Incredible on-board camera footage from 1956 at the 24 Hours of LeMans of Mike Hawthorn LeMans driving the Jaguar D-Type. John Michael Hawthorn was an English racing driver, a world champion in in Formula 1 in 1958 and also the winner of the 24 Hours of LeMans in ’55.
Famously Hawthorn was also involved in a horrifying crash that resulted in the deaths of 80 spectators at at LeMans in 1955, which was given the dubious moniker of “Le Mans disaster.” It was the most impactful accident in racing history at the time and remains so to this day in terms of the carnage it was responsible for. Despite the scope of the disaster, Hawthorne went on to win the event.
As fate would have it, on January 22, 1959, Hawthorne himself died tragically in a car accident. One of the streets of Farnham, the town where he lived until the end of his life, commemorates his name.
