12/28/2021
Today we remember Jean Rondeau who died on 27th December 1985.
He will most likely always hold the record as the only driver to win the Le Mans 24 Hours in a car of his own construction. He piloted his Rondeau to victory in 1980, sharing the driving with Jean Pierre Jussaud.
On the fateful day of his death, he was sitting in a queue of traffic at a level crossing at Champagné, near his home town of Le Mans when a police car on an emergency call, jumped the crossing. Rondeau, chancing his luck, followed in his Porsche 944 but misjudged the distances and was killed instantly by the oncoming train.
His unique record is unlikely to be beaten and it is indeed fitting that he will hold a place in the history of a race he loved so much.
