Albert Guyot

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Albert Guyot at the 1922 French Grand Prix

Albert Guyot (born December 25, 1881 in Saint-Jean-de-Braye , † May 24, 1947 in Neuilly-sur-Seine ) was a French entrepreneur, aviator, racing driver and vehicle designer.

Racing career

Albert Guyot was active as a racing driver for two decades. In 1907 he was a participant in the Kaiserpreis race . The race initiated by Kaiser Wilhelm II was the second motorsport event in the German Empire after the Gordon Bennett Cup in 1904 . Guyot was part of the Belgian Minerva team alongside the two Britons John Moore-Brabazon and Kenelm Lee Guinness . In the race he dropped out during the final run.

In 1908 he signed a works contract with Delage and won the Coupe des Voiturettes in Dieppe on the Type ZC . At the 1913 French Grand Prix at the Circuit de Picardie near Amiens , he crossed the finish line in a Delage Type Y in fifth place, just behind his teammate Paul Bablot . At the 1914 Grand Prix , this time at the Circuit de Lyon , he retired in the Type S on lap 18 after an engine failure. The mechanic in the seat was the future racing driver Charles Flohot .

In 1913 he was part of the group of French racing drivers who dominated the Indianapolis 500 mile race . Guyot started the race from the front row and finished fourth on a factory Sunbeam . The winner was compatriot Jules Goux in a Peugeot . In 1914 , the French drivers were even more superior than the year before. René Thomas led a quadruple victory. Guyot came third in the Delage.

After the end of the First World War , he first started for Ballot and from 1921 for Duesenberg . His calm and precise driving style led to another successful start in Indianapolis in 1919 , where he finished fourth in the ballot. At the beginning of the 1920s, the Duesenberg brothers were involved in European Grand Prix racing with their modern 3-liter racing cars . Albert Champion financed the Duesenberg team's participation in the 1921 French Grand Prix . Two US-Americans and three French made up the driver team, which also included Guyot. While finishing sixth at the Circuit de la Sarthe , his teammate Jimmy Murphy won . In the same year he won on a Bignan the Grand Prix of Corsica . His last race win was a success on a Rolland-Pilain A22 at the Gran Premio de San Sebastián in 1923 .

Entrepreneur and vehicle designer

From 1925 Guyot competed with his own designs, which were created in the company Établissements Albert Guyot et Cie , founded in 1925 . Road cars came in small numbers for racing cars. Sources name production units between 30 and 70 vehicles in the period 1925 to 1931.

Guyot's driving career ended in 1927. The trigger was the fatal accident of Gérard de Courcelles , the overall Le Mans winner of 1925 , in a Guyot Special at a Voiturette race at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry .

Aviator

Albert Guyot was a French pioneer in aviation. He was a friend of Louis Blériot and owned a Blériot XI with which he made several long-haul flights.

Death in the restaurant

Albert Guyot committed in May 1947. spectacularly suicide . After a long binge of eating and drinking with friends from the motor sport world, including René Thomas, he poisoned himself with hydrogen cyanide in the toilet of a restaurant in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Rumors soon emerged that his suicide might be linked to the death of Robert Benoist . Benoist was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 and executed in Buchenwald concentration camp . The Special Operations Executive of the British Army had a file on Robert Benoist, in the name Guyot was found. In his work The Grand Prix Saboteurs , the British author Joe Saward speculated that Guyot was involved in the betrayal of Benoist's whereabouts. There was no confirmation from official sources for these speculations and the reason for Guyot's suicide remained open.

gallery

  • Albert Guyot at the wheel of a Delage Type ZC after winning the Coupe des Voiturettes in 1908

  • With the Coupe des Voiturettes 1908

  • In the Delage Type Y at the 1913 French Grand Prix

  • Before the start of the 1913 French Grand Prix

  • Im Delage at the Indianapolis 500 1914

  • In the Duesenberg GP before the start of the 1921 French Grand Prix

  • Rolland-Pilain A22, winning car at the Gran Premio de San Sebastián 1923

Web links

Commons : Albert Guyot  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ 1908 Grand Prix season
  2. ↑ Indianapolis 500 1913
  3. ↑ Pictures of the starters for the Indianapolis 500 1913
  4. ↑ Indianapolis 500 1914 (English)
  5. ↑ Indianapolis 500 1919
  6. ^ Grand Prix of Corsica 1921
  7. ↑ Grand Prix of Corsica (French)
  8. ↑ Grand Prix season 1923
  9. ↑ Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader: The International Automobile Encyclopedia. United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008
  10. ^ Note on the aviator Albert Guyot
  11. ↑ Albert Guyot's suicide
  12. ↑ Assumptions about a connection between the suicide of Guyot and the betrayal of Robert Benoist
  13. ^ Joe Seward: The Grand Prix Saboteurs; Morenviel Press 2007
personal data
SURNAME Guyot, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French racing car driver and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Jean-de-Braye
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1947
Place of death Neuilly-sur-Seine