On December 17, 2014, the 9th volume of the book series "Les Suisses au Mans" was presented at the Speedy Garage in Romanel-sur-Lausanne. The book series was created in 2007, when the main author Jean-Marie Wyder and his co-authors published the first two volumes. As the title suggests, the main focus is on Swiss people, teams and vehicle designers who took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Le Mans vehicles at the vernissage
Le Mans vehicles were specially exhibited for the event. Visitors were greeted at the entrance by a bright orange Dodge Viper from 1994, which was successfully driven to third place in the GT1 classes by Justin Bell (son of Derek Bell), together with the two Frenchmen René Arnoux and Bertrand Balas.
From orange to red, the Schurti-Porsche 935 shone in freshly restored condition.
This racing car was entered by the Martini Porsche Racing Team at Le Mans in 1978, driven by Manfred Schurti and the German Rolf Stommelen. This vehicle also achieved third place in its category.
Hidden just behind it was another Porsche, an original 917, chassis number 3!
This Porsche 917/003 was driven by Hans Herrmann and Rolf Stommelen during the test days at Le Mans in 1969, but did not take part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In the same year, however, it was entered in the 1000km of Spa and Nürburgring. However, these were all the races that this chassis completed.
From the Porsche 917, the view wandered to a yellow and red duo, on the left a red Ferrari 330 P4 next to a bright yellow Ford GT40.
The line-up of Le Mans cars also included a Ferrari 330 P4, which was driven to second place by Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1967. This was the year when Commendatore Enzo Ferrari believed he could win the overall title again after two Ford years. But as we all know, Ferrari has never managed it since 1965.
A René Bonnet Aerodjet was parked between two pre-war Maseratis.
In 1964, this car competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the smallest engine class (up to 1.3 liters of displacement permitted). With its 1-liter Gordini engine, however, it only achieved second place and was beaten by the 1.2-liter Lotus from England.
Celebrities lent the event the perfect Le Mans flair
As in previous years,Max Welti was once again on site.
We talked to friends and like-minded people. Nick Heidfeld, Mathias Beche 's team-mate at Rebellion Racing, also meandered through the countless guests and exchanged a few words here and there, posed on his 2014 race car for a few photos... Andrea Belicchi, Le Mans racing driver since 2007, and of course Philippe Siffert (son of Jo Siffert), who was accompanied this time by his sister Véronique Siffert, were also spotted among the guests. AlsoNicolas Prost, Fabio Leimer, Mathias Beche, Dominik Kraihamer and Nicolas Lapierre. Marcel Fässler would also have been there had there not been an Audi event in Germany on the same evening.
It was a colorful mix of people, and again and again you recognized more or less familiar faces. Some of the more familiar names were:Paul Gutjahr (Swiss FIA commissioner), Georges Gachnang (Le Mans racing driver), Jacques and Enzo Calderari (both racing drivers), Niki Leutwiler (racing driver) and Heini Mader (well-known tuner in motor racing).
400-page yearbook
Many yearbooks often have one thing in common: they are getting bigger and bigger. The "Les Suisses au Mans" book series is no different: while the 2010 edition still had 224 pages, the current 2014 edition has a whopping 400 pages in the reader's hands. With around 800 photos, you can work out for yourself that many of them are very large.
Swiss victory once again in focus
As a Swiss player is once again part of the overall winning team in 2014, much is being written about his efforts. But the other teams with Swiss genes are not neglected.
Current events and a look back
Each book summarizes all of Switzerland's involvement in the current race, with plenty of pictures and background information, as the authors have direct contact with the people involved.
In addition to current events, the book also contains a number of retrospectives, with reports on the special features of the time in decade increments (10, 20, 30, 40 years ago...). For example, the book contains 20 pages about the legendary winning era of the Ford GT40 from 1963 to 1969, 10 pages about Manfred Schurti with a focus on his nine Le Mans appearances and several chapters about Italian racing cars driven by Swiss racing drivers.
For fans of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, this book is certainly an interesting summary and a supplementary reference work. However, the book was only published in French again this year.
Order the book
You can order the book directly from the authors: http://www.lessuissesaumans.ch
