Crazy paving race

19 September 1930

TWO NEW CAR races were initiated by the French in the early-1920s as tests of endurance. One, run over 24 hours on roads outside Le Mans, would become perhaps the most famous race of all. The other, held near Lille, quickly faded into historical obscurity – not because it was ‘just another race’, as you might guess, but because it was… well, quite barmy. While the Le Mans test was to find the car that could best accelerate quickly, corner proficiently and brake strongly for a day and a night, the Circuit des Routes Pavées set out to see which could endure the nastiest cobbled roads that France had to offer. In 1930, we reported that this annual “six-hours bumping match” had been rather more exciting than expected, thanks to a “desperate battle” between Louis Joly in a Bugatti Type 37 and Ford dealer Charles Montier in his Model A-based special. The havoc of the 34 cars unfolded thus: “After an hour, a Scap turned upside down, and one of the Bugattis covered only two circuits. Before two hours were over, [Émile] Tetaldi’s supercharged Bugatti crashed badly and [Édouard] Flament, on another Bugatti, ran into a petrol pump quite hard, with dire results. “Almost on the sixth hour, Joly had trouble and got away only a few yards ahead of the Ford but, by violent acceleration, came home a victor just over a minute ahead of his rival.” They had got off lightly this time. In 1931, 13 people were hospitalised, a driver and a child dying, resulting in a ban on road racing in France’s Nord department that was upheld until 1946.