parnell (himself a veteran of 7 Le Mans races in the early 1950s), they arrived at Le Sarthe with a very strong driver line-up to give themselves every chance of victory. The three works cars were driven by Nürburgring winners Stirling Moss/Jack Fairman alongside the F1 team driver Roy Salvadori with ex-chicken farmer, Texan Graham Whitehead again privately entered another DBR1. After the death of his half-brother Peter, he now had Brian Naylor as co-driver. In the GT category there was also a new DB4 GT (also using the DBR1 engine) entered by the Swiss Ecurie Trois Chevrons), with another for the Equipe Nationale Belge, while the previously successful Ecurie Ecosse team this year entered both a Jaguar D-Type (for Masten Gregory and Innes Ireland) and a Tojeiro-Jaguar (for Ron Flockhart and Jock Lawrence). After the very strong run to 3rd. 4th and 5th in the previous year, the Porsche 718 RSK was the car to beat in the 2.0 and 1.5-litre prototype classes. They had also just achieved their first outright Championship victory in May's Targa Florio, finishing 1-2-3-4. The two works cars were driven by regulars Hans Herrmann / Umberto Maglioli and new team-members Wolfgang von Trips / Jo Bonnier. Four Porsches made up the only entrants in the S-1500 class, the works car driven by Edgar Barth / Wolfgang Seidel alongside Dutch, French and American privateers. Colin Chapman's Lotus team arrived in force, entering several classes: F1 team driver Graham Hill was paired with Australian Lotus-agent Derek Jolly in a new 2-litre Lotus 15, while the other team driver, Alan Stacey was in one of the two Lotus 17s in the 750cc class. Additionally, the team joined privateer Dickie Stoop in entering Lotus Elites in the new GT-1500 class. The 2-litre Prototype class was very competitive with 8 strong entries. Up against the Porsches and Lotus and the new Ferrari, Cooper sent the new T49 'Monaco' (named after its first GP victory) driven by young works driver Bruce McLaren. Triumph returned to Le Mans with three TR3S cars, its driver line-up including 1956 race winner Ninian Sanderson. In the smallest Prototype classes, there was only a single DB in the 1100cc class, but the 750cc was to be contested by DB, OSCA, Lotus and Stanguellini. One of the works OSCAs was notable as it was driven by the Mexican Rodriguez brothers. Ricardo had been refused entry the previous year for being underage. This year he did compete, becoming the youngest ever driver to race at Le Mans, being only 17 years and four months old. The new GT classes were well supported. The Ferrari 250 GT, in its various guises, was a tried and true racecar, winning since 1956. The V12 engine produced about 250 bhp. Four were in the entry list with only a single Swiss-entered Aston Martin DB4 GT competing against it in the GT-3000 class. AC and MG each had a single car qualify in the GT-2000 class. After the non-appearance of the Squadra Virgilio Conrero Alfa Romeos, the Lotus Elite was the only model in the GT-1500 class with five entries. Having produced the required 100 units, DB was able to homologate the HBR-5 into the GT class, and four works cars were entered. Along with four privateers, it made DB the second biggest manufacturer present, after Ferrari. They were joined by the first appearance of Swedish manufacturer Saab looking to expand up its growing success in rallying. ==Practice==

For the first time, the ACO was able to close the public roads in April which allowed a test day for teams to prepare their cars. Only 19 cars took up the opportunity to run for 6 hours, and it was Phil Hill in the new Ferrari that set the pace. Both the Whitehead Aston Martin and the Tojeiro had major problems and needed parts urgently flown in before the race. After practice, Dickie Stoop's Lotus Elite was in a traffic accident driving back to its garage in the town and was too badly damaged to be ready for the race-start the body having been all but destroyed. ==Race==

Start Saturday started with heavy rain, but by 4pm it was dry and very hot. Yet again, Stirling Moss was first away. Parnell had given him team orders to act as the 'hare' and to bait the Ferraris into a race-pace that would break them - a role he relished. Meanwhile, Behra stalled his Ferrari twice on the line and was 15th at the end of the first lap. Still furious with the team management he hammered the engine at all costs (at one time getting up to 9500rpm on the Mulsanne straight) to prove his point. At the time of the first driver changes on the 30th lap, the car needed a lot of water and suffered from overheating thereafter. Night It was at dusk, in the fifth hour, that the first major accident occurred: Brian Naylor hit oil and rolled the Whitehead Aston Martin at Maison Blanche. Naylor got out, but the car was then heavily struck by Jim Russell in the Cooper Monaco (running 9th) and then Faure's Stanguellini hit the Cooper's fuel tank. Both smaller cars went up in flames and although Russell had a broken leg and ribs from the initial collision both drivers got away with only minor burns. And when Behra's Ferrari was called into the pits by officials to fix malfunctioning lights suddenly the Salvadori/Shelby Aston Martin found itself in the lead. Behra and Gurney had slipped to second and the other works Aston Martin in third. Then came the remaining Lister, Hill's Ferrari, the Ecosse Tojeiro and then three Porsches with Bonnier/von Trips leading the 2-litre classes. The Stacey/Greene Lotus headed the Index of Performance. The other Aston Martin was third and the works Porsche 4th (and leading the Performance Index), 4 and 7 laps respectively behind the Ferrari. Morning As the sun rose (for once without the thick rolling fog) the S-750 class Stacey/Greene Lotus had risen to 14th, leading the Index of Performance by a big margin, when it was stopped by the same distributor issues that had halted its teammate. The Lotus 17 was the fastest 750cc ever raced at Le Mans, but still fragile. By 6am the field down to only 23 runners. The Ferrari was leading the two remaining Aston Martins and pulling away. Incredibly, with no other S-3000 class cars left running, four Porsches held down the next places. Then came the four more-powerful Ferrari GTs, headed by the Belgian car of "Beurlys" / "Eldé". But then it started going wrong for Porsche. First, the leading works car of von Trips/Bonnier, running 4th, was stopped by clutch problems. Soon afterward the works 1500cc car lost its gearbox. The Dutch Ecurie Maarsbergen car inherited 4th place for two hours until it too broke its engine. This left Hugus/Erickson, the American privateers, promoted to 4th still pursued by four Ferraris with the older, French, 550A in 9th. Around the same time the last two Porsches retired with engine problems. With the last Ferrari retired and now holding a comfortable lead, Parnell the Aston Martin team manager, ordered his two cars to hold station and ease off to protect their engines for the last four hours. Where Moss had at the start been doing laps of 4m01s and the other cars were set a target of 4m20s, Salvadori now dropped back down to 4m50s This was prudent as the lead car was starting to go through oil at a rate. However, with no pressure from the other teams the two cars were able to cruise to the finish. The three Triumphs had had a mixed race: two had been eliminated early when both had cooling-fan blades break off and go through the radiator. The third (raced by Stoop/Jopp) had been called in as a precaution and had its fan removed then had moved up steadily through the field. It had got up to 7th overall by the 23rd hour when the oil pump broke forcing a late retirement. Perhaps the unluckiest drivers were the privateer DB team of Bartholoni/Jaeger who had battled and survived clutch problems through the whole race only for it to break completely with mere minutes to run. Finish and post-race In the end Shelby brought his car home a lap ahead of Trintignant in a formation finish. All during the race the Texan had been battling a bout of dysentery. He had even driven with a nitroglycerine capsule under his tongue in case he had heart problems (which he omitted from telling his team). Perhaps the unluckiest drivers were the privateer DB team of Bartholoni/Jaeger who had battled and survived clutch problems through the whole race only for it to break completely with mere minutes to run. After a number of bust-ups with the Ferrari management, this was Jean Behra's last race for the team. The talented Frenchman was fired but then tragically killed just a fortnight later. He was racing his own Porsche in a sportscar race as a prelude for the German Grand Prix being held that year at the dangerous AVUS circuit near Berlin. It was also one of the last races for double-Le Mans winner Ivor Bueb who was killed two months later in a non-Championship F1 race at Clermont-Ferrand. ==Official results==

Finishers Results taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO Class winners are in bold text. • Note *: Not classified because car failed to complete 70% of winner's distance (226 laps). However, Spurring and Moity list them as a finisher. Did not finish Did not start Class winners Index of performance • Note: Only the top ten positions are included in this set of standings. A score of 1.00 means meeting the minimum distance for the car, and a higher score is exceeding the nominal target distance. Index of Thermal Efficiency 25th Rudge-Whitworth Biennial Cup (1958/1959) Statistics Taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO • Fastest lap in practice – Gurney, #12 Ferrari 250 TR/59 – 4m 03.3s; • Fastest lap – Jean Behra, #12 Ferrari 250 TR/59 – 4:00.9secs; • Distance – • Winner's average speed – Standings after the race Championship points were awarded for the first six places in each race in the order of 8-6-4-3-2-1. Manufacturers were only awarded points for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for additional cars finishing. Only the best 4 results out of the 6 races would be included for the final score. Points earned but not counted towards the championship are given in brackets. ;Citations ==References==