24 Hours of Le Mans History Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mirage

This was the first of three wins overall for the Ickx/Bell driving tandem, and the first in a stretch of three straight for Ickx.

Answer: Geoff Brabham/Christophe Bouchut/Eric Helary

Brabham, Bouchut, and Helary took an unlikely win driving a Peugeot 905B. Gachot/Herbert/Weidler won in 1991, Warwick/Dalmas/Blundell in 1992, and Haywood/Dalmas/Baldi in 1994.

Answer: 3

The 1923 race was held in May, the 1956 running was in July, and the 1968 race in September. The 1968 race was originally scheduled for June but postponed due to the French workers' strike.

Answer: 1976

Jacky Ickx and Gijs van Lennep won the race in a turbocharged Porsche 936/76. Turbocharged cars would win 11 of the 12 Le Mans races from 1976-1987, with 10 of those 11 wins going to Porsches.

Answer: JJ Lehto

Lehto won driving a McLaren F1 GTR - BMW in 1995. Kinnunen (1970 and 1976) and Rosberg (1991) did not finish any of their Le Mans starts. Stefan Johansson did win Le Mans in 1997, but he is from Sweden.

Answer: Masanori Sekiya

Sekiya won along with JJ Lehto (see previous question) in 1995. Toshio Suzuki finished 2nd in 1999 driving a Toyota GT-ONE. Kazuyoshi Hoshino's best finish was 3rd in 1998 in a Nissan R390. Masahiro Hasemi's best finish was 5th in 1990 in a Nissan R90CP, a car he shared with Hoshino and Suzuki.

Answer: 1990

An FIA ruling that no straight could be longer than 2km led to the installation of the chicanes in 1990. The year before, Jean-Louis Schlesser blasted his Sauber C9 - Mercedes-Benz down the Mulsanne at 248mph (399km/hr) in qualifying!

Answer: Rosier

Louis and Jean-Louis Rosier shared a Lago-Talbot T26C-GS in 1950. Mario and Michael Andretti have come close twice, finishing 3rd in 1983 sharing with Philippe Alliot and 6th in 1988 sharing with nephhew/cousin John, both times in Porsches. Derek and Justin Bell also came close in 1995, finishing 3rd in a McLaren F1 GTR - BMW.

Answer: Luigi Chinetti

Chinetti went 15 years between his wins in 1934 and 1949 (Chinetti also won in 1932). Pescarolo went 10 years between his 1974 and 1984 wins. Haywood's longest stretch was 11 years between 1983 and 1994, and Ickx only went 6 years between his 1969 and 1975 triumphs.

Answer: Andre Rossignol

Rossignol took his consecutive wins in 1925 and 1926, driving a La Lorraine-Dietrich B3-6 both years. Rossignol shared with Gerard de Courcelles in 1925 and Robert Bloch in 1926. His 1926 winning drive covered 2552.414km, a then-record at Le Mans.

Answer: Woolf Barnato

Woolf Barnato won driving Bentleys between 1928-1930. Amazingly, these were his only three starts in the race, giving him the distinction as the first driver to have a 100% winning record over multiple starts. In addition, he drove with a different co-driver in each race; Bernard Rubin in 1928, Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin in 1929, and Glen Kidston in 1930.

Answer: Pierre Levegh

Driving a Lago-Talbot, the Frenchman almost pulled off the feat. Hermann Lang was a beneficiary of Levegh's misfortune, winning the race that year with Fritz Riess in a Mercedes. Sadly, Levegh was killed along with 81 spectators, when he crashed into the crowd in 1955.

Answer: Hurley Haywood and Jacky Ickx

Haywood won Le Mans in 1977, 1983, and 1994. Ickx won in 1969, 1975-76-77, and 1981-82.

Answer: Jacky Ickx

Ickx has won the most races overall, but has never had more than 3 in any decade. Bell won in 1981-1982 and 1986-1987. Dalmas won in 1992, 1994-1995, and 1999. Kristensen has won 4 straight from 2000-2003.

Answer: 2

Only twice did the three-pointed star taken the spoils at Le Mans. The 1952 race, won by Hermann Lang and Fritz Riess in a 300SL, and in 1989 when a Sauber C9/88 with Mercedes-Benz power won in the hands of Jochen Mass, Manuel Reuter, and Stanley Dickens.

Answer: 7

Jaguar won 5 times in the 50's (1951, 1953, 1955-1957), and twice with Tom Walkinshaw's squad in 1988 and 1990.

Answer: 2

Ten cylinder Peugeot 905B's won in 1992 and 1993. These cars were part of the "F1 cars with fenders" rulebook used between 1991-1993, which in turn effectively killed the sport because of the cost.

Answer: Rondeau

Rondeau took advantage of the new IMSA GTP rules in 1980 to win over the Group 6 Porsche 908/80 of Jacky Ickx and Reinhold Joest. Jean Rondeau also drove the car, making him the first driver to win Le Mans in a car bearing his own name. Jean-Pierre Jaussaud was Rondeau's co-driver.

Answer: AJ Foyt

AJ Foyt did the double in 1967. Graham Hill has won both races, but in different years: Indy in 1966, and Le Mans in 1972 sharing with Henri Pescarolo in a Matra-Simca MS670B. Foyt shared his Ford GT40 MkIV with Dan Gurney in 1967.

Answer: 1963

Ludovico Scarfiotti and Lorenzo Bandini shared a Ferrari 250P. Ironically, this happened in the same year that a rear-engine car first won the Indianapolis 500, with Jim Clark driving a Lotus 38-Ford.