— Alfredo Miranda Jr., Du Pont driver, 1929"We had a lot to learn – a lesson that the foremost European manufacturers have learned since, i.e. that to be successful at Le Mans it takes several years of competition to develop a car that will respond satisfactorily to the demands of the circuit for 24 hours of continuous high-speed driving." — George Rand, Cunningham C2-R driver, 1951"I was sorry when I lost the car, but later, after I had come into the pits, my co-driver Freddy Wacker said, ‘Boy, am I glad I didn’t have to get in that car again!'" — John Fitch, Cunningham C5-R driver, 1953"We were faster than anybody. If we’d had a spoiler on the back end it would probably have made a difference, but no one had thought of that sort of thing yet. We thought it was a pretty clean body and it was – it was too clean." — Carroll Shelby, Aston Martin DBR3 driver, 1954"I overcooked it at the end of the Mulsanne... I was trying to follow Briggs Cunningham in the rain around that tricky, nasty 120-degree turn and ended up in the sandbank. It took me about 45 minutes to dig myself out." — Ed Hugus, Cooper-Climax driver, Class Runner-up, 1956"Yeah, we had first nailed until, oh, sometime Sunday morning. I came flying down toward Indianapolis, hit the binders – I ain’t got none! I write my name about three times in each direction (doing tank-slappers) and didn’t hit anything." |