Successful Delahaye driver in the late 1930s, Robert Mazaud, mostly known as René Mazaud, was born in 1906 at Graville-Sainte-Honorine, department of Seine-Maritime, France. He acheived his maiden success in May of 1938, by winning outright a sportscar race in Belgium, the Grand Prix d'Anvers, at the wheel of his 3.6-litre Delahaye 135CS. Two weeks later, he finished second in that same car at the Grand Prix des Frontières, close behind Maurice Trintignant's Bugatti. It was a Formula Libre race held on the extremely fast and dangerous 10.870-kilometer track made of public roads of Chimay, Wallonië, Belgium, near the Franco-Belgian border.
On Sunday, 28 July 1946, René Mazaud took part to the first edition of the Grand Prix de Nantes, also known as "1er Prix des 24 Heures du Mans", held on a street course around the Hippodrome du Petit Port in the northern area of Nantes, Loire-Atlantique department, France. Sadly, he lost his life during the race, thus becoming the first casualty in post-war Grand Prix racing.
Louis Gérard was driving the old Maserati 8CM, originally brought to France by Philippe Étancelin in the 1930s. Like every car of its generation the old Maserati was very difficult to keep in a straight line and needed too much of the narrow road: this was to be the cause of tragedy. Gérard shared the fourth row of the grid with Mazaud. Jean-Pierre Wimille took the lead followed by Pierre Levegh and “Raph”. Mazaud and Chaboud had made a bad start and were charging in pursuit. On the fourth lap, Mazaud came up behind Gérard’s Maserati and set about overtaking him. Gérard could not hold the car in a straight line and pulled to the side where Mazaud was passing him. It is not clear if the two cars touched or if Mazaud steered to avoid a collision. In any case Mazaud’s Maserati went up in a loop throwing out the unfortunate driver on to the track. Chaboud, in the gallant effort to avoid Mazaud’s body, crashed into a ditch. To no avail, since Mazaud had suffered severe injuries ot the head and chest. Taken to a Nantes hospital and was pronounced dead in spite of an emergency surgical operation.
A heated discussion burst around a silent Charles Faroux, the venerable journalist and clerk of the course. His final decision was to show the black flag to Gérard - only many laps later - because of the danger caused by his car. It can be assumed that Gérard did not obey to the flag right away since it was for that reason that his competition licence was revoked later on 09 August 1946. Louis Gérard’s career at the top level ended that day. His hard charging driving style had provoked some discussion before the war so it immediately became a common belief that this - and not the indadequacy of the track - had been the cause of the accident.
R.I.P
