Jean-François Piot

Jean-François Piot in the 1973 Tour de France for automobiles

Jean-François Piot (born March 28, 1938 , † November 6, 1980 in the Morocco Rally ) was a French rally and circuit racing driver .

Early years

Piot was a member of the Renault rally team in the 1960s . The Régie Renault had built up a top team that included Piot, Jean-Luc Thérier , Jean-Pierre Nicolas , Jean-Claude Andruet and Bernard Darniche as drivers . Piot started his career in 1964, on a Renault Dauphine at local rallies in France. His partner in a small private team was the young Henri Pescarolo . Piot was so successful at these events that the Renault Sport team management offered him a work contract at the end of the year. He celebrated his first international success in 1966 when he won the Tour de Corse on a Renault R8 Gordini .

Le Mans 24 hour race

In addition to his involvement in rallying, Piot also competed in a large number of sports car races. He competed four times in the Le Mans 24-hour race . He made his debut in 1964 , alongside Jean-Louis Marnat on a plant - Triumph Spitfire . The race ended prematurely for the French duo after Piot's accident. Piot's best result at Le Mans was 14th overall in the following year , together with the Belgian Claude Dubois , again on a works triumph. The last time he was at the start in 1973 on the Sarthe. Piot drove a Porsche 911 Carrera RSR for the Swiss racing team Porsche Club Romand. Piot and his team-mate Peter Zbinden stopped a gearbox failure after driving 110 laps.

At Spa 24 Hours Piot was five times at the start. His best classification was 15th overall in 1966, together with Jean-Claude Andruet on a Renault 8 Gordini.

Successes in rallying

After the end of his Renault contract in 1968, Piot moved to Ford France at the beginning of 1969 . For Ford he competed in rallies with the Escort and competed in sports car races with the Capri . In 1969, for example, he and his partner Michel Martin , this time in a Ford GT40 , came fifth in the 1000 km race in Paris . His first rally for the new team was the 1969 Monte Carlo Rally , which he finished in fifth. This was followed by third place in the Tour de Corse, with the later Peugeot and Ferrari race director and current FIA President Jean Todt as co-driver and navigator, and sixth in the Tour de France for automobiles .

Piot stayed with Ford until the end of 1972. He achieved notable successes at the Alpine Tour , where he finished third in 1971 and again at the Monte Carlo Rally, which he finished fifth in 1972. In 1973 Piot returned to Renault. Renault had meanwhile replaced the successful Alpine A110 with the rally version of the Renault 17 . A momentous decision that stopped the team's success story. The R17 was far from being manoeuvrable like the Alpine and engine problems made the driver long-term. For Piot, only second overall place in the Syria-Libya rally remained as a sense of achievement. After persistent failures, the R17 received new 1.6-liter engines in 1975. Piot finished fifth in the Monte Carlo Rally with the new car and won Group 2. At the end of the year, he had a serious accident at the Ivory Coast Rally , which he survived halfway unscathed. As a result, he announced his retirement from racing a few days later.

Comeback and death

But Piot couldn't really get away from motorsport. After five years without racing, he was persuaded in 1980 to work as a technical advisor for the Paris-Dakar Rally . However, this form of sport was permanently too little challenge for Piot, so he accepted the offer of his friend Jean-Claude Bertrand to drive a Land Rover at the Tour du Maroc . The rally was a 6300 km drive through the African country. On November 6, 1980, Piot came off the road with his vehicle while crossing the Atlas and fell into a ravine. Tragically, Bertrand drove right behind him and found Piot wedged dead in the vehicle. After news of Piot's death came out, the Suzuki team withdrew its two leading cars from the race.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1964	Standard triumph	Triumph Spitfire	Jean-Louis Marnat	failure	accident
1965	Standard Triumph Ltd.	Triumph Spitfire	Claude Dubois	Rank 14
1972	Automobiles Ligier	Ligier JS2	Guy Ligier	failure	Valve damage
1973	Porsche Club Romand	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Peter Zbinden	failure	Gearbox damage

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1963		Jaguar Mark 2	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
																							DNF
1964	Triumph AGACI	Triumph Spitfire Glass 1204	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
											DNF	DNF							DNF			22nd
1965	triumph	Triumph Spitfire	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
														14th
1966	Alpine	Alpine A110	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
						18th				10
1967	Alpine	Alpine A110	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
							DNF
1972	Ligier	Ligier JS2	BUA	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
											DNF
1973	Porsche Club Romand	Porsche 911	DAY	VAL	DIJ	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
										DNF

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. 2 volumes. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

Commons : Jean-François Piot  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Jean-François Piot at Racing Sports Cars