My First Le Mans: Mike Youles On 1975

Mike Youles, C2 winner at Le Mans in 1990 in a PC Automotive Spice alongside Olindo Iacobelli and Richard Piper, spotted Paul Tarsey’s piece on DSC covering his first trip to Le Mans in 1979.

That inspired him to look back at his own first experience – four years earlier in 1975!

It was 1975 and I was a keen Motorsport enthusiast attending Brands Hatch frequently with the South Bank a favourite destination. At that time I had no aspirations to be a racing driver I just thought it was beyond my reach both financially and ability-wise.

So in the pub with my friend Kevin O’Neill who owned a very early Dutton P1 we decided it was a trip we should do. I was 19 and had never driven abroad before but what the heck. Discussing my impending adventure with a rather attractive work colleague, Sharon Staples, she mentioned her husband Ricky, who I had only met a couple of times at the usual work piss-ups, had always wanted to go. So I invited him along, with some trepidation as he and Kevin’s backgrounds and personality were a complete dichotomy, I needn’t had worried.

Anyway there was Ricky map reading in my Lotus Seven and Kevin’s passenger compartment filled with our provisions. The journey down was a delight, wonderful weather and of course the N138 as the peages of later years were completely absent. We had several stops including one at Abbeville where from memory photographs 2 & 3 were taken, giving Ricky the opportunity to demonstrate his sense of humour using the French loaf to simulate his manhood.

On one stop we met two English guys driving a load of carbon dust to Michelin for tyre manufacture. Asked where we were going they said they’d park their trailer somewhere in Le Mans and join us later.

We didn’t really expect to see them again so was surprised when ensconced in Parking Du Houx we heard the sound of a truck horn and breaking branches of the trees as they arrived.

The race was held in fine weather throughout and a fantastic result for Derek Bell and my all time hero Jacky Ickx winning in the Gulf Mirage.

I managed to get up close to the winning car during the inevitable track invasion. Had the camera firmly focused on Derek Bell’s visage only to be nudged from behind as the shutter came down, got his helmet instead!

At the end of the meeting we said good bye to the truckers, never to see them again of course, may have been different if this social medium had been in place then. Leaving the circuit with a lack of today’s road infrastructure the French instigated a one way system, opening up the opposite carriageway in reverse to disperse everyone promptly and encouraging you to get up to speed. Kevin gunned the Dutton and promptly broke a halfshaft.

Whilst Kevin and I stripped the car to see if anything could be done, Ricky cooked all the supplies we had left at the roadside, a real hotch potch which was most unappetising to look at but tasted fine.

Kevin decided there was no option but to abandon the car and get home by public transport and maybe return with a suitable spare. All for one and one for all there was no way we were going to abandon Kevin so using the shortest of tow ropes, I towed Kevin from Le Mans to our homes in Smallfield, that was epic on many fronts with quite some speed being attained driving down towards Rouen with Kevin’s eyeballs on stalks as the rope was so short he couldn’t even see my brake lights.

A fantastic time, I sadly lost touch with Kevin and Ricky but the memories remain. I never thought then or during my subsequent visits that I would ever drive there let alone appear on the podium winning the C2 Class at my first visit.

Sadly the chicanes were introduced then in 1990 so missed the Mulsanne Straight in all of its majesties but at least the old pits remained, albeit ’twas their last year.