24h Le Mans
French manufacturer Matra made its début Le Mans appearance in 1966 and went on to compete every year throughout the late sixties. The marque really made the Circuit de la Sarthe its favourite hunting ground in the early seventies with a triple triumph in 1972, ’73 and ’74. Before its moment of glory, the interim editions of 1970 and 1971 swung between tough struggles and a promise of what was to come.
Before we focus on the dawn of the new decade, let’s look briefly back to the sixties. After relying on a BRM 2-litre V8 powerplant for its first two appearances at the Circuit de la Sarthe in 1966 and ’67, both of which resulted in retirement, Matra built its own 3-litre V12 engine for the 1968 race. This is the year that Henri Pescarolo, at the wheel of the only Matra in the field, made Le Mans history with an epic night-time performance in the driving rain despite a windscreen wiper failure. After climbing up to second place, the man in the green helmet and his teammate, Johnny Servoz-Gavin, retired just three hours from the chequered flag when the car caught fire while in the pits with a puncture. In 1969, out of the four Matras that took their place on the starting grid, three made the top ten: Jean-Pierre Beltoise/Piers Courage (4th), Jean Guichet/Nino Vaccarella (5th) and Nanni Galli/Robin Widdows (7th).
That same year, the French constructor took the Formula One championship title with Jackie Stewart at the wheel of a Matra chassis, powered by a Ford Cosworth V8 engine, entered by Ken Tyrrell. The following season, with Stewart rejecting the Matra V12 engine, Tyrrell turned to March to field his own chassis, while Matra entered its own Formula One team.
In the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours, the difficult weather conditions wreaked havoc among the favourites – Ferrari and Porsche – but Matra was unable to take advantage. The four cars entered had all been forced out before midnight.
With Matra choosing to focus its efforts on Formula One in 1971, just one car was entered in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. At daybreak on Sunday, Chris Amon (who also raced for Matra in F1) and Jean-Pierre Beltoise were in second place, like in 1968, behind the Porsche 917 K of future winners Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep. But accelerator issues, followed by ignition problems, finally extinguished the hopes of the New Zealander and the Frenchman at 9 a.m.
1972 saw a U-turn in the Matra’s sporting strategy which led to three consecutive Le Mans wins. You can read about that triple triumph in the next episode of our saga!
Photo (ACO archives): Five years after winning the 24 Hours for Ford, Kiwi Chris Amon drove for Matra in Formula One and at Le Mans in 1971.
