John Woolfe

John Woolfe
John Woolfe at Le Mans 1969
Nationality	British
Born	(1932-03-23)23 March 1932 London, England
Died	14 June 1969(1969-06-14) (aged 37) Le Mans, France
24 Hours of Le Mans career Years 1968 - 1969 Teams John Woolfe Racing (private entrant) Best finish DNF (1968, 1969) Class wins 0

John Woolfe (23 March 1932—14 June 1969) was a British racing driver from England, who specialised in sports car racing. He was killed as a result of crashing on the first lap of the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans race, an event which caused the traditional "Le Mans start" to be abolished the following year.

Woolfe was born in London. He was a gentleman driver, and had several years' experience of racing sports cars. He formed his own team, John Woolfe Racing, with his business partner, Arnold Burton, and in 1968 he bought a Chevron B12, specially adapted to be fitted with a Repco V8 engine, similar to the unit which had won the Formula One World Championships in 1966 and 1967. Woolfe was successful in domestic racing, and also entered several international races. The climax of his season was the 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he entered himself alongside Digby Martland, but retired after only 27 laps, persistent overheating problems causing an engine failure. He also owned a Lola T70-Chevrolet.

Woolfe was dissatisfied with the reliability of the Chevron-Repco, and opted to buy a significantly more powerful Porsche 917 for the 1969 event. The 917 was a new car, built by Porsche to exploit a loophole in the entry requirements for the race, and was the fastest vehicle to take part in the event up to this point in its history. It was capable of 220 miles per hour (350 km/h) on the long Mulsanne Straight, but, with minimal downforce, suffered from an aerodynamic imbalance that made it challenging and unstable to drive at high speed. Woolfe paid DM140,000 (£16,000) for the car, which was delivered to him at the Circuit de la Sarthe ahead of practice.