(born in
Nice ,
France ,
February 16 1921 - died in
Berlin ,
Germany ,
August 1 1959 ) was a
Formula One driver who raced for the
Gordini ,
Maserati ,
BRM ,
Ferrari and
Porsche teams.
Behra was small in stature, stocky, and weighed 178 pounds.''Behra Arrives To Drive In $14,500 U.S. Grand Prix'',
Los Angeles Times , October 10, 1958, Page C1. Behra had big shoulders and was scarred from 12 crashes. In 1955 he had an
ear torn off from a collision. His temperament was typically French. He sometimes drove magnificently and at others he drove with a lack of enthusiasm.''Grand Prix Drivers Accentuate The Positive'',
New York Times , May 3, 1959, Page S7.
He raced motorcycles for Motor-Guzzi prior to changing to sports cars and Grand Prix racing. Behra began driving cars competitively in
1952 .
Joakim Bonnier claimed that he learned the majority of his racing skill from Behra. Although he never achieved victory in a World Championship Formula 1 race, he managed an unquenchable thirst for motorsport, being considered a formidable competitor to the day he died. He hit the headlines when he won the non-title 1952
Reims Grand Prix. Between then and 1959 he scored many victories, but none in
Formula 1 championship races.
Behra was in a
Gordini in the Pan-American road race in
Oaxaca, Mexico in November
1952 . He won the first stage of the five-day race from Mexico's southern border to the United States border
at
Juarez near
El Paso . He started 19th and finished with a time of 3 hours, 41 minutes, and 44 seconds.''Behra and Faulkner Lead Sections On First Leg of Mexican Auto Race'', New York Times, November 20, 1952, Page 41. On the second day of competition Behra crashed his car on a curve approximately fifty miles from
Puebla .''Italian Auto Pilot Paces Mexican Race'', New York Times, November 21, 1952, Page 32. In April
1954 Behra passed the leader in the last ten minutes on his way to victory in the Grand Prix of
Pau, France . He finished 200 yards ahead of
Maurice Trintignant after having to make many pit stops due to mechanical trouble. Behra drove a six cylinder Gordini.''Behra Wins Pau Auto Race'', New York Times, April 20, 1954, Page 37.
Behra finished first at the Grand Prix de Pau for a second consecutive year, this time at the wheel of a Maserati.
Alberto Ascari led until the 19th lap but dropped back after brake failure. A crowd of 50,000 watched as only eleven of sixteen starters finished the race.''Behra Takes Pau Race; Italian Driver Is Killed'', New York Times, April 12, 1955, Page 34. Behra and
Luigi Musso were teammates in the 1,008 kilometer super-Cortemaggiori Grand Prix at
Monza, Italy . The two Italians shared a 3,000 cubic centimeter Maserati that won and established course and lap records for 6.3 kilometer track.''Behra, Musso Take Monza Race'', New York Times, May 30, 1955, Page 9.
Behra had surgery on his leg in June 1956,
forcing him to miss a 1,000 kilometer Monza Grand Prix.''Behra Faces Surgery'', New York Times, June 20, 1956, Page 37. He earned the pole position for a Grand Prix at
Rouen, France in July 1956. His
Maserati was clocked at an average speed of nearly 155.46 kilometers per hour.''Behra At Pole Position'', New York Times,
July 8, 1956, Page 144. Behra drove a Maserati to capture the
the Grand Prix of Rome, a 2,000 cubic centimeters sports car event, in October 1956. His winning distance was 166.030 kilometers. He covered one lap in 2 minutes, 16.9 seconds, to average 174.003 kilometers an hour. This established a record for the Catelfusano track.''Behra Of France Takes Auto Race'', October 22, 1956, Page 47.
In April 1957 Behra turned in the quickest time for the Pau Grand Prix. He circuited the 2.77 meter course in
1 minute 35.7 seconds, which was a half second slower than his lap record time. The race covered a distance of 304.6 kilometers or about 190 miles.''Behra Has Fast Trial'', April 21, 1957, Page 183. Behra won the race which was run through the streets of Pau, with an average speed of 62.7 m.p.h.''Behra's Auto First In Pau Grand Prix'', New York Times, April 23, 1957, Page 37.
Behra was injured while testing a car for the
Mille Miglia in May 1957. He recovered and entered a
Maserati in the
24 Hours Of Le Mans on June 22.''Jean Behra Rides Again After Accident'',
Washington Post and Times Herald, Page C5. Behra was triumphant in a Maserati at
Kristianstad, Sweden in August 1957. He drove in a Swedish 6-hour Grand Prix at the Rabelov, 6,537 meter,
asphalt track.''Behra Takes Auto Race'', New York Times, August 12, 1957, Page 23. He followed this with a win in the Grand Prix of
Modena, Italy in September.''Briefs'',
Los Angeles Times , September 23, 1957, Page C2.
Behra drove a
Porsche to victory in the 6th Rouen Grand Prix. He bested the British drivers,
Graham Hill and
Alan Stacey .''Behra Takes Rouen Race'', New York Times, June 9, 1958, Page 32. Behra took 4th place at
Oporto in the
1958 Portuguese Grand Prix , driving for
British Racing Motors BRM .''Moss Wins Portugal's Grand Prix'', The Washington Post and Times Herald, August 25, 1958, Page A15. He drove a Porsche to achieve first place in the Grand Prix of
Berlin, Germany held in September. He
navigated the twenty circuits of the 5.19 mile track with a time of 128.2 m.p.h. in 48 minutes, 14.8 seconds.''Behra's Porsche Wins'', New York Times, September 22, 1958, Page 36. Altogether he scored wins in 8 straight European races in 1958. In each sports car event he piloted a
Porsche Spyder . In Formula 1 he drove exclusively for BRM that year. Behra
finished 4th at
Riverside International Raceway in a small Porsche RSK, in October 1958. He made a quick exit and took an airplane to Europe,
where he left for the Grand Prix of
Morocco at
Casablanca . He
was in such a hurry that he left
Riverside, California in an ambulance to make his flight.''Behra Makes Hurried Departure From Race'', Los Angeles Times, October 13, 1958, Page C2.
In 1959 he moved to Ferrari where he partnered with
Tony Brooks . Behra won a 200-mile international race of Formula 1 cars at
Aintree , in April 1959. He averaged 88.7 miles per hour in an event in which Brooks took second place, 10 seconds behind.''Behra's Ferrari First At Aintree'', New York Times, April 19, 1959, Page S1. When he retired in the
French Grand Prix at
Reims-Gueux after a piston failure, Behra was involved in a strong discussion in which he punched team manager Romolo Tavoni, and was instantly dismissed from the team.
Less than a month later he crashed his
Porsche RSK in rainy weather in the sports car race that preceded the
German Grand Prix at
AVUS , in
Berlin, Germany .''Jean Behra Killed In Race Crack-Up'', New York Times, August 2, 1959, Page S1. He was thrown from his car and fatally injured when he hit a flagpole, causing a skull fracture.
The sports car race featured entries of small, under 1,500 c.c. engine capacity. After three laps Behra
was third behind
Wolfgang Von Trips and Bonnier, who eventually finished one and two.
The AVUS was unique among race tracks. It used a strip of the
Autobahn 2.5 miles in length. The north and south bound lanes were fifty feet apart. At one end was a
Hairpin turn which drivers negotiated at around 30 m.p.h. At the other end was a 30 foot high, steeply banked loop. Behra lost control in the pouring rain, while going 110 m.p.h. The Porsche began to fishtail with the tail of the car going higher and higher up the up the slick, steep bank. Then the Porsche spun and went over the top of the banking, with its nose pointing toward the sky. It landed heavily on its side on top of the banking. It remained there wrecked, while the race continued on underneath. Behra was thrown out and for a fleeting moment he could be seen against the background of the sky, with his arms outstretched as though attempting to fly. He impacted one of eight flagpoles arranged at the summit of the embankment
which bore the flags of the competing nations. The flagpole toppled over when Behra collided with it,
about halfway to its top.
Behra came down into trees and rolled almost into a street where drivers and cars often waited in a paddock to practice. A doctor arrived from a Red Cross ambulance closeby. He examined Behra briefly and shook his head. A hospital bulletin stated that Behra broke most of his ribs in addition to the skull fracture which killed him. Currently AVUS is a vital part of the German public highway system as Autobahn A 115.
Behra was buried in
Nice, France six days after the crash in which he died on August 1. In between there were three funeral services. 3,000 mourners in Nice lined the streets from
wall to wall. The first funeral service was in Berlin, followed by another in Paris.
Behra left a nineteen-year-old son, Jean Paul. Behra's demise left only
Maurice Trintignant among living French
drivers of fame. Trintignant comforted Behra's family and called on the young men of France to ''defend the colors of their country in
international motor racing.'' Conspicuously absent among those present in the racing community was
Enzo Ferrari . He dropped Behra as a factory driver ten days before his death and sent no remembrance to the funeral masses.''A Tribute To Behra'', New York Times, August 11, 1959, Page 30.
() (Race in ''italics'' indicates fastest lap (shared))
:''
‡ Indicates shared drive with
Roberto Mieres
