Jo Bonnier was involved in an accident on the straight between Mulsanne Corner and Indianapolis at Le Mans in 1972 when his open-top Lola-Cosworth T280 collided with a Ferrari Daytona driven by a Swiss amateur driver Florian Vetsch. His car was catapulted into the trees and he was killed. Fellow racer Vic Elford saw the Ferrari burning furiously, and pulled his Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 over to the right side of the track and ran across the track to the Ferrari, opening the door, attempting to get Vetsch out. But Vetsch was out of the car and was on the side of the track where Elford had parked his Alfa. Elford saw Vetsch and then saw the wreckage of Bonnier’s yellow Lola in the woods next to the track. According to Elford, the last he saw of Bonnier’s Lola was that it was “spinning into the trees like a helicopter”. Elford later handed off his Alfa to Helmut Marko, but the gearbox froze solid and they dropped out of the race. Elford later said “it was the first time in my racing career I’m glad my car broke.”
Here. he described the moments before Bonnier’s crash and his feelings at seeing the wreckage in the trees, behind the crash barrier.
