Donald Davidson...

is a freaking human racing encyclopedia! I've had my second class with him on his "History of the Indy 500" and I've been very impressed with his knowlege. Yesterday I asked him about all the champagne that Jules Goux drank during the race to victory in 1913. He did confirm that at least 4 bottles were passed to him during his pit stops but stated that Goux did not drink it all. He shared it with his riding mechanic and pit crew. Its hard to say how much he drank himself and how smashed he was when the race was over. Davidson did recite Goux's winner's exact quote published in the Star that day in french (Goux spoke no english). The translation went something like "Without the good wine I could not have won."

I have not had an opportunity to ask him to lurk on the Atlas F1 Nostalgia board yet but we will meet 2 more times before the class is over.

I am a bit surprised that The Donald vouches for this. The AAA Contest Board had a rule against alcohol in the pits and the consumption of alcohol by drivers before and during an event. The Contest Board had a hair trigger when it came to enforcing its rules and this one was one of those that fell into the category of what could be called Serious Violations. Somewhere recently this very incident was discussed and the truth apparently was that Goux and members of the team did not consume alcohol during the race. There were Contest Board officials in the pits to enforce the rules and a rule violation of this magnitude would have been dealt with quickly and severely. The truth seems to be that Goux and his mechanician drank water during the race. Later perhaps they had champagne or another wine, but not during the race. Indeed, given the times and the strength of the temperance movement, it is quite possible that Indiana was a "dry" state.

In one of those rarities and real strokes of good fortune, the whole thing can be traced to a single source -- an article by Chris Sinsabaugh in Motor Age on the race. That article was selected by Floyd Clymer for his history of the Indianapolis 500 published in 1946 as one the articles covering the 1913 race. Needless to say, it has passed into the realm of "truth" since its appearance at that time.

I would be curious as to his reaction to that incident being challenged.

Having seen a lot of PR stunts in my time, my theory on this, for a long time now, has been that the champage company - or Goux's team - provided him with water in the company's champagne bottles during the race.

His comment about not being able to win without the good wine would have been akin to a modern driver saying "I never could have done it without the help of..."

If I remember correctly, photo(s) have been published of Goux drinking from a champagne bottle during the race.

It all ties in: provide water in the sponsor's bottles, make sure the driver is photographed drinking from said bottle during the race, have the driver thank the "good wine" during post race interviews. Exactly the sort of thing a PR-minded person extracting a large sum from a back-door sponsor would do.

And if you don't think commercialism had reared its ugly head by then, try re-reading Charles Jarrott's "Ten years of Motors and Motor Racing" in which he attributes the onset of big money and professionalism as his reason for quitting the sport he loved several years before Goux's 1913 Indy outing.

I can probably dredge up the exact quote from my computer files if someone wishes, because I have used it at some time.

Also, during the 1977 London to Sydney Marathon, Brian Hilton and myself arrived in Istanbul dehydrated from many hours driving and having stupidly not taken plenty of water with us. There, the Frenchman who had recently been MD of Renault Australia (which sold Peugeots in Australia) but had now moved to Turkey, appeared at our window to hand us a glass of what looked like soft drink. I downed it thirstily, swallowing a large amount of it before asking, "What's that?!"

"Champagne", he replied, "To celebrate your safe arrival."

I can tell you, from experience, if Goux had downed champagne every time he pitted, dehydrated, at Indy, I wouldn't bet on his chances of making the distance - no matter how practised he was at drinking the stuff.

Barry you might have something there. I agree that the alcahol would have given him problems since that day was reportedly very warm. Davidson did in fact mention that the AAA officials did notice him drinking from the champagne bottles and told them to cut it out. They relented after the crew talked to them telling them that he was used to it being from an aristocrat family and having drank the stuff since he was 3. Maybe they relented after the crew told them there was no champagne in those bottles but were instead filled with water as you said. This topic has long intrigued me.

Like all of us, Davidson is human and can make mistakes. My experience is that he does not like to be corrected, even when he gets his facts wrong.

There's another champagne story - in the 1902 Gordon Bennett/Paris-Vienna Edge arrived in Belfort and was apparently regaled with champagne and sponge cake by the Panhard pit cew, who couldn't distinguish his that his car was a Napier under the dust. I'm now wondering about the truth in that one too ...

Originally posted by cabianca
Like all of us, Davidson is human and can make mistakes. My experience is that he does not like to be corrected, even when he gets his facts wrong.

Michael, That is the impression of The Donald I have gained from several others as well.

At any rate, the Sinsabaugh story was the only contemporary story I have found which mentions (dwells might be a better word) on the champagne story, the others being more far more fascinated and concerned with the Peugeot's performance. Also, there is the often overlooked factor that in reality Goux was indeed drinking from bottles passed to him, but it was bottled water -- something not exactly a commonplace item even in cosmopolitan Indianapolis at the time. The bottles used for the water -- to Barry on this one -- were virtually (if not exactly) identical to those used for champagne. To me, that makes sense based upon the evidence available. And the remarks by Goux fit into the category of, well, drivers being drivers and knowing a good opportunity when they saw it -- assuming that those words were actually said, of course....

Goux is not alone. When I attend the USGP, I try to avoid the local water, just as he did.

Umm...another source for the champagne story...Jules Goux himself! (Albeit third hand.)

William Court's 'Power and Glory' quotes Goux' letter to Peter Helck dated 2 November 1963 - translates as 'I can confirm to you that the bottle of champagne was not water but true and good Champagne brut which Mr Kaufman, Peugeot's US representative, got for me in new York with great difficulties'. Although not quoted, Helck was apparetnly told the brand by M Goux.

WF Bradley in the Motor denied it - saying it was made up by the cursed Hearst press (a reporter called Burton) - but Court goes on to compare the Autocar's report on the 1913 Grand Prix mentioning Resta taking hot water refreshment at a pitstop, because champagne is not a part of the British 'method of motor racing at this time', suggesting someone else used it at the time???

Perhaps Goux had a glass tops, or maybe his riding mechanic, because surely (as surmised above) a dehydrated and tired driver would be smashed (figuratively and, before long, literally) on any but a trifling amount.

Well, here is the exact language of the OCR from 1 September 1922 -- apparently unchanged from the earlier editons of the OCR on this topic:

68A. No Intoxicants Permitted -- The use of intoxicants by officials, drivers, mechanicians, attendants, etc., is strictly prohibited during an contest under penalty of disqualification.


I do think that some folks "enhanced" the story a bit and it was so good that whether it true or not, it should have been.....

If it WAS a PR stunt, it was a good one; people are still talking about it almost 90 years later!

This thread could almost be renamed the "Goux champagne story". I must admit I find this discussion very interesting and thank everyone for your great contributions.

I know that the rulebook may say that "intoxicants" are prohibited but here's another thing to consider. Everyone on Goux's team spoke french and no english. Speedway officials had to find a translator to act as a liason for the team which they did. Now I think Barry's bottled water theory is very plausible but what if the AAA rep was a rube that was easily duped (through the interpeter) by a gang of snobby french aristocrats insisting there was no problem with their driver drinking champagne during the race? 1913 may have been too early to realize the dangers of drinking and driving what with passenger car speeds a fraction they are now. Besides, Goux's margin of victory was something like 12 minutes! Maybe he jumed to a HUGE lead early on in his pugeot and then slowed down as the alcahol was beginning to affect him.

I'm just playing devil's advocate here.

Guess what? I can assure you all that persons of influence in the racing world do in fact read the drivel that we all post here on Atlas F1.

During Mr. Davidson's class intermission he asked if anyone who posts under the name "indycarjunkie" on Atlas F1 would come forward and speak to him. I did come forward and he spoke to me at length about this very thread. He even remembered me from the post I made a few months back announcing this class availablility.

He seemed troubled that there are some fellows who are of the opinion that he does not like to be corrected. He asked me if I knew who some of these people are such as "cabianca" and "Don Capps" I believe. I said I was new to Atlas and did not know anyone but that I hoped to meet some of the regulars at the USGP gathering.

So Don & Cabianca, Donald Davidson would like to speak to you but not in a "pistols at dawn" kind of way. I think he genuinely wants to find out where these rumors that he doesn't like to be corrected are coming from. I can attest that this is not so becase every night he says that "If you've heard different I want to hear it". He prefers telephone or face to face communication rather than email.

For the record, Mr. Davidson did not ask me to pass this along. I respect him too much to let this go by without saying something.

BTW:
He did tell me that AAA did not become the sanctioning body of the 500 until the 20's. Before that it was the "Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation" that did the sanctioning. So even though AAA may forbid the consumtion of spirits that would have been irrelevant in 1913 since they were not there. IMS officials did not want to rock the boat of the prominent visiting europeans since they wanted the race to grow in sature internationally. Therefore it is entirely possible that Goux did drink the champagne during the race. What is not known nor will we ever know is how much he drank.

The Promoter of the International Sweepstakes was the "Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation" but the event was run under a sanction -- in the case of the 1913 event, Number 555 -- issued by the Contest Board of the AAA. A quibble at best since I fully understand the point being made.

Interesting that Catlin makes a mention of the wine-drinking only in passing. Fascinating that this is still being discussed after all these years -- and the truth is probably in there somewhere....

I guess none of us really likes being corrected, especially if you are what we call in my line of work the Subject Matter Expert (SME). I know that my SME status took a beating as a result of the spelling of a certain Texan spelling his name without an "n" I thought was in there....

Story as Goux told to Antoine Raffaelli includes quite a lot of details previously unmentioned here. Goux expressed a wish to see some real red Indians and went to see them a day before the race. Trouble is, they had to go 250 miles from Indy to find them and that was no small task in 1913, with a Harley Davidson and a sidecar. So he came back to Indy very late and exhausted and didn't feel well on a race day. During the race he ordered champagne for refreshment and continue to drink it in each pitstop (nothing is mentioned about taking a bottle into car). Goux tells that he was drunk enough to miss the end of the race so he drove one more lap before crowd from his pit managed to stop him! So, Goux certainly didn't say that champagne had no impact on him!

But this story suspiciously reminds me of one about Hamilton and Rolt winning at Le Mans with terrific hangover. And, although a good story, it seems to me that it was proven totally untrue.

Originally posted by indycarjunkie
...I've had my second class with him on his "History of the Indy 500" and I've been very impressed with his knowlege...

You can take a course on the history of the Indy 500? Amazing! Details, please...

The Donald is now available to all. His daily "Talk of Gasoline Alley" radio phone-in is now on the net:

http://www.wibc.com/

I was stunned when the USGP denied Donald, Chris Economaki and Tom C (The Indy 500 Announcer since 1948!) press credentials last year. If they weren't insulted, I was!

Can you hear me Bernie?