Husband of Michèle Cancre

The origins of UK stock car racing can be traced back to Belgium in the early 1950s, where locals would race old cars around a field. This proved popular and led to couple of enterprising showmen organising some proper meetings at Stade Buffalo in Paris in 1953. Amongst the competitors were members of Le SCC Chats Noir, or the Black Cats Stock Car Club, and a contingent came over to England for the inaugural meeting at New Cross Stadium in London on Good Friday 1954.

They would have been among the very few to have any prior racing experience, and it was a big advantage in terms of both racecraft and car preparation. The team was led by Serge Pozzoli, one of the pioneers of French stock car racing. He was a car enthusiast, becoming a historian, collector, magazine publisher and event organiser. His motorsport career included racing in two Formula 1 circuit events, recording a non-finish with a self-built car in the 1946 Conseil Municipal Cup at St Cloud, and tenth place in the 1947 Jersey Road Race in a Delahaye 135S. But it was in stock car racing that he enjoyed most success, both as a car builder and a driver. He raced at Buffalo from 1953 to 1955 and won two events.

Pozzoli came to England with a stripped out Ford Model 40 Coupe with a Mercury V8 engine bored out to 274 cubic inches and fitted with twin carbs and Allard cylinder heads. The car was estimated to produce over 150 brake horsepower and weigh no more than 850 kilograms.

He also prepared similar Model 40s for teammates Michèle Cancre and Chevalier d’Orgeix, with William Camus racing a Ford Model 18.

That first meeting was a success for the French, with the Black Cats taking two historic race wins. William Camus won the opening heat, making him the first person ever to win a stock car race in the UK, and the first ever UK final went to Chevalier d’Orgeix. He returned to New Cross a fortnight later and won the second final as well, but after that he was never heard of again.

Strangely, there seems to be no record at all of Chevalier d’Orgeix ever racing in France. So who was he? It turns out that winning the first two UK stock car finals was just one chapter in the story of a life that was extraordinary.

Before he ever got into a stock car, he was an aerobatic pilot of some note. Flying a Stampe-Vertongen SV-4A biplane in the 1950s, he won the National Aerobatic Championship in 1954 and went on to win the Lockheed Trophy in Coventry, the sport’s most prestigious event. His signature manoeuvre was to fly upside down and grab a handkerchief pinned to a wire stretched three metres above the ground.

At age 11, he first appeared on stage, playing Piccolo in the operetta L’Auberge du Cheval-Blanc nearly 2000 times. He went on to be a touring actor, most notably playing the lead role in Le Capitan, and was director of the famous Théâtre Daunou in Paris. Aside from the theatre, he was also a star of French cinema, and appeared in 27 films between 1933 and 1958, including the 1955 title Si Paris Nous Conté, in which he played his own ancestor, Count d’Orgeix.

He was billed as Jean Pâqui, but that was his stage name. He was in fact Jean-François Henri de Thonel, the 5th Marquis of Orgeix. In England in the early days, stock car racing was referred to as motorsport for the working man, so it’s rather ironic that the first ever meeting was won by nobility!

He usually went by the name Jean d’Orgeix, and was born in Cap d’Ail in 1921. An only child, from an early age he was interested in horses, and won many equestrian competitions all over Europe. A bronze medallist in the individual showjumping competition in the 1948 Olympics, he was part of the French team that came fifth at the 1952 Olympics. As the coach of the French showjumping team from 1973 to 1977, he led them to a gold medal in the 1976 Olympics. He also pioneered several techniques for training horses and riders, and authored several books about the subject.

His prowess with horses led to his nickname, the Knight of Orgeix. In French, that’s Le Chevalier d’Orgeix, and that’s the name that was used in the New Cross programmes and every British stock car book ever since. In the French stox press he was referred to as Jean d’Orgeix.

Jean married fellow Olympic equestrian Michèle Cancre in 1952, and it was as husband and wife that they raced stock cars. Michèle won a race at Stade Buffalo in September 1954 before taking up rallying the following year. Jean continued stock car racing until 1960.

The couple visited Africa in 1955, and liked it so much that from 1958 to 1973 Jean was a hunter and bush guide in the Central African Republic. It was apparently his devotion to Zouma, his panther that he had raised from a cub, that ultimately led to the breakdown of the marriage. Jean’s books I Was A White African and The Africa Of My Wild Animals are about his time there.

His final adventure came in 1990. Now aged 70, along with third wife Nathalie and dog Bobby, Jean sailed 8,000 miles from Carry-le-Rouet beach in the south of France to Calcutta, India. It took nearly a year and was done without any radio links or other external assistance.

He died in July 2006 in a road accident in Toucy, age 85. He is buried in the family vault at Orgeix Castle in Ariège.