Henri Pescarolo

Pescarolo began his lengthy involvement with the sport in a minor way during
1965 when he raced a Lotus Seven, and was soon offered the third place in
the Matra Formula 3 team for the following year. It proved to be something
of a false start to his F3 career, as his car was not ready until
mid-season. It was a different story in 1967, however, when he became the
man to beat, winning the European championship. His victories that year
included the important events at Barcelona, Monaco, Rouen and Zandvoort, so
his promotion to the Formula 2 team in 1968 was a formality. Supporting
Beltoise, Henri put in some excellent drives, taking second places at
Barcelona, Hockenheim, Zandvoort and Hockenheim again before finishing the
year with his first win at Albi. Highly regarded by Matra, he was given a
run in the second V12 car in the end-of-season Grands Prix.

Pescarolo's career then received a big setback when, while testing the Matra
sports car at Le Mans, he crashed on the Mulsanne Straight and suffered
serious burns which laid him low until mid-season. Henri did well to return
at the German GP, where he took the F2 Matra into fifth place overall and
won the small-capacity class, and the season ended on a bright note when he
shared the MS630 sports car with Beltoise to win the Paris 1000 Km at
Montlhéry. With Matra now committed to their own Grand Prix project once
more, Beltoise returned from his year with Tyrrell and Pescarolo joined him
in the Matra V12s. Henri put in some solid performances that year, with a
third place at Monaco his best finish. He was also a member of the sports
car squad, taking victory in the Buenos Aires 1000 Km with Beltoise.

Pescarolo was surplus to requirements at Matra in 1971 and took some backing
from Motul to Frank Williams, which enabled the team to go racing in both F1
and F2. Henri started the season with the old March 701 and picked up a
second place on aggregate in the non-title Argentine GP, but Frank Williams
was soon over-extended both financially and logistically, which showed in
the team's preparation and lack of competitiveness as the year wore on.
Meanwhile Pescarolo pursued a parallel programme in sports cars with Alfa
Romeo, winning the BOAC 1000 Km with de Adamich. Despite all the problems,
Henri was back in the Williams fold in 1972. It turned out to be a miserable
season for all concerned as his March 721 was involved in a succession of
crashes which required extensive and expensive rebuilds and, to cap it all,
the prototype Politoys was written off in the midst of all this on its
Brands Hatch debut. Fortunately Pescarolo escaped the carnage largely
unhurt, and was buoyed up by his Le Mans win with Graham Hill in the Matra.
Racing for the smart Rondel squad in Formula 2, Henri also won at Enna that
year, and took another victory at Thruxton in 1973 after bringing Motul
sponsorship to the team. With only the occasional Grand Prix ride that
season, Pescarolo returned to Matra for a hugely successful programme of
sports car racing, winning at Vallelunga, Dijon, Le Mans (for the second
time), the Österreichring and Watkins Glen.

With Motul backing once more, Pescarolo made a full-time return to Grand
Prix racing with BRM in 1974, but the team had lost their way, and his only
decent finish came in the International Trophy where he was fourth. His
partnership with Larrousse at Matra was still a potent one, however, and
Henri completed a hat-trick of Le Mans victories and scored other wins at
Monza and the Österreichring. By now, of course, he was widely recognised as
one of sports car racing's best talents and in 1975 he returned to Alfa
Romeo, winning rounds at Spa, the Österreichring and Watkins Glen, all with
Derek Bell.

Henri made a last attempt to find success in Formula 1 with a privately
entered Surtees in 1976, but neither he nor the car was remotely
competitive. From then on Pescarolo concentrated on his sports car career,
taking a fourth win at Le Mans in 1984, and raising his tally of World
Championship victories to 21 by the end of 1986.

In 1991 he shared the winning Porsche at the Daytona 24-hour race and he
subsequently continued his career Stateside in IMSA, before focusing his
efforts on Le Mans with the Courage C36.

Henri has more recently looked after Elf's La Filière young driver scheme
that has helped so many French drivers to the top echelons of the sport. In
1999 he entered his own Courage C36-Porsche to register a remarkable 33rd Le
Mans 24 Hours start, finishing in ninth place.

In 2000 Pescarolo then concentrated on management duties founding the
Pescarolo Sport with his long-term aim being to win the Le Mans 24 Hours
race with a French team. Having tried in vain to win the big prize with the
Courage-Peugeot combination, an all-new Pescarolo-Judd was introduced in
2004 and the new car finished fourth behind a trio of all-powerful Audis.

Pescarolo then came tantalisingly close to achieving his ambition in 2005
when his car piloted by the French trio of Comas/Helary/Boullion was placed
second splitting the Audis. However winning success was achieved in the Le
Mans Endurance Series with Pescarolo Sport taking both the manufacturer and
drivers crowns with victories at Monza and Istanbul.

Whilst Henri has long since retired from circuit competition his insatiable
appetite for speed is fulfilled by gruelling rally raids such as the famous
Dakar event and various aeronautic challenges involving planes and
helicopters.