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| René Le Bègue | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Le Bègue in 1939 | |||||||
| Born | René Louis Paul Le Bègue (1914-01-15)15 January 1914 9th arrondissement of Paris, France | ||||||
| Died | 24 February 1946(1946-02-24) (aged 32) Versailles,Seine-et-Oise, France | ||||||
| Champ Car career | |||||||
| 1 race run over 2 years | |||||||
| Best finish | 18th (1940) | ||||||
| First race | 1940Indianapolis 500 (Indianapolis) | ||||||
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| 24 Hours of Le Mans career | |||||||
| Years | 1938–1939 | ||||||
| Teams | Chinetti | ||||||
| Best finish | DNF(1938,1939) | ||||||
| Class wins | 0 | ||||||
René Louis Paul Le Bègue (15 January 1914 – 24 February 1946) was a Frenchracing driver.[1]
In his first year of top level racing, Le Bègue's best showing came at the 1936Spa 24 Hours endurance race when he drove aDelahaye to a 2nd-place finish. In 1937 he and his co-pilotJulio Quinlin won theMonte Carlo Rally driving a Delahaye. That year Le Bègue also won the Coupe de Vitesse at theAutodrome de Montlhéry driving aTalbot-Lago T150 and had several top-three finishes. He then teamed up withAndré Morel to claim victory in the 193812 hours of Paris endurance race forsports cars. In 1939 he finished 3rd in theFrench Grand Prix behind the dominantAuto UnionSilver Arrows then went on to win theGrand Prix du Comminges.
The following year, Le Bègue traveled to theUnited States to compete in the1940 Indianapolis 500 alongside fellow FrenchmanRené Dreyfus. Driving a pair ofMaseratis for the American/French ownerLucy O'Reilly Schell, Le Bègue qualified 31st, but Dreyfus was bumped and ended up as the second alternate. On race day, it was decided for the two drivers to split time in the car, and each drove two stints of approximately 50 laps (125 miles) apiece. Le Bègue started the race and ran approximately laps 1–50 and laps 101–150. Dreyfus piloted the car for laps 51–100 and from 151 to the finish. The pair brought the car home in 10th place, flagged 8 laps down.[2] A rainstorm prompted officials to flag the race after only the first three finishers received the checkered flag.[3][4]
Le Bègue continued racing until theGerman occupation of France during World War II when he joined theFree French Forces. With the war over, in 1946 he prepared to return to the racing scene and was elected vice-president of the French Drivers Association (AGACI,Association Générale des Amicales et Coureurs Indépendants). However, early that year before the season started the thirty-two-year-old Le Bègue was accidentallyasphyxiated by gas leaking from a defective water heater in his bathroom. The 9 June 1946 Grand Prix race atSaint-Cloud, won byRaymond Sommer, was named theRené Le Bègue Cup in his memory.
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