1 9 0 1
7 Léonce Girardot France Panhard
SECOND GORDON BENNETT RACE
Paris-Bordeaux (F), 29 May 1901 (Wednesday).
555.5 km (345.18 mi)
No. | Driver | Entrant | Car | Engine |
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1 | Fernand Charron | France | Panhard | 40 hp | 7.4 | S-4
| 2 | Willy Tischbein | Germany | Mercedes | 35 hp | 6.0 | S-4 | DNA - did not appear |
3 | Selwyn Francis Edge | England | Napier | 50 hp | 17.2 | S-4 | DNQ - did not qualify |
4 | Levegh | France | Mors | 55 hp | 10.0 | S-4 |
5 | X | Germany | Mercedes | 35 hp | 6.0 | S-4 | DNA - did not appear |
6 | Cecil S. Rolls | England | Napier | 50 hp | 17.2 | S-4 | DNA - did not appear |
7 | Léonce Girardot | France | Panhard | 40 hp | 7,4 | S-4 |
8. | X | Germany | Dürkopp or Benz | | | | DNA - did not appear |
9. | Count Eliot Zborowski | England | Napier | 50 hp | 17.2 | S-4 | DNA - did not appear |
Girardot on Panhard wins the second Gordon Bennett Race
by Hans Etzrodt
The second Gordon Bennett Race was held in May of 1901. Initially there were nine entries, but as Germany and England pulled out, only three French cars were left racing for the cup. So, Girardot and Charron on
40 hp Panhard cars and a 55 hp Mors for Levegh made up the Gordon Bennett convoy, racing together with over 60 contenders of the Paris-Bordeaux race, but the Bennett cars had preference of the large field. At
the Paris morning start, delayed till 4:00 a.m., Levegh was leading Charron and Girardot. At Limours, 27 km, Charron fell behind with valve problems. Getting to Vendôme, 163 km, Charron retired due to his valves
while Levegh (Mors) was leading Girardot (Panhard) by 20 minutes. At Châtellerault, 289 km, Levegh dropped out after he struck a gulley running across the road, smashing the front of his low ground clearance Mors.
Girardot, leading the Gordon Bennett race, was handicapped with a clutch problem having been passed by the seven front runners of the Paris-Bordeaux field, but he finished in ninth place. Girardot won the
Gordon Bennett Cup for France, thus it remained with the French team, the ACF. Although, the 1901 Gordon Bennett race was considered a complete fiasco.
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As the 1901 Gordon Bennett race had not yet attracted sufficient international interest by itself, the ACF decided to combine the latter with the major Paris-Bordeaux contest which attracted over sixty entries.
The Gordon Bennett regulations were updated with minimum weight of 650 kg, following the introduction of the voiture légère / light car category, while the color of the British car was red and not green as required by the rules.
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The Route:
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Entries:
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Gerald Rose: A Record of Motor Racing >
As no foreign Club had taken advantage of the opportunity to challenge Charron's victory (in 1900), it fell to France (Sporting Committee of the ACF) to organize for the second time the race for the Gordon Bennett Trophy.
The first thing to be settled was the representative team, and early in January the ACF chose – not by ballot this time – Charron, Girardot, and Levegh, in other words, two Panhard and a Mors. Then came the question of the
time and place of the race... and ...decided that the Gordon Bennett should be run concurrently with Paris-Bordeaux, the competitors for the international trophy having precedence of start over the other drivers.
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The German Deutscher Automobil-Club decided to give two places to Mercedes after the firm won at Nice in March. The Benz company pulled out of the trials, declaring that they had not been given sufficient notice to get
their cars ready. Then Dürkopp withdrew for the same reason and eventually Mercedes also pulled out, stating that the notice given by the Club was far too short. Then the independent touring driver Tischbein was
considered with a 35hp Mercedes but was ultimately withdrawn and the German entry failed.
England's Club, Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, wanted to have an eliminatory inspection of racing cars representing England still being built. But of the four Napiers, only one was completed in
time for inspection while the M.M.C. car was built but not sent for inspection. So, only one car, the English Napier, was going to oppose the French champions. The Automobile Club de France was the organizer of this event.
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Race:
The Napier of Edge did not qualify as his English tires had failed on the trip to Paris and he replaced them with French Michelins. This did not permit the car as a competitor for the Gordon Bennett race though Edge
could compete in the open race. Leading the procession of cars was the French Gordon Bennett team starting ahead of the 17 Heavy Cars of Paris-Bordeaux, headed by Edge in the rejected Napier, followed by 18 Light
Cars, 10 Voiturettes and 19 Motorcycles. The start was in the west of Paris at St. Cloud, Seine-et-Oise where René de Knyff, de Chasseloup-Laubat and Huet continued with procedures and as a result the 3:30 early
morning start was delayed by half an hour. It was already daylight when Mr. Huet, official timekeeper of the ACF, dispatched Charron at four o'clock amid cheers and then at two-minute intervals Levegh who simply
flew away with his powerful Mors car and Girardot who also made a good impression. Edge was next away at 4:15, the only foreigner in the Paris-Bordeaux race.
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| 4:00m00s | 1 Charron | Panhard |
| 4:02m00s | 4 Levegh | Mors |
| 4:04m00s | 7 Girardot | Panhard |
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Versailles, 7 km
The weather was wonderful, but already in the early morning hours it was very hot. Versailles was neutralized, so vehicles were not allowed to exceed the legal speed limit and were given a quarter of an hour to pass
through town, this of course being deducted from the total time. Levegh had already passed Charron, who began having trouble with his valves and just outside Versailles he stopped for about twenty minutes to adjust
them. The cars had arrived in the following order:
| 1. | Levegh (Mors) | 4h07m55s |
| 2. | Charron (Panhard) | 4h08m45s |
| 3. | Girardot (Panhard) | 4h10m00s |
Limours, 27 km
Levegh was still leading two minutes ahead of Girardot while Charron had dropped back to seventh place overall since he was constantly stopping on account of his valves and lost a lot of time on leaving the town.
| 1. | Levegh (Mors) | 4h45m00s |
| 2. | Girardot (Panhard) | 4h47m00s |
| 3. | Charron (Panhard) | 5h07m00s |
Chartres, 79 km
Levegh was gaining on Girardot having made up three minutes since Limours. Charron had to stop because the valves were not closing properly, and he remained seventh overall. The times were as follows:
| 1. | Levegh (Mors) | 5h19m00s |
| 2. | Girardot (Panhard) | 5h24m00s |
| 3. | Charron (Panhard) | 5h46m00s |
Châteaudun, 124 km
Levegh was still gaining on Girardot having made up another six minutes after Chartres. At Marboué, 6 km ahead of Châtteaudun, Charron blew a tire losing considerable time and fell to eighth place.
| 1. | Levegh (Mors) | 6h00m20s |
| 2. | Girardot (Panhard) | 6h11m00s |
| 3. | Charron (Panhard) | 6h48m00s |
Vendôme, 163 km
Girardot's clutch was giving trouble, and he had lost 20 minutes to Levegh. Charron for some time had been making regular stops to see to his valves and at this stage he gave up altogether. The town was neutralized.
Cars were led through town by cyclists wearing blue armbands and carrying slips of paper marked with the competitor's time of arrival. The trip through the neutralized zone took 25 minutes. Controls at each end of
town also offered the opportunity of obtaining supplies like fuel, oil, tires and spare parts, not to speak of refreshments for drivers.
| 1. | Levegh (Mors) | 6h27m00s |
| 2. | Girardot (Panhard) | 6h47m00s |
| 3. | Charron (Panhard) | 7h24m00s |
Tours, 220 km
Levegh was still strong while Girardot had fallen to fourth place overall, after having been passed by Fournier and Voigt with heavy cars of the Paris-Bordeaux group.
| 1. | Levegh (Mors) | 7h19m15s |
| 2. | Girardot (Panhard) | 7h53m00s |
Sainte-Maure, 254 km
At this time there were ten cars ahead of Girardot, who had fallen a long way behind with a bad clutch.
| 1. | Levegh (Mors) | 7h56m |
| 2. | Girardot (Panhard) | 9h45m |
Châtellerault, 289 km
Levegh was about two hours ahead of Girardot who was slowed with his bad clutch. Only 15 km ahead of the Châtellerault control Levegh travelling at high speed struck a gulley running across the road with such force
that the front end of his car was smashed. As his Mors had a curved front axle that brought the motor case down with less ground clearance, the gearbox was ripped and Levegh was out. At this time there were seven
other cars ahead of Girardot. But about two hours afterwards Girardot saw Levegh's Mors stranded by the roadside and realized that now he was the only survivor which must have encouraged him to carry on.
| 1. | Girardot (Panhard) | 10h12m |
Poitiers, 321 km
At this time there were still seven cars ahead of Girardot.
| 1. | Girardot (Panhard) | 10h59m |
Couhé-Vérac, 356 km
The heat was oppressive, the roads were extremely dusty. Girardot, determinedly held eighth place.
| 1. | Girardot (Panhard) | 11h49m |
Ruffec, 388 km
After sweltering heat in the afternoon, the surviving competitors ran into a violent thunderstorm over the Ruffec district, which thoroughly soaked those unfortunate competitors who were behind.
Many of them gave up
the race for this reason but Girardot continued in his position.
| 1. | Girardot (Panhard) | 12h25m |
Angoulême, 431 km
Girardot, the ultimate cup winner, drove consistently, following the seven cars ahead of him.
| 1. | Girardot (Panhard) | 13h04m |
Barbézieux, 465 km
Girardot held first place in the Gordon Bennett race, but in the open race, Fournier was in the lead followed by Voigt, Farman, Axt, Giraud, Pinson and Teste ahead of Girardot.
Libourne, 532 km
There were no changes and Girardot tirelessly held eighth place.
| 1. | Girardot (Panhard) | 14h47m37s |
Bordeaux, 555.5 km - (527.650 km plus 27.850 km Neutralizations)
To avoid crowd congestion, the control (and finish) was placed ahead of Bordeaux at the Quatre-Pavillons crossing, 500 meters earlier, at the 7.500-marker of Bordeaux, which reduced the distance to 555.500 km.
Six Heavy Cars and two Light Cars of the Paris-Bordeaux Race had arrived ahead of Girardot.
| 1. | Girardot (Panhard) | 15h28m59s |
Girardot was first – and last – in the Gordon Bennett race, winning the trophy for France. So, it remained with the French team, the ACF, who therefore would have to organize the third race.
Gerald Rose > The Gordon Bennett was a complete fiasco; the only driver to finish was Girardot, the ninth man in the open race, and his speed average was only 37 mph [59.5 km/h], slower than previous year's pace.
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Results
Pos. | No. | Driver | Entrant | Car | Engine | Time | Diff/Status |
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1. | 7 | Léonce Girardot | France | Panhard | 40hp | 7.4 | S-4 | 555.5 km | 8h54m59.2s |
DNF | 4 | Levegh | France | Mors | 55hp | 10.0 | S-4 | 274.0 km | gearbox |
DNF | 1 | Fernand Charron | France | Panhard | 40hp | 7.4 | S-4 | 163.0 km | valve trouble |
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Winner's average speed (527.65 km): 59.2 km/h (36.8 mph).
Weather: hot, dry and heavy rain
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In retrospect:
Intermediate and final times differed between the sources. The selected times are thought to be correct.
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Primary sources researched for this article:
Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung, Berlin
Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung, Wien
Der Motorwagen, Berlin
L'Auto-Vélo, Paris
La France Automobile, Paris
La Locomotion Automobile, Paris
Le Vélo, Paris
Motor Age, Chicago
The Autocar, London
Special thanks to:
Adam Ferrington
Robert Dick
Marco Kieser
Gerald Rose: A Record of Motor Racing
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