The story behind three standout images from the career of Jacky Ickx

Photographs tell stories. They are filled with memories and often provide one of the few ways for today's fans to revisit bygone eras and relive some of motorsport's greatest moments.

Yet, as powerful as they may be, photographs do not always tell the whole story. An image captures a single moment, but rarely everything surrounding it: the context, the emotions and the details that give it its true meaning. So who better than one of the main protagonists to reveal what lies beyond the frame?

From the Paris-Dakar to the Selangor 800 Km and the Le Mans 24 Hours, certain photographs have come to define Jacky Ickx's extraordinary career. One of motorsport's most enduring figures, the Belgian competed across multiple generations and remains a privileged witness to some of the most memorable moments.

So the six-time Le Mans winner revisits three images and shares the memories, emotions and anecdotes hidden behind these immortalised moments.

1986 Paris-Dakar

Jacky Ickx, Porsche

Photo by: Jean Guichard / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Already a legend in endurance racing, Ickx entered the Paris-Dakar adventure in 1986 after stepping away from prototype racing. That edition marked one of Porsche’s greatest successes in the event.

Following the setbacks of the previous year, the German manufacturer returned with three Porsche 959s, perfectly prepared for the roughly 14,000 kilometres between Paris and Dakar. The dominance was complete: Rene Metge and Dominique Lemoyne took victory, while Ickx and his co-driver Claude Brasseur finished second.

For Ickx, the memory of this Dakar goes far beyond the sporting result as he looks at a photograph taken near Zobaba in Niger. “That's a legendary photo,” the eight-time grand prix winner told Autosport. “This is the Paris-Dakar, a place called Zobaba, along the Kaouar escarpment, on the far side of the Tenere Desert. You normally start from Agadez, cross the Aïr mountains, and end up almost at the Libyan border on the other side. It's about 550 kilometres, and along this cliff there are oases.

“So this was a Dakar rally that nobody would have given a chance, except Porsche and myself. At the time, nobody believed you could turn a sports car into an off-road vehicle and actually win the Dakar.

“The Dakar has two sides. First, it's a sporting event - probably the toughest in the world. You can't cheat in the Dakar. The environment forces you to stay humble. At the time, it lasted three weeks, so it's long: 12,000 kilometres of special stages and 14,000 kilometres of liaison. It's just enormous.

“But there's also the discovery aspect: meeting people who live differently, with different traditions. Personally, the Dakar is probably the most important period of my life, intellectually speaking.

“Instead of having a narrow horizon, thinking only ‘win, win, win’, ‘F1, F1, F1’… my horizon opened up to 180 degrees. You get to see other people with other lives, other stories. And you grow.

“Even if you think you're curious and have a 30-degree vision, when you go to 180, that's 150 degrees more. That's a lot. But that's what makes the Dakar so special.”

800km of Selangor 1985

Jacky Ickx, Porsche, Derek Bell, Porsche

Photo by: Sutton Images via Getty Images

Held in the tropical climate of Malaysia, the 800km of Selangor was one of the most demanding rounds of the World Sportscar Championship. In 1985, his final season in the discipline, Ickx was entered alongside Jochen Mass in a factory Porsche 956 entry.

The photo shows Ickx with fellow Porsche driver Derek Bell between stints, both visibly affected by the extreme conditions. It is a scene that encapsulates the physical challenge of endurance racing in the 1980s.

“I was with Derek Bell, a lovely person,” said Ickx. “Between stints, we would put our hands and feet into ice buckets because it was incredibly hot, with extreme humidity. We were literally sitting in ice, doing ice baths for our hands and feet, and we were drenched in sweat. Back then, there were no drink bottles in the car: we only drank between stints. This photo shows absolute dehydration!

“I think I won that race. It was also my last season, as I retired in 1985.”

Le Mans 24 Hours 1977

Jacky Ickx, Porsche 936/77

Photo by: LAT Images via Getty Images

Teamed with Hurley Haywood and Jurgen Barth in a Porsche 936, Ickx delivered in 1977 one of the most famous comeback drives in the history of the Le Mans 24 Hours. Hampered by multiple mechanical issues early in the race, the Porsche fell a significant number of laps behind and quickly seemed out of contention for victory.

Yet, hour by hour, the crew mounted a remarkable recovery. Benefiting from the car’s underlying reliability despite further technical problems, and aided by the successive retirements of the dominant Renault entries, the Porsche gradually climbed back through the field before ultimately securing a legendary victory. It marked Ickx’s fourth win at Le Mans and remains one of the clearest examples of perseverance in the race’s history.

For Ickx, however, the 1977 victory is remembered less for the result itself than for the mindset that took hold within the team. To him, it perfectly illustrates what he calls “collective sublimation” - that rare moment when an entire group begins to exceed its own limits because belief in the impossible returns.

“You know, there are races where you’re supposed to be the favourite and you don’t win, and then there are races where everything seems lost and you still manage to win,” he said. “What’s extraordinary is that sometimes you reach a state where you transcend yourself. Normally you’re already at 100 percent, but in those moments you feel like everything is going to work out and you’re afraid of nothing.

“In that race, I got into the car after three hours. We were eight laps down, 41st. I thought it was over. But from that moment on, you become the hunter instead of the hunted.

“It’s fantastic when you have targets ahead of you and you know you can gain places. Every hour, you see the classification come back to you, and it drives you forward. I drove almost the entire night in the rain and fog, and we gradually climbed back before eventually winning.

“But what’s most interesting is that this sublimation is contagious. The other drivers in the car start pushing like demons. The mechanics, who would normally take 4m50s for a pit stop, suddenly do it in 3m30s. The strategist, who thought it was all over, starts believing again. That’s what makes it so special: this transmission to everyone involved.

“We had plenty of problems in that race. Many issues, but they were all solved. The car even lost its rev counter, so we drove almost the entire race by ear alone. At the time, there were three drivers, so it was all or nothing.

“And in the end, we win with a dying car against Renault, who had a clear path to victory. They had four cars, and they all broke down one after another. The closer we got to the front, the more they had to push, and that’s when they started to run into problems they probably shouldn’t have had.

“But whatever happens, you must always remember: you never know what’s going to happen. You can always make it.”