Part of the following story has been excerpted from the web biography of my friend, International Driving Champion, Tony “a2z” Adamowicz. The extracted parts as written by Tony appear in quotations and bold type.
Tony, co-driving with Chuck Parson in the NART 312P Ferrari was only 4 years into his professional career when he got his first Le Mans drive. Tony had already established himself as a fast driver, having won the Trans Am Championship in 1968 in a Porsche 911 and the F5000 Championship in 1969 in a Gurney Eagle. The great Dan Gurney referred to Tony as the winningest Eagle driver ever. By the time he headed to Le Mans, Tony had not only established himself as fast, but as an exceptionally durable endurance driver. When he stepped into the NART Ferrari, he had already run the 24 Hours of Daytona twice with a first in class with a Porsche 911 (4th overall still the highest finish of an under 3 liter car) and second in a NART Ferrari behind the NART Ferrari of Parkes and Posey. The only clear picture of the car in the movie was in a early scene as it arrived on the transporter.
The real story of the 1970 Le Mans was the rain. Probably close to 20 of the 24 hours was spent in rains that were frequently torrential. The following is Tony’s description of the early morning events.
“It was right before I was due in for a routine pit stop in the wee morning hours, that I had one of those moments in racing that you never forget. I had just passed the main grandstands and was in the middle of the Dunlop Bend when the car suddenly began to hydroplane. This had happened countless times before on the rain-soaked track, but on the previous occasions the tires had only lost adhesion for a second before regaining grip. This time, however, I realized that I was out of control…and heading directly for the outside guard rail- exactly where Walt Hansgen had crashed ((and died)).”
“In desperation, I cranked the steering wheel hard to the right in an attempt to induce oversteer and spin the car, at the same time bracing myself in the seat for what I was sure would be the inevitable crash.
Then the front tires bit just enough to start the tail around and, as if in slow motion, I could see the reflections of the lights from the carnival area to the right, and the huge yellow Shell sign to the left, whirling around in the windscreen.
At some point in the middle of what I think were three 360-degree spins, I both heard and felt an impact at the rear of the car. …I was totally disoriented, …then suddenly, directly overhead, a yellow light began to flash and I was engulfed by the high-pitch scream of race cars passing to my front and rear. It quickly dawned on me that I had come to a stop directly underneath the Dunlop Bridge, and was parked across the track perpendicular to the oncoming traffic. …It didn’t take more than a second for me to regain my composure and, when I did, my first thought was, “If you know what’s good for you, Adamowicz, you better get the hell out of here!”
We were pitted just down the road from (the) Steve McQueen’s Solar Productions team that was running a Porsche 908 in the race equipped with three movie cameras. A short time after Chuck pulled back out on the circuit, the actor-turned-driver walked down to our pits and asked me what had happened.
I gave a quick synopsis of my hair-raising spin, after which he said, “I don’t think our camera car caught it. Do you mind doing a retake?”
“Movie making was serious business to Steve McQueen. In addition to running his own private 908 to get actual race footage, Porsche loaned him 917K #917-013, from the John Wyer Gulf team to film scenes a week after the race. Many miles of film were shot beginning June 22nd, 1970. Ferrari refused to lend a car because a Porsche was scripted to “win” the race in the movie. All (of) the Ferrari’s filmed after the race itself were customer cars.”
There were some serious casualties during the filming that are not often spoken about. “Driver David piper blew a tire at Arnage while ahead of Parkes’ 512 Ferrari. The Porsche crashed into barriers at both sides of the track, broke in two, with both halves coming to rest in a ditch. The crash cost Piper his lower leg. Fortunately the aft camera seat had been removed. None of these shots appeared in the movie.” David healed remarkably well and with one good leg is still, after 38 years, driving the rebuilt original 917 in vintage competition.