I watched the programme with considerable interest last night (though I only watched it once!), but I seem to be missing the finer points of this debate?? From the reconstructed amateur film (which I think it was said has only recently come to light), the sequence of events seemed pretty clear: race leader Hawthorn's Jag laps and overtakes Macklin's slower Healey but almost immediately brakes for the pits, baulking Macklin and causing him to brake too, possibly locking a wheel and throwing up dust. An exasperated Macklin swings hard to the left around the decelerating Hawthorn, but straight into the path of Levegh's Merc which is barreling down the outside with Fangio right behind him. Levegh has no time to react and can't avoid running up the sloping back of the slow-moving Healey and taking off like Thunderbird 2. Well, that's the way it looked to me....
If the footage we saw was not available to the enquiry, there may have been many conflicting eye witness accounts. It was mentioned that Hawthorn at first believed he had caused the crash, but quickly retracted and was later sued by an embittered Macklin. All of this in a dare-devil age with a lack of regard for safety that beggars belief today.
Last edited by: Dieselfitter on Wed 19 May 10 at 12:49
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Le mans 1955 new
Le mans 1955 new