Automotive Art – Hector Cademartori’s 1970 Le Mans Race

1970 Le Mans Race Artwork

I have always liked creating paintings of historic motorsports scenes, either to present a different angle or to try to capture the dramatic value of the subject matter. I never liked to simply paint “a photo” in my work because I’ve always thought that if you have the photo there’s really no need for an identical painting. The 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours was exceptional in many ways and my painting has departed from the creation of a purely historic and accurate image to depicting an imaginary scene showing the main protagonists of the event all together.

The setting is the iconic Tertre Rouge turn, the beginning of the Hunaudieres Straight (as the French call this section) that ends at the Mulsanne corner. To say that the weather did not cooperate that weekend of June would be an understatement. It rained almost constantly during the race and accidents (some very serious) occurred. By morning, half the field had retired and, of the 57 starters only 16 were running at the end (12 of them Porsches) and just 7 were classified as finishers, teams which, according to the rules, had covered the minimum distance.