Rondeau

The Rondeau story is one of the finest the 24 Hours of Le Mans has ever produced: that of a local boy who built his own cars to win his home town's race — and succeeded. Jean Rondeau, born in Le Mans, launched his constructor project in the mid-1970s. His first machines raced in 1976 and 1977 under the name of their sponsor, Inaltéra, before the driver-constructor gave his own surname to his cars from 1978. The workshop was in the Sarthe, the team was from the Sarthe, and the objective was singular: the 24 Hours. The crowning moment came in 1980. At the end of a tense race run under treacherous showers, the Rondeau M379B driven by Jean Rondeau himself and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud won outright, holding off the late charge of Jacky Ickx's Porsche in the final hours. The image of Rondeau on the podium, at home, in front of his own crowd, belongs to the race's heritage. And the fact remains unique to this day: Jean Rondeau is the only driver in history to have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the wheel of a car bearing his own name. The little Le Mans marque carried its momentum into the early 1980s, regularly placing its cars at the sharp end and giving a whole generation of French drivers their chance. But an artisan's means were no longer enough against the rising power of the works Group C programmes, and Rondeau gradually faded from the grids in the middle of the decade. Jean Rondeau died tragically in 1985, aged just 39. What remains is an intact legend, inseparable from the race's deepest identity: that of the constructor-driver who beat the factories with a team of passionate craftsmen, on home soil. In Le Mans's collective memory, the 1980 victory holds a place apart — the day the race stayed home. No other victory in the race's century-long history has belonged so completely to the town that gives the 24 Hours its name.

• Country : FRA
• Founded : 1976
• Le Mans wins : 1
• First win : 1980
• Last win : 1980