Le Mans 1970-1980
Archives d’un passione By Michael Bollee
Michel Bollee never loses sight of the fact that every race produces leading or winning cars, but every race is also made up of a much larger number of cars and drivers that don’t lead or don’t win. He also knows how powerful visual images of the great 24-Hour race can be, so he combines this power to evoke strong memories of the whole race, not just the leaders.
We all know that Le Mans was dominated by the Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s in 1970 and 1971, but who came after them? Bollee, of course, digs out his old photos of these great winners, but even better are those we have forgotten all about. There was Jochen Mass in the Cologne Capri in 1972, the Ligier JS2-Maserati in 1973, the typically British deCadenet of Chris Craft and John Nicholson in 1974, and that long line of Ferrari 365GTBs in the GTS category over a number of years. There were a number of memo- rable races in those years. I witnessed Jacky Ickx in 1977 retiring his Porsche 936 and then joining Hayward and Barth in the second car to nurse the increasingly smoky Stuttgart machine to an unlikely win. It was Ickx at his best, especially during the long, wet night. Bollee’s 110 pages have captured the essence of Le Mans.
Available from: Michel Bollee, 26 Rue des Ecoles, 61430 Athis se l’Orme, France for 40 Euros plus postage. Published 2001.
