Gaston Chevrolet

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Gaston Chevrolet 1920
Gaston Chevrolet poses after a victorious race in a Monroe (1919)

Gaston Chevrolet (born October 26, 1892 near Beaune , Côte-d'Or ( France ), † November 25, 1920 in Beverly Hills , California ) was a Swiss and from 1915 American racing driver .

Career

Gaston Chevrolet was born in France, where his Swiss parents had emigrated a few years earlier. He was the younger brother of Louis Chevrolet , who later co- founded the Chevrolet car brand with William Durant , and Arthur Chevrolet . After Louis emigrated to America and had earned enough money, he brought his brothers Gaston and Arthur to join him. Gaston worked as a mechanic and followed Louis into automobile racing.

In 1915, Louis Chevrolet and William Durant parted ways and he left the company. Durant used it to regain power at General Motors that he had lost in 1910. In 1916, Gaston became a partner of his brothers in the Frontenac Motor Corporation . On October 27, 1916, he married Marguerite Bueron of Brooklyn .

Gaston Chevrolet contested his first race in 1917 in Cincinnati, where he immediately finished third in the 500 mile Memorial Day race . After the USA entered the war in World War I , he served in the US Army. With a Frontenac racing car, he entered the Indianapolis 500 in 1919 and finished tenth. His brother Louis finished the race in seventh place.

The following year, Gaston broke European dominance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and won the race on a Monroe with a Frontenac four-cylinder engine. Most of the other top ten places went to the new Duesenberg 183 eight-cylinder. Gaston Chevrolet was the first driver to finish this race without changing tires. With an average of 88.16 mph, he set the second fastest time on this route to date. After that victory, he took part in a few more races and won a 100-mile race against Tommy Milton and Ralph Mulford (both on Duesenberg).

With the onset of winter, racing operations moved to the west coast of the USA . Gaston was killed while running for the title of "Speed ​​King of the Year" at the Beverly Hills Speedway in Los Angeles . In the serious collision on the 146th lap of the 250 mile race with Eddie O'Donnell (Duesenberg), his racing mechanic Lyall Joll was killed instantly; O'Donnell later succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. Only Chevrolet's racing mechanic John Bresnahan survived seriously injured.

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes (Eds.), Clark, Henry Austin Jr.: The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 2nd Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI 1985, ISBN 0-87341-111-0 .
  • Griffith Borgeson: The Golden Age of the American Racing Car. 2nd Edition. Warrendale PA 1998, ISBN 0-7680-0023-8 .
  • Dennis Adler: Duesenberg . Heel-Verlag, Königswinter 2005, ISBN 3-89880-487-9 .
  • Jon M. Bill: Duesenberg Racecars & Passenger Cars Photo Archive. Photo Archive Series. Iconografix, Hudson WI 2005, ISBN 1-58388-145-X .
  • Beverly Rae Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. Society of Automotive Engineers, Permissions, Warrendale PA 2005, ISBN 0-7680-1431-X .

Web links

Commons : Gaston Chevrolet  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Martin Sinzig: Louis Chevrolet. The man who gave the Chevy its name. The story of the racing driver and car pioneer. Huber Verlag, Frauenfeld / Stuttgart / Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-7193-1566-5 .
  2. ^ A b c d Obituary for Gaston Chevrolet in the New York Times of November 26, 1920 .
  3. ↑ 1920 Duesenberg 183 Grand Prix. on: conceptcarz.com
  4. ^ JM Bill: Duesenberg. 2005, p. 37.
personal data
SURNAME Chevrolet, Gaston
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American and Swiss racing driver
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH near Beaune , Côte-d'Or
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1920
Place of death Beverly Hills , California