Guy Mairesse

A tough and independent character with a big heart, Mairesse built up a long-distance haulage business from modest beginnings as a lorry driver before the war. He became interested in the sport after Paul Vallée invited him to the 1946 Coupe du Salon purely as a spectator. After winning the 1947 Lyons-Charbonnières Rally, Guy then bought a Delahaye from Vallée for 1948 which he took to victory at Chimay.

Joining his great friend’s Ecurie France team for 1949 to race the Lago-Talbot, Mairesse took fourth at Pau and fifth at Albi, and in 1950, teamed with Meyrat, he finished second at Le Mans in a Talbot ‘monoplace’. On the Vallée team’s demise, he bought the Le Mans car and a Talbot T26C, prepared by Giraud Cabantous, which he raced in only a couple of Grands Prix in 1951 due to his increasing business commitments.

At the start of 1952, Mairesse sold his cars but still appeared occasionally in machines provided by others, and it was while practising for the Coupe de Paris at Montlhéry in 1954 that he lost his life, swerving to avoid a slower car and crashing into a concrete wall.