Marie-Claude Charmasson

Marie-Claude Charmasson at the 1968 tulip rally in the Netherlands

The Alpine A441 , with Lella Lombardi and Marie-Claude Charmasson at the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans was the start

Marie-Claude Charmasson (born September 17, 1941 in Grenoble ) is a former French journalist and racing car driver who competed under the pseudonym Marie-Claude Beaumont .

Career

Marie-Claude Charmasson was born in Grenoble as the eighth child of French rally driver Marion Charmasson . Her father finished third in the overall ranking of the Monte Carlo Rally in 1953 and ran a Citroën workshop in Gap . In the 1960s, she began a career as a rally co-driver and contested national championship races alongside her husband René Trautmann , whom she married in 1965 and who won the French rally championship in 1964.

At the end of the year she got the chance to take part as a driver in a rally for the first time when Henri Greder entrusted her with a Ford Mustang . The first steps turned into a professional driving career. For three years - from 1966 to 1969 - she competed in rallies as a works driver for the French NSU team. She celebrated many class wins and secured the women's standings in almost every race in which she competed. Three times - from 1969 to 1971 - she also won the overall ranking of women in the French rally championship.

She made her debut on the circuit back in 1967 when she competed with Christine Beckers in the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race . From 1971 she drove almost exclusively sports car races and took part in all major races. She competed six times in the Le Mans 24-hour race . She made her debut in 1970 as a partner of Henri Greder on a Chevrolet Corvette . The duo finished the race in 25th place overall. She achieved her best placement in 1973 - again as a partner of Greder - with an overall rank of twelve. Her last start on the Sarthe was in 1976 in a Porsche 934 from Kremer Racing. Together with Bob Wollek and Didier Pironi , she reached 16th place in the overall ranking. 1971 was the first female participant in Le Mans in almost two decades. The starting ban for women imposed by the ACO after Annie Bousquet's fatal accident at the Reims 12-hour race in 1956 was lifted that year as no longer appropriate.

Four times - in 1969 , 1971 , 1972 and 1973 - she won the Tour de France women's automobile championship .

After the end of her active career, Charmasson was press spokeswoman for the Renault Formula 1 team from 1977 to 1982 and then worked for many years as a motorsport journalist and photographer.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1971	Greder Racing	Chevrolet Corvette Stingray	Henri Greder		failure	Engine failure
1972	Greder Racing Team	Chevrolet Corvette Stingray	Henri Greder		failure	accident
1973	Greder Racing Team	Chevrolet Corvette Stingray	Henri Greder		Rank 12 and class win
1974	Henri Greder	Chevrolet Corvette Stingray	Henri Greder		18th place and class win
1975	Equipe Elf Switzerland	Alpine A441	Lella Lombardi		failure	Electrics
1976	Porsche Kremer Racing	Porsche 934	Bob Wollek	Didier Pironi	Rank 19

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th
1964	PIF	Lancia Flavia	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
																			DNF
1971	Greder Racing	Chevrolet Corvette	BUA	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
											DNF
1972	Conrero Greder Racing	Opel GT Chevrolet Corvette	BUA	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
									DNF		DNF
1973	Greder Racing	Chevrolet Corvette	DAY	VAL	DIJ	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
										12
1974	Henri Greder	Chevrolet Corvette	MON	SPA	ONLY	IMO	LEM	ZEL	WAT	LEC	BRH	KYA
							18th			23
1975	Equipe Switzerland	Alpine A441	DAY	MUG	DIJ	MON	SPA	BY	ONLY	ZEL	WAT
				6th	13	4th				DNF

Web links

Commons : Marie-Claude Charmasson  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Marie-Claude Charmasson at the Driver Database