Back in 1924, racing was different from today. The French Grand Prix was held in Lyon over a staggering 810 km total distance; they raced for nearly 8 hours...! So, "Le Patron" himself, Ettore Bugatti, is posing here at the wheel of the brand new Bugatti T35 with posh gloves just for the lovely picture made by a photographer of Agence Roll, not to compete himself in this harsh race. That honour was for Jean Chassange next to him. Chassange finished the race in 7th position after 7 hours and 46 minutes of racing in an open racer, changing gears with a crash box on primitive roads. Who were these strong and courageous drivers? Chassange, relatively unknown today, had a long and impressive career before this picture was taken. Usually, racing was not the only dangerous activity of these guys, he was a fighter pilot in WW1, and a submariner in some of the first French submarines. Born in the neighbourhood of Limoges in 1881, Jean enjoyed life fully with all its challenges and risks. He raced in power boats in Monaco, and before WW1, he travelled to the USA to take part in the 1914 500 miles of Indianapolis, but he crashed his Sunbeam after 20 laps. He would go back to Indianapolis as a driver for Ballot, and he raced at Brooklands, too, where he won the Eastern Meeting with the aero-engined Sunbeam. So, why was Ettore sitting with him in the T35 and not in one of the other Bugattis? There was a reason: With Ettore Bugatti, Chassange prepared and fine-tuned the later illustrious T35 for racing. A few days later, he finished as the highest-qualified Bugatti in a race won by the new Alfa Romeo P2. After his period with Bugatti, at 47 years of age, he joined the Bentley Boys and drove with Sir Henry Birkin at Le Mans. They came in fifth overall, but there was another heroic tale to tell; Birkin, having suffered a rim collapse at Arnage, abandoned the car which was not equipped with a jack and returned to the pits where "Old Chassagne" took two jacks under his arms famously commenting "Maintenant, c'est a moi", he ran the 3 miles to the ditched Bentley, jacked the car up, changed the wheel and drove on. Two years later, in 1930, he retired from racing and worked for Bentley and Castrol Oil. Jean Chassange died in 1947, and both in Crewe and Limoges, he is remembered by a street named to him. A marvellous picture, Ettore and Jean, smiling in a revolutionary racing car they had just developed, excited to see how it would perform in the coming race. This was the most romantic period in racing, which produced some extraordinary people.
