World’s Oldest Race Driver

By Graham Gauld

Here in the South of France there are a lot of “Brocantes” which, to you and me, means a space in a town or village where people set up a table and sell all the rubbish they have in the house for a few cents a time.

I am always on the lookout for real rarities such as commercially printed postcards of photos from auto racing 100 years ago.

Let me tell you the story behind two of those cards. The first shows a photo taken at the 3rd Coupe des Voiturettes held at Compiegne in northern France on September 27 1908. It was a great day for the French manufacturer Sizaire-Naudin as they finished first, second and fourth. What is even more interesting is that both Louis Naudin and Georges Sizaire, the founders of the company along with Georges’ brother Maurice, were racing in the event and finished first and second. The second is linked closely with the world’s oldest race driver.

Louis Naudin was a pretty good race driver who had won the Circuit de la Madonie in Sicily a few months earlier ahead of legendary Vincenzo Florio’s De Dion. Florio was to go on to create the Targa Florio.

Also of interest were the Sizaire-Naudins themselves. Under the rules that year the only engine rule was that the bore had to be just 100mm. Therefore they rebuilt their single cylinder engine and increased the stroke from 180mm to an eye-watering 250mm, giving their single-cylinder engine a capacity of almost 2 liters (1963cc)!

All the top racing names of the time were in the race, but the three factory Sizaire-Naudins stormed away with Louis Naudin setting fastest time on every lap of the race save the last where his partner, Georges Naudin was quickest. Indeed the Sizaire-Naudins were so quick they ran 1-2-3 for most of the race, until the legendary Jules Goux on his Lion-Peugeot managed to slip past Lebouc and take third, just 3 seconds after a race that lasted just over five hours. Yes, that’s right, five hours.

The second photo I found has a very interesting backstory, so hang in there whilst we tell the story of Tom Delaney.

At the Rockingham circuit in England about ten years ago, I sat beside a white-haired gentleman in a racing suit and we struck up a conversation. The car he was racing was a Lea-Francis, a well-known English sports car marque of the 1920s and ‘30s ; but it was a very special one. It had won the Tourist Trophy race in 1928 driven by Englishman Kaye Don – who was later to have some monumental match races with American Gar Wood in their power boats.

My driver friend was Tom Delaney and I asked him about the car.

“My father bought it for me in 1930 and I raced it for the first time that year at Brooklands!” I paused for a moment. “How old are you?” I boldly asked and he replied “I was born on January 8 1911, a little while ago”. To be exact, he was 90 years of age!

Tom then remarked that his father, Terry Delaney, normally called “Luke”, had also been a racing driver and had survived the tragic Paris-Madrid race of 1903 even though he had an enormous accident with his Lorraine-Dietrich. This race marked the end of open road racing in Europe and was actually stopped by the French Government when the cars reached Bordeaux as there had been so many fatalities amongst the drivers and the crowds of spectators.

“Father came unstuck on a corner near Libourne where there was a pile of gravel. He skidded, one of the wooden wheels broke and the car rolled. He and his mechanic climbed out safely and then he returned to the car to get his camera and take a picture! The spectators thought he was going to try and get the car going again so started clapping and cheering!”

The Delaney family were well known in the early days of the motor industry in Europe as their company, Delaney-Galley manufactured radiators for many of the car manufacturers. As a result, Tom’s father was able to buy the TT winning Lea-Francis directly from the factory. Tom recalled how he would drive the Lea-Francis to Brooklands, strip off the headlights and go racing. When it came to work, W.O.Bentley asked Tom to join Bentley but his father wanted him to join Delaney-Galley and so he stayed with the family firm.

In 1939, when the Second World War came along, Tom sold the Lea-Francis.

Many years later, in the 1970’s, Tom decided he wanted to try and find his famous old car but was getting nowhere. He bought another one offered for sale. Then he heard that his old car was lying in Aden, in the Middle East, owned by a doctor working for a hospital set up by Shell Aviation. Tom met up with him, but the doctor did not want to sell the car. He had used it for sand racing in the desert and his wife used it as a shopping car.

When Tom arrived back home from Aden he found a letter from the doctor to say that he could not sleep because he felt Tom should have his old car back! Much to his relief, the deal was completed.

Shortly afterwards another enthusiast, Jon Goddard offered Tom yet another Lea-Francis and so, he ended up with three of them. One is raced by his son Geoffrey and the other by his grand-daughter Lucy.

Tom’s only fear, at the time, was passing the annual medical exam for his racing license but he continued to race.

Then, in 2004 and at the age of 93, he had a huge accident at Silverstone, was thrown out of the Lea-Francis and hit the barrier. In hospital the doctors told him his only injury was a twisted wrist! He immediately phoned his mechanic and asked him to prepare the car for the next historic race.

Sadly Tom died in 2006 not long before he was due to race the Lea-Francis once more. He was 95!

Now for the punch line. As I said at the beginning I look for old postcards. I found one of a car upside down in the ditch during the 1903 Paris Madrid.

It was a photo of Tom’s father’s Lorraine-Dietrich. (See the lead photo.)