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Volant Elf winners


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#1 Marcel Visbeen

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Posted 07 May 2005 - 16:55

Today I tried to compile a list of past winners of the Volant Elf competition at the French Winfield Racing School. I thought that would be very easy, but it turned out more difficult then I expected. I've still got quite a few holes to fill.
Here's my list so far:

1972 Patrick Tambay
1973 Didier Pironi
...
1976 Alain Prost
...
1980 Pascal Fabre
...
1982 Paul Belmondo
1983 Dominique Dupry or Bertrant Gachot ??
1984 Eric Bernard
1985 Eric Comas
...
1987 Olivier Thevenin
1988 Olivier Panis
1989 Guillaume Gomez
1990 Stephane Ortelli
1991 Jeremie Dufour
1992 Soheil Ayari
1993 Anthony Beltoise
1994 Steve Hiesse
1995 Romain Dumas
...
1997 Jean-Rene Fournoux
...
2000 Oliver Pla

Can anyone please add to this or make corrections? I thought that Geoffrey Dellus, C.Tinseau and Oliver Grouillard might also have won the competition but I'm not sure if they have and then in which year they'd won.
Please note that the year corresponds with the title: Patrick Tambay was Pilote Elf Volant 1972, which ment he won the title at the end of 1971.
Thanks in advance!

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#2 Olivier Favre

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Posted 08 May 2005 - 18:31

1974 : Richard Dallest
1975 : Serge Meynard
Note that from this year, there was two winners, one at the Paul Ricard and one at Magny-Cours (ex-Volant Shell). The following list is the one of Paul Ricard
1977 : Gérard Choukroun
1978 : Denis Morin
1979 : Pascal Fabre (and not 1980)
1980 : Philippe Renault
1981 : Philippe Paoli
1982 : Olivier Grouillard
1983 : Paul Belmondo (and Dominique Dupuy ay Magny-Cours)

If you want more (Elf Magny-Cours) of the seventies, just tell me.

Olivier

#3 MCS

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Posted 08 May 2005 - 19:05

I'm probably wrong, but weren't there winners in the sixties?

Or was that something else?

Mark

#4 philippe charuest

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Posted 08 May 2005 - 19:24

yes at magny cours it was then the "volant SHELL" . i thinq the whole thing start around 1965.

#5 David McKinney

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Posted 08 May 2005 - 19:24

That was the Volant Shell competition, Mark

#6 GIGLEUX

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Posted 08 May 2005 - 20:02

Originally posted by philippe charuest
yes at magny cours it was then the "volant SHELL" . i thinq the whole thing start around 1965.

It started at the end of 1963. First winner Jean-Pierra Jaussaud.

#7 MCS

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Posted 08 May 2005 - 20:19

Now we're talking. :up:

Can we get a list together since 1963 for Marcel ?!!

Some quick, brief thoughts, Did Henri Pescarolo win one year? Did Eric Cheli win it?

Mark

#8 swintex

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Posted 08 May 2005 - 20:49

This page from "auto PERFORMANCE" Jan 1984Posted Image suggests that the 1983 Pilote Elf was Dominique Dupuy and 1984 Michel Trolle.

I'm sure I have another magazine from this period that mentions Damon Hill(EDIT: in a Winfield context), I'll see if I can dig it out.

#9 Barry Boor

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Posted 08 May 2005 - 21:40

This thread is very likely to lead to a series of "Whatever happened to.....?" questions. :D

#10 philippe charuest

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Posted 08 May 2005 - 22:27

Originally posted by MCS
Now we're talking. :up:

Can we get a list together since 1963 for Marcel ?!!

Some quick, brief thoughts, Did Henri Pescarolo win one year? Did Eric Cheli win it?

Mark

i thinq that pescarolo had his first chance in another promotion series of the time 64-65? call "operation FORD france" basically a spec championship for lotus 7 . ford france bought twentysome lotus 7 and gave them to some small local autosport club. to come back to the volant shell i thinq francois cevert -francois mazet-jaques laffite and rene arnoux won it too .im pretty sure that the same school(winfield ) organized a "volant" at zolder (belgium ) once or twice too

#11 FLB

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Posted 09 May 2005 - 02:41

Patrick Depailler came from the Volant Shell as well. He ran the final in 1966 against François Cevert, Étienne Vigoureux, Pierre Marchesi, François Gerbault and Robert Mieusset (Cevert won). Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Depailler's mentor and later Cevert's brother-in-law, was among the judges.

Johnny Servoz-Gavin was among those who ran the Belgian Volant Shell at Zolder, where he met Roby Weber (I unfortunately do not have a precise date :(). Weber had just won the French Volant Shell. Servoz lost in the final at Zolder against Liedo (?). The winner of the Volant Shell received a F3 Alpine. Servoz bought a Brabham instead and said in his biography (which I'm taking this information from) that it was the best thing that could have happened to him as the Brabham turned out to be a much better car than the Alpine.

#12 GIGLEUX

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Posted 09 May 2005 - 05:24

Not Liedo but Lledo.

#13 Nanni Dietrich

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Posted 09 May 2005 - 07:47

I have this (incomplete) list. The double names are for the "Paul Ricard-Magny Cours connection", as Olivier Favre said:

1963 -
1964 JAUSSAUD JeanPierre F
1965 WEBER Roby F
1966 VIGOUREUX Claude F
1967 CEVERT Francois F
1968 MAZET Francois F
1969 SALOMOM JeanLuc F
1970 DOLHEM Jose F
1971 DHOTEL Guy F
1972 TAMBAY Patrick F
BEGUIN Bernard F
1973 PIRONI Didier F
ARNOUX Rene F
1974 DALLEST Richard F
LANGLOIS Pierre F
1975 MEYNARD Serge F
LeSTRAT Yves F
1976 PROST Alain F
WATELET F. F
1977 CHOUCKROUN Gerard F
PERRIN JeanClaude F
1978 MORIN Denis F
FERTE Alain F
1979 FABRE Pascal F
NEYRAL A. F
1980 RENAULT Philippe F
THIEL K. F
1981 PAOLI Pierre F
SAULNIER Serge F
1982 GROUILLARD Olivier F
MULLER Cathy F
1983 BELMONDO Paul F
DUPUY Dominique F
1984 BERNARD Eric F
TROLLE Michel F
1985 COMAS Erik F
PALIS JeanLuc F
1986 EMMICK R. USA
FREON Franck F
1987 FAURE Ludovic F
THEVENIN Olivier F
1988 PANIS Olivier F
CAEKEBEKE O. F
1989 COMBES R. F
GOMEZ Guillaume F
1990 ORTELLI Stephane F
TINSEAU Christophe F
1991 HEARN Richie USA
BOUHET Jesse F
1992 ENGEL J. USA
DUSSAU David F
1993 HIESSE Steeve F
BELTOISE Anthony F
1994 ALBERTO Sebastien F
BOULET Sebastien F
1995 DUMAS Romain F
1996
1997 FOURNOUX JeanRene F
1998
1999
2000 PLA Olivier F

#14 HistoryFan

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Posted 06 January 2013 - 19:15

That is the list we have
Has someone the winners since 2000?
And has someone more details about the head of the racing school, Simon de la Tour?

1964 Jean-Pierre Jaussaud
1965 Roby Weber
1966 Claude Vigoureux
1967 Francois Cevert
1968 Francois Mazet
1969 JeanLuc Salomom
1970 Jose Dolhelm
1971 Guy Dhotel
1972 Patrick Tambay
1973 Didier Pironi
1974 Richard Dallest
1975 Serge Meynard
1976 Alain Prost
1977 Gerard Chouckgroun
1978 Alain Ferte
1979 Pascal Fabre
1980 Philippe Renault
1981 Serge Saulnier
1982 Olivier Grouillard
1983 Paul Belmondo
1984 Eric Bernard
1985 Erik Comas
1986 R. Emmick
1987 Ludovic Faure
1988 Olivier Panis
1989 R. Combes
1990 Stephane Ortelli
1991 Richie Hearn
1992 J. Engel
1993 Anthony Beltoise
1994 Sebastien Alberto
1995 Romain Dumas
1996
1997 Jean-Rene Fournoux
1998
1999
2000 Olivier Pla

#15 john winfield

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Posted 06 January 2013 - 20:24

That is the list we have
Has someone the winners since 2000?
And has someone more details about the head of the racing school, Simon de la Tour?

1964 Jean-Pierre Jaussaud
1965 Roby Weber
1966 Claude Vigoureux
1967 Francois Cevert
1968 Francois Mazet
1969 JeanLuc Salomom
1970 Jose Dolhelm
1971 Guy Dhotel
1972 Patrick Tambay
1973 Didier Pironi
1974 Richard Dallest
1975 Serge Meynard
1976 Alain Prost
1977 Gerard Chouckgroun
1978 Alain Ferte
1979 Pascal Fabre
1980 Philippe Renault
1981 Serge Saulnier
1982 Olivier Grouillard
1983 Paul Belmondo
1984 Eric Bernard
1985 Erik Comas
1986 R. Emmick
1987 Ludovic Faure
1988 Olivier Panis
1989 R. Combes
1990 Stephane Ortelli
1991 Richie Hearn
1992 J. Engel
1993 Anthony Beltoise
1994 Sebastien Alberto
1995 Romain Dumas
1996
1997 Jean-Rene Fournoux
1998
1999
2000 Olivier Pla


Hello HF,
A small point but at least a couple of the names are spelt incorrectly I think. It's Jean-Luc Salomon with an 'n'; he was killed in the F3 race at Rouen in 1970, the same event that claimed the life of Denis Dayan, who I see never won a Volant Shell.
The 1977 entry should, I believe, be spelt Gerard Choukroun. I remember seeing him in Formule Renault at either Rouen or Dijon in 1977 but I didn't realise that he was an established bike racer. It seems that he died in a road traffic accident in 1983.
For some reason I always thought that Eric Offenstadt had won a Volant Shell in the sixties but obviously not.
John

#16 john winfield

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Posted 06 January 2013 - 20:45

I've just noticed that Francois Cevert is listed as the 1967 winner, while other sources (including FLB post #11) suggest 1966.

This link has Bernard Beguin as a 'Super Volant Shell' winner, possibly in 1971. Am I muddling two different types of award, one a specific event organised by Winfield or whoever, and one given at the end of the season, either by a panel or based upon championship results?

Edit. Sorry, forgot link:
http://www.echappeme...bernard-beguin/

Here's an interesting list and feature from the Ecole Winfield site:

http://www.classic-d...cole.html#liste

Edited by john winfield, 06 January 2013 - 20:51.


#17 LittleChris

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Posted 06 January 2013 - 20:45

1966 Claude Vigreux, a friend of TNFer T34 and who sadly died racing bikes during 1967 at Mettet.

http://www.bike70.com/Vigreux_c.html

#18 Tim Murray

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Posted 06 January 2013 - 20:50

The 1977 entry should, I believe, be spelt Gerard Choukroun. I remember seeing him in Formule Renault at either Rouen or Dijon in 1977 but I didn't realise that he was an established bike racer. It seems that he died in a road traffic accident in 1983.

Confirmed in this bio:

http://translate.goo...ved=0CEYQ7gEwBA

#19 john winfield

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Posted 07 January 2013 - 18:18

1966 Claude Vigreux, a friend of TNFer T34 and who sadly died racing bikes during 1967 at Mettet.

http://www.bike70.com/Vigreux_c.html


Seeing a 1964 reference to Vigreux leading Dayan, Chris, I wondered whether this was Denis D., researched elsewhere and discovered that Denis Dayan was originally a bike rider too. I hadn't realised that. The link below suggests that he was a great admirer of John Surtees.


http://denisdayan.dd...i...728&sw=1024

Edited by john winfield, 07 January 2013 - 18:18.


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#20 LittleChris

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Posted 07 January 2013 - 21:10

Seeing a 1964 reference to Vigreux leading Dayan, Chris, I wondered whether this was Denis D., researched elsewhere and discovered that Denis Dayan was originally a bike rider too. I hadn't realised that. The link below suggests that he was a great admirer of John Surtees.


http://denisdayan.dd...i...728&sw=1024


Thanks for this John, I hadn't looked at Bruce Dayans website for a while. I only recently became aware of Kara Birrell's site as well. The two of them sadly have much in common though it's nice to see they wish to celebrate the fathers that they sadly didn't get to know both being less than 2 years old at the time of Denis and Gerry's accidents

#21 arttidesco

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Posted 08 January 2013 - 18:24

Not seen any mention of Francois Migault winning the 1968 Volant Shell :confused:

Edited by arttidesco, 08 January 2013 - 18:25.


#22 john winfield

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Posted 08 January 2013 - 19:19

Not seen any mention of Francois Migault winning the 1968 Volant Shell :confused:


Arti,
I think we need some help from someone who really knows how the Volant Shell worked. The Winfield site shows Jean-Luc Salomon as the 1968 winner, and a Google search seems to confirm this. A similar search on Francois Migault shows him a 1968 winner too! So, even prior to the Paul Ricard / Magny Cours split, were there two different competitions? Or, like our Grovewood Awards, were several given each year?
Chers amis francais, au secours!


#23 D-Type

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Posted 09 January 2013 - 15:23

Is Volant Shell a slip of the finger or was this a separate competition from the Volant Elf?

Edited by D-Type, 09 January 2013 - 15:31.


#24 arttidesco

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Posted 09 January 2013 - 17:12

Is Volant Shell a slip of the finger or was this a separate competition from the Volant Elf?


Since Elf did not emerge as brand until 1967ish I suspect Volant Shell was the antecedent of Volant Elf Duncan.

#25 David McKinney

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Posted 09 January 2013 - 17:15

They were different competitions, though one may have taken over from the other Edit: Ralph beat me to it

The first Volant Shell winner was J-P Jaussaud, in 1963, followed by Roby Weber in 1964

#26 arttidesco

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Posted 09 January 2013 - 17:38

Edit: Ralph beat me to it


:blush:


#27 john winfield

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Posted 09 January 2013 - 17:42

They were different competitions, though one may have taken over from the other Edit: Ralph beat me to it

The first Volant Shell winner was J-P Jaussaud, in 1963, followed by Roby Weber in 1964


Roby Weber was sometimes known as Jacques. He was killed at Le Mans in 1967, driving a Matra in the April test sessions.


#28 john winfield

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Posted 10 January 2013 - 17:29

Some helpful members of Autodiva (Mustang66, Sport-proto etc.) have clarified the Volant awards. A 9/1/2013 post on the second page of the link below shows a comprehensive list.

Arti, Francois Migault did win a 1968 Volant (ACO Bugatti at Le Mans), while Jean-Luc Salomon won a Winfield Volant that same year at Magny Cours.

Mustang66 explains the format. 5 or 6 Winfield pupils, each doing 5 or 6 laps in, I think, the same (Martini?) single seater, against the clock. Q/F, S/F and final. Best time, and fewest faults, determined the winner. I remember reading something about this, perhaps in the the Francois Cevert / Jean-Claude Halle book.

http://www.autodiva....p...78&start=40




#29 arttidesco

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Posted 10 January 2013 - 17:45

Some helpful members of Autodiva (Mustang66, Sport-proto etc.) have clarified the Volant awards. A 9/1/2013 post on the second page of the link below shows a comprehensive list.

Arti, Francois Migault did win a 1968 Volant (ACO Bugatti at Le Mans), while Jean-Luc Salomon won a Winfield Volant that same year at Magny Cours.

Mustang66 explains the format. 5 or 6 Winfield pupils, each doing 5 or 6 laps in, I think, the same (Martini?) single seater, against the clock. Q/F, S/F and final. Best time, and fewest faults, determined the winner. I remember reading something about this, perhaps in the the Francois Cevert / Jean-Claude Halle book.

http://www.autodiva....p...78&start=40


Well found John, Le Mans was of course Francois home town :up:

#30 T54

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Posted 14 January 2013 - 00:59

1966 Claude Vigoureux


It is of course Claude Vigreux and not "Vigoureux" (so not to be mixed with Etienne Vigoureux, himself a true champion).

Claude Vigreux was, as was Jean-Pierre Beltoise, a multiple French motorcycle champion in classes from 50cc to 500cc Grand Prix bikes. Vigreux was killed (actually murdered is more like it) at Mettet in 1967 during a 500cc race in which the organizers were utterly negligent and caused his death. Vigreux was my best friend and as shown in a link above, ( http://www.bike70.com/Vigreux_c.html ) I contributed to a tribute to him, supplying never published pictures from my archives.
Claude had the talent to be a world champion on two OR four wheels.

Here is a picture of Claude taken after he won the Volant Shell, surrounded by Jean-Pierre Jaussaud and the late Roby Weber:

Posted Image

The copyright is mine.
Regards,

Philippe de Lespinay AKA "T54"

#31 john winfield

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Posted 14 January 2013 - 10:37

It is of course Claude Vigreux and not "Vigoureux" (so not to be mixed with Etienne Vigoureux, himself a true champion).

Claude Vigreux was, as was Jean-Pierre Beltoise, a multiple French motorcycle champion in classes from 50cc to 500cc Grand Prix bikes. Vigreux was killed (actually murdered is more like it) at Mettet in 1967 during a 500cc race in which the organizers were utterly negligent and caused his death. Vigreux was my best friend and as shown in a link above, ( http://www.bike70.com/Vigreux_c.html ) I contributed to a tribute to him, supplying never published pictures from my archives.
Claude had the talent to be a world champion on two OR four wheels.

Here is a picture of Claude taken after he won the Volant Shell, surrounded by Jean-Pierre Jaussaud and the late Roby Weber:

Posted Image

The copyright is mine.
Regards,

Philippe de Lespinay AKA "T54"


Thank you for that, Philippe; that's a lovely photo. Reading about the Mettet race, it sounds dreadful, with your friend, another rider and a spectator all killed. I assume the field were not warned about the bike with dead engine being pushed along the track.


#32 T54

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Posted 15 January 2013 - 02:54

John,
This is correct. The Belgian organizers were absolutely clueless and let the Belgian rider push his Norton Manx in a very unsafe zone with no one with even a yellow flag to warn the racers. It is a true crime on their part, of negligence.
There are a lot of ways motorcycle or car racers died or dies of negligence, this one was criminal, as criminal as the virtually engineered deaths of Renzo Pasolini and Jarno Saarinen at Monza.
With Vigreux virtually assassinated by the Mettet organizers through their negligence, I lost a great friend and mentor who helped me so much at the time, when I barely had a Franc in my pocket and was trying so hard to keep racing on no budget! The races organizers were pocketing most of everything and we were paid nothing or a pittance for appearance money in big races. Claude Vigreux kept me going and owe him so much.

I am happy that Kenny Roberts changed much of that for all concerned when he landed in Europe and discovered that virtual exploitation of the racers by the "Men in Blue Jackets".


#33 Ralliart

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Posted 15 January 2013 - 06:02

From Cevert's biography: "The initiative for the Shell Scholarship came from the directors of the magazine Sport-Auto. At that time, there was no motor racing school in France...(In spring '63) The Winfield school (at Snetterton) took over the Jean Behra circuit at Magny-Cours...Shell...launched a Shell Scholarship...The first two winners in 1963 and 1964 were Jean-Pierre Jaussaud and Roy (sic) Weber (and in 1965, Claude Vigreux)...The rules are as follows: three laps to warm up. Five laps against the stop watch and then one lap to stop. (Jury of 10 and cars are Merlyn)." 26 Oct '66 and it begins raining just as the competitors draw their lots. First up, Francois Gerbault followed by Pierre Marchesi, Etienne Vigoureux, Francois Cevert, Patrick Depailler and Robert Mieusset wth Cevert winning. His prize is an F3 car, but which one - Alpine or Matra? He chose the Alpine and said, "If I had not won (the Shell Scholarship)...I should never have become a racing driver...(My father) would certainly not have lent me the money to buy a racing car and I certainly couldn't afford it in my own."