Yours sincerely
Arnaldo Binelli
APPENDIX 2
Yacco 1937 International records Class C[10] at Montlhéry
3 days at 143.78 kph
4 days at 144.08 kph
15,000 km at 143.77 kph
10,000 miles at 141.59 kph
5 days at 141.74 kph
6 days at 141.16 kph
7 days at 141.48 kph
15,000 miles at 141.48 kph
20,000 km at 141.39 kph
8 days at 141.29 kph
30,000 km at 140.88 kph
9 days at 140.83 kph
20,000 miles at 140.18 kph
10 days at 139.99 kph
World records
20,000 km at 141.39 kph
6 days at 141.16 kph
7 days at 141.48 kph
15,000 miles at 141.48 kph
8 days at 141.29 kph
9 days at 140.83 kph
20,000 miles at 140.18 kph
10 days at 139.99 kph
APPENDIX 3: RACE HISTORY*
1928
June
(Sunday) 2me Journée Féminine de l’Automobile, Montlhéry; also the Concours d’Elégance in a 10CV Citroën closed car with a body by Taramo
1929
1–2 June
3me Journée Féminine de l’Automobile, Montlhéry: 1st (Omega-Six; race no. 9) Championnat Féminin 150 km, 30 laps; handicap race: 15th from the very last starting position (Omega-Six)
(1st) Grand Prix Féminin 50 km, 10 laps: 1st (Omega-Six)
Concours d’Elégance: 1st of 12 in closed touring-car class (Omega-Six)
June (date unknown)
Le Touquet, Automobile Meeting: 1st in gymkhana event (Rosengart)
14 June
6me Championnat Automobile des Artistes, Parc des Princes: wins in the women’s category and makes the best time of the day (of both sexes)
18 December
Montlhéry speed record trials, 10 km at average of 198 kph with a 2-litre 35C Bugatti (possibly no. 4863) on loan from Ettore Bugatti before an accident occurred
1930
29 March
Molsheim delivers 35C–4863 to Hellé Nice on temporary road registration 1647–WW5*
21 April
Casablanca Rally, Grand Prix du Maroc, a 709.5 km handicap race: having appeared with a 2-litre Bugatti, withdrew after her friend Count Bruno d’Harcourt’s fatal accident
23 May
Signs a contract to do ‘speed exhibitions in racing automobiles’ for Ralph Hankinson in the USA
1 June
Bugatti Grand Prix Le Mans: 3rd (2-litre Bugatti, T35, race no. 32, road registration 2066–RD9)
20 June
7me Championnat Automobile des Artistes, Parc des Princes, speed demonstration and gymkhana event/gymkhana: 1st in the women’s category (Bugatti Type 43A, road registration 2066 RD)
Concours d’Elégance: 3rd in the women’s category
June
Buffalo vélodrome, organized by the Automobile Club des Artistes: dirt track demonstrations
29 July
Arrives in the USA for 18 dirt-track and speed-bowl demonstrations. Cars used on American track tour included Ralph De-Palma’s 1500cc blown Miller, Bob Robinson’s 4-litre unblown Miller and Bill Robinson’s Duesenberg
2–8 August
Harrington, Delaware
10 August
Woodbridge (half-mile board track), New Jersey: 10 demonstration laps in 4 minutes, 29 seconds using Larry Beals’s Duesenberg
16 August
Middletown, New Jersey: five-eighths mile on Orange County Fair Speedway
21 August
Lancaster: five-eighths mile on dirt track
30 August
Flemington (Fair), New Jersey: half-mile dirt track
5 September
Pottsville, Pennsylvania: half-mile dirt track
6 September
Trenton, New Jersey: half-mile dirt track
13 September
Brockton, Massachusetts, half-mile dirt track
19/20 September
Allentown (Fair), Pennsylvania: half-mile dirt track in DePalma Miller
27 September
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania: half-mile dirt track in DePalma Miller
11 October
Winston-Salem, North Carolina: crashed, but unhurt
12 October
Concord, North Carolina: half-mile dirt track in Hoffman Special
18 October
Langhorne, Pennsylvania: 1-mile dirt track
24 October
Kinston, North Carolina: quarter-mile dirt track
25 October
Wilson, North Carolina: quarter-mile dirt track
1 November
Spartanburg, South Carolina: 3-lap trial against the clock (driving Jimmy Patterson’s Miller)
12 November
Richmond, Virginia: half-mile dirt track
After returning to Europe she resumed racing with a Bugatti
1931
5 July
Grand Prix de la Marne, Reims: 14th overall; 4th in 2-litre class; 2nd in Coupe des Dames (Bugatti T35C, race no. 54)
26 July
Dieppe: 7th (Bugatti T35C)
2 August
Dauphine circuit, Grenoble 1500cc class: 7th in Bugatti
16 August
7th Comminges Grand Prix (Saint-Gaudens): 9th (Bugatti Type 35 unblown, race no. 30, road registration 2066–RD9)
6 September
Monza Grand Prix
13 September
La Baule: 8th (Bugatti T35C–4921, race no. 8, road registration 2678–RB6 from Philippe de Rothschild); held 6th position till last lap
27 September
Grand Prix de Brignolles (Alfa Romeo)
1932
22 February
Paris–Saint-Raphäel rally in a blown T35 Bugatti
Pougues-les-Eaux hill climb (part of Paris–Saint-Raphäel rally) (Bugatti T35C–4921)
24 April
Oran Grand Prix (Algeria) (Bugatti 35C)
16 (?17) May
Nîmes, Trophée Automobile de Provence (Bugatti 35C)
22 May
26 June
Lorraine (Nancy)
17 July
(Sunday) 5th Journée Féminine de l’Automobile, Montlhéry Trials: 1st (Bugatti ‘course 2 litres’)
Championnat Féminin, handicap race of 20 km over 6 laps: 5th (Bugatti ‘course 2 litres’)
24 July
Dieppe Grand Prix: 7th in 2-litre class (Bugatti 35C)
7 August
Klausen hill climb: 6th (Bugatti 2-litre)
3/4 September
Mont Ventoux: Ladies’ hill-climb record at 18 minutes, 41.1 seconds and 2nd in 2-litre class (Bugatti 35C–4921, race no. 42, road registration 2678–RB6 of Philippe de Rothschild)
25 September
1st Grand Prix de Marseille (Miramas): retired with broken oil pipe (Bugatti 35C–4921, race no. 18, road registration 2678–RB6 of Philippe de Rothschild)
1933
[date?]
6th Journée Féminine de l’Automobile, Montlhéry
Trials (25 km): 2nd and 4th classified for final with 5 points (Peugeot 301)
Championnat Féminin (50 km): 3rd and fastest lap (Peugeot 301)
4th Grand Prix Féminin: 1st (Peugeot 301?) Concours d’Elégance: 1st (Delage, Letourneur et Marchand)
16 July
Dieppe Grand Prix
31 July/5 August
International Alpine Trial (Coupe Internationale des Alpes): 3rd with 3 points lost in 2–3 litre class (Bugatti T43; with Roger Bonnet)
13 August
(Sunday) Coppa Acerbo, Pescara: (Bugatti)
27 August
2nd Grand Prix de Marseille (Miramas): 9th (Bugatti 35C–4921, race no. 28, road registration 2678–RB6)
10 September
(Sunday afternoon) Monza Grand Prix: 9th overall,
3rd in 2nd heat (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza
24(?) September
San Sebastián
1934
February
Paris–Saint-Raphaël Rally, co-driving with Odette Siko in an Alfa Romeo 8C Monza
20 May
Moroccan Grand Prix, Casablanca circuit: retired with rear axle defect (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza)
27 May
Picardy Grand Prix, Péronne
3 June
Eiffelrennen, Nürburgring, starting from the front row: did not finish (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza 2.3-litre, race no. 5)
15 July
(Sunday) Vichy Grand Prix: 7th in heat, did not finish in final (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza)
22 July
Dieppe: 7th (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza)
12 August
Targa Abruzzo 24th sports car race, Pescara: did not finish (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza, race no. 5, co-driving with Marcel Mongin)
26 August
10th Comminges Grand Prix (Saint-Gaudens): 8th (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza, race no. 22)
15 September
Mont Ventoux hill climb: 2nd and new ladies’ record, 16 minutes, 43.2 seconds
28 October
Algiers Grand Prix: 10th and 7th in heats; 7th overall (Alfa Romeo Monza)
1935
24 February
Pau: 8th (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza, race no. 6)
21 April
La Turbie hill climb: 2nd in class (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza)
Picardy Grand Prix (Péronne): 4th (Alfa Romeo Monza 2.3-litre)
9 June
Biella, Italy: 7th in heat, did not finish in final
30 June
Grand Prix de Penya Rhin, Barcelona (race no. 24, starting from last row): did not finish
4 August
Comminges Grand Prix (Saint-Gaudens): 7th in final, 5th in 2nd heat (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza)
1936
1 January
South African Grand Prix, East London
26/29 January
Monte Carlo rally starting from Tallinn, Estonia and co-driving with Mme Marinovitch: 1st for the Ladies’ Cup and 18th overall (Matford)
1 March
Pau Grand Prix: retired after only 2 laps with conrod trouble (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza, race no. 22)
9 April
La Turbie hill climb: 1st in over 2-litre sports car class (Alfa Romeo 8C2300)
Paris–Nice Rally
7 June
Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix (Gavea): 8th (Alfa Romeo 8C Monza)
12 July
São Paulo Grand Prix, Brazil (a street race in the Jardim America district): (Alfa Romeo Monza, race no. 34)
1937
19/28 May
Montlhéry: part of an all-female Yacco record-breaking team, establishing 10 world record and 15 International class C records at average speeds between 140 and 144 kph (co-driving with Simone des Forest, Odette Siko and Claire Descollas)
1938
co-drove a DKW in the Rallye de Chamonix with Huschke von Hanstein: did not finish
1939
11 June
68 km race, Péronne: 2nd (Renault Juvaquatre)
6 August
Critérium Automobile Féminine, Comminges (Saint-Gaudens): 1st (Renault Juvaquatre)
1949
24/27 January
Monte Carlo rally: abandoned after accident involving a truck (Renault 4CV–1060, 760cc, rally no. 156, road registration 2544 BA9, co-driving with Anne Itier)
1951
Grand Prix de Nice: her last race (Renault 4CV); replaced in the team by Jean Behra
NOTES
1. BEGINNINGS
Hellé Nice (hereafter referred to as HN) lived at 6 rue Edouard Escoffier from 1974 until her death ten years later. Most of the material used in the first part of this chapter is based on the letters she wrote to Madame Janalla Jarnach, whose charity, La Roue Tourne, paid her rent and provided her with a modest allowance, 50 francs a week. The letters, of which there are approximately 120, written over thirty years, are in Madame Jarnach’s possession and are used here with her kind permission.
Information given in this section is also based on information provided by Madame Louis Lavagna, a resident of rue Edouard Escoffier, and by Andrée Agostinucci, the daughter of HN’s last landlord and the owner of almost all of HN’s family papers, photographs and records. I am also grateful to the Mairie and City Archives of Nice for material which they enabled me to find. The account of HN’s room, and the house, is based on the author’s own visit to the premises in 2001.
In the second part of this chapter, descriptions are based on the author’s visits to Boissy-le-Sec and Aunay-sous-Auneau in 2001. (The full name of the latter village has been shorted to Aunay in the chapter, for the sake of convenience.) The postmaster’s house there has now been replaced by the more modern building of 1907, but the old house still stands. The full record of HN’s older siblings, and their deaths, is given only on her personal papers. I have not been able to find any record or evidence of their graves at either village, or at Lèvesville-le-Chenard, where Léon Aristide Delangle is buried.
I am especially grateful to the Mairies of Boissy and Aunay-sous-Auneau for the information they located and allowed me to use, to Jacques Chatot, for his genealogy of the Delangle family, and to Raymond Barenton, the historian of Aunay-sous-Auneau who introduced me to La Petite Marquise, by Marie-Josèphe Guers (Mercure de France, 1993), a novel set in Aunay-sous-Auneau at the beginning of the twentieth century and based on written and oral records taken from the village. The archives of the postal service, both in Paris and at Chartres, have failed to yield any helpful information concerning the Delangle family.
I have introduced two speculative points. It is clear that the two branches of the Delangle family did not get along, but the reasons for this have been impossible to establish. HN, in later years, visited her relation Henry Delangle in Canada. I have assumed that this must be her father’s brother, who was registered at birth as Daniel Benoist Delangle, who did settle in Canada, although not until 1921. It has proved impossible to verify the causes of Léon Delangle’s illness and early death.
Among books on the Beauce area of France, Emile Zola’s Earth is the best-known and, although prejudiced, provides a vivid account of farming life and villages there in the late nineteenth century. An excellent historical leaflet on Aunay-sous-Auneau has also proved helpful. I am sorry not to have been able to make use of its account of other celebrated former inhabitants, including Auguste Blanqui and François André Isambert, whose relevance to HN did not seem significant. It is not certain that Dr Poupon had already become mayor by 1900, although he was in this office by 1902.
2. 1903: THE RACE TO DEATH
1. HN–Janalla Jarnach, 14 June 1976 (La Roue Tourne: hereafter LRT).
It is reasonable to suppose that the Delangle family would have joined the rest of the village in going to watch the great race, since it came so close to their own home. The account is drawn from several sources, among which I would like to mention one of the most vivid and least-known, given by René Ville in De Dion Bouton en témoignages et confidences (privately published by the friends of De Dion Bouton, 2001), pp. 79–82. Charles Jarrott wrote a vivid account of the race, the only detailed first-hand account given by an English driver, which can be found on the internet at www.ddavid.com/formula1/race.htm.
The Delangles’ friendship with Chopiteau, the Aunay schoolmaster, is suggested by his having acted as a witness to HN’s birth-entry at Aunay’s town hall.
3. LOSS AND LEARNING
1. This paragraph is speculative. We know only the name of HN’s grandfather, the profession of her uncle and the fact that her father was buried in the family grave at Lèvesville-le-Chenard.
2. I have drawn on the accounts given by Philippe Aubert, Les Bugatti: Splendeurs et passions d’une dynastie (Jean-Claude Lattes, 1981), pp. 109–12, and David Venables, Bugatti: A Racing History (Haynes, 2002), p. 24.
4. PARIS
This is a period of HN’s life about which almost nothing has previously been known. The main source for my reconstruction has been the remarkable archive of photographs and news cuttings which was rescued by Andrée Agostinucci from the garage of one of her father’s properties, following the death of Hélène Delangle, his tenant. All the photographs were annotated by their owner.
1. Jean Rhys, After Leaving Mr Mackenzie (1931), chapter 1.
2. I am grateful for comments made by Joan Acoccella, Lynn Garafola, Robert Greskovic and Alastair Macaulay, based on a study of photographs of HN dancing.