1984 - Le Mans - John Sheldon's massive crash

Shortly about 9.21pm - quarter distance.

The race looked set for a more settled spell as the dusk began to gather, but at 9.15pm a menacing plume of black smoke rom somewhere near the end of the Mulsanne Straight signalled disaster.

A minute earlier, the Bovis Nimrod ream had watched as both its cars passed by the pits once more, John Sheldon leading Drake Olson (was running high as 5th place, only for a puncture to drop it down the order) by about 300 metres/ 8 seconds behind, with the American being lapped by Jonathan Palmer in the Canon Porsche as the three cars sped by.

On the straight, Sheldon went into the kink at 190mpoh and his car went out of control: there is no firm indication of the reason. The Nimrod went off on the left side of the track, spinning back across the barrier to charge the barrier on the other side.

Palmer, following, saw dust and flying debris as he crested the brow before the kink, and braked heavily as hse swung his Porsche through the flat-out right-hander. He saw the Nimrod hurtling out of control down the verge on the right, and then making a second imapct, whereupoon on what was left of the car erupted in flames. The fireball was so intense that it sent the forest alight.

As Palmer watched in horror, Olson passed him on the left, still unaware of why Jonathan has suddenly slowed. At this point a piece of wreckage emerged from the right and shot across the track into Olson's path.

He swerved to the left, hit the barrier, and spun to a halt on the other side of the road beyond the sister car, the front end of the car damaged bu the American quite unhurt.

Palmer contrived to avoid the carnage and continued, but the burning wreck of Sheldon's car was now bloacking the right side of the track itself and the road was covered in debris.

Poor Sheldon was still inside the inferno but, fortunately, he was conscious and somehow he contrived to get himself out.

As the Nimrod burned to an almost unrecognisable blob of twisted metal, help arrived as marshals reached the scene.

WIth the field under the orders of the four pace cars, Sheldon was taken by helicopter to the Trousseau burns unit at Tours. Mercifully, no bones were broken, but John suffered burns to his chest, throat and hands.

There were, however, more serious consquences, because, during the incident, a course marshal 42-years old Jacky Loiseau, lost his life, and another, Andre-Guy Lefebvre (48) was seriously injured.

While the wreckage was cleared away, the race cars were under yellow conditions for 1 hour 2 minutes.

It was discovered that Sheldon suffered a blow-out and his Nimrod became an airborne fireball. Remarkably, a badly burned 'Driller' survived to race another day.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• 1984
• Le
• Mans
• John
• Sheldon
• Viscount
• Downe
• Aston
• Martin
• Nimrod
• NRA/C2
• accident
• fire
• inferno
• crash
• Mulsanne
• Kink
• Straight
• Drake
• Olson
• Jonathan
• Palmer
• Porsche
• 956B

[breaderb16lag]

The beauties and perils of the the Mulsanne before the cicanes. Thanks for the post

[dontbecutk]

Yeah, for sure. No one ever wants to see massive accidents and drivers loosing their lives... it was an imperative that they added the two chicanes to prevent the cars from hitting nearly 390 Km/h before that "kink" at the end of Mulsanne that section. John could of easily lost his life. R.I.P to the marshall who was killed.

[mrtitsmigee]

@pelforthpelforth Its not speed that kills you tard. its suddenly becoming stationary.

[pelforthpelforth]

speed kills...again

[NazarethNostalgia]

Thanks god racing is as safe as it is today. I'm as big a race fan as you'll find but even I don't think I could watch it in this era in which death was such a normal part of the culture. Now a days you would never see the dashboard ripped out of the car like this. Its a miracle he survived when so much of the impact was centered so close to him. RIP to the marshall

[ProtestantsRUs]

This proves that not only is racing boring as shit, it is also dangerous. Does it get any worse.

[mmmbilly]

no fucking lights????

[farodealer]

Le Mans is never red flagged unless the circut is blocked. It is an endurance race. Even in 1955 when the worst accident in motorsport history happened the race carried on

[twistedtornado100]

"I can't see the reason why i should" LOL, why did he say that??

[HazzdaMan]

it feels very strange liking this video. RIP

[ACDCsuperfan91]

3:00 headlights??

[theycallhimsim]

@TheMightyAntar The commentator is Brian Kreisky.