Louis Rigal

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Louis Rigal 1922
The number 2 Peugeot 174S, driven by André Boillot and Louis Rigal, before the start of the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1926 . With this car, the two drivers won the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race in 1926

Louis Rigal (born July 20, 1887 in Paris , † July 8, 1974 in Argenteuil ) was a French racing driver .

Racing career

Louis Rigal is one of the few racing drivers from the pioneering days of motorsport who survived their career without a serious accident and who reached a great age. In the year of his birth, Emil Berliner was just inventing the gramophone . When he died in 1974 at the age of 87, the Le Mans 24-hour race , in which he first took part in 1924 , had already been held for the 42nd time.

The 24-hour race at Le Mans was driven for the first time in 1923 , and a year later Rigal and his team-mate Roger Delano drove an Ariès 8-10 CV to 13th place overall. The deficit on the winners John Duff and Frank Clement in the Bentley 3 Liter Sport was 31 laps. The duo missed victory in the class for vehicles between 0.75 and 1.1 liter displacement, which Fernand Gabriel and Henri Lapierre took, by two laps. Rigal competed at Le Mans seven times. He achieved his best placement in 1937 . That year he was part of Emile Darl'Mat's team . His partner in the Peugeot 302 Darl'Mat DS was Daniel Porthault . After 24 hours of driving, the team finished tenth, 46 laps behind the winners Jean-Pierre Wimille and Robert Benoist in the Bugatti Type 57G tank . The following year he took part in this endurance race for the last time . Again for Darl'Mat and with partner Jean Pujol there was a breakdown after a technical defect.

He celebrated great successes at the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race . In 1926 he won the race together with André Boillot in a Peugeot 174S . In 1929 he finished third overall.

He celebrated another success at the 12-hour race in San Sebastián , which he won in 1929 together with Goffredo Zehender and Carlo Canavesi in a factory Alfa Romeo .

At the beginning of his career, Rigal mainly drove hill climbs . In the early 1920s, he won almost a dozen national events in France with Peugeot vehicles .

He also competed in monopostor races. In 1929 he finished ninth at the Monaco Grand Prix and in 1931 at the French Grand Prix .

statistics

Le Mans results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1924 FranceFrance Société des Automobile Ariès Ariès 8-10 CV FranceFrance Roger Delano Rank 13
1925 FranceFrance Société des Automobile Ariès Ariès Type S GP2 FranceFrance Roger Delano failure Cylinder head gasket
1926 FranceFrance Société des Automobiles Peugeot Peugeot 174S FranceFrance André Boillot Disqualified
1928 FranceFrance Société des Automobile Ariès Ariès Type S GP2 Surbaisée FranceFrance Robert Laly failure Engine failure
1930 FranceFrance Edouard Brisson Stutz Model M Blackhawk FranceFrance Edouard Brisson failure Wagon fire
1937 FranceFrance Emile Darl'Mat Peugeot 302 Darl'Mat DS FranceFrance Daniel Porthault Rank 10
1938 FranceFrance Emile Darl'Mat Darl'Mat DS FranceFrance Jean Pujol failure malfunction

literature

  • RM Clarke: Le Mans - the Bentley & Alfa Years 1923-1939 Brocklands Books 1999, ISBN 1-85520-4657 .
  • Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

Commons : Louis Rigal  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps 1926
  2. ↑ 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps 1929
  3. ↑ 12-hour race of San Sebastián 1929
  4. ^ Statistics of hill climbs in the 1920s
personal data
SURNAME Rigal, Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French racing driver
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1974
Place of death Argenteuil