1980 Le Mans

1980 — International sports car racing was wobbling. Formula 1 had become the dominant species of road racing, but Le Mans would not roll over and go away. The manufacturers had departed, but the A.C.O. did not hesitate to create classes accommodating enthusiasms if not outright marque fetishes.

A new round of A.C.O. regulations aimed pointedly at fuel management changed sports car racing forever in the summer of 1980. Le Mans veterans caught the faint but unmistakable whiff of the Index of Performance and the Index of Thermal Efficiency in their language. Fuel tanks shrank to 26gal and the rate of refueling was slowed to 50 liters-per-minute. It trebled the length of the typical pit stop.

There was more. Economies of all sorts were in the new rules. Practice was shortened, and qualifying became a mathematical exercise: the average speed of two fastest drivers became the official qualifying speed. Most seriously effected was Alain de Cadenet’s Silverstone-winning privateer team. Co-driver Desire Wilson’s big accident during practice penalized the London-based operation through creative rules enforcement. Then again, it was a British car. At least it was in the field.

The new qualifying rules sent some British teams home. It got ugly. Finally Nick Faure called in some French lawyers. Bailiffs appeared and confiscated timing and scoring results from practice, after the A.C.O.’s timers lost several fast and very British laps. Suits were threatened. Shrugs were proffered.

There was more. The replacement or substitution of major components – engines, transmissions, etc. – from practice and through the race was prohibited. No more half-hour engine changes in the middle of the night.

The entry list was as radically changed as the rules book. Porsche sent no works Group 6 cars. The lone Group 6 Porsche was a sui generis Martini-sponsored 936/908ish Frankenstein-bitsa roadster for Reinhold Joest and Jacky Ickx. The Belgian ace saw the tantalizing possibility of a fifth Le Mans victory in the new Porsche-one-off christened the "908/80".

Lancia sent a two-car works team of Beta Monte Carlos, plus a semi-works entry for the Italian Jolly Club. There were two Corvettes, seven Group 5 935 Porsches plus eight IMSA GTX 935s, including a strong three-car 935 team from Sebring-winner Dick Barbour. There was even a turbocharged TR-8 in the Group 5 mix with the 935s. The GTP class was a bit juicer: three WM Peugeots (one carrying Le Mans-first live in-car TV camera), a trio Le Mans-built Rondeau-Cosworths, plus the Porsche’s works cars comprised of a trio of 924 Turbo Carreras. Here was a genuine Le Mans first – front-engined, water-cooled, showroom-bound, unhomologated Porsches entered in the GTP category!

The start – restored to the traditional 4:00 o’clock hour – was the wettest anyone could remember. It was definitely not a roadster day, and Ickx laid back in the Joest-built "908/80" until he could actually see something other than the flat gray fog created by the leading coupes. So foul were the conditions that the wise and dry fans holed up in Café Hunaudieres could hear the big cars lifting in the middle of the straight. Even Ickx was lifting for the notorious linge droit kink.

After a relentless rebuild, the de Cadenet/Wilson/Francis Migault de Cadenet developed a serious misfire in the muck and began a series of pit stops that saw it slide well down the scoreboard.

Up front it was 935 weather, and John Fitzpatrick had Dick Barbour’s Porsche out front. The first pit stops came at 11 laps, less than an hour. Fitzy was in first. Heroes of the first hour were Bob Wollek (935), Henri Pescarolo in his Rondeau/Cosworth and the formidable Hans Stuck, who had shoved his BMW M1 from 26th to second by 5:00 o’clock. Ickx loitered with calculation and intent, while the weather continued foul. Interior decorator and racecar builder Jean Rondeau had two of his Le Mans-home-mades in the top 10.

Ickx and Joest chose their battles and, after consideration, picked off one car after another. By the end of the third hour, there were no more victims, and Joest found himself in the lead. Usually it was Ickx who handed over a leading car, but Joest was playing the role of co-driver in his own car with absolute perfection.

Once back in the 908/80, Ickx found himself stranded almost as far from the pits as possible with yet another broken fuel injection pump belt. Joest had planned wisely, including a comprehensive survival kit in the 908/80. Ickx fitted the spare belt in just 14 min. A further pit stop to assure proper fitment and Ickx finally had the mission he always seemed to need. It was getting dark. Another classic Ickx chase was on.

Rondeaus were first and third as dusk turned to dark. Ickx reeled off a few warning laps in the 3:41 neighborhood just to give Rondeau’s unflappable chef d’equipe Jean-Francois Robin a preview of what was soon to come.

The wounded No. 8 de Cadenet was moving steadily up the leader board as well. Alain and Francois Migault were feeling positively at home in the gloom and muck, lying just outside the top 10 as Sunday morning arrived. Jean Rondeau and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud led for awhile, then the Barbour/Fitzpatrick/Redman 935 took a long turn in front.

At the halfway hour, de Cadenet and Migault had advanced to an unexpected fifth position in the car Desire Wilson had rolled just three days earlier. Two places back, Al Holbert and Derek Bell rode an amazing seventh in the Group 6 Turbo 924 "prototype". The Barth/Schurti/Braun 924 sister ship filled out the top 10.

All the while Ickx and Joest closed. Racing against the Belgian at Le Mans was like being afflicted with an aggressive malignancy. By 1:00 a.m. Sunday, they were on the same lap as the leaders. Two hours later, they were ahead and gently began to leave the French coupe behind. After a flurry of lead changes just after 7:00 a.m., the Joest Martini Porsche asserted itself. By breakfast, they had a two-lap lead through some fine pit strategy and a little strategic motoring. There was further good news for Porsche: all three works 924 Turbos were in the top 10.

Chez de Cadenet was in trouble again after a heroic night’s ride. A cross-member had broken, and the DFV engine was suspended almost exclusively by an exhaust pipe. Having come this far, the crew was not about to quit, but the repair consumed nearly an hour. Again the No. 8 descended the scoreboard.

Just before 10:00 o’clock, Joest took his scheduled shift in the leading car but returned to the pits quickly with fifth gear missing. Here was a replay of Porsche '78 troubles. With exactly six hours remaining, the second place Rondeau passed the stationary Porsche for the lead. It took 19 more minutes to fix the car that all expected would carry Ickx to his fifth 24-Hour victory.

Jaussaud sniffed his second Le Mans win and altered his pace. Joest simply attacked. Rondeau had cars an unbelievable first and third with the enemy three laps behind. Lying a quiet but racy fifth the WM-Peugeot camera car ground out the laps after penetrating the top 10 just after breakfast. The pilot of the helicopter relaying the in-car television signal from the No. 5 WM-Peugeot was suddenly further challenged as rain returned in the 21st hour.

It was a small cell. A localized pocket of showers hit the Dunlop Curve hardest. The first to arrive was Rondeau, who took the Le Mans equivalent of a boat ride. As the leader rebounded sluggishly off the Armco, Joest appeared at speed. The impact was shallow and flat on the Armco and no more serious than Rondeau’s mild impact. The Father & Son Porsche of the John Paul’s was less fortunate and needed 30min work to make the car race-worthy again. British weather favors the brave, and the de Cadenet was running with the WM team, who were dithering about regular tires and weather tires.

Jaussaud (in the No. 16, pictured above during a stop) took over from Rondeau for a final double stint with an hour and a half remaining. He had just two laps in hand. Ickx gave one final try. With 35min to race, the rain returned. Ickx pitted for wets and one final maximum effort. Jaussaud guessed better and remained on the course. His judgment was sound, and the interval to Ickx held. But the '78 winner’s timing was off by 30sec as the final minute arrived and an extra agonizing lap was required.

Jean Rondeau was delirious: his built-in-Le Mans GTPs first and third. It was the first time in 58 years that a constructor had won Le Mans in a car bearing his name. A French car, built in Le Mans at that. It was literally a dream come true for Rondeau and the ancient city of Le Mans.

Ickx and Joest were still two laps back between the DFV-powered coupes. John Fitzpatrick, Dick Barbour and Brian Redman won the IMSA GTX class again with a fine fourth, just one lap ahead of the first 924 Turbo! Three laps behind was the British "special" cheered on by team manager Murray Smith who only had to wave a Union Jack to spur Alain de Cadenet. The little team was a magnificent seventh overall. The race ended as it began: wet.

Jacky Ickx told anyone who was interested that this was his final Le Mans.