Newsgroup: it.sport.formula1.moderato
Titolo: Raymond Coeur de Lion

Un pilota "sconosciuto" ma paragonarlo a Nuvolari non è un sacrilegio.
Raymond Sommer (1906-1950)
Sommer vinse a Le Mans nel 1932 e nel 1933.
Nel 1932 vinse con una Alfa Romeo privata battendo quella ufficiale ma
incredibile, guidò per 21 ore perchè il suo compagno Luigi Chinetti non
era in forma. Sommer anche lui aveva difficoltà dato che inalava
gas di scarico da un manicotto rotto ma non si tirò indietro. Nel 1950 a
Spa con una Talbot riuscì ad essere in testa al GP (per un giro) un
fatto inconcepibile allora
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Appartenente alla generazione da corsa precedente alla seconda guerra
mondiale, Sommer disputò diverse gare negli anni precedenti il
conflitto, stabilendo un incredibile record nell'edizione del 1932 della
24 Ore di Le Mans, quando, ad eccezione di tre ore, restò alla guida per
tutte le altre. Alla ripresa delle competizioni dopo che il mondo era
tornato in pace, Sommer è della partita nel neonato campionato del mondo
di F.1 schierandosi con una Ferrari nel Gran Premio di Montecarlo del
1950, dove arriva quarto. Ma questo sarà il miglior risultato nella
massima categoria, visto che i suoi altri quattro Gran Premi disputati
(uno dei quali ancora con la Ferrari in Svizzera prima di passare alla
Maserati) saranno punteggiati da altrettanti ritiri. Solo altre quattro
apparizioni in F.1, perché il 10 settembre di quello stesso 1950, Sommer
trova la morte in una gara minore a Cadours, vicino Tolosa, al volante
di una Cooper.
A cura di Pino Casamassima
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Raymond Sommer (F) 
31 Aug 1906 - 10 Sep 1950
Son of one of France's pioneer airplane manufacturers, Sommer started
racing in the early 30s. Because of his courage and driving style the
spectators gave Sommer the nickname "Raymond Coeur de Lion". Sommer
never gave up, always racing flat out even when all hope of a good
position was lost. Sommer is surely Grand Prix racing's greatest
individualist, as he refused any major offer for a works drive,
preferring to be his own man. Of course that decision showed up in the
results, as Sommer often tried the impossible task to challenge the
latest works cars with antique equipment. Most of Sommer's greatest
successes therefore came in sportscar racing. He was victorious at the
French GP in 1936 and won at Le Mans twice in 1932 and 1933. Sommer was
also known for his fair play and good sportsmanship. After the war he
did not hesitate to head of the highly unpopular campaign to release Dr.
Porsche from prison. Sommer was racing as good as ever and his sudden
death after a freak accident, racing a 1100cc car in a minor event, came
as a shock to the racing world. Shortly before he had been awarded the
Légion d'Honneur as France's greatest driver.
Raymond Sommer was born on 31 August 1906 in the small French Ardennes
town of Mouzon, which today still boasts a Stade Raymond Sommer. His
family were carpet manufacturers in the larger town of Sedan, on the
edge of the Ardennes, and it was the prosperity of the business that
enabled him to start racing.
He began in 1930 driving a 4.7-litre Chrysler Imperial at the VI GP de
Picardie and he gained his first success in 1931 when he won the
unlimited class with the Chrysler in the Spa 24-hour race, but retired
at Le Mans.
In 1932 he bought an Alfa Romeo "Mille Miglia" 8C and gained a major
victory at Le Mans, sharing the car with Luigi Chinetti. On Sunday
morning, Franco Cortese had the works Alfa Romeo in the lead, followed
by Sommer who had driven 10 of the 14 hours and was to be forced to
carry on solo to the end. Young Chinetti was ill or exhausted from
relentless pre-race preparation. Exhausted too was Sommer, assaulted by
poisonous fumes from a ruptured exhaust collector, but he continued his
solitary chase of the leading factory Alfa Romeo. At 4.00 pm, Sommer had
ground out a two-lap lead from the surviving works Alfa. His solitary
pace was enough to win.
Apart from the "Mille Miglia" he also bought a Monza, which he
campaigned in the latter half of the 1932 season. He picked up several
places and finished the season by winning the Marseilles Grand Prix at
Miramas, beating Nuvolari's P3 and Guy Moll's Bugatti. On that occasion
it is thought that, just for once, Lady Luck had ridden at Sommer's side
and allowed the Alfa pit men to fool themselves into a fatal
miscalculation of the true position!
In 1933 he began the season with a new 8CM Maserati, but after a few
races he reverted to the Monza, forming a team with another
up-and-coming driver, Jean-Pierre Wimille; there were some places but no
wins. Nonetheless, he gained a second consecutive victory at Le Mans,
this time by sharing an 8C with Nuvolari. They put up a race record that
stood for four years until 1937, and Nuvolari fought a thrilling last
lap duel with Chinetti right down to the wire. As they went on to the
last lap, Nuvolari, with fading brakes and a leaking petrol tank, led by
a matter of yards until Chinetti caught him through the Esses. Nuvolari
then returned the compliment on the Mulsanne straight and led until his
brakes forced him to slow a little earlier than Chinetti and lose his
precious lead again. Nuvolari knew that if he could not get past before
they reached the next succession of slow bends, Chinetti was bound to
win. Being Nuvolari, he squeezed past and managed to hold on through the
bends, when a crash seemed inevitable, to finish a few vital seconds
ahead.
Come 1934 and Sommer drove an 8CM Maserati but hardly finished a race,
being plagued with mechanical problems, so for the 1935 season he bought
an old 1932 P3 from Scuderia Ferrari, winning at Comminges and also in
the GP de l'UMF at Montlhery. The elderly P3 was completely outclassed
in 1936, and the next year Sommer joined Scuderia Ferrari, driving a
12C-4000 and sometimes appearing in an 8C-3800, ostensibly as a private
entrant.
1936, nonetheless, was a successful year for Sommer. As a response to
the German domination in Grand Prix racing the French created their own
sportscar series with most French races that year run to the sports
formula, including the French GP. With 39 entries, including three works
Bugattis, three works Talbots and nine Delahayes, the French GP was the
main event for French drivers that year.
Sommer was to race for Talbot but changed his mind in the last second,
preferring instead to drive the Bugatti T59 'Tank' together with
Wimille. This proved to be a wise decision as the Talbots soon dropped
back, plagued by a multitude of problems and the GP instead developed
into a race between Delahaye and Bugatti. Sommer had to make several
stops with brake trouble but fought back with a brilliant drive to hand
over the Bugatti to Wimille in second position for the last stint in the
8-hour race. Wimille went on to take the lead and win the event.
For the Spa 24-hour race Sommer joined works drivers Farina, Severi and
Siena at Scuderia Ferrari. In the race the team's Alfa Romeo 8C 2900As
proved to be in a class of their own before Farina's car had to retire.
Sommer raced on to take victory, lapping the second-placed Delahaye six
times in the process. The rest of the year proved less fun for Sommer as
he together with several other drivers became involved in a legal
quarrel with the French customs about Alfa Romeos that had been passed
the border custom free as "works" cars only to be bought by privateers.
By 1937 the 8C and 12C were as outclassed at the P3 had been the year
before, and Sommer had nothing to show for during the Grand Prix season
but again found some consolation in sportscar racing. Sommer joined
Talbot as "de facto" team leader when a dissatisfied Dreyfus left the
Talbot team for Schell's Ecurie Bleue. Sommer's agreement with Talbot
guaranteed his independence with a contract giving him status as a
privateer with works support. Both the cars and the team organization
were completely rebuilt for the season opener at Pau and Sommer
immediately showed good form finishing second in the event. However, he
was unable to do anything against Wimille, who in a slightly rebuilt GP
car took a convincing victory.
The Tunis GP seemed to be a repeat performance of Pau but on the last
lap Wimille's Bugatti stopped with a dry tank and a surprised Sommer
took the flag in his T150C to give the Talbot-Lago team their first
victory. The Marseilles GP, run in three heats with no refuelling
allowed between the heats, became another classic duel between Wimille
and Sommer. Sommer, on a non-stop strategy, managed to hang on to
Wimille, racing on a one-stop strategy, in the first heat. For the
second heat, Sommer stalled his engine at the start and lost half a
minute but somehow managed to catch Wimille and pull away. Finally, in
the last heat Sommer was in a class of his own, leading home a Talbot
1-2-3 after Wimille had retired.
As anticipated, Sommer showed his status as independent racing for Alfa
Romeo at Le Mans. He immediately took the lead only to retire after only
10 laps. The French GP proved frustrating for him. First he was almost
disqualified in a confusing pre-race warm-up. Then the jack became
trapped and followed the car out on the track after a pit stop and
finally the engine became seriously damaged whilst trying to catch
Chiron. He finished a distant fifth. A disappointing end of the season
(4th in the Marne GP after car trouble and a retirement at the Tourist
Trophy) did not hinder Sommer from becoming the 1937 Champion of France,
taking a 10.000 Francs price in the process.
In 1938, as the Scuderia Ferrari was taken over by Alfa Corse, Sommer
was retained as driver but had no success. In the two races when he
drove a 158 it broke down. In sportscar racing, as the Talbots had
failed to show any serious improvement in pre-season testing, Sommer
left Talbot for Alfa Romeo, racing the 2900B for Alfa Corse at Le Mans.
At 21 hours he was leading the race by 12 laps before a series of
problems forced him to retire. Sommer also dominated the early stages of
the Spa 24-hour race before transmission problems forced the Alfa into
lengthy pit stops and an eventual retirement.
During the abbreviated 1939 season Sommer raced a 308 in Grands Prix as
a private entrant, but it was certainly a thinly disguised works entry.
He followed so many of his countrymen into working with the French
Resistance during World War II. Two remarkable men of those years would
have had good cause to be grateful for Sommer's interventions on their
behalf in the suspicion-charged atmosphere of the so-called "Peace",
when his efforts, coupled with those of the highly influential Charles
Faroux, secured the release from French custody of the ageing and ailing
Dr Ferdinand Porsche. Similarly, Sommer was also able to help Dr Rudolf
Uhlenhaut of Mercedes-Benz. The subsequent influence of these two great
engineers was to be felt throughout the world for many years thereafter.
At the end of the War he brought out the 308 (like here at the
season-opening Nice GP) and picked up some places before abandoning it
for a Maserati 4CL (here at the Coupe du Salon race in Bois de
Boulogne). In 1946, the 158 Alfas emerged from wartime hibernation for
their first taste of active duty on the hilly little circuit of St
Cloud, where Sommer's Maserati shared the front row of the grid with
Wimille's 158, and Nuvolari's Maserati on the next row with Farina's
Alfa. The result was a minor sensation with Sommer winning from Chiron's
Talbot and Arialdo Ruggieri's Maserati. It is one of those strange
coincidences of history that the first driver to defeat the P3 Alfa in
anything approximately close to a fair fight (Marseilles 1932) was the
same man that had accomplished the same feat over the equally unbeatable
Type 158 in the post-war years. Fourteen years later.
He had little fortune with a works Maserati in 1947 (here he is seen
taking the spoils at the Turin GP at Parco Valentino) and spent some
time away from the sport with illness, but drove the ill-fated
CTA-Arsenal, the French equivalent of the BRM, on its only appearance.
When Ferrari entered Grand Prix racing in 1948 Sommer was signed up as a
works driver, being the first non-Italian to drive for Ferrari in a
Grand Prix car of his own. That happened in the Italian Grand Prix at
the Turin Parco Valentino in 1948, where he finished third, behind
Villoresi (Maserati) and the inevitable Wimille (Alfa Romeo). In
addition, Ferrari himself has told how it was Sommer who first
encouraged him to build the big unblown engines in place of the blown
V12 125s.
He remained with Ferrari for 1949, but halfway through the season he
left Ferrari and became a private entrant with a 4.5-litre Lago-Talbot,
finishing the year with a win at Montlhéry. Next to that, he had some
successful drives for Gordini in Formula 2.
Come 1950 and in the first ever issue of Autosport Sommer assured Gregor
Grant that his three greatest joys of 1950 were leading the Alfas at
Spa, his invitation to drive the V16 BRM and racing a Cooper 500/1100.
Apart from this outing at the Bari GP, three moments of that year would
be worth taking a look at.
The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. In practice, Sommer, with
not the fastest of Talbots, had equalled Villoresi's time with a
two-stage blown 1.5-litre Ferrari and, in the race, he passed Villoresi
on the fifth lap and then shook the Alfa pits by assuming the lead from
all four of their cars when they made their first fuel stops. Needless
to say, this annoyed the Alfa drivers, forcing them to put their best
feet forward until Sommer's valiant car gave out after 20 of the 35
laps, when he lay third, still ahead of one Alfa! As for Sommer, he had
done everything and more than could have been expected of him, even to
the point of shocking team manager Guidotti into trying to persuade both
himself and the race organizers that there had been a wholesale mistake.
Perhaps with memories of Miramas 18 years before where they said much
the same thing, it was small wonder to find the Alfa team manager
visiting the timekeepers "more than once, with the faintly puzzled
expression of a man who does not believe Sommer really is on the same
lap and has indeed taken the lead". Just occasionally history does
repeat itself.
The Silverstone's International Trophy meeting on August 26, 1950.
Sommer decided to take part in three of the racing classes of the
International Trophy in three different types of car. Starting at the
bottom there was the over 2-litre class for sports cars where he was
driving the lead car for Aston-Martin supported by Reg Parnell and Eric
Thompson. Before the start Sommer had told the team manager, John Wyer,
not to trouble him with pit signals; it would be quite enough if he just
went fast!
Second participation was on the F3 race. Sommer's 'conversion' to
Coopering had taken place earlier in the 1950 season at the
Aix-les-Bains meeting the weekend after Monaco. That day he was starting
in pole position in a works F2 V12 2-litre Ferrari. Next to him was
Harry Schell's diminutive 1100cc twin-cylindered Cooper and, although
Sommer eventually won the race, it was Harry who stole the show by
leading off the grid and holding station until his clutch burnt out.
After that it was maybe inevitable that Sommer would jump on the works
Cooper bandwagon. He did it in John Cooper's special lightweight in the
Zandvoort 500 on 23 July. Soon he was leading the race by a country mile
until he missed a gear, over-revved and dropped a valve.
So it would come as no surprise that Sommer came out again in John
Cooper's car at Silverstone when he was foiled by Stirling Moss's
acquisition of a 'double-knocker' Norton engine, an advantage that not
even Sommer's skills could overcome. Initially leading the field (here
he is seen driving the No.29 car) he finished second, 8 seconds behind
Moss.
And finally the BRM affair. One BRM had at last emerged from its tent to
give battle on that same day and although it did not arrive until early
on the morning of a damp race day, it had at least managed to last out
its practice period of three laps when it had sounded pretty good. Come
the start of Sommer's heat, it was a sadly different story with the
driver left on the line fishing for ratios and watching the field
disappearing into the distance. Third time decidedly not so lucky for M.
Sommer.
Although Ferrari reputedly had a 4.4-litre car that could have been
placed at Sommer's disposal for the coming Italian Grand Prix, this did
not materialize, and he was left with his ageing Talbot from Spa to
combat the Alfas of Farina, Fangio, Fagioli, Taruffi and Sanesi and the
Ferraris of Ascari and Serafini. By the 48th lap (of 80) Sommer had
fought his way up to fourth when gearbox trouble ended his last Grand
Prix drive.
The following weekend, September 10, saw the national Trophée de Haute
Garonne race at Cadours in France. Harry Schell had suggested to Sommer
at Silverstone that they should go if John Cooper would again lend his
car. John agreed, offering Sommer his 1100 twin, and it was loaded on to
Schell's truck.
Because of the tightness of the circuit, the racing was split into two
heats and a repechage of ten laps each and a final of 15. Sommer retired
with ignition trouble on the second lap of his heat, before winning the
repechage with great ease and then storming into an equally convincing
lead in the final, until he left the road on a fast bend and was fatally
injured in the ensuing crash on the fifth lap.
Sommer's nickname, Coeur de Lion ("Lionheart") summed him up: he was a
tremendous fighter, and while all too often his car broke under him, he
was usually in the lead or fighting for it. In Grand Prix racing he was
a nearly man, and his results did not do justice to his ability, though
his continuous failures seem to show that he expected too much of his
cars. Like his great exemplar, Nuvolari, Sommer was always a tremendous
trier, for whom no cause could ever be totally lost and whose whole
philosophy was to drive anything on four wheels for as long as it was
capable of movement. Yet, while Sommer undoubtedly made his cars work
very hard for him - and sometimes too hard - he always put just as much
effort into the job himself and, inevitably, made more fastest race laps
than he ever won races.
As Paul Sheldon summarizes, "if a poll was taken of the best-loved
drivers, then surely he (Sommer) would figure high on the list. The
character that was most endearing was his refusal to give up until a car
would go no further - expensive perhaps, but certainly crowd-pleasing."
-- 
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Nuvolari e Sommer vinsero la 24 ore di Le Mans 1933 ma secondo Sommer,
Nuvolari si rifiutņ di guidare la notte, preferendo una buona dormita.
Sommer fece il GpV in 5'31"4 al giro 24.


 era in forma
nel 1949, Luigi Chinetti portņ personalmente alla vittoria la prima
Ferrari in una 24hrs di Le Mans, guidando per quasi 23 ore.
Che dire, altri tempi!
