Pascal Fabre

Bio by Stephen Latham

Born in Lyon, France, on the 9th January 1960, contesting F2 with AGS in 1982 Pascal Fabre showed promise in his first season when teamed with Philippe Streiff. Racing the team’s BMW powered JH19 he was eighth at Enna-Pergusa’s Gran Premio del Mediterraneo, twelfth at Hockenheim, thirteenth in the Jochen Rindt Trophy at Thruxton, sixteenth at Nurburgring and Mugello, nineteenth at Spa and ninth in the final round at Misano. He did not qualify at Pau and retired from the rounds at Silverstone, Hockenheim and Donington and his best results were third at Vallelunga (behind Corrado Fabi and second placed team mate Streiff) and sixth at Mantorp.

He moved back into European F3 the following year, driving Equipe Serge Saulnier’s Martini MK39, and results included sixth in the first round at Vallelunga, fifth at Zolder, sixth at Zeltweg, eleventh at Silverstone, eighth at Monza, ninth at Misano, tenth at Zandvoort and seventh at Knutstorp. Besides a retirement at Nogaro, he did not complete all the races when a lack of finance forced him out before the season was over and he finished tenth in the Championship. The year also saw his debut at Le Mans with a Secateva entered WM P83, alongside Alain Couderc and Roger Dorchy, and they finished sixteenth.

Returning to F2 in 1984 he surprised many with his speed in the PMC Motorsport/BS Atomotive March 842 but although he took a win in mid season at Hockenheim he then left the team. There had been retirements at an earlier Hockenheim round and Thruxton but he took fifth at Silverstone and Vallelunga, ninth at Mugello and seventh at Pau. Then came his victory at Hockenheim in June but despite this it was his last race and he missed the four following rounds at Misano, Enna, Donington and Brands Hatch.

There were hopes of a Formula 3000 drive the following year but it never came to fruition and he only contested the final round at Donington, finishing tenth with the Oreca March. Despite having a minimal budget in 1986 he managed to complete a full season. There was a winning start in the first round at Silverstone with the Lola, taking pole, fastest lap and victory, though the race was stopped and restarted due to an accident and only half points were awarded. He followed this with second place at Vallelunga (to Ivan Capelli) and he held an early-season lead. There were retirements at Pau, Mugello and Austria, while finishes included ninth and tenth at Spa and Imola, third at Enna-Pergusa and fifth at the Birmingham Superprix though he missed the final two races at Le Mans and Jarama and finished seventh in the championship.

After racing for them in F2 Pascal was reunited with AGS to contest the Formula 1 World Championship in 1987. Their JH22 was a development of the Renault based car the team had used in two races towards the end of the previous season though was now Cosworth powered. They only entered a single car for the season, sponsored by Italian shoe and clothing company El Charro, which featured a white and red livery with a large rose above the nosecone. As one of four teams running normally aspirated engines (alongside Tyrrell, March and Larrousse) they contested the Colin Chapman Trophy in addition to the Constructors’ Championship, while Pascal contested the drivers’ Jim Clark Trophy. Although the car was slow and usually qualified at the back of the grid it proved reliable on race day and he was classified in eight of the first nine races. He was twelfth in the opening race at Brazil and followed it with thirteenth at San Marino but though he failed to finish at Spa, due to the car’s electrical system failing after 38 laps, he was classified in tenth place. Monaco saw a thirteenth place result but at the next race in Detroit, although he hit the wall in the Sunday warm-up, the car was able to be repaired for the race and he went on to finish twelfth. He had his season’s best results with ninth place in the two following rounds in France and Great Britain and at this point he was the only driver to have scored seven classified finishes out of seven (despite Spa).

However the run ended at the following race in Germany due to his engine failing after 10 laps though he was thirteenth in Hungary. The race at the Osterreichring required 3 attempts to start and during the second of these Pascal was involved in a multi-car pile up but after taking the spare car for the third start he was still running at the finish, though was not classified. Then came Monza but the entry list expanded now to 28 cars, with Osella running a second car and Coloni making its F1 debut. Making the grid became a great deal harder and this was his first DNQ and the same happened at Estoril two weeks later, with a 27 car entry. In the final European round at Jerez, with the entry list again having 28 cars, he got into the race but his clutch failed after 10 laps. He failed to qualify for the Mexican GP but this would be his last race with the team as he was replaced for the final two rounds in Japan and Australia by Roberto Moreno. Pascal finished fifth in the Jim Clark Trophy while AGS were equal eleventh in the Constructors’ Championship and third in the Colin Chapman Trophy. Besides his F1 commitments, he also raced in that year’s 24 hour Spa in a Garage du Bak BMW M3 and was third with Fabien Giroix and Bernard de Driver.

After his season in F1 Pascal then continued in sports cars over the following years and in 1989 began an involvement with Courage Competition. Driving their Porsche powered Cougar C22S in 480km races he started with fourteenth with Alessandro Santin at Suzuka then he and Jean Louis Bousquet were sixth at Dijon. He contested several rounds with Herve Regout and took seventh at Brands Hatch, ninth at Nurburgring and Donington but retired at Spa. There was a ninth place with B.de Driver at Jarama though he retired in Mexico with Oscar Manautou and at Le Mans with JL Bousquet and Jiro Yoneyama.

He contested a full season in the following year’s World Sports Prototype Championship with Courage’s Cougar C24S, alternating with Lionel Robert and Michel Trolle. Results in the 480k races included twelfth at Suzuka, fifteenth at Silverstone, tenth at Dijon and Nurburgring, twenty third at Montreal and eleventh at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico. There were retirements at Spa and Donington and in one outing with Beppe Gabbiani they were thirteenth at Monza while his best result came at Le Mans, taking seventh place with Lionel Robert and Michel Trolle.

There was only a single drive with Courage in 1991 where he took seventh in the C26S in a 430km Mexico City race with L.Robert. He raced at a further 430km event at Magny Cours plus the Le Mans 24 Hours though these were with the Automobiles Louis Descartes/Racing Organisation Course ROC 002 but he and Bernard Thuner retired from both. On a sad sidenote, Louis Descartes was killed at the end of that year when his road car crashed near Paris.

1992 saw him contest two races with a Cougar C28S, with the first coming in February at the Daytona 24 Hours. He L.Robert and Bob Wollek were twenty sixth though he did not finish due to an accident after 77 laps at Le Mans with L.Robert and Marco Brand. The following two seasons saw him back at Le Mans, taking tenth alongside Derek Bell and L.Robert in a Courage C30LM but there was a retirement in the second due to engine problems with the Courage C32LM after 107 laps alongside L.Robert and Pierre Henri Raphanel.

There was a busier schedule in 1995, contesting a number of 4 Hour races with Jean Luc Maury-Laribiere and Laurent Lecuyer. He started with eighth in one outing in a BBA Competition Venturi 600LM at Jerez though the remaining races saw him in BBA’s McLaren F1 GTR, taking fifth at Paul Ricard, eighth at Monza and fourteenth at Jarama. His season ended with a Porsche 911 drive at a 4 Hour Le Mans event, taking tenth place with Nicolas Tardiff.

He only contested Le Mans in 1996 where he, Alain Ferte and Mauro Martini, were twenty fourth with Team Menicon’s SARD though in the following year’s 24 Hours he did not prequalify a McLaren F1 GTR alongside Maury Laribiere and Marcel Tarres. There were two outings in 1998 though both ended in retirements. His Le Mans race in a Pilot Racing Ferrari 333 SP, with Michel Ferte and Francois Migault ended due to gearbox problems and he, Adrian Cottrell and Jean Francois Yvon did not finish with the Mark Bailey Racing entered MBR 972 at a 2Hour 30mins Le Mans event.

2000 started in America at the 24 Hour Daytona with Haberthur Racing’s Porsche 996 GT3 R, finishing eighteenth in class alongside Jean Luc Maury-Laribiere, Bernard Chauvin, Patrick Cruchet and ‘Rael’. In two outings with Didier Bonnet Racing’s Debora LMP2000 there was a sixteenth place at Nurburgring with J.Yvon though he and Yann Goudy retired at Magny Cours due to gearbox problems.

The next three years saw returns to Le Mans and he took fifth (and first in LMP65 class) with Jordi Gene and Jean Denis Deletraz in ROC Auto’s Reynard 2KQ. However, in 2002 and 2003, although he took part in the Le Mans Testing with Del Bello Noel’s Reynard 2KQ, first alongside Peter Owen and Mark Smithson then with Maury-Laribiere and Christophe Pillon, he did not enter the races.