The French driver René Dreyfus won 36 races across Europe in the 1920s and 1930s in Ferraris, Maseratis and Bugattis. In 1940, he came to the U.S. to race a Maserati in the Indianapolis 500. As a Jew who had consistently humiliated Mercedes, he decided not to return to France. Instead, he became a U.S. citizen and opened Le Chanteclair, a New York restaurant that became a meeting spot for racers passing through New York.
Dreyfus is one of my racing heroes. It was in the French Delahaye - pictured above - that he scored his most famous and emotional victory over the German Silver Arrows at Pau in 1938. As a Frenchman and as a Jew, one can only imagine the pleasure he must have derived from beating the Nazis in a French car, on French soil, despite the technical inferiority of the machine itself.
ReplyDeleteHis restaurant became a hangout for Phil Collins, Wolfgang von Trips, Stirling Moss and others when they passed through New York.
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