Ferrari: Race to Immortality Page #3

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of the Austin-Healey,

flew best part of 100 yards

completely airborne

and then crashed belly-first

on to the top edge of the safety bank

in front of him.

Approaching the pits

I saw a blue flag out, so I eased off

and of course

I came across this absolute chaos.

When Levegh's Mercedes

hit the top edge of the bank

the chassis sheared

and the entire front end assembly

was hurled through the crowd

and it went through the crowd

like a torpedo.

And it killed over 80 of them

and it injured over 100 more.

There were even children

in the front row

who'd been put there for the best view

and they were right in the firing line

of the wreckage that tore through them.

What most people didn't realize

was that it was on such a grand scale

and why the organizers

had decided to continue the race

was to enable them to get the emergency

vehicles away from the circuit.

I hadn't seen anything

of the accident as such

because where I ended up

was about 200 or 300 yards

from where the accident was.

I could see the car burning

on the side of the track,

but at least I thought

it didn't go in the crowd.

I went into the Austin-Healey pit

and Donald Healey told me

that Mike had come in

and said to Lance,

"Can you ever forgive me?"

He literally sort of staggered

across to where we were,

tears pouring down his face, came up

to me, put his arm over my shoulder,

and said, "I've killed all these people.

I'll never race again," and so on.

A few hours later

he was back in the car driving again.

Hawthorn and Bueb drove a brilliant

remaining part of the race to win.

And contemporary movie

shows Mike very conflicted

in his facial expressions

about whether

to enjoy this victory or not.

But when he did break into a grin,

stills photographers got that photograph

and photographs of a beaming Mike

Hawthorn, having just won at Le Mans,

after the colossal tragedy

that had marred the race,

were used by the press

to vilify Mike around the world.

It did affect him terribly.

He was desperately upset,

but it wasn't actually his fault.

I mean, he was exonerated

and he shouldn't have to feel like that.

He had this sort of air

of devil-may-care, you know, attitude,

but actually he did care,

he cared an awful lot.

Behind success

there is a terrible truth.

Italians are prepared

to forgive anything and anyone.

Thieves, murderers.

All sorts of criminals.

Except for success. They won't

forgive anyone for being successful.

Ferrari in Italy was

a towering figure, even at the time.

He was the single most significant

automotive industry figure

of the 20th century.

He was a survivor. He was a chameleon.

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