- Louis Wagner
:"For the U.S. Army general, see
Louis C. Wagner, Jr. "Louis Wagner (February 5 ,1882 -March 13 ,1960 ) was a French race car driver who won the first ever United States and British Grands Prix.Wagner was born in
Le Pré-Saint-Gervais ,Seine-Saint-Denis . He began racing cars while in his teens and claimed victory in 1903 driving aDarracq in avoiturette class race at theCircuit des Ardennes atBastogne ,Belgium . Wagner was one of the drivers for the Darracq team in the 1904 Gordon Bennett Cup inGermany that finished 8th and in 1905 at theCircuit d'Auvergne inClermont-Ferrand , he was eliminated in the first round.Competing in the
United States , Louis Wagner won the 1906Vanderbilt Cup driving a Darracq model 120 over a Long Island racecourse. He finished 5th in the 1907Kaiserpreis in Germany but the following year in Savannah won the first ever United States Grand Prix driving aFiat .Driving a Mercedes, Louis Wagner finished second to
Christian Lautenschlager in the 1914French Grand Prix at Lyon. He competed in the1919 Indianapolis 500 driving a Ballot but went out with a broken wheel on lap 45. In 1924 he drove for the Alfa Romeo team, in a P2 alongsideAntonio Ascari andGiuseppe Campari . In 1926, Wagner teamed up withRobert Sénéchal to drive a Delage 155B to victory in the first ever British Grand Prix. In August he won theGrand Prix de la Baule in a Delage 2LCV. In addition to Grand Prix racing, Wagner also competed in the24 hours of Le Mans endurance race.Louis Wagner died in 1960 at the age of 78 in
Montlhéry , France.Indy 500 results
External links [http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/index.php/drivers/driver/wagner Louis Wagner wins the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race] (VanderbiltCupRaces.com)
Persondata
NAME=Wagner, Louis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=French racecar driver
DATE OF BIRTH=February 5 ,1882
PLACE OF BIRTH=Le Pré-Saint-Gervais ,Seine-Saint-Denis ,France
DATE OF DEATH=March 13 ,1960
PLACE OF DEATH=Montlhéry ,Essonne , France
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