René Le Bègue, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetRené Le Bègue
French racing driver
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Paris, Île-de-France, France
About René Le Bègue
- René Le Bègue (15 January 1914 – 24 February 1946) was a Parisian-born French race car driver in Rally and Grand Prix motor racing.
- In his first year of top level racing, his best showing came at the 1936 Spa 24 Hours endurance race when he drove a Delahaye to a 2nd-place finish.
- In 1937 he and his co-pilot Julio Quinlin won the Monte Carlo Rally driving a Delahaye.
- That year Le Bègue also won the Coupe de Vitesse at the Autodrome de Montlhéry driving a Talbot-Lago T150 and had several top-three finishes.
- He then teamed up with André Morel to claim victory in the 1938 12 hours of Paris endurance race for sports cars.
- In 1939 he finished 3rd in the French Grand Prix behind the dominant Auto Union Silver Arrows then went on to win the Grand Prix du Comminges.
- The following year, Le Bègue traveled to the United States to compete in the 1940 Indianapolis 500.
- Driving a Maserati for the American/French owner Lucy O'Reilly Schell, he started in the last row in 31st position but drove to a 10th-place finish. René Le Bègue continued racing until the German occupation of France during World War II when he joined the Free French Forces.
- With the war over, in 1946 he prepared to return to the racing scene and was elected vice-president of the French Drivers Association (AGACI, Association Générale des Amicales et Coureurs Indépendants).
- However, early that year before the season started the thirty-two-year-old Le Bègue was accidentally asphyxiated by gas leaking from a defective water heater in his bathroom.
- The 9 June 1946 Grand Prix race at Saint-Cloud, won by Raymond Sommer, was named the René Le Bègue Cup in his memory.
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