Jean-Louis Lafosse
Jean -Louis Lafosse ( born March 15, 1941 in Dakar, † June 13, 1981 in Le Mans ) was a racing driver franzöisischer.
Jean -Louis Lafosse was born in 1941 in Senegal as the African state was still a French colony. Mid -1960s, he began a career in motorsport. He drove for several years in the French Formula 3 Championship and contested touring and sports car racing. 1974 Lafosse had almost come to a commitment to Formula 1: it was intended to drive a privately-entered Brabham Scuderia Finotto the Grand Prix of Italy at Monza, but ultimately the Italian Carlo Facetti got the cockpit.
Closely related is his name but with the 24- hour race at Le Mans. 1972 was Lafosse his debut at La Sarthe and drove regularly until the end of the 1970s in the World Sportscar Championship. Twice was the Frenchman on the podium at Le Mans in the top three. In 1975, he was with only one lap behind the Mirage GR8 by Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell second in the overall standings. Together with Guy Chasseuil he drove a factory Ligier JS2. A year later, he sat himself at the Mirage and was second again. This time, the duo were missing Lafosse / Migault but nine laps on the winning Porsche 936 of Jacky Ickx and Gijs van Lennep.
1981 accident Lafosse and died during the 24- hour race. After a serious accident by Thierry Boutsen after only one hour of the race, the field was performed by the safety car at slow speed over the distance. Lafosse, who lay with a Rondeau M379 at the seventh place overall, had his first pit stop when the race was released before it. Before him, the Briton Guy Edwards drove in a Lola T600 and both vehicles approached the Mulsanne ( curve at the end of the long straights Les Hunaundières ) with nearly 350 km / h the Rondeau suddenly broke out and bounced left into the guardrail. Two standing just behind the guard rail marshals were seriously injured. The Rondeau was thrown across the road, crashed into the right guardrail and was completely destroyed. Lafosse had no chance of survival and died in the wreck. An accident cause a fracture of the left front suspension was adopted. However, after the race were published pictures of the car (taken just before the accident ), on which the Rondeau is seen with damage to the front end and grass stains. Whether Lafosse had come off before the accident once the track and had damaged the front of the car, could never be clarified. That left the question of whether this ride could be related to the later accident related, to this day unanswered.