Joseph Schlesser (18 May 1928 – 7 July 1968) was a French Formula One and sports car racing driver.
He participated in three World Championship Grands Prix, including the 1968 French Grand Prix in which he was killed. He scored no championship points. He was the uncle of Jean-Louis Schlesser who himself became a Formula One driver in the 1980s. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in 1928 in Liouville, Northern France, Joseph Schlesser started his racing career in rallying in the early 1950s and his first victory came at 1952’s Rallye Lorraine-Alsace driving a Panhard Dyna. Following this he competed in Monomill single-seater racing, winning at Montlhery in 1954 and was second at Majvmga on Madagascar; during this period he spent several years working in Madagascar.
In 1955 he purchased a Mercedes 300SL and took victory in the Circuit de Majunga and the Grand Prix de Fianarantsoa and the following year won at the Circuit d’Ivato and the Grand Prix du Sud, all on Madagascar. Back in Europe in 1957, he made his debut at Le Mans with a DB-Panhard, sharing a car with Jean-Claude Vidilles, though they retired after 14 hours because of an accident. In 1959’s Tour de France he (and wife Annie as navigator) were leading until retiring, though in 1960 he finished second, behind Willy Mairesse.
By 1960 he was racing a Ferrari 250 GT Inter. He took second in class at 1960’s Nurburgring 1000 Km (with Lucien Bianchi), second in the 4 Hour Rouen GP and had a class win in the GT Grand Prix d’Allemagne. He and Andre Simon were third in the 1000km de Paris at Montlhéry while at Le Mans he and William Sturgis drove the North American Racing Team (NART) Ferrari 250 GT Calif though retired (after 22 hours) with engine troubles. In single seaters he drove a Formula 2 Hume-Cooper Climax FPF, with sixth place at Syracuse his best finish.
In 1961 he won the Rallye des Routes du Nord in a Lotus Elite, took second in the Grand Prix de Cadours in the Ferrari 250GT and third in the Coupes de Paris.
He intended racing at Le Mans in a Ferrari but unfortunately crashed heavily during the test, suffering a badly broken arm and leg which caused him to miss the race and the most of the season. He was out for most of the season, and when he first returned some months later he used a string arrangement to help shift his leg from accelerator to brake. After returning to racing, he and Pierre Dumay finished fourth in the Paris 1000 Km in a Ferrari 250 GT SWB.
1962 saw him with a Formula Junior Brabham BT2 and he took wins in the Coupe de l’USA at Montlhery, the Circuito Internazionale Riviera di Cesenático in Rimini, the GP de Nogaro and the Prix de Paris at Montlhery. Added to this were second place finishes in the GP de Magny Cours, the GP des Frontières at Chimay and the Trophées d’Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand on his way to the French Formula Junior Title. He also teamed up with Henri Oreiller to purchase a Ferrari 250 GTO and they finished second with it at Rouen but while competing in the Coupes du Salon at Montlhery, H.Oreiller had a huge accident and died later that day.
In 1963 he teamed up with Guy Ligier and became a Ford dealer in Paris, while in racing he again won the French Formula Junior Title in a Brabham BT6 Ford (with four wins, two seconds and two thirds). In sports cars he and William Kimberley drove an Aston Martin DP214 at Le Mans though retired on lap 139 due to a burnt piston. Driving an AC Cobra with Hal Keck, he took a class win in the Daytona Continental, class victories at Sebring and the Reims 12-hour with Bob Bondurant, plus won at Vanson and Criterium des Cevennes and second in the Tour de Corse Automobile.
He continued with the Cobra in 1964 finishing sixth (and third in class) with Phil Hill at Sebring and had a class win in the Nürburgring 1000Km race with Richard Attwood. At the tests for Le Mans he crashed his GT40 heavily on the Mulsanne Straight after the car’s rear end became light but later teamed up with Pedro Rodriguez in a Ferrari GTO to finish second in the Paris 1000km. He There was a fourth place in the Angola GP with a Porsche 904 GTS and in in F2 he raced his Brabham Ford to victory in the F2 GP de Rome at Vallelunga and was third in the French F2 GP at Montlhéry. To add variety to the car and races he entered, there were also two NASCAR races in America during the year plus contested the Rallye Monte-Carlo in a Ford Falcon
Early 1965 saw him in America with a Cobra Daytona Coupe, and he and Harold Keck were first in the GT class at Daytona and he and Bob Bondurant later took fourth overall and first in class at Sebring. In rallying there was a GT class victory in the Rallye de Lorraine with an AC Cobra,
In 1966 he was chosen to represent Matra in the F2 Championship, alongside Jean-Pierre Beltoise, with his best result being second at Albi. In sports cars he took a class win with a GT40 at the Nurburgring 1000Km, with Guy Ligier, but crashed the Matra M620 BRM at Le Mans.
In the following year, alongside his F2 commitments he raced a GT40 with Guy Ligier. In early races the best result was sixth at Monza but they later won the Reims 12 Hours, were fourth in the Paris 1000 Km and, driving alone, Jo won the Coupes de Paris race.
In 1968, Jo and Guy Ligier raced McLaren M4As under their Ecurie InterSport banner during the first half of that season, with his best results being fourth in the Monza Lottery GP and fifth at Crystal Palace. Early in the year, his season had started well when he took third in a Porsche 907 at Daytona (with Joe Buzzetta) although a broken alternator cost them half an hour and a possible victory. He and Gerhard Mitter later raced the Porsche 907 to second place the Spa 1000 Km race.
Then, in July, came a Formula 1 car drive at the French GP, with Honda Racing, his first drive in an F1 car having competed in the 1966 and 1967 German GPs in an F2-spec Matra. There had been a bitter row involving the team leading to the race as it had been intended John Surtees would test the new Honda V8 and bring it to Rouen for development while using the water-cooled V12 for the race. He had told the factory that it was not ready for racing, and was potentially dangerous, but arrived to discover Honda (France) had formed its own team to enter the V8 and the first he knew of this was when he read the paper. Honda France wanted a French driver in the second car and had originally offered it to J.Servoz-Gavin, but he hose a Cooper-Maserati. Jo accepted the offer, cancelling a planned holiday to the Seychelles and travelled to Rouen to race the Honda RA302. Tragically, on the third lap, his car hit the bank and caught fire and and due to the car’s tanks full with 58 laps worth of fuel and extensive use of magnesium, poor Jo had no chance. Innes Ireland wrote of the incident in Autocar magazine ”I have never seen such an inferno develop so quickly and this great towering column of flame and black smoke reached high into the skies.” Vic Elford stated ”It was absolutely horrible. The thing was like a giant firework, and it went on for laps before it finally shut down.” Jackie Stewart recalled how ”the burning fuel ran across the track, feeding an horrific wall of fire. The race continued, and each time we passed the scene of the accident, the rest of us had to drive blind through the flames, smoke and debris. It had been raining heavily and the spray dramatically reduced visibility. I had rarely felt frightened in a car, but I did that day. And Jo was dead.” Jacky Ickx won the race, then went and placed the laurels on the spot when poor Jo died and second placed J.Surtees in the other Honda dedicated the race to him. His friend Guy Ligier named all his Ligier cars JS after Jo and this contined when the team was bought by Alan Prost.
His nephew Jean-Louis Schlesser later became a successful racing driver, who competed in one Formula 1 race and won the Paris Dakar.
At his side during a lot of his racing, was Annie, who effectively acted as team manager and his friend Jabby Crombac recalled “If she thought he wasn’t going quickly enough, she would say, ‘Jo, you are walking instead of racing!’ She was very good at lap scoring and doing the letters for him.” Jabby described him as “a cheerful bloke, and a lovely guy. He had a lot of guts-a ‘big balls’ driver.”
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