The circumstances surrounding John Woolfe's accident and death during the race are such that they deserve to be told.

 John Woolfe was a wealthy British amateur driver who discovered the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1968. Captivated, he decided to return, putting himself in the best position to do well.

 To this end, he acquired a Porsche 917 from the Porsche factory in the spring of 1969. The car, designed to finally bring Porsche to the highest level of endurance racing, had been unveiled a few months earlier and was making its racing debut. Its reputation was dreadful: it was the most powerful and fastest car in the Sport category, but it suffered from high-speed instability that made it dangerous to drive. This problem would only be resolved in the winter of 1970, empirically but effectively, by John Wyer's team, giving rise to the famous 917 K version. Many professional drivers refused to drive it in races that year.

 John Woolfe didn't care and took delivery of his 917 at Le Mans at the start of race week. The car qualified 10th with Herbert Linge, the official Porsche driver "loaned" to Woolfe Racing for the event. Porsche recommended that Woolfe let Linge, his professional teammate, start the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Woolfe didn't follow this advice: he didn't have complete confidence in the reliability of his brand-new 917 and desperately wanted his family, who were at Le Mans, to see it in action. So he would start the race.

 The rest is tragic. John Woolfe didn't even complete the first lap. He ran across the track, like all the other competitors (with the notable exception of Jacky Ickx), to reach his car, jumped in, and neglected to fasten his safety harness in an attempt to gain a few seconds at the start. Returning to the start/finish straight in twelfth position, he entered the Maison Blanche Esses at full speed. Likely a victim of the 917's inherent instability, he put a wheel on the grass. The car veered off course and crashed into the ditch. Woolfe was ejected from the cockpit, and the 917 was split in two. He died instantly.

 This accident is particularly bitter. First of all, Woolfe was the first private competitor to trust Porsche for the 917. He was not rewarded for it, to say the least.

 Then, he only covered 12 kilometers in the race at the wheel of the 917 before his fatal off-track excursion (and also... only 4'15'' of racing at the wheel, this figure is reported on the dial of the TSR3).

 Finally, but we can of course be satisfied about this, John Woolfe is the only driver who will die at the wheel of the 917, which may be surprising when you take into account its dangerousness in its early days and especially the number of fatal accidents that occurred in racing at the turn of the 70s (between 1969 and 1971, we can mention without being exhaustive Piers Courage, Pedro Rodriguez, Jo Siffert, Jochen Rindt, Bruce Mc Laren).

 This tragic event, of course, did not prevent the Porsche 917 from becoming one of the most iconic racing cars ever made. The Woolfe accident, however, spelled the end of the staggered start, outside the car, which had been a hallmark of this race. From 1970 onwards, drivers would start the race from behind the wheel.