Xavier Roger Perrot (1 February 1932 – 8 December 2008) was a Swiss
racing driver
Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition.
Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...
and garage owner, who won the
European Hill Climb Championship
The FIA European Hill Climb Championship (FIA EHC) is an FIA-run motorsport competition held across Europe on closed public road courses.
Unlike circuit racing, each driver competes alone, starting from a point at the base of a mountain and reac ...
in 1972. He had previously competed in
Formula Two and drove his
Brabham
Brabham () is the common name for Motor Racing Developments Ltd., a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by Australian driver Jack Brabham and British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four ...
in the Formula Two class of the
1969 German Grand Prix
The 1969 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Nürburgring on 3 August 1969. It was race 7 of 11 in both the 1969 World Championship of Drivers and the 1969 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. Twelve Formula Two ...
.
Career
After participating in national-level motorsport as a driver and
rallying
Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...
co-driver, Perrot began racing in
hillclimbing in the early 1960s, campaigning cars such as a
Lotus 23 and an
Abarth-Simca. In 1968 he switched to Formula Two, driving a Brabham BT23C, and after a difficult first season, improved in 1969. He finished fourth in a non-championship race at
Hockenheim and sixth in the Formula Two class of the German Grand Prix at the
Nürburgring
The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...
, and was classified tenth overall.
In 1970 Perrot campaigned a
March 702, the first customer car sold by the company. With this car, he won the ''Preis von Deutschland'' Formula Two event at the Nürburgring.
He continued in Formula Two in 1971 with a March 712M, finishing third at
Imola, while also making a successful return to hillclimbing. He won the European Hill Climb Championship in 1972 using a March 722 F2 car, winning six events. He also raced this car occasionally in Formula Two, scoring points in three races, including fourth and fifth places in events at Hockenheim, and was classified 13th in the championship.
Although Perrot raced in the Formula Two class of a World Championship Formula One event, he never raced in a full Formula One World Championship race. He did however drive
Jo Siffert's ex-works
March 701 in the non-Championship
1971 Jochen Rindt Memorial Trophy race at Hockenheim, where he finished 11th.
[''The Motor Racing Year No. 3'', Anthony Pritchard, Pelham Books, 1972.]
Perrot retired in 1973 to concentrate on his garage business in his hometown of
Zurich, where he died after a long illness in 2008, aged 76.
Racing record
Complete Formula One World Championship results
(
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
)
Complete Formula One non-championship results
(
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
)
Complete European Formula Two Championship results
(
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
)
References
* "Motorsport Memorial
* ''The Grand Prix Who's Who'', Steve Small, Guinness Publishing, 1996.
Swiss racing drivers
Swiss Formula One drivers
European Formula Two Championship drivers
1932 births
2008 deaths
Sportspeople from Zürich
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