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An extraordinary performance

29. May 2019 
by Ziv Knoll
2393 views

The Martini-Porsche 936 won the 1977 Le Mans 24 Hours against the works Renault and the Mirage Renault, with an extraordinary driving performance by Belgian legend Jacky Ickx.

His #3 car that he shared with Henri Pescarolo and that had won the race the year before broke down, so Ickx joined Hurley Haywood and Jurgen Barth in the sister #4 car, which early on also had its woes and was relegated well down the order in 16th position.

The Belgian ace pushed very hard during the night, performing consecutive triple stints, breaking lap record after lap record, and taking advantage of the fragile Renault package, took the lead back to scored his 4th Le Mans victory.

Hurley Haywood had driven the car early in the race, but his new team-mate was so much faster and consistent, that the American decided to let him drive as long as he could.

But a victory comes with luck at La Sarthe more than anywhere else, a broken engine nearly halted the Porsche 936/77 in the last hour.

The mechanics removed the ignition and ignition of the failed cylinder, and the wounded car with driver-engineer Jurgen Barth (photo) at the wheel limped around the track to finish this thrilling edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Results :

  1. Barth-Haywood-Ickx, Porsche 936/77, 342 laps.
  2. Schuppan-Jarier, Mirage-Renault, 331 laps.
  3. Ballot-Lena – Peter Gregg, Porsche 935, 315 laps.

 

Source: DR

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