Just-Émile Vernet

The Simca Type 5, with the Suzanne Largeot and just-Émile Vernet twelfth grade and class victory at the 1937 24 Hours of Le Mans reached

Just-Émile Vernet (born June 16, 1894 in Sancey-le-Grand ; † October 6, 1991 ) was a French automobile racing driver and racing car designer.

Racing career

When Just-Émile Vernet attended the 24-hour Le Mans race every year in the 1960s , the French racing drivers met him with great respect. The French journalist Bernard Clavel wrote in his 1968 book Victoire au Mans , which describes the events surrounding the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1967 in a novel style, about Just-Emile Vernet as the doyen of the Le Mans racing drivers.

In fact, the racers personality Vernet is a long distance race connected in western France far narrower than in most other racing careers. During his time as an active racing driver, which lasted from 1930 to 1956, the Frenchman almost exclusively competed in the Le Mans race.

For the first time, however, he did not appear in Le Mans, but in another 24-hour race , the Bol d'Or 1930 . This race was held at the Circuit de la Ville , a temporary race track in Saint-Germain-en-Laye west of Paris , and was considered particularly challenging even at the time, as you had to drive through the 24 hours without changing drivers. Vernet covered 413 laps and finished fifth overall. The victory went to Yves Giraud-Cabantous ; Maurice Benoist finished fourth.

In 1931 he started at Le Mans for the first time and finished the race in sixth and class winner in the rating class for vehicles up to one liter displacement. Vernet almost always drove small-displacement cars at Le Mans. The only exception was the Lorraine-Dietrich B3-6 , which had a 3.5-liter in- line engine and which he drove in 1934 and 1935. The Riley Sprite , with which he was 16th in 1939, also had a decent engine. Rather, Vernet relied on small, manoeuvrable cars, some of which hardly differed from road vehicles. All racing cars were prepared and made ready to race by himself. Before World War II , he owned a Simca Huit, the French version of the Fiat 1100 . After the war he competed three times in a Renault 4CV at Le Mans .

When he stepped down as a driver in 1955, he had had 14 Le Mans starts and was the driver with the most starts in this race at the time of his retirement.

Career as a designer

In 1952, Vernet began to develop racing vehicles based on parts of the Renault 4CV together with Jean Pairard under the name Vernet et Pairard . Small, agile racing cars and coupés were built in very small numbers. The Renault 4CV Tank was driven at Le Mans in 1953, the VP 166R until 1958.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1931	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Caban Special	Fernand Vallon	Rank 6 and class win
1932	Just-Émile Vernet	Salmson GS Spéciale	Fernand Vallon	failure	Clutch damage
1933	Just-Émile Vernet & Fernand Vallon	Salmson GS Spéciale	Fernand Vallon	Rank 10
1934	Just-Émile Vernet	Lorraine-Dietrich B3-6	Daniel Porthault	failure	Cylinder head
1935	Daniel Porthault	Lorraine-Dietrich B3-6	Daniel Porthault	failure	no fuel supply
1937	Just-Émile Vernet	Simca Type 5	Suzanne Largeot	Rank 12 and class win
1938	Just-Émile Vernet	Simca Huit	Suzanne Largeot	failure	malfunction
1939	Just-Émile Vernet	Riley Sprite TT pourtout	Carl de Bodard	Rank 16
1949	Just-Émile Vernet	Simca Huit	Claude Batault	failure	accident
1950	Just-Émile Vernet	Renault 4CV	Roger Eckerlein	Rank 27
1951	Just-Émile Vernet	Renault 4CV	Jean Pairard	Rank 29
1952	Just-Émile Vernet	Renault 4CV	Jean Pairard	failure	Ignition damage
1953	Just-Émile Vernet	VP 166R	Jean Pairard	Not classified
1954	Automobiles VP	VP 166R	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	failure	accident

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Just-Émile Vernet	VP 166R	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
					DNF
1954	Vernet et Pairard	VP 166R	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
						DNF

Web links

Commons : Just-Émile Vernet  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Just-Emile Vernet at motorsportmagazine.com
• Just-Émile Vernet at 24-hour piste

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bernard Clavel: Victory in LeMans. Sauerländer, Aarau 1971, ISBN 3-7941-0006-9 .
2. ^ Circuit de la Ville
3. ↑ Bol d'Or 1930
4. ↑ Renault 4CV Tank  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )