Race
The race was run in very hot weather, but the engine test was successful: after the first hour, Ickx and Bell had built a large advance and remained at lead for the rest of the race. They won by an even greater margin than in 1976.
The race was marred by the death of Jean-Louis Lafosse, who violently crashed his Rondeau in the early stages on the Hunaudieres while following the Lola T600 of de Villota/Edwards/Fernández. No cause has ever been determined although a piece of debris is seen flying away from the car just before the Rondeau suddenly steers to the right, along with pre-crash photographs showing evidence of damage from an off-track excursion, suggesting suspension failure as a possible cause.
Thierry Boutsen, who would go on to drive in Formula One, had earlier escaped a large accident in the second hour, destroying his WM-Peugeot but without causing injury to himself; race marshal Thierry Mabillat was fatally injured in the accident; and 2 of his colleagues, Claude Hertault and Serge David, were seriously injured but survived; the latter lost an arm.
Read more about this topic: 1981 24 Hours Of Le Mans
Famous quotes containing the word race:
“No person who examines and reflects, can avoid seeing that there is but one race of people on the earth, who differ from each other only according to the soil and the climate in which they live.”
—J.G. (John Gabriel)
“Many times man lives and dies
Betweeen his two eternities,
That of race and that of soul,
And ancient Ireland knew it all.
Whether man die in his bed
Or the rifle knocks him dead,”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“...wasting the energies of the race by neglecting to develop the intelligence of the members to whom its most precious resources must be entrusted, already seems a childish absurdity.”
—Anna Eugenia Morgan (1845–1909)