- Sébastien Enjolras
Le Mans drivers
Name = Sébastien Enjolras
Caption =
Nationality = flagicon|France French
Years = 1996 - 1997
Teams =Welter Racing
Best Finish = N/A
Class Wins = 0Sébastien Enjolras (
April 4 1976 –May 3 1997 ) was a French racing driver. Considered to be one of the most promising French drivers of his generation, he was killed in a practice crash for the 1997 Le Mans 24 Hours race.Career
Enjolras was born in
Seclin . He was the son ofMichel Enjolras , a preparer of rally cars, and the brother of Pascal, a rally driver. He began racing karts in 1989. In 1994 he moved up toformula racing , finishing third in the Formula Renault Campus championship. He moved to the senior domestic championship in 1995, finishing seventh in the championship. He stayed on for another year and won the title in 1996 for theLa Filière team, ahead of futureFormula One driversSébastien Bourdais andFranck Montagny . This performance was partially overshadowed when he failed a dope test at the end of the year, testing positive forcannabis . Although banned for six months, he did was not stripped of his championship and returned to racing when it expired. For 1997 he moved up to theFrench Formula Three Championship with La Filière, and finished a posthumous thirteenth in the final standings.Enjolras also tried
sports car racing in 1996, when he drove one of theWelter Racing team's cars in the LMP2 class of the Le Mans 24 Hours alongside compatriotsWilliam David andArnaud Trévisiol , thePeugeot -powered entry failing to finish. He returned with the team for 1997.Death
On a pre-qualifying run for the Le Mans 24 Hours a month before the race, the rear bodywork detached from Enjolras' car, causing it to become airborne and fly over the safety barriers after the "Arnage" corner. The car overturned and exploded at high speed, killing Enjolras instantly. Welter withdrew Enjolras' and its other entries, and single-piece bodywork was subsequently banned.
The scene of Enjolras' crash is currently denoted by a memorial stone behind the
armco barriers.Racing record
Career summary
References
*cite web|url=http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=123|title=Sébastien Enjolras|accessdate=2008-07-07|publisher=motorsportmemorial.org
*cite web|url=http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/3812/career/|title=The racing career of Sébastien Enjolras — in detail|accessdate=2008-07-07|publisher=driverdb.com
*cite news|title=Bombing the backwaters, road kill and the law of Evin|publisher=grandprix.com|url=http://www.grandprix.com/gt/gt00166.html|date=2000-07-01 |accessdate =2008-07-07
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