A Competitor's Look At Le Mans
A COMPETITOR'S LOOK AT LE MANS
COLIN LYSTER
LEMANS, FRANCE - The weather was not the best for racing. A high wind blew across the circuit, plus intermittent rain. Practice the evening before had been very cold; race day was not much warmer. Cars, practicing for the 24-hour race in June, braved rainstorms in the morning, but this eased off before the first bike race. As the paddock marshal rushed around getting all the boys out to the start, the sun came out. Time for the 350’s.
The beating of many single-cylinder motors being warmed up, dulled the air. As the riders slowly moved down to the start, the crowd, a good one in spite of the rather adverse conditions, stilled. The field was dominated by 22 Nortons, the best being ridden by top liners like Bert Schneider, Rudi Thalhammer and Ladi Richter from Austria, Jack “Tiger” Findlay from Australia, Jack Insermini, Champion of France, Raymond Boegart from Belgium, Willy van Leeuween from Rhodesia and so on. The AJS challenge was led by Mike Duff, the Canadian; from England to back him up, Bill Smith, Sid Mizon and Rob Fitton. There were 14 of the 7R’s out there. An Aermacchi, two NSU’s and a Morini made up the rest. About correct to say that half the field were top liners.
Mike Duff had the fastest lap in practice, followed by a host of Nortons, só it looked like his 7R would be the thorn in the Manx side. As Le Mans has the very long, fast Mulsanne straight, rather a high gear is needed, and so starting would be tricky.
Mike had a slow start, and the Nortons were gone. A huge scrap developed out in front, with “Tiger” Findlay leading Bert Schneider, followed by the pack. As things sorted themselves out, Mike was carving his way through the field, Willy van Leeuween also. Retirements changed the placings all the time. I passed Bill Smith pushing his bike, and one or two boys had minor troubles. The race was between “Tiger” and Bert, with Mike in third place, followed by Raymond Boegart, van Leeuween and Jack Insermini.
Going into the last lap “Tiger” led all the way until, coming into the last fast left and right, his engine died. Bert nipped through, ahead of Duff, Boegart and van Leeuween. “Tiger” pushed over the line just ahead of Jack Insermini. He had fitted the small sprint tank to his 350, thinking that there would be enough fuel to last the 10 laps. There was not, so he was robbed of a win.
1. B. Schneider, Norton (Austria) 2. M. Duff, AJS 7R (Canada) 3. R. Boegart, Norton (Belgium) 4. W. van Leeuween, Norton (Rhodesia) 5. J. Findlay, Norton (Australia) 6. J. Insermini, Norton (France)
The 500 race was not the scrap that the 350 race had been. The Nortons of Bert Schneider and Rudi Thalhammer were fitted with the very good Austrian-built 6speed gearboxes; this meant a low gear for easy starting and pulling out of the two hairpin bends, a great advantage. Thirty-three Nortons lined up against five Matchless G-50’s and a lone BMW.
At the flag, the two 6-speed Nortons rocketed of the line with Bill Smith on one of the G-50’s, but the G could not hold the fast accelerating Nortons and they moved away. Mike Duff and most of the other G-50’s had varying starts, Sid Mizon having a bad one. Rudi Thalhammer led Bert for the whole race. Bill Smith just held off Mike Duff (who lead him for a few laps), after Mike had made up for his bad start. Raymond Boegart, “Tiger” Findlay and Rob Fitton kept the BMW out, and that was that.
1. R. Thalhammer, Norton (Austria) 2. B. Schneider, Norton (Austria) 3. W. Smith, Matchless G-50 (England) 4. M. Duff, Matchless G-50 (Canada) 5. J. Findlay, Norton (Australia) 6. R. Boegart, Norton (Belgium) 7. L. John, BMW (Germany)
The day had not been a bad one for anyone — no crashes, though there were one or two narrow escapes. Willy van Leeuween had a fuel line break off, showering the back wheel with fuel and causing a huge slide. Mike Duff, who was following, said it was rather exciting. What Willy said was not quite that.
I had plug trouble in practice and Schneider lent me a new plug. The top came unscrewed and the lead came off; thinking it was the same trouble as practice I coasted to a halt and got off the bike. Í saw the lead off, stuck it back on and finished 12th. This was the 500. The clutch went on the 350, so I did 8 laps without one, lifting the box up and down, but getting out of the hairpins was very hard. Still I was in the top half, finishing 19th.
I must say that riding down the Mulsanne at speeds close to the 150 mph mark with a crosswind that made the bike wander all over the road, at times moving the front wheel away, was rather interesting. To follow some of the boys and watch them, knowing that your bike was doing what theirs was, all adds up to more experience.
A thing that one likes to see at most French meetings is the helicopter. This gives one the feeling that the organizers have you under their help all the time, and should you have the misfortune to crash, the hospital is only a moment’s flight away. 1 find that in this way the French and German meetings are Well run, and wish that the others would do as well.
