Saturday 18th November 1876

Born on this day, Victor Hémery, French champion driver of early Grand Prix motor racing. In 1904 he joined Automobiles Darracq S.A. as their chief tester and helped prepare cars to compete in that year’s Gordon Bennett Cup. He drove a German Opel-Darracq to victory at Hamburg – Bahrenfeld. He set a land speed record of 109.65 mph (176.46 km/h) in December 1905 at Arles, France driving a Darracq. In 1951, Hémery was retroactively awarded the United States Driving Championship for 1905.