The 1923 Grand Prix of Tours
Friderich refuels his Bugatti T32 during the 1923 Tours Grand Prix. He would finish third; ironically neither the Bugatti “Tanks” nor the Voisin “Laboratoire” would ever race again.
By Gijsbert-Paul Berk
July 2, 1923, 8 a.m. For the start of the Grand Prix, seventeen race cars were placed in two rows. In 1923 the positions on the starting grid did not depend on lap times during practice but were, like the numbers on the cars, allotted by the organizers. Hence, pole position was taken by the V12 Delage (No. 1) with driver René Thomas and his mechanic Lhermit. Alongside was Guiness in the Sunbeam, car number 2. Guyot’s Rolland-Pilain was in the second row next to number 4, the Fiat of Bordino.
The noise and smell of the seventeen racing cars on the grid, with a total of 126 screaming cylinders, must have been similar to the noise and excitement of today’s Grand Prix starts. The pace car, driven by local motorcycle champion Paul Meunier, led the field before René Thomas in his blue Delage sprinted away with the Sunbeam of Lee Guinness. Above, Thomas and Bordino are already out of this photograph of the start. Number 2 is the Sunbeam of Lee Guiness, number 3 is Guyot in the Rolland-Pilain, the Voisin of Arthur Duray and the Friderich Bugatti, number 6.
At the end of lap one, Fiat of Pietro Bordino was in front; the Sunbeam of Lee Guiness second followed by the Delage of René Thomas; then Enrico Giaccone and Carlo Salamano both in the Fiats, Henry Segrave and Albert Divo in Sunbeams, Albert Guyot driving a Rolland-Pilain and Ernest Friderich the Bugatti. The race of the decade was on.
