Germaine Rouault

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Germaine Rouault in her Delahaye after winning the Paris-Nice 1937 race
Germaine Rouault (left) at the 1938 Monte Carlo Rally

Germaine Rouault (born August 16, 1905 in Paris , † November 4, 1982 ) was a French racing driver .

Career

Germaine Rouault came to motorsport in the 1930s and was promoted by Odette Siko at the beginning of her career . Siko was a few years older than Germaine Rouault and already had some racing experience to look back on. After finishing third in the Monte Carlo Rally in 1933 , Rouault quickly became known and popular. Until the outbreak of World War II , she competed there six more times, regularly on French vehicles, including Renault , Salmson and Matford . The event of the Automobile Club de Monaco on the fashionable Côte d'Azur matched its appearance perfectly. The attractive Parisian was always dressed exclusively and occasionally competed in rallies in a long women's skirt . On the fringes of motorsport events, she liked to be in the company of her fellow racing drivers and compatriots , including the dancer and “ Bugatti Queen” Hellé Nice (1900–1984), Anne-Cécile Rose-Itier (1890–1980) and Yvonne Simon (1917) -1992).

In the last few years before the start of World War II, road races had great popularity in France. These races, which often ran from town to town, became her favorite motorsport world. A frequent partner was Lucy O'Reilly Schell , the wife of Laury Schell and mother of Formula 1 driver Harry Schell . On a Delahaye , the duo finished the Paris – Saint-Raphaël race in second place in the overall ranking in 1935 and won the 1937 Paris – Nice event. You can also achieve success on the circuit. In 1935 she finished seventh at the Grand Prix de la Marne and finished in the same position in a Delahaye 135CS at the 1937 3-hour race in Marseille . Her greatest success in sports car racing was third overall in the 1938 12-hour race in Paris at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry with Anne-Cécile Rose-Itier in a Delahaye 135CS Coupé.

After the end of the Second World War, she resumed racing in 1948 and started again in the 12-hour race in Paris . With her Delahaye, which was getting on in years, she came to the 24-hour race of Spa-Francorchamps in 1949 . Here, too, she stayed true to her announcement from the 1930s that she would only start with women as teammates. In Spa, Yvonne Simon fulfilled this requirement, with which she reached eleventh place in the final classification. Other partners included Gilberte Thirion in the Morocco Rally and Régine Gordine , with whom she drove for automobiles in Le Mans and the Tour de France in 1952 . She also competed regularly in the Monte Carlo Rally from 1950, now on different Simca models and again on Renault. Her career, which ended after the 1956 Monte Carlo Rally, slowly came to an end in the mid-1950s .

statistics

Le Mans results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1938 FranceFrance Fernande Roux and Germaine Rouault Amilcar G36 Pegase Special FranceFrance Fernande Roux failure Engine failure
1950 FranceFrance Mmes Rouault et Gordine Simca-Gordini TMM FranceFrance Regine Gordine failure accident

Paris – Saint-Raphaël Féminin rally

In the period before the Second World War, Germaine Rouault competed several times in the Paris – Saint-Raphaël Féminin rally from 1935 , a long-distance journey through France advertised only for women; the prestigious race has taken place every year since 1929 and regularly ran over a distance of 1500 to 2500 kilometers.

  • 1935: 2nd place in Delahaye Sport (behind Olga Thibault in a Peugeot 201 and in front of Lucy O'Reilly Schell, also in Delahaye Sport)
  • 1936: 1st place on a Delahaye 135S
  • 1937: 1st place (probably again on Delahaye, ahead of Yvonne Simon on a Hotchkiss Grand Sport and Simone des Forest)
  • 1939: 2nd place (also a class win) on a Delahaye 135 (behind Yvonne Simon on a Hotchkiss Grand Sport and in front of Betty Haig on a MG)

Rallye Monte Carlo - Coupe des Dames (ladies' championship)

  • 1938: 1st place on a Matford (together with "Madame J. D'Herlique", overall 7th)
  • 1950: 1st place on a Simca 8 (together with Regine Gordine , overall rank 16)

literature

  • RM Clarke: Le Mans. The Jaguar Years 1949-1957. Brooklands Books, Cobham 1997, ISBN 1-85520-357-X (English).
  • Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 (French).
  • Jean François Bouzanquet: Fast Ladies - Female Racing Drivers 1888 to 1970 . Veloce Publishing, Dorchster, United Kingdom 2009, ISBN 978-1-84584-225-3 (English).

Web links

Commons : Germaine Rouault  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Grand Prix de Marne 1937
  2. ^ 3-hour race of Marseille in 1937
  3. ↑ 24-hour race at Spa-Francochamps 1949
  4. ↑ Rachel HG: The Paris — St. Raphaël Rally . Speedqueens, January 16, 2011 , accessed on March 25, 2020.
  5. ↑ Rachel HG: The Coupe des Dames in the Monte Carlo Rally: Part I . Speedqueens, March 16, 2016 , accessed on March 25, 2020.
  6. ↑ Rachel HG: The Coupe des Dames in the Monte Carlo Rally: Part II . Speedqueens, March 17, 2016 , accessed on March 25, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Rouault, Germaine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French racing driver
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH 4th November 1982