René Louis Paul Le Bègue (15 January 1914 – 24 February 1946) was a French

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

Driving career

In his first year of top level racing, Le Bègue's best showing came at the 1936 Spa 24 Hours endurance race when he drove a Delahaye to a 2nd-place finish. In 1937 he and his co-pilot

Julio Quinlin Julio is the Spanish equivalent of the month July and may refer to: *Julio (given name) *Julio (surname) *Júlio de Castilhos, a municipality of the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * ''Julio'' (album), a 1983 compilation albu ...

won the

Monte Carlo Rally The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially ''Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo'') is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The rally now takes place along the French Riviera in Monaco and southeast ...

driving a Delahaye. That year Le Bègue also won the Coupe de Vitesse at the Autodrome de Montlhéry driving a Talbot-Lago T150 and had several top-three finishes. He then teamed up with

André Morel André Paul Victor Morel (3 August 188417 July 1961) was a French racing driver. Life and career Morel was born on 3 August 1884 in Troyes, France. His father died when he was 11. His parents at that time expected him Morel to become a pries ...

to claim victory in the 1938

12 hours of Paris 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length ...

endurance race for sports cars. In 1939 he finished 3rd in the French Grand Prix behind the dominant Auto Union

Silver Arrows Silver Arrows (german: link=no, Silberpfeil) was the nickname given by the press to Germany's dominant Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union Grand Prix motor racing cars between 1934 and 1939. The name was later applied to the Mercedes-Benz Formula ...

then went on to win the Grand Prix du Comminges. The following year, Le Bègue traveled to the United States to compete in the

1940 Indianapolis 500 The 28th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 30, 1940. The winner was Wilbur Shaw in the same Maserati 8CTF he had driven to victory in 1939. Shaw became the first driver in the history of th ...

alongside fellow Frenchman René Dreyfus. Driving a pair of

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...

s for the American/French owner

Lucy O'Reilly Schell Lucy O'Reilly Schell (26 October 1896 – 8 June 1952) was an American racing driver, team owner, and businesswoman. Her racing endeavours focused mainly on Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix and rallying. She was the first American woman to com ...

, Le Bègue qualified 31st, but Dreyfus was bumped and ended up as the second alternate. On race day, it was decided for the two drivers to split time in the car, and each drove two stints of approximately 50 laps (125 miles) apiece. Le Bègue started the race and ran approximately laps 1–50 and laps 101–150. Dreyfus piloted the car for laps 51–100 and from 151 to the finish. The pair brought the car home in 10th place, flagged 8 laps down. A rainstorm prompted officials to flag the race after only the first three finishers received the checkered flag.'' The Talk of Gasoline Alley'' - WFNI, May 9, 2009 Le Bègue continued racing until the

German occupation of France during World War II The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...

when he joined the Free French Forces. With the war over, in 1946 he prepared to return to the racing scene and was elected vice-president of the French Drivers Association (AGACI, ''Association Générale des Amicales et Coureurs Indépendants''). However, early that year before the season started the thirty-two-year-old Le Bègue was accidentally asphyxiated by gas leaking from a defective water heater in his bathroom. The 9 June 1946 Grand Prix race at Saint-Cloud, won by Raymond Sommer, was named the ''René Le Bègue Cup'' in his memory.

Motorsports career results

Indianapolis 500 results

References

DV3 Limited website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Bègue, René French racing drivers Grand Prix drivers French rally drivers Indianapolis 500 drivers Free French military personnel of World War II Racing drivers from Paris 1914 births 1946 deaths Accidental deaths in France Deaths from asphyxiation 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers European Championship drivers