Charles Faroux

Charles Faroux 1939

Charles Faroux at the 1922 French Grand Prix

Faroux at the Cadre World Cup in Paris in 1922

Charles Faroux (born December 29, 1872 in Amiens , † February 9, 1957 in Neuilly-sur-Seine ) was a French motorsport official, race director of the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1923 to 1956 and three times world champion in the cadre .

Live and act

Charles Faroux was born the son of a sheep trader and spent a lot of time traveling until he was 28 years old. He visited the United States of America and was in Alaska for several months . It was there that he first came into contact with journalism and after his return to France in 1900, he began to work as a journalist for the automobile magazine l'Auto. The trained mechanical engineer also began to be interested in automobile construction and motorsport. He was also active as a racing driver. In 1908 he took part in the Coppa Florio , but retired early due to a defect in his Motobloc . He became the doyen of French motorsport journalists when the First World War broke out in 1914 . Faroux served in the French Army and fought in the Battle of Verdun . He experienced the end of the war as a technician at Hispano-Suiza , where he was responsible for the delivery of aircraft engines.

Racing

Faroux became internationally known through the 24-hour race of Le Mans, which he launched in 1923 together with Georges Durand and Emile Coquille . Durand and Faroux drew up the technical regulations that have been revised many times so far. More than three decades as race director was often the last and often the only authority when it came to deciding which team was allowed to start the race. Between 1929 and 1955 he was also a starter in the Monaco Grand Prix .

Billiards

Faroux was one of the best French carambola players in the 1900-1920s . In 1905 he took part in the world championship in Cadre-45/2 for the first time, but broke it off for unknown reasons after winning a game against the Belgian Jean van Suppen. 1907 came second straight away and was able to repeat this in 1910. In 1912 and 1919 he won the world title in this discipline. Since his motor sport interests often overlapped with billiards and there were overlapping dates, he canceled the world championship in April 1926 in favor of the Targa Florio , and in 1927 he played his last world championships. In March he won the silver medal at the Cadre 45/2 World Championships and ended his billiards career in June with the world championship in Cadre 45/1. After that he devoted himself only to motorsport.

As was customary at the time, players often still held positions with associations. In the early 1930s, Faroux was president of the international amateur association Union Internationale des Fédérations des Amateurs de Billard (UIFAB) and from 1928 to 1956 president of the Fédération Française de Billard (FFB).

Others

Faroux became Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur in 1953 . He died in February 1957.

successes

• Cadre 45/2 World Championship : 1912, 1919 1907, 1910, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1927 1914, 1920
• Cadre 45/1 World Championship : 1927
• Cadre 45/2 European Championship : 1926

Web links

Commons : Charles Faroux  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Heinrich Weingartner, Dieter Haase: Encyclopedia of Billiards . 1st edition. tape 1 . Heinrich Weingartner, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-200-01489-3 , p. 156 .
2. ^ Robert Court: German Billard Newspaper . 6th year, no. 2 . Cologne June 1926, p. 694-697 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} successes. Kozoom , accessed May 14, 2019 .  
4. ↑ Union Internationale des Fédérations d'Amateurs de Billard (ed.): Annuaire 1931 . Annual report UIFAB. 1st edition. Own print, Paris 1931.