1957 Le Mans 24 hrs
24 Heures du Mans |
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Le Mans |
June 22-23, 1957 |
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Ed Hugus |
w/Hugus (Kessler) |
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Porsche 550 Spyder (0132) |
No: 35 |
Q: 24 |
R: 8 (1) |
C: S15 |
The Championship status of Le Mans was restored for 1957 and therefore this edition had a much stronger entry than last years race. Carel was partnered with Ed Hugus in Hugus’ RS550 and all the competition they faced in their 1.5-litre class was coming from other Porsches since no other marque had entered.
The race at first seemed to be an all-Italian battle between Ferrari and Maserati, but their major works cars all retired or had problems and the race swung to the British as Aston Martin took on Jaguar for victory. Carel and Hugus had trouble with the fuel tank during the beginning of the race, but this was soon solved and they began regaining places. It wasn’t long before the Astons also hit trouble and at the finish the first four cars were Jaguars. For a long time the Jaguars had surprisingly been followed by the 1.5-litre Porsche of Storez and Crawford until their car broke down in the last hour. This retirement gave Hugus and De Beaufort the class win, being the sole remaining Porsche in the race.
Overall they scored a fine eight place amongst a field of 21 finishers.
(D. Gasnerie archives)
1957 Le Mans highlights (part 1)
1957 Le Mans highlights (part 2)