1999 - Le Mans - Aftermath of JJ Lehto's race ending accident

As the leading works BMW V12 LMR driven by JJ Lehto was in his 304th lap of the race.

Eventually, BMW PR tell us that JJ Lehto's accident was a mechanical failure not driver error.

The official press release says that a roll-bar link worked loose and pushed on the throttle linkage. JJ Lehto was left without sufficient time to kill the engine before the impact and suffered cuts to his knee as a result. It was cruel to be robbed of what should have been his second victory here with only four laps left to go, but he will now have to settle for the rest of the American Le Mans series to prove his point.

At the Porsche Curves, he was speared off the track and went hard into the wall.

The front was struck off and damaged, Lehto seems to be stuck in the car. He's obviously in a lot of pain and seems to have damaged his knee. The marshals have placed him on the sidepod of the car and are waiting for the medics to deal with him. A few minutes later, he is walking but limping.

Lehto revealed afterwards, "after we got through the night it was really under control. I think we were four laps ahead of the other. Knowing you have that advantage, and that there shouldn't be any problems, you are just nursing the car. Of course, you have to keep a certain pace anyway, because otherwise you start to make mistakes if you drive too slowly.

"Then just before noon at the Porsche Curves, a damper broke, or cut in half. I lost the steering and then the rollbar pushed the accelerator open. No steering and full throttle. I couldn't do anything, I was in fifth gear, I was a passenger.

"I hit the wall so hard it was unbelievable. I bounced across the track and stopped on the other side. I was so surprised that something like that could happen. It was quite a shocking thing because I had been enjoying it so much. I hit my legs quite hard and my knees were hurting like hell, but I was okay.

"It was disappointing but sometimes you get these mechanical problems. What can you say? For sure, it would have been our race, But it wasn't. Of course it pissed us off but, on the other hand BMW still won. The other crew (Joachim Winkelhock, Yannick Dalmas and Pierluigi Martini) were reliable and they did a perfect job. And at least we had showed what we could do: we were quick and we had a good time."

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• 1999
• Le
• Mans
• JJ
• Lehto
• BMW
• V12
• LMR
• accident
• crash
• damper
• broken

[BigAngeloSantorini]

whwre is the fucking accident?

[lemanslegend]

My bad, should have made it clear.

Edited the title of this video.

[imguitarguy183]

man, being leader for 304 laps and then losing the race for a mechanical failure... that sucks.

[v11n1man]

-fuck!! dääm

[leylandcarsloverslea]

That right rear suspension looks like it collapsed...

[McLarenMercedes]

@zamzungas

The "golden era" was the Group C era of the 80's with the Porsche 956 and 962's, Jaguar XJR-9 and XJR-12, Sauber-Mercedes C9 (did 400km/h on the Mulsanne straight in 1989) and Nissan R90 (1100hp in qualifying). Heck even the Mazda 787R wankel racer was awesome.

Group C monsters of 1982-1992. Also the late 60's and early 70's with the insanely fast Porsche 917 (held the overall distance record on LeMans for 39 years from 1971 to 2010), Ford GT40 and Ferrari 512M.

[duncaann]

Ha-ha Suzuki in a Toyota!

[Simb2k10]

Some say he was still driving over the curbs like a madman at this point... when he didn't need to

[zamzungas]

thats the golden era of le mans, i was to litle to watch it, but this year watched about 16 hours of le mans on eurosport, i love it!

[EJ25RUN]

Atleast 1995 and 2005 made him feel better.

I hope Toyota grabs up DOME's S102 for a project.