Born in the U.S. in 1944, Steve Fossett was a thrill-seeker from the outset, climbing his first mountain at the age of 12 as a scout. Having made his fortune on the stock markets, he embarked on a hunt for challenges of all kinds, including swimming across the Channel in 1985.

After trying his hand at auto racing in the mid-1970s, he rekindled his involvement by entering the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1993 and 1996. For his two participations, he drove Porsche prototypes developed by the expert Kremer brothers who won the race in 1979 with a personally modified 935.

Taking on the 24 Hours at nearly 50

In 1993, the then 49-year-old Fossett joined forces with Italian driver Almo Coppelli and the Brit Robin Donovan in a Porsche 962, also called the CK6 by Kremer Racing. Thirteenth on the starting grid, the trio completed the first hour in 31st position before executing a consistent climb that settled them in the 15th spot from the ninth to the 14th hour. However, on Sunday morning, the #15 Porsche was forced to retire at 08:45 with fuel problems.

Three years later, Fossett returned to Le Mans and shared a Kremer-Porsche K8 with new teammates, former 24 Hours winner Swedish driver Stanley Dickens (1989 representing Sauber-Mercedes with Manuel Reuter and Jochen Mass) and South African driver George Fouché, an expert in Porsche 956s and 962 Cs, and also a driver for Toyota in 1992, 1993 and 1994. Their race ended prematurely on Saturday around 19:00 after an incident.

That was Fossett's final appearance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but before and after that he continued to pursue his adventures in the desert, on the seas and in the air. After taking the start in Paris-Dakar in 1994 and finishing fifth in the Route du Rhum the same year, he crossed the Pacific Ocean in a hot air balloon in 1995.

Fossett disappeared flying a plane over the Nevada desert in 2007, two years after completing the first solo round-the-world flight with no stopovers or refueling. His two participations in the 24 Hours of Le Mans made him a kindred spirit with other pioneer adventurers like "Bentley Boy" Glen Kidston credited with the first England-Cape Town flight in 1931, and Henri Pescarolo who in 1988 beat the world tour record by plane set by billionaire Howard Hughes in 1938.

PHOTOS (Copyright - ACO ARCHIVES): LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS 1993 AND 1996. For his two participations in the race, billionaire adventurer Steve Fossett (top at the wheel in 1997) drove two generations of Porsche prototypes designed by brothers Manfred and Erwin Kremer: closed cockpit in 1993 (#15), successor to the 956 and 962 C of the 1980s, and open cockpit in 1996 (#2).