Bringing the car home

After an extraordinary performance during the night by Belgian Jacky Ickx, this Martini-Porsche 936 won the 1977 Le Mans 24 Hours and defeated the works Renaults and the Mirages. Jürgen Barth (picture-above) is nurturing the wounded car to the finishing line on Sunday afternoon.

Ickx’s #3 Porsche 936 that he shared with Henri Pescarolo and that had won the race the year before broke down, so Ickx was requested to join Hurley Haywood and Jürgen 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 to score 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 some 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 of the failed cylinder, and the wounded car with driver-engineer Jürgen Barth at the wheel, limped around the track to finish this thrilling edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.