1949 Le Mans

1949 — From the cheerless winter of 1949, the A.C.O., with a huge financial assist from the central government, built new and modern pits and a huge grandstand/tribune for the first post war 24 Hours of Le Mans. The press box – wisely and appropriately – included a bar. The A.C.O. knew its true products; and besides the ultramodern pits and press facilities, there was a new 1,000-seat restaurant. After six years of war and four of clawing deprivation, June 26 and the summer solstice were carnival times again and all the evidence of war was gone.

The amenities were new and much improved, but the circuit was the same – the distance unaltered at 8.378mi. Likewise, the 52 cars lined up in front of the pits were familiar and a bit stale, save the two new red cars from the young Italian house of Ferrari. Born just two summers before, the new Italian cars were jewels – a divine shape, especially considering the abbreviated wheelbase – all frosted in svelte coachwork by Touring and moved by a jewel-like sohc 2.0-liter 60deg V12. The new Ferrari 166 Barchetta (little boat) was a thoroughly modern automobile among the pre-war shapes with their flatulent exhaust notes. The little V12 was almost musical in comparison, and there were two of them. Luigi Chinetti, who had won an abbreviated victory at Le Mans in ‘32 and won again in ‘34, shared the No. 22 with Lord Selsdon – himself co-author of a fine and measured fourth for Lagonda in ’39. Chinetti was clearly the Ferrari point man.

Aston-Martin would not left behind. The handsome new DB.2 coupes with W.O. Bentley-designed dohc six-cylinder engines were decidedly post-war and eminently civilized.

But the bulk of the field were aging beasts, rescued from war-enforced exile, some still astonishingly potent. Most of them were French. The boldest, in size and deportment, was the vast No. 6 Bentley with heroic and vertical coupe coachwork by Paulin.

Another aspect of Le Mans that had not changed was the pace of the first hour. All could be forgiven. It had been 10 years, a long wait for the delicious sensation of driving a fast car with no limits, rations or restrictions. Eugene Chabaud, winner of the ‘38 24 Hours, was enjoying himself most on the No. 3 Delahaye 3.5 and started reeling off 95mph laps from the 4:00 p.m. outset. By the end of the second lap, he had stretched his lead to over 17sec. In his exuberant haste, he pranged a fender while lapping the tail of the field on only his fourth lap.

Chabaud stayed in front until 8:30, when an underhood fire ended his fast race. Chinetti went ahead in the No. 22 Ferrari and stayed there all night. When the sun came up, Chinetti was still there, a two-lap lead in hand from Louveau’s 3.0-liter Delage. By 11:00 a.m. Chinetti, driving practically single-handed, had put another lap between his "Mille Miglia" Ferrari and the smoking Delage. Lord Selsdon had driven a few laps during the night but some sort of weird racing karma was visiting Chinetti. There was no asterisk next to his name in ‘32 when Raymond Sommer had done the bulk of the driving in Alfa’s first win on the Sarthe. Now it was Chinetti’s turn to do the heavy lifting for Ferrari.

At 1:00 o’clock, Chinetti had a four-lap lead. Then his clutch began to slip. On the run from Arnage to White House, Pierre Marechal had crashed the No. 28 Aston Martin trying to pass H.J. Adlington’s No. 26 Frazier-Nash. The coupe hit the bank and rolled seriously, injuring the driver who died in the hospital on Monday afternoon.

Chinetti was now fighting a two-front war: the cockpit was awash with oil and the clutch continued to slip. Behind him – the second front – Louveau’s Delage attacked. In the penultimate hour, the No. 15 Delage took back two of the four-lap lead Chinetti had earned during the night and was in single-minded pursuit. The average lap speed differentials between the leading but cruising Italian car and its blue pursuer were more than 20mph. If the Ferrari could continue, there was no way the math would work in the Frenchman’s favor. But the crowd – estimated at well over 100,000 – loved it and willed Louveau forward.

Just two minutes before 4:00 o’clock, the Delage got onto the lead lap with the faltering Ferrari. Too late. Chinetti (pictured above) crossed the line at a light trot, both a moral and physical winner. His pace was well below the ‘39 record. Even the fastest lap by Andre Simon’s Delahaye was slightly shy of Robert Mazaud’s ‘39 record.

Le Mans had never before been won by a 2.0-liter car, and it had been 15 years since an Italian marque had won on the Sarthe. The victory was sweet and sticky with revenge. Enzo Ferrari, who had run Alfa’s pre-war racing program from his Scuderia Ferrari garages only to be fired when Alfa took its competition program in house, had replaced Alfa Romeo as the preeminent Italian competition marque in just one weekend.

The red cars of Ferrari’s two-year old company managed to win three grands prix during the late summer of ‘49. But those all stood in the shadow of Luigi Chinetti's win at the first post-war Le Mans.