Raymond Sommer
Pierre Raymond Sommer (31 August 1906 – 10 September 1950), nicknamed “Coeur de Lion” — Lion Heart — was one of France’s greatest pre-war racing drivers, a gentleman privateer of exceptional stamina and skill who repeatedly defeated factory teams with privately owned cars. Born in Mouzon, a small Ardennes town that still carries a Stade Raymond Sommer in his honour, he came from a prosperous carpet-manufacturing family based in Sedan. His father, Roger Sommer, was a celebrated French aviation pioneer: in 1909 Roger became the first person to surpass the Wright Brothers’ distance record in an aeroplane, a feat that placed him among France’s national heroes and gave Raymond both the financial means and the appetite for risk. Raymond studied in Manchester before joining the family business, but his ambition was always racing, and he eventually persuaded his father to finance a car.
He began competing in 1930 with a 4.7-litre Chrysler Imperial, winning the unlimited class at the Spa 24 Hours in 1931. In 1932 he acquired an Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 “Mille Miglia” roadster and entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Luigi Chinetti. When Chinetti fell ill during the race, Sommer drove approximately twenty of the twenty-four hours alone, winning by a two-lap margin over the nearest rivals — who were themselves in an Alfa Romeo. The performance announced him internationally. Within weeks he had finished third at the Nice Grand Prix and won the Grand Prix de Marseilles at Miramas, beating Tazio Nuvolari’s P3 and Guy Moll’s Bugatti — a result Motor Sport Magazine described as one of those rare occasions when “Lady Luck had ridden at Sommer’s side.” In 1933 he returned to Le Mans with an 8C 2300 Monza entered by Scuderia Ferrari, paired with Tazio Nuvolari — two of the era’s most instinctive and committed drivers sharing a single car. They won by metres after a race in which Nuvolari broke the lap record nine times and a leaking fuel union had to be plugged with chewing gum. The margin over the second-placed, factory-entered Alfa was reckoned at a few hundred metres — equivalent to seconds — after twenty-four hours of racing.
Sommer continued racing through the mid-1930s with consistent audacity. In 1935 he purchased an ex-works Alfa Romeo P3 and used it to win two French non-championship races at Comminges and Montlhéry against competitive fields. In 1936, driving with Jean-Pierre Wimille in a privateer entry, he won the French Grand Prix at Montlhéry — defeating the state-backed German Silver Arrows of Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union and earning a result widely celebrated as a triumph of French independent spirit over German factory power. The same year he won the Spa 24 Hours with Alfa Romeo 8C 2900A, co-driving with Francesco Severi. He led at Le Mans every year through 1938, though mechanical failures denied him a finish. His pre-war activity with the Alfa Romeo 308 produced further victories at the Marseilles Three Hours, the Grand Prix de Tunisie, and the La Turbie hill climb in 1938 and 1939. During World War II he played an active role in the French Resistance — reportedly shooting down a German aircraft with a rifle, a story that passed into legend. In a less celebrated post-war episode, he campaigned persistently and successfully for the release of Ferdinand Porsche from a French jail.
Sommer returned to racing after 1945 and in 1947 gave Ferrari their first non-championship Grand Prix victory at the Turin Grand Prix, driving a Ferrari 125 — a result that marked the new manufacturer’s arrival as a force. In the inaugural 1950 Formula One World Championship he drove for Ferrari at Monaco and at Spa, and fielded a privateer Talbot-Lago in three other rounds. On 10 September 1950 — seventeen years to the day after Giuseppe Campari’s fatal accident at Monza — Sommer entered the Haute-Garonne Grand Prix at the Cadours circuit near Toulouse in a small 1100 cc Cooper. While leading on the ninth lap and attempting to overtake a backmarker, a wheel bearing is believed to have seized; the wheel separated, the Cooper left the circuit and overturned. The man they called “Coeur de Lion” was killed instantly. He was 44 years old.
Connections
- Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 — drove (Le Mans 1932, 1933; Marseilles GP 1932; various), source: wikipedia.org
- Tazio Nuvolari — co-driver, Le Mans 1933 (won by metres in Scuderia Ferrari entry), source: wikipedia.org
- Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 — drove (Spa 24h 1936 win with Severi), source: wikipedia.org
- Alfa Romeo P3 — drove privately, 1935 (won Comminges and Montlhéry), source: grandprix.com
- Scuderia Ferrari — entered the 1933 Le Mans car; Sommer drove for Ferrari in 1950 F1 season, source: wikipedia.org
- 24 Hours of Le Mans — won 1932 (with Chinetti) and 1933 (with Nuvolari); led every running through 1938, source: wikipedia.org
- Giuseppe Campari — died on the same date (10 September) seventeen years apart, source: wikipedia.org