It is with great sadness that the Automobile Club de l’Ouest has learned of the death of Chris Craft. The British driver was an ever-present at the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1971 to 1984.

24H Le Mans

Le Mans Legendes

24 Heures du Mans

Historique

Hans Herrmann is a bona fide legend whose legacy is ripe with jaw-dropping achievements and phenomenal stories. His career is so accomplished it can be difficult to grasp in its full magnitude. At 96 years young, Herrmann is just as passionate as ever, clearly immune to the ravages of time.

<h2>Racing Over Baking</h2>

Industrial activity and the lives of millions of people were heavily&nbsp;impacted at the height of WWII in Stuttgart, Germany. In the city, a humble apprentice pastry chef worked to perfect&nbsp;his skills with any&nbsp;means available. Hans Herrmann, born in 1928, preferred baking to war, shutting out the surrounding chaos by daydreaming of&nbsp;himself of&nbsp;racing cars. With no&nbsp;flour, eggs or&nbsp;other essential ingredients to be had, he&nbsp;had plenty of&nbsp;time to adore&nbsp;his childhood heroes,&nbsp;Rudolf Caracciola and Bernd Rosemeyer, two German icons in whose footsteps he would love to follow.

Herrmann&#39;s mother understood his passion and decided to help him&nbsp;follow his dream in 1951 by selling the gold bracelet his father had given her before he was killed in 1936. The money should be enough for her son to buy a car. Herrmann had already been racing for some time, but only with a poorly performing car shared with several other young hopefuls. He and his&nbsp;newly acquired Porsche 356 1100cc became&nbsp;inseparable.

Herrmann made his first appearance in&nbsp;a circuit race in 1952. His raw talent&nbsp;quickly drew attention and&nbsp;little by little he made a name for himself in his home country. Thanks to&nbsp;a stunning performance at a&nbsp;rain-soaked&nbsp;N&uuml;rburgring, he got noticed by&nbsp;Porsche. The German carmaker immediately&nbsp;recruited him for&nbsp;the 1953 24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans. At that time, Porsche was not yet the behemoth we know today. The marque had only been founded in 1948 and competing in the 24 Hours since&nbsp;1951, with no wins yet on the books. But, it did have an extremely well-performing&nbsp;550 Coup&eacute;. The only two cars entered snatched the top two spots in the Sport 1.5 L category, and with his career only just beginning, Herrmann was already in the&nbsp;points.

<h2>Head Down!</h2>

Though Herrmann was failing to&nbsp;win the most&nbsp;prestigious European races of the season, he continued to impress. During the 1954&nbsp;Mille Miglia, the famous&nbsp;endurance road race in Italy, disaster almost struck. When he arrived&nbsp;in the village of Chieti in&nbsp;his Porsche 550 Spyder, he came upon a blind corner followed by&nbsp;a set of&nbsp;gates in the process of closing. With the marshal&nbsp;not in the right place to warn him, Herrmann had no choice but to put the pedal to the metal, and with his free hand&nbsp;push down&nbsp;the head of his co-driver,&nbsp;Herbert Linge, and lower his own. The car made it under&nbsp;the gates. Herrmann could never master the Mille Miglia. The 1955 running, where he failed to win&nbsp;in&nbsp;the final moments, remains his greatest career regret. He then retried his chances at Le Mans with a&nbsp;Porsche 550 RS 1500 along with&nbsp;Helmut Polensky, but their headlights failed them on Sunday morning.

Mercedes-Benz, the other major carmaker in&nbsp;Stuttgart, hired Herrmann for&nbsp;Formula&nbsp;1 to join&nbsp;the great Juan Manuel Fangio. Unfortunately, the marque abruptly withdrew from all competition in 1955 following the infamous and&nbsp;devastating accident at Le&nbsp;Mans. Luckily, <a href="https://www.porsche.com/usa/?referrer_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.porsche.com%2Ffrance%2F" target="_blank">Porsche</a>&nbsp;was waiting in the wings.

Herrmann never failed to show up at the 24 Hours for his team, though without much success. In 1956, he shared the wheel of a 550 A with Umberto Maglioli, but a piston cut their race short in the&nbsp;16th&nbsp;hour. One year later, he tried his hand again with Richard von Frankenberg with a&nbsp;550 A RS. As it had in 1955, the car&#39;s lighting dashed all hope after eight hours of racing.

<h2>Back to the Grind</h2>

Herrmann hoped to return to Formula 1, but was unable to secure&nbsp;a seat. Porsche still trusted&nbsp;him in endurance racing, and&nbsp;in 1958, he&nbsp;achieved a positive result at the&nbsp;24 Hours. At the wheel of a&nbsp;718 RSK, he and&nbsp;Jean Behra claimed the third&nbsp;step on the overall podium and won the&nbsp;Sport 2.0 L category. Both performed flawlessly&nbsp;in the rain, despite ongoing brake troubles.&nbsp;Herrmann was less fortunate in&nbsp;1959, still with a&nbsp;718 RSK and&nbsp;Maglioli, he was once again forced to retire (engine failure).

His single-seater career wasn&#39;t taking&nbsp;off. However,&nbsp;he had continued to&nbsp;work&nbsp;with various teams since 1957,&nbsp;sometimes at the wheel of a Maserati for Scuderia Centro Sud, or&nbsp;with&nbsp;a Cooper-Maserati or for&nbsp;BRM. It was with the latter that Herrmann earned his nickname. During the 1959 German F1 Grand Prix with an&nbsp;AVUS near Berlin, he experienced the worst thing a racing driver can: brake failure. The circuit had just&nbsp;two corners&nbsp;linked&nbsp;by two long straights. Arriving near one of these sizable&nbsp;hairpins, his car began to flip.

Miraculously, Herrmann was ejected directly to the ground. Stunned&nbsp;but unhurt,&nbsp;he watched&nbsp;his BRM P25 disintegrate&nbsp;just a few meters away. Everyone began calling him&nbsp;Hans im Gl&uuml;ck (Hans in Luck), the original&nbsp;title of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

His loyal&nbsp;backer, Porsche, then called upon Herrmann for its Formula 1&nbsp;programme, but he took the start in only one&nbsp;Grand Prix in 1960 in addition to his participation in endurance racing&nbsp;classics. Besides competing in the&nbsp;24 Hours&nbsp;(retirement due to engine failure), he won the&nbsp;12 Hours of&nbsp;Sebring&nbsp;with Olivier Gendebien. He also triumphed at the&nbsp;Targa Florio, another Italian road race, and in 1961, finished seventh at Le Mans with&nbsp;Edgar Barth. As Herrmann was then&nbsp;already 33 years old, Porsche felt it had better chances in F1 with Dan Gurney and&nbsp;Jo Bonnier. His dreams of&nbsp;Grand&nbsp;Prix were over. Still representing&nbsp;Porsche, he finished seventh at&nbsp;the 1962 24 Hours&nbsp;again with Barth. And then he left.

<h2>Second Career</h2>

Herrmann packed his bags and joined&nbsp;Abarth, a renowned Italian constructor-preparer, who needed&nbsp;a professional driver to assist with development. Porsche had ended its Formula 1&nbsp;programme at the end of the season. Herrmann&#39;s calendar consisted&nbsp;of hill races and&nbsp;more modest events. Though he was&nbsp;sometimes disconcerted by less disciplined methods than those to which he had been accustomed (for example, at one event his mechanics had forgotten to fill his car with petrol), he did have some success. As a result of his new schedule, the German driver was absent from Le Mans for several years.

The seasons passed and weariness set in. A turning point came in 1965 when his team&#39;s car once again failed him. At the end of the year, Herrmann&nbsp;returned to his home country, ready to reclaim his destiny and be nearer to his son&nbsp;Dino. Porsche called upon him as it had in the good old days. His&nbsp;preparation for the 1966&nbsp;24 Hours was no walk in the park as&nbsp;prototypes had greatly evolved in the interim. He shared the wheel of a&nbsp;906/6 LH with&nbsp;Herbert Linge, once again taking on the biggest&nbsp;endurance race in the world. The duo finished an impressive fifth overall and second in its category.

&nbsp;

Victory at Le Mans felt attainable for Porsche. In 1967, Herrmann and Swiss driver Jo Siffert took the start with&nbsp;the&nbsp;sharper&nbsp;907. Another fifth place only spurred the team on. The&nbsp;1968 season kicked off promisingly with wins at the Rolex 24 at&nbsp;Daytona and 12 Hours of&nbsp;Sebring. At Le&nbsp;Mans, however, the&nbsp;908 suffered a defective clutch before nightfall.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/why-is-the-porsche-917-such-a-motorsport-icon-58241" target="_blank">With the arrival of the formidable&nbsp;917</a> the following year, the race was all but promised to&nbsp;Porsche.

<h2>Turning the Frown Upside Down</h2>

Herrmann was not entrusted with&nbsp;the new&nbsp;917 as it was&nbsp;terribly feared by its drivers and&nbsp;even more so&nbsp;by their opponents. Hans im Gl&uuml;ck and&nbsp;G&eacute;rard Larrousse drove a long version&nbsp;908 to improve its top speed. The 1969 24 Hours is known as a legendary running of the race.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/24-hours-of-le-mans-ickx-marches-to-victory-at-the-1969-edition-52596" target="_blank">The walking start by&nbsp;Jacky Ickx</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;death of&nbsp;John Woolfe paved the way for an epic battle between the #6&nbsp;Ford GT40 of&nbsp;Ickx/Oliver and the #64&nbsp;908 of&nbsp;Herrmann/Larrousse. In the final lap, Ickx managed to keep the German driver and his Porsche at bay, beating him by only&nbsp;120 metres. Undoubtedly, Herrmann&#39;s&nbsp;mind was flooded with what-ifs, like the crippling loss of 20 minutes at the start&nbsp;for a suspension repair. He had been so close&nbsp;to the win.

1969 : Jacky Icks victory

Victoire de Jacky Icks en 1969

In 1970, Herrmann&#39;s wife&nbsp;Magdalena asked him to hang up his helmet for good, and he promised her he would after the 24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans. In the meantime, he had worked to refine the 917 and make it more reliable.&nbsp;For that running, he was head driver in a short version&nbsp;917 K entered by the official team of the&nbsp;Pi&euml;ch family &ndash; extremely important figures in the German marque&#39;s history&nbsp;&ndash; under the name Porsche KG Salzburg. He was out to win after a decidedly challenging&nbsp;race week.

The car only qualified in P16 and, even worse, teammate&nbsp;Richard Attwood had the mumps! In&nbsp;endless downpours over&nbsp;Le Mans, the duo kept a patient pace, and won with a five-lap lead.&nbsp;After all of the blood, sweat and tears, Herrmann had given Porsche its first win at the 24 Hours!&nbsp;He then honoured his promise to his wife and retired on the spot.

Hans Herrmann at the Le Mans 24 Hours 1970

Hans Herrmann aux 24 Heures du Mans 1970

The extraordinary nature of Herrmann&#39;s life didn&#39;t stop there. In the early&nbsp;1990s, he was kidnapped by three masked men and freed upon payment of a one&nbsp;million&nbsp;Deutsche Mark ranson.&nbsp;His greatest victory was not the one celebrated on 14 June&nbsp;1970 at Le Mans, but having survived his career (as indicated by the title of his autobiography). He had suffered the loss of several friends in serious&nbsp;accidents, but himself&nbsp;was able to stand&nbsp;tall, like the hero he had always dreamed of being.

The spell-binding story of Hans Herrmann

For more than a century, an endless string of legendary drivers has proudly represented two of the top countries in the world of auto racing, France and the UK. The 24 Hours of Le Mans, a true reflection of automotive sporting trends and innovation, has witnessed brilliant performances by both French and British competitors throughout its history. After 100 years and 91 runnings, the two nations are still fighting for ultimate bragging rights at the race.

<h2>Crazy Stat</h2>

Initially, the&nbsp;24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans was envisioned to test the reliability of road&nbsp;cars destined for the average driver. But, the race very quickly evolved into a competition reserved for increasingly finessed cars, essentially prototypes. The founders never considered it a playing field for drivers, that was the domain of&nbsp;Grand&nbsp;Prix, the predecessor of&nbsp;Formula 1. Even fans were more interested in the carmakers than the men entrusted to earn&nbsp;wins.&nbsp;The individual influence of great&nbsp;champions was diminished by the nature of endurance racing as a team sport.

None of the above has prevented certain drivers from achieving sensational exploits at the race. The nine victories of&nbsp;Tom Kristensen, the five&nbsp;poles of&nbsp;Jacky Ickx or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/going-all-out-the-insane-pursuit-of-the-track-record-at-le-mans-58456" target="_blank">Kamui Koyayashi&#39;s lap&nbsp;record</a>, for example,&nbsp;are remarkable evidence of individual triumphs. There are others, lesser known perhaps, but just as impressive.

What is the probability that after a century of racing, two countries have managed to produce &ndash; almost &ndash; the same number of winning drivers?&nbsp;Ahead of the&nbsp;2024 24 Hours, France counts&nbsp;29 and the UK&nbsp;34. It&#39;s an astonishing stat given that drivers of&nbsp;19 different nationalities have won the race.&nbsp;Another major auto racing country, Germany, boasts&nbsp;18 winners, Italy and the US, 12.&nbsp;

<h2>The Brits Make Themselves at Home</h2>

France has the home playing field advantage. Naturally, the French race attracted local constructors, particularly during the&nbsp;1920s and&nbsp;1930s, and of course&nbsp;they tended to recruit French drivers. But,&nbsp;why are the Brits so successful at Le Mans?

Great Britain Motor Triumph (1928)

Les 24 Heures du Mans 1928, une page d'histoire 100% anglaise

The UK has always had its fair share of reputable&nbsp;marques ready to compete at the 24 Hours:&nbsp;a private Bentley paved the way at the inaugural running&nbsp;in&nbsp;1923,&nbsp;clinching&nbsp;the&nbsp;win the following year. The British carmaker then spent considerable resources to remain a major contender, already recognised as one of the most&nbsp;important races in the world just a few years after its inception. The&nbsp;Bentley Boys era drew a large number of Brits to the&nbsp;circuit, warmly welcomed by&nbsp;the race director at the time, Charles Faroux, who understood the growth potential of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Thanks to&nbsp;successful results achieved by&nbsp;Bentley, Aston Martin and&nbsp;Lagonda in the various categories, British fans have established&nbsp;an extremely strong presence&nbsp;at the race, and continue to brighten the grandstands and campgrounds as&nbsp;the majority contingent of foreign spectators.

<h2>A Century-Long Duel</h2>

In the early years, the Brits and French held the monopoly on the top step of&nbsp;the&nbsp;podium. It would take until 1932 and&nbsp;Luigi Chinetti for a winner to emerge from outside the two countries, and even then Chinetti had served as a mechanic in Paris shortly before his victory. The&nbsp;domination of the&nbsp;Bentley Boys between&nbsp;1927 and&nbsp;1930 gave the Brits the upperhand thanks to big names like&nbsp;Woolf Barnato, Henry Birkin and&nbsp;Earl Howe. Their&nbsp;French rivals included the winners of the first running, Andr&eacute; Lagache and&nbsp;Ren&eacute; L&eacute;onard, and other legends like&nbsp;Robert Bloch, Raymond Sommer and&nbsp;G&eacute;rard de Courcelles.

From 1923 to&nbsp;1939, before a nine-year hiatus due to&nbsp;World War II, at least one French and one British driver were members of each&nbsp;winning crew. The trend continued after the race resumed in 1949, but by then more drivers of other nationalities were arriving&nbsp;on the scene. The 1952&nbsp;24 Hours was won by two Germans with&nbsp;Mercedes-Benz and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/ferrari-vs-jaguar-when-titans-square-up-58405" target="_blank">Jos&eacute; Froil&aacute;n Gonz&aacute;lez became the first&nbsp;Argentinian to triumph, in 1954</a>. The Belgians and Americans followed, then drivers from&nbsp;countries like Mexico and Austria.

Over time, the&nbsp;dynamics shifted. French drivers won sporadically, sometimes with the&nbsp;Scuderia Ferrari (who did not hire drivers based on nationality) and other times with marques from their home country. The win scored by&nbsp;Jean Rondeau and&nbsp;Jean-Pierre Jaussaud at the 1980&nbsp;24 Hours was the last for an all-French driver line-up to date. The UK&nbsp;saw a decline in domination for the most part, with the exception of&nbsp;Jaguar&#39;s presence in the&nbsp;1950s: the Brits&nbsp;won three consecutive runnings from&nbsp;1955 to&nbsp;1957.

<h2>A New Era</h2>

Little by little, fan loyalty based on specific driver nationality began to fade. We cheered on Derek Bell because he&#39;s&nbsp;Derek Bell, not because he&#39;s British. But often&nbsp;each marque makes the effort&nbsp;in its top crews&nbsp;to keep a driver of the same nationality so&nbsp;the impact will be maximised&nbsp;in the event of victory.

Examples:&nbsp;in 1992 and 1993, at least one French driver&nbsp;was recruited for&nbsp;each Peugeot 905. En 1999, BMW and&nbsp;Mercedes-Benz followed suit with Germans. Between&nbsp;2018 and&nbsp;2022, at least one Japanese driver contributed to&nbsp;Toyota wins, whether that be Kazuki Nakajima, Kamui Kobayashi or&nbsp;Ryō Hirakawa. The practice isn&#39;t systematic, but remains&nbsp;frequent.

In more recent times, contender status for British and French&nbsp;marques has been a rarer phenomenon, and the same can be said for drivers from both&nbsp;countries. The last Frenchman to win the 24 Hours was Romain Dumas in&nbsp;2016, and the last two Brits were&nbsp;Mike Conway with&nbsp;Toyota in 2021 and&nbsp;James Calado with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fiawec.com/en/team/6293" target="_blank">Ferrari</a>&nbsp;in 2023. The&nbsp;duel remains eminently tight, and this year&#39;s running could completely disrupt the status quo, especially as&nbsp;the&nbsp;Hypercar category is stocked with top&nbsp;talent from both&nbsp;camps.

<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/2024-entry-list" target="_blank">Crews&nbsp;at the 2024 24 Hours</a>&nbsp;are set&nbsp;to include several&nbsp;French and British drivers, 12 for the former&nbsp;and eight for the latter&nbsp;(so far, as not all have been finalised). Traditions die hard: Herz Team JOTA, British runner of the&nbsp;Porsche 963, has opted for as many as four&nbsp;Brits for two cars, among them 2009 F1 world champion&nbsp;Jenson Button.&nbsp;Alpine has recruited four&nbsp;French drivers for its two A424s.

If the nationality of Le Mans winners may seem anecdotal at first glance, the&nbsp;re-emergence, quantity and sudden occurrence at certain moments in history are indicators of the cultural, political and sporting dynamics of their respective countries.&nbsp;With that understanding, the race makes it possible to gain a little more insight into&nbsp;the past and present, if not the future, of our world.

France vs the UK at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

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Enjoy a timeless experience at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

The TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, part of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, will be hosting the Forum H2, gathering together European voices currently promoting hydrogen

A Hydrogen VET&nbsp;Forum will be organized within the framework of the European Skills Agenda&nbsp;by&nbsp;the&nbsp;Automotive Skills Alliance, GreenSkillsforH2 and Skills Alliance for Industrial Symbiosis,&nbsp;European initiatives and projects dedicated to the development of skills needed to deliver on the EU&#39;s ambition to transition to a climate neutral economy by 2050, in collaboration with the Automobile Club de l&#39;Ouest.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Hydrogen VET&nbsp;Forum will be held as part of the FIA 2024 World Endurance Championship, during the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, on an emblematic track for MissionH24 which did its first official laps there in 2018.&nbsp;

Aimed at teachers, the event will provide an overview on the latest developments in hydrogen technology and strengthen hydrogen education in Europe. The event will also&nbsp;include workshops with hydrogen experts from the world of motor racing, including those from MissionH24, a program run in collaboration with the ACO and H24Project. It represents, once again, the formidable role of Endurance racing as a technological laboratory. Thanks to its hydrogen strategy, the ACO is recognized in Europe and by the European Commission as a key player in the energy transition.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Photo credit: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Hydrogen forum at the TotalEnergies 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps

Chris Craft&rsquo;s 1971 d&eacute;but at the 24 Hours concluded in a splendid fourth place in a Ferrari 512 M. His Le Mans career was subsequently linked to that of his compatriot Alain de Cadenet. They finished third in 1976 and fifth in 1977, at the wheel of De Cadenet prototypes built on a Lola chassis.

Craft then joined Japanese manufacturer Dome from 1979 to 1983. One of his co-drivers in 1983 was none other than Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. In 14 Le Mans starts, Craft saw the chequered flag on seven occasions, also finishing 12th in 1972, 14th in 1975, 15th in 1978 and 25th in 1980. He made his final 24 Hours appearance in 1984 in a Porsche 956.

The Automobile Club de l&rsquo;Ouest extends its sincerest condolences to Chris&rsquo;s family and loved ones.&nbsp;

24H LE MANS

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest pays tribute to the memory of Chris Craft

Related News

The spell-binding story of Hans Herrmann

France vs the UK at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Enjoy a timeless experience at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Hydrogen forum at the TotalEnergies 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps

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