Michel Trollé

Michel Trollé

Michel Trollé (born June 23, 1959 in Lens ) is a former French racing driver .

Motorsport

Monopostor racing

The French Formula 3 Championship produced a wealth of top drivers in the mid-1980s, some of whom found their way into international motorsport. They included the brothers Alain and Michel Ferté , Yannick Dalmas , Pierre-Henri Raphanel , Olivier Grouillard , Éric Bernard , Jean Alesi , Érik Comas and Michel Trollé.

Before Trollé got into Formula 3 , he drove with some success races in the Formula Renault Turbo and met the opponents of the later Formula 3 duels there for the first time. Trollé was in 1984 behind Yannick Dalma's championship runner-up; Lionel Robert was seventh, Eric Bernard eighth and Jean Alesi tenth in this championship. The switch to Formula 3 brought third final place in the French championship in 1985 and 1986; 1985 behind Pierre-Henri Raphanel and Yannick Dalmas and 1986 behind Dalmas and Jean Alesi.

The entry into Formula 3000 was seamless and in 1987 he contested a full season in this championship on a Lola T87 / 50 . Trollé won the race in Spa and finished sixth in the championship that Stefano Modena won . In 1988 the season began with two third places in Jerez and Vallelunga , but was also marked by failures due to technical defects.

In August 1988 Trollé suffered a serious accident while training for the Brands Hatch race , which was decisive and ultimately ended the Frenchman's career, albeit years later. Two minutes before the end of the Saturday training session, after setting the fastest lap time, Trollé came off the track at over 200 km / h and hit a guardrail with full force. Metal parts bored into the vehicle so badly that it took almost two hours for the Frenchman to be born from the wreck so that he would not have to amputate his legs. In total, he had more than 45 fractures in his ankles, legs and knees. Ten days after the accident he was transferred to France and was treated in Paris by the well-known French orthopedic surgeon Emil Letournel and operated on many times. Trollé lay in artificial deep sleep for four weeks, was in hospital for six months and learned to walk again after another six months in a wheelchair.

In 1990 he tried a comeback in sports car racing, but repeatedly had health problems and gave up professional racing in 1991. After the end of his active career, he organized rally events and became the manager of the Canadian racing driver Bruno Spengler .

Sports car racing

In addition to the races in racing cars with free-standing wheels, Trollé was also active in sports car racing for many years. He competed five times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans , where he achieved the best result after his accident in 1990 with seventh place. Yves Courage enabled him to return to motorsport in 1990 with a contract for the races of the 1990 World Sports Car Championship .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1986	John Fitzpatrick Racing	Porsche 962C	Paco Romero	Philippe Alliot	Rank 10
1987	Brun Motorsport	Porsche 962C	Paul Belmondo	Pierre de Thoisy	failure	accident
1988	Italya sport	March 88S	Danny Ongais	Toshio Suzuki	failure	Engine failure
1990	Courage Compétition	Cougar C24S	Lionel Robert	Pascal Fabre	Rank 7
1991	Courage Compétition	Cougar C26S	Claude Bourbonnais	Marco Brand	failure	malfunction

Web links

• Michel Trollé at the Driver Database
• Michel Trollé at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ^ Formula Renault Turbo Championship 1984
2. ^ French Formula 3 Championship 1985
3. ^ French Formula 3 Championship 1986