With the 84th running of the 24 Hours at Le Mans this month, I'm drawn back to that race six years ago. It was my first time there. The noise was deafening, and the crowds were overwhelming. The experience, however, was exhilarating.
I was in France as a filmmaker and Corvette enthusiast. Though I was pulling for the Corvette Racing team, my real interest was in a 50-year-old Corvette and a 92-year-old man who had driven it into the history books at Le Mans in 1960. His name was John Fitch.
Fitch was there at the behest of Lance Miller, co-owner of one of the largest all-Corvette events in the U.S. each August. I was there with my film crew to capture some special moments between the two men for a documentary I was producing.
No. 3 Corvette owner Lance Miller (left) joins the car's co-driver John Fitch at the 2010 Le Mans event. Fitch had driven the car into the history books 50 years earlier. (Photo: Michael Brown)
There are several names most Corvette historians can call up when asked about turning points in the car's history. They include dreamers, designers and engineers. But if the list is narrowed down to racing, Fitch will usually appear near the top. His exploits on the track are the stuff of legends.
To sit and talk with Fitch was an extraordinary experience. Perhaps it was because his life had been extraordinary. I was privileged to interview him several times. Describe Fitch? You'll need numerous adjectives. He was at once an inventor, sailor, automaker, gadabout, war hero, philosopher, automotive safety crusader, husband, father and, of course, race car driver.
Fitch was not only a part of the Greatest Generation, but his long life literally straddled that time period, and he embraced every moment of it. In World War II, he was credited with shooting down a German ME-262, the world's first jet fighter. Later, he was a German POW.
He rubbed shoulders with the Kennedy family, General George Patton, the duke and duchess of Windsor and aviation pioneer Orville Wright. Following a Grand Prix win in Argentina, he even received a kiss on the cheek by Eva Peron.
Fitch's life was all about the race, both literally and figuratively. In one of our conversations, he told me, "There is still so much I want to do, and there's never enough time to do it." He was in his ninth decade of life and still working when he said that.
After distinguishing himself with Mercedes and other widely-known marques, he was tapped by GM to become the first manager of the fledgling Corvette Racing team in 1956. It seems logical then that Briggs Cunningham — himself a legend in both boat and track racing circles — would ask Fitch to co-drive one of his Corvettes which made their debut at Le Mans in 1960.
Against all odds, Fitch co-piloted a limping No. 3 Corvette to a class win and eighth-place overall finish. It was the only one of the four Corvettes entered to finish the race.
A somewhat roughened No. 3 1960 Corvette underway at the 1960 Le Mans race in France. (Courtesy: GM Archives)
Then, the car disappeared for decades. What happened to it in the ensuing 50 years is a tale too long to tell here.
But in the 2010 race at Le Mans, Fitch once again drove that same car in a ceremonial lap around the 8.5-mile track. At his side sat Miller, who was fulfilling his late father's dream of returning the car to Le Mans a half century after it found glory there.
With a smile running ear to ear on a weathered face, Fitch once more made Corvette history at Le Mans.
He died on Halloween in 2012. He was 95 years old.
A beaming John Fitch (right) celebrates the completion of a ceremonial lap around the Le Mans track in 2010. Lance Miller, owner of the legendary No. 3 Corvette that Fitch drove in the 1960 race, road shotgun in the lap. (Photo: Michael Brown)
