24h Le Mans
Throughout December, we’ll be bringing you a very special Advent calendar featuring remarkable stories and anecdotes from the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. Today, we look back to 1970 when Jan Lammers met Hollywood star Steve McQueen, 18 years before taking Le Mans victory for real.
Immediately after the 38th 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970, Steve McQueen and his production crew set up in La Sarthe to shoot his film, Le Mans. A number of drivers who’d competed in the race that year were taken on to feature in the film, which took almost five months to shoot.
Among them, Dutchman Rob Slotemaker. He clocked up five Le Mans starts between 1961 and 1969, with an 11th place with Triumph in 1961 as his best result. He was put in charge of scenes featuring spins off track and came along with a thirteen-year-old Jan Lammers.
“I first heard about Le Mans from Rob Slotemaker. He taught me how to skid and had a driving school near the Zandvoort circuit,” Lammers says. “I did odd jobs for him, starting with washing cars when I was 12. He’d competed in the 24 Hours in the early 1960s with the Triumph factory team and told me all about Le Mans. When Steve McQueen started shooting his film, he took Rob on to take charge of the spins in the race scenes. Rob took me with him and I gave a skid demonstration in front of McQueen, who gave me a signed photograph.”
Thirteen years after his first encounter with Steve McQueen and Le Mans, Jan Lammers entered his first 24 Hours. He competed with Jaguar from 1987 to 1990 and won the race in 1988 with co-drivers Johnny Dumfries and Andy Wallace, following a long tussle with the Porsche 962 C driven by Derek Bell, Klaus Ludwig and Hans Joachim Stuck.
From 1999 to 2007, he competed as driver and team owner of Racing For Holland with a sixth place in 2003 as his best result. In 2018, on his final time out in La Sarthe, Lammers became one of only seven drivers to reach the symbolic landmark of 24 starts at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2021, he masterminded the return of the Dutch Grand Prix to the Formula 1 calendar, which was marked by a victory for Max Verstappen, much to the home crowd’s delight. Lammers never really had a car to match his talent in Formula 1, but he really showed what he was capable of at Le Mans, from those skidding displays for Steve McQueen to the top step of the podium in 1988.
PHOTOS (© ACO ARCHIVES): LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS – Top to bottom: Jan Lammers (right) on the podium in 1988 with teammates Andy Wallace (left) and Johnny Dumfries after their triumph in the Jaguar XJR-9 LM (#2); Jan Lammers as driver and team owner in 2003, at the wheel of the Dome prototype with its unusual chequered livery. Below: with four entries with Jaguar from 1987 to 1990, Jan Lammers constantly maintained his place in the top five overall, with the 1988 victory as the high point.
