Victor Hémery

Victor Hémery
  • Surname
    Hémery
  • First name
    Victor
  • Date of birth
    18.11.1876
  • Date of death
    08.09.1950

Hémery, from Sillé-le-Guillaume in the Sarthe department, was a trained mechanic and initially worked as a technician for the French car manufacturer Léon Bollée between 1895 and 1900. He then held the position of head of testing and racing driver at Darracq, another French car manufacturer, until 1906. With his victory in the Ardennes Race and the Vanderbilt Cup Race in 1905, the extremely spirited Hémery achieved international fame.

Between 1907 and 1910, he was a member of the Benz & Cie. racing team and achieved numerous further successes, for example second places at the French Grand Prix in Dieppe in 1908, at the Semmering hill climb and at the American Grand Prix in Savannah/Georgia. In November of the following year, he set a new world record in the new Benz 200 hp racing car on the English high-speed track at Brooklands when he covered the half-mile with a flying start at a speed of 205.7 km/h.

At the end of 1910, Hémery again took second place in the American Grand Prize, again held in Savannah, this time only one and a half seconds behind his Benz brand colleague, the US American David Bruce-Brown. He attempted a comeback to the Grand Prix scene in the early 1920s, competing in the 1922 and 1923 French Grand Prix driving Rolland-Pilain, but failed to finish the race both times. He later ran a workshop in Le Mans and departed this life in 1950, completely impoverished.

Loading