Could a female ask a few daft questions?

Just to clarify things for you Stirchley

There was during this era, about 5 or 6 different 'classes' (aka 'Groups') of cars racing in the World Sports Car Championship. (see link below) Each class had different rules & regulations; some classes were cars with tiny motors & literally road registered. Throughout the other classes, the cars used larger capacity engines & at least two classes were 'full race' - in that these cars were built specifically for the ten race series (which included the Le Mans 24 Hours) and the engines were limited to 3 litres (Prototypes class) & 5 litres (Sports class). These cars are not road registerable. The least powerful cars could have as little as 70 or 80 horsepower, then increases till the most powerful Sports cars which had between 550 to 600 horsepower. One specially geared Porsche 917 reached 249 mph along Mulsanne Straight once only in a private test. However, for the race they would regularly sit at 240 mph (400kmh) along Mulsanne. The Ferrari 512's were about 15 to 20 mph slower. You would also have noticed the very wide rear tyres on some, allowing these cars to go around corners much faster than some others - hence, when Delaney came around the corner & was momentarily distracted by the crashing red Ferrari becoming a fireball & took his eyes off the road ahead to glimpse his rear view mirror, when his eyes returned to the circuit, he was closing in rapidly on the much slower Porsche 911 (class Grand Touring 2.5 litres) - a common road car throughout the world - & the sudden swerve to miss it caused Delaney to lose control.

The Le Mans 24 Hour will probably never stop running. Up until the late '60's, the drivers would run across the circuit, jump into their cars, start them & begin racing. At about this time, because of numerous horrendous accidents, injuries & fatalities, all forms of racing cars had to be fitted with seat belts, which made the running across the circuits, strapping on the belts then firing up the engines to start the race a huge farce. Hence, you see in the film, all drivers sitting, belted, in their cars waiting to fire up the engines for the 4:00pm for race start.

Some years later, the stationary start became too dangerous & rolling starts were implemented.

1969 saw a curious start where French Belgian racing star Jacky Ickx thought the run across the circuit utterly stupid & very unsafe, so walked across, strapped himself in & started the race last. On the first lap, John Woolfe crashed heavily & died - in too much of a rush to start he had not belted himself completely. Jacky Ickx went on to win in one of the closest & most entertaining finishes of the 24 Hour classic.

The circuit has changed many of its iconic sections. Mulsanne Straight was 3.2 miles (5 kms) long with two flat out 'kinks' seen clearly in the film. About 20 to 25 years back, two chicanes were inserted.

The first corner was repositioned & had a chicane included.

'The Esses' has been totally redesigned & had more corners fitted.

'Mulsanne Corner' at the end of the straight has been redesigned.

A lengthy section of circuit near the end of the lap has been completely restructured, obliterating the fabulous area known as 'Maison Blanche'.

There are now two chicanes at the end of the lap, where there is only one in the film.

It would probably be more accurate to say that the only corners that have not been modified since McQueen's film are Indianapolis & Arnage.

Concerning the flag marshalls - I think this may have been some Hollywood folly. Bear in mind, flag marshalls were highly trained & would travel to all or any races that they could to do marshalling. The French (virtually) invented motor racing & safety was & still is an enormous concern world wide. I suspect that there may have been two teams; flag marshalls for warning & another for medical, if needed. The flag marshalls would have been instructed by the Clerk of the Course, prior to the race to stay behind the armco barrier at all time & only when the race drivers are obeying the waving yellow flag - (danger, accident: slow down & NO overtaking) - would the medical teams been allowed to venture, if deemed necessary, to the accident scene. But yes, hugely dangerous. A job possibly more dangerous was/is the photographers.

I would not know about the prizemoney - humans are very cagey about giving away such privacies & may exaggerate earnings. Impressive trophies would have been given to many of the top place getters in all classes, outright placings, fastest laps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_World_Sportscar_Championship_season
http://www.teamdan.com/archive/wsc/1970/70lemans.html