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Pesca rimes with Matra

14. Jun 2023 
by Ziv Knoll
4440 views

In 1972, Ferrari had dominated the world championship of makes, but did not come to Le Mans, because it doubted its cars could last 24 Hours. Matra seized the occasion, and won the race, finishing first and second. Confident, the French marque decided to go for a second win in 1973, and take the fight with the Scuderia Ferrari, this time present in La Sarthe.

Matra spared no expenses for these 1973 24 Hours of Le Mans, and entered four 670B’s, for four all-French crews: Cevert-Beltoise, Pescarolo-Larrousse, Jabouille-Jaussaud and Depailler-Wollek.

Ferrari responded with three 312PB’s and crews of renom: Ickx-Redman, Merzario-Pace and Schenken-Reutemann. The battle promised to be fantastic and indeed the race was fascinating, because the Ferraris held the lead for 14 hours, but finally, victory went to Matra.

Henri Pescarolo (already a winner in 1972 with Graham Hill) and Gérard Larrousse imposed their Matra 670B no°11 at the end of a fast and steady race, and enjoyed the spoils of the podium celebrations (picture above).

Picture below: Brian Redman (Ferrari 312PB) resolutely takes the lead at the start, in front of the three Matras 670B of Cevert, Pescarolo and Jabouille.

Source: Archives Matra

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