5 replies to this topic

[cabianca]

In 1941, two Talbot-Lago Grand Prix cars tried and failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. Drivers were Rene Le Begue who drove a Maserati in the 1940 500 and Jean Treveoux, later a Mexico City restauranteur who drove a Packard in the Mexican Road Race. These two cars then competed in a hillclimb in Colorado called Land's End where they finished 3rd and 4th. I am assuming this was in 1941. Does anyone know anything about this hillclimb? It was not part of the AAA Championship that year which was limited to three races. The two cars returned to France after the war and Tony Lago had Luigi Chinetti sell them to finance the post-war restart of Talbot-Lago.

[Michael Müller]

The history of one of the cars (# 90130) is well known and documented

http://www.talbot-la...h/ranking-e.htm

[David McKinney]

I've never been able to find much about this event. It was apparently won by a Snowberger-Miller from a Woestmann Special, but I don't know who drove either car. Lebegue was third and Trevoux fourth.

[alessandro silva]

Michael T.
I always had the impression that Land’s End is the same as Pikes Peak or a piece of it. You should check on this and please let me know.
Also:
The two Talbots did not come back to France at the same time:
90131 in late 1947 purchased by Paul Vallée for Ecurie France
90130 was sold in the US to Zora Arkus Duntov in 45 or early 46 who raced it at Goshen and Langhorne “dirt” races in 46 and tried to qualify for Indy in 46/47. End 48 Duntov empowered Chinetti with the sale of the car. Chinetti promised it first to a Brazilian fellow, then to TASO Mathieson and finally he sold it to his friend Harry Schell and the car came back to Europe at the beginning of 49.
A definitive history of the two cars in
P. Abeillon: Talbot Monoplace- Un contexte difficile in Automobile Historique n° 9, July/August 2001.

[cabianca]

Since my first post, I have found that the Land's End Hillclimb was near Grand Junction, Colorado. Was run in 40 and 41. The only report was in Speed Age and only listed the first four as mentioned above. It was definitely not the Pike's Peak Hillclimb. The Trevoux car from Indy 1941 (DNQ) did go to Duntov. He DNQ in four American races:
30 May 46 Indianapolis 500
30 Jun 46 Langhorne Pennsylvania
6 Oct 46 Goshen New York
30 May 47 Indianapolis 500

[cabianca]

In the interest of correcting my own post above, it should be noted that Duntov's qualifying attempt at Langhorne was on June 22, 1947, not in 1946. To elaborate, he attempted Indy and Goshen in 1946 and Indy and Langhorne in 1947. In all events, he failed to qualify. At Indianapolis, he never passed his rookie test.

Edited by cabianca, 16 November 2015 - 21:36.