Jacques Poch

Jacques Poch contested the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1953 on a Borgward Hansa 1500 Rennsport

Jacques Jean Prosper Poch (born July 21, 1912 in Paris ; † May 21, 2009 there ) was a French entrepreneur and racing car driver .

Entrepreneur

Jacques Poch was born in Paris in 1912. His father Prosper Poch ran a sawmill in Arnage . A corner of the Circuit des 24 Heures , where the 24-hour race of Le Mans is held, is named after the place . At the age of 11, he and his father attended the first 24-hour race in 1923 . After his school days, which he spent at the Lycée Montaigne in Paris, among other things , he began working in sales for a car dealer in his hometown in 1930.

In 1938 he opened his first company, a small workshop in a backyard in Neuilly-sur-Seine . During World War II he sold, among others, fuel gas - gasifier of Facel . After the end of the war, he was the first importer of Škoda Auto , Tatra and Aero Minor vehicles . There were also motorcycles from Jawa . In order to support the French automobile manufacturers, the French government imposed a partial import ban in 1948, which also affected the brands imported by Poch. This ban was not completely lifted until 1958.

After the end of the import ban, Poch resumed vehicle imports. Borgward , Moskwitsch and Lada have been added to the previous brands over the years . Poch became the largest Lada dealer in France; In 1986, 26,000 new cars were sold. In the same year he handed over his group of companies to his son, who years later went bankrupt with the entire group .

Racing career

During the period of the French government's import ban, Poch switched to repairing vehicles and pursued his passion for motorsport. In 1949 he contested his first Le Mans 24-hour race. He reported an Aero Minor Sport 750 built in-house. His teammate was the Czech Ivan Hodač . The duo took 19th place overall. By 1958 he had competed in this 24-hour race seven times . In addition to his own reports, he was also active for Alexandre Constantin and in 1953 drove a works Borgward . The best placement was 17th in 1958 .

Apart from Le Mans, he was 14th in the 12-hour race in Paris in 1950 and 13th in the 12-hour race in Reims in 1953 .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1949	Jacques Poch	Aero Minor Sport 750	Ivan Hodač	Rank 19
1950	Jacques Poch	Aero Minor Sport 750	Edmond Mouche	failure	accident
1951	Jacques Poch	Aero Minor Sport 750	Maurice Vaselle	failure	Engine failure
1952	Alexandre Constantin	Constantin C	Alexandre Constantin	failure	accident
1953	Borgward GmbH	Borgward Hansa 1500 racing	Edmond Mouche	failure	Engine failure
1955	Alexis Constantin	Constantin C Barquette	Jacques Savoye	failure	Power transmission
1958	Equipe Monopole Course	Monopoles x86	Guy Dunaud-Saultier	Rank 17

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Borgward	Borgward Hansa 1500 sports coupe	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
					DNF
1955	Alexandre Constantin	Constantin C Barquette	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
						DNF
1958	Monopolies	Monopoles x86	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
							17th

Web links

• About the Groupe Poch
• Jacques Poch at Racing Sport Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ About Jacques Poch (French)
2. ↑ About the Poch Group (French)
3. ↑ Paris 12-hour race in 1950