That Time When Hamilton Won Le Mans... But Drunk!
Ok. It wasn't LEWIS Hamilton but the story was still crazy, I promise!
Le Mans is crazy. We already know that.
Remember when the Winnington Brothers came from nowhere to beat the prototypes in 1979? Or how Toyota failed on the final lap of the hundreds already completed in 2016? Or perhaps, when Ford finally beat Ferrari in 1969?
But remember when two drunkards drove a twenty four hour race, and won it?
Nah, didn't think so!
Back before the infamous Ford versus Ferrari, there was Jaguar versus Ferrari - and Le Mans meant everything to Jaguar in those days. They were lead by a man named Lofty England, who is best summed up by his belief that his cars going quickly was more important than the expendable slabs of meat driving them...
Sounds like a lovely chap.
Regardless, Jaguar had a stellar line up for 1953: Sir Stirling Moss, Peter Walker, Peter Whitehead and Ian Stewart were all driving. But the pairing we're interested in is two men you've probably never heard of: Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton. The men were two good friends, and so it made perfect sense to pair the together.
Hamilton in particular was an... interesting character. He survived the war, and so the logical option was to go and do the next best thing that can kill you.
Once, in 1949 whilst driving to the Brighton Speed Trials he noticed a Bugatti behind him, and so being a gentleman he slowed and waved it past. The Bugatti didn't move though, and as they both virtually rolled down the hill he was shocked to see it trundle past with no-one in it!
He then realised it was his own Bugatti that he was towing to the race.
Genius.
Naturally, it didn't end too well for the Bugatti.
At the '53 Portuguese Grand Prix, he crashed heavily and his car split in two which sent him into a tree, and his car into an electricity pylon. He stayed in the tree for a couple of minutes before jumping out, landing a foot away from being hit by a Ferrari.
What happened to his car though? Well, that managed to take out the entire electricity supply of Porto.
But by far his greatest accomplishment though was winning the 1953 24 Du Le Mans, while drunk as a skunk.
On Friday in practice the Jags demonstrated their incredible pace, with all three cars going under the record time for one-lap. Stirling Moss wanted to try a new setup and so the team duly prepped the spare car and sent it out. But this car had the same number - 18 - as Rolt and Hamilton's car; prompting Ferrari to cry foul as this was against the rules.
Ugh, Ferrari. Always the jealous type.
But by far his greatest accomplishment though was winning the 1953 24 Du Le Mans, while drunk as a skunk.
On Friday in practice the Jags demonstrated their incredible pace, with all three cars going under the record time for one-lap. Stirling Moss wanted to try a new setup and so the team duly prepped the spare car and sent it out. But this car had the same number - 18 - as Rolt and Hamilton's car; prompting Ferrari to cry foul as this was against the rules.
Ugh, Ferrari. Always the jealous type.
Rolt and Hamilton were kicked out of the race but Lofty was having none of it. He protested to the ACI that it was a simple mistake - which it was - and argued there was no way they were trying to cheat - which they weren't.
He eventually tired them out, and both Rolt and Hamilton were allowed back into the race after a 25,000 franc fine was paid.
The only problem was the drivers weren't there.
They were at a bar.
Getting sh*tfaced.
They'd mistakenly thought they weren't going to take part in the race, and so were treating their remaining time in the country as just another holiday in France. Somehow, they were found by the team at the bar and hauled back to the race track.
You should never drink and drive, by the way.
But hey, this was 1953 after all!
So here we are. Morning of race-day in Le Mans, and the favourites for the win could barely count to ten. After drinking insane amounts of black coffee, they finally came to terms that they were going to have to do this race.
By 4PM both of them still didn't want to race, and so naturally they decided to toss a coin for who would start. Rolt lost, and on the first lap alone he dropped to seventh. The tide started to turn when Jaguar took their revenge on Ferrari; they noticed the #14 car was having its brake system filled up, shouted it to the ACI and it was booted from the race. Sweet.
Rolt had managed to drag himself up to the race lead by the time the sun had set, and was presumably living on pure adrenaline. And coffee.
Another stroke of luck saw Stirling Moss' car hit problems with misfire, and it was fast becoming a race between Rolt and Hamilton's Jaguar and Alberto Ascari and Luigi Valerissi's Ferrari. The lead switched hands constantly throughout the night, thanks to the ying and yang nature of their respective machines. The Ferrari was a lot faster down the straights, but the Jaguar had much more performance on the brakes and during cornering.
As day began to break the #18 had an astonishing full-lap lead over the Ferrari. But Hamilton was now refusing the black coffee at the pit stops, claiming it was making his arms twitch too much. His substitute for soothing the hangover?
Brandy.
He... he was literally drinking brandy to dull a hangover.
But the racing gods were still on their side, and they struck a crucial blow on Ascari's Ferrari with clutch failure that pulled them out of the race. The closest car was several laps down, and victory now look assured.
4PM rolled around, and Rolt and Hamilton's car crossed the line to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Legendary.
As Hamilton came to a stop and leapt out of the car, everyone noticed that his windscreen was broken. Why, might you ask?
At some point he'd managed to hit a bird down the back straight - at one-hundred and thirty miles per hour - which had smashed through the windscreen and broken his nose. The brandy meant Hamilton didn't feel a thing. What a crazily-lucky guy.
So after 48 hours filled with alcohol, no sleep and driving 24 consecutive hours Rolt and Hamilton decided to celebrate the affair with... champagne.
Ah, how I envy these men.