Jean-Louis Lafosse

Jean-Louis Lafosse (born March 15, 1941 in Dakar , † June 13, 1981 in Le Mans ) was a French racing car driver .

Career

Jean-Louis Lafosse was born in Senegal in 1941 when the African state was still a French colony. In the mid-1960s, he began a career in motorsport. He drove for a few years in the French Formula 3 championship and competed in touring and sports car races . In 1974 Lafosse almost got involved in Formula 1 : he was intended to drive a privately entered Brabham from Scuderia Finotto at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza , but in the end the Italian Carlo Facetti got the cockpit.

However, his name is closely connected with the 24-hour race at Le Mans . In 1972 Lafosse made his debut at the Sarthe and drove regularly in the sports car world championship until the end of the 1970s . The Frenchman was on the podium of the top three twice at Le Mans. In 1975 he finished second in the overall standings, just one lap behind the Mirage GR8 owned by Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell . Together with Guy Chasseuil he drove a works Ligier JS2 . A year later he sat in the Mirage himself and came second again. This time, the Lafosse / Migault duo were missing nine laps on the victorious Porsche 936 driven by Jacky Ickx and Gijs van Lennep .

In 1981 Lafosse had a fatal accident during the 24-hour race. After Thierry Boutsen suffered a serious accident after just one hour of racing, the safety car led the field slowly across the track. Lafosse, who was seventh overall with a Rondeau M379 , had his first refueling stop ahead of him when the race was restarted. The Brit Guy Edwards was driving a Lola T600 in front of him and both vehicles were approaching the Mulsanne (curve at the end of the long Les Hunaundières straight) at almost 350 km / h when the rondeau suddenly broke out and hit the guardrail on the left. Two marshals standing just behind the guard rail were seriously injured. The rondeau was thrown across the street, hit the right guardrail and was completely destroyed. Lafosse had no chance of survival and died in the wreck. A break in the left front suspension was assumed to be the cause of the accident. However, after the race, pictures of the racing car (taken just before the accident) were published showing the Rondeau with damage to the front and patches of grass. Whether Lafosse had ever strayed off the track before the accident and damaged the front end of the car was never known. So the question of whether this ride could be related to the later accident has remained unanswered to this day.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1972	Scuderia Filipinetti	Ferrari 365GTB / 4	Mike Parkes	Jean-Jacques Cochet	Rank 7
1973	Equipe Gitanes Cigarette France	Lola T282	Hughes de Fierlant	Pure Wisell	failure	Defective oil pump
1974	North American Racing Team	Ferrari 308GT4	Giancarlo Gagliardi		failure	drive shaft
1975	Gitanes Automobiles Ligier	Ligier JS2	Guy Chasseuil		Rank 2
1976	Grand Touring Cars Inc.	Mirage GR8	François Migault		Rank 2
1977	WM AEREM	WM P77	Xavier Mathiot	Marc Sourd	Disqualified
1978	Pozzi-Thompson JMS Racing	Ferrari 512BB	Claude Ballot-Léna		failure	Power transmission
1979	Gelo Racing Sportswear	Porsche 935	John Fitzpatrick	Harald Grohs	failure	Engine failure
1980	Porsche Kremer Racing	Porsche 935K3	Danny Ongais	Ted Field	failure	Engine failure
1981	Calberson Jean Rondeau	Rondeau M379	Jean Ragnotti		failure	Deadly accident

Web links

• Image: The Lafosse accident at Le Mans in 1981

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ulrich Schwab: Grand Prix 1974. The races for the automobile world championship. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-87943-356-9 , p. 134.