I saw horror of Le Mans

I WITNESSED the tragedy at Le Mans (Mail) 60 years ago this month. I was in a grandstand seat opposite the Jaguar pit.

Just before 6.30pm, when the race had been running for almost two-anda-half hours, the Jaguar pit crew signalled Mike Hawthorn to come in on the next lap.

I left my seat and went down to the paddock, hoping to get photographs of Hawthorn’s pit stop.

After walking up and down for a couple of minutes behind a crowd 15 to 20 deep, I realised I would have a better view from the grandstand.

Just as I got back to my seat, the accident happened.

Jaguars were using disc brakes for the first time, and Hawthorn, having passed Lance Macklin’s Austin-Healey on the run down from White House, slowed down very quickly to pull in at his pit.

Macklin, realising this perhaps rather too late, pulled out into the middle of the track, probably unaware that Pierre Levegh in the Mercedes was coming along behind him at an estimated speed of 150mph.

Levegh’s car ran up the back of the Austin-Healey, somersaulted into the air and then ploughed into the earth safety barrier, where it disintegrated.

The engine and the front axle with wheels and inboard drum brake flew out of the wreckage and ploughed through the crowd in the paddock.

If I had stayed in that area, the death toll might easily have been 83 rather than 82. I considered myself an extremely lucky chap.

NEIL WILLIAMS, Ilkley, W. Yorks.