Sports History On This Day: June 12

June 12, 1955 – Tragedy occurred at one of the racing world’s greatest spectacles, the Le Mans automobile race. 83 spectators ended up dying as a result of a flaming race car that rampaged off of the track after an accident at the highly attended 24-hour endurance race in France.

One of the deaths was the car’s pilot, French driver Pierre Bouillin, who raced under the name Pierre Levegh. The French government investigation reported that spectators were protected by a 5-foot-high earthen embankment but the driver Levegh was racing for the lead near the pit-stop area, he swerved to avoid fellow racer Mike Hawthorn’s Jaguar as it moved toward the pits.

Levegh’s car, going about 150 miles per hour, came up too fast on Lance Macklin’s Austin-Healey as it was catapulted upward, and seemingly exploded allowing over 60% of the vehicle’s debris to spray into the crowd of onlookers in the grandstands.

Besides the deaths, there were also nearly 180 more people reported as injured from the wreck. Levegh complained that the course was too narrow near the pit-stop area and the grandstand. Eerily he was correct in his proclamation. 

The race continued on despite the tragic accident as ironically Hawthorn ended up winning the endurance race in record time.