Jules Goux, born
ValentigneyValentigney is a commune in the Doubs department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France.Valentigney is best known as the place where Peugeot began operations; several members of the Peugeot family still live in the area....
6 April 1885 - died
ValentigneyValentigney is a commune in the Doubs department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France.Valentigney is best known as the place where Peugeot began operations; several members of the Peugeot family still live in the area....
6 March 1965, was a
Grand Prix motor racingGrand Prix motor racing has its roots in organised automobile racing that began in France as far back as 1894. It quickly evolved from a simple road race from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car and driver...
champion and the first
FrenchmanThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and the first
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an, to win the
Indianapolis 500The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
.
Biography
Influenced by the
Gordon Bennett Cup in auto racingAs one of three Gordon Bennett Cups established by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., millionaire owner of the New York Herald, the automobile racing award was first given in 1900 in France....
, Jules Goux began racing cars in his early twenties. Success came in 1908 on a circuit set up on roads around
Sitges*Church of Sant Bartolomeu i Santa Tecla . It houses two Gothic sepulchres , belonging to the an older church located on the same site...
, near Barcelona, Spain, when he won the Catalan Cup, a victory he repeated the following year. Because of his racing success, along with
Georges BoillotGeorges Louis Frederic Boillot was a French Grand Prix motor racing driver and World War I fighter pilot.-Biography:...
, he was invited by
Peugeot AutomobilePeugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
to race for their factory team. As part of a four-man design team led by
Paul ZuccarelliPaul Zuccarelli was an Italian racecar driver. Zuccarelli was killed while testing a car prior to the 1913 French Grand Prix at Amiens.-Indy 500 results:...
and
Ernest HenryErnest Henry was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1920s, who won a silver medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. He also competed in the 100m freestyle...
, Goux helped develop a racecar powered by a radically new
Straight-4The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is an internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft....
engine using a twin overhead cam.
Jules Goux won the 1912 Sarthe Cup at
Le MansLe Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.Its inhabitants are called Manceaux...
driving a Peugeot, and in 1913 he traveled with the team to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to compete in the
Indianapolis 500The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
race. Goux won the race, becoming the first French person to ever do so.
The following year,
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out in Europe and his racing career had to be put aside for service in the French military. At war's end, Goux returned to European Grand Prix motor racing. In 1921, driving for
Ballot AutomobileBallot was a French automobile manufacturer who made cars between 1921 and 1932.The Ballot brothers, Edouard and Maurice, founded their company in 1905. Before World War I they manufactured automobile and marine engines. The company was re-founded as Etablissements Ballot SA in 1910.Edouard...
, he finished third in the
French Grand PrixThe French Grand Prix was a race held as part of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's annual Formula One automobile racing championships....
then won the inaugural
Italian Grand PrixThe Italian Grand Prix is one of the longest running events on the motor racing calendar. The first Italian Grand Prix motor racing championship took place on 4 September 1921 at Brescia...
at
Brescia, ItalyBrescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...
. For the next few years his racing career was marked by repeated problems and he did not return to the winners circle until 1926. That year, driving for
BugattiAutomobiles E. Bugatti was a French car manufacturer founded in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, as a manufacturer of high-performance automobiles by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti....
in a T39A model, he won both the French Grand Prix at Miramas and the
European Grand PrixThe European Grand Prix is a Formula One event that was reintroduced during the mid-1980s and has been held regularly since 1999. From 2008 it will take place for at least another 7 years...
at the
Circuito LasarteThe Circuito Lasarte was an 11.029-mile Grand Prix motor racing road course at Lasarte-Oria, Guipúzcoa, Spain in the Basque Country near the resort town of San Sebastián on the Bay of Biscay at...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
Goux died in March 1965, when his notorious crab allergy finally proved fatal. At the time of his death he was still living in the town of his birth, in an area dominated economically by the long established
PeugeotPeugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
business with their main plant at nearby
SochauxSochaux is a commune in the Doubs department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France.-Population:Inhabitants are known as Sochaliens.-Economy:...
.
Indy 500 results
| Year |
Car |
Start |
Qual |
Rank |
Finish |
Laps |
Led |
Retired |
| 1913 The 1913 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, or International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race, the third such race in history, was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday, May 30, 1913.-Qualification results:...
|
16 |
7 |
86.030 |
3 |
1 |
200 |
138 |
Running |
| 1914 The 1914 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, or International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race, the fourth such race in history, was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 30, 1914....
|
6 |
19 |
98.130 |
2 |
4 |
200 |
1 |
Running |
| 1919 Results of the 1919 Liberty Sweepstakes held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 31, 1919....
|
6 |
22 |
95.000 |
15 |
3 |
200 |
0 |
Running |
| 1920 Results of the 1920 Indianapolis 500 held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday, May 31, 1920....
|
16 |
21 |
84.300 |
19 |
15 |
148 |
0 |
Engine trouble |
| 1922 Results of the 1922 Indianapolis 500 held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday, May 30, 1922....
|
14 |
22 |
96.950 |
9 |
25 |
25 |
0 |
Axle |
| Totals |
773 |
139 |
|
|
| Starts |
5 |
| Poles |
0 |
| Front Row |
0 |
| Wins |
1 |
| Top 5 |
3 |
| Top 10 |
3 |
| Retired |
2 |
|