1977 24 Hours of Le Mans

rdf:langString 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans

rdf:langString The 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 45th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 11 and 12 June 1977. The second year of the FIA Group 5 and Group 6 regulations, it produced an exciting race right up to the end.Porsche had withdrawn from the Group 6 Championship, citing a lack of broad competition. Renault, before their move into Formula 1, decided to put its main racing focus for the year onto Le Mans. The two works teams were the pre-race favourites. From the start the Alpine-Renaults took charge. The works Porsches mounted a brief challenge but engine issues delayed them in the pits. When Pescarolo retired his 936 with engine problems, his co-driver Jacky Ickx was transferred to the sister car of Barth/Haywood, languishing in 41st place and 15 laps behind the leaders. Ickx was given free rein to drive as hard as he dared and in an epic drive through the night, his average pace was just two seconds below qualifying pace. During the night, the French challenge started to come apart – Tambay's car, running fourth, stopped at 3am with a dead engine. An hour later, the second car lost half an hour getting a gearbox rebuild. Then at 9am, after leading for 17 hours, the Jabouille and Bell car retired with a burnt-out piston. Suddenly, Porsche found itself in the lead. Ickx finished his marathon effort after a total of eleven hours behind the wheel. Barth and Haywood kept up his pace and when the last Renault retired just another midday with another burnt piston, they could ease off with a huge 19-lap lead over the Mirageof Schuppan/Jarier. However, with only three-quarters of an hour to go, Barth pitted running on five cylinders. The mechanics treated the engine and waited, until with ten minutes to go he rolled back out onto the circuit to complete two final laps. Despite the delay, they still finished 11 laps ahead of the Mirage, the biggest winning margin of the decade. The French Porsche 935 of ASA-Cacchia was third, a further 16 laps behind, with the GTP Inaltéra of owner-driver Jean Rondeau, and Alain de Cadenet both barely ninety seconds behind.