People

Jean-Claude Guenard

A successful Formula 3 racer in the early 1960s, Guenard turned his hand to engineering and ran Jean-Pierre Jabouille in Formula 3 and later moved with Jabouille to the Elf Switzerland Formula 2 team. It was Guenard who designed and constructed the Elf 2 chassis with which Jabouille won the European F2 Championship in 1976. He then moved with Jabouille to become one of the engineers in the Renault F1 programme. After Jabouille left Renault at the end of 1980 Guenard went with him to Ligier and designed the Ligier Indycar which briefly appeared in the Spring of 1984 with Kevin Cogan driving. The project was closed down because of lack of money and Guenard then joined Didier Pironi's Leader Boats companym, which was importing Abbate boats into France. He became Pironi's engineer in offshore powerboat racing, while also preparing Lada Nivas to compete in the Paris-Dakar Rally.

He was killed in August 1987 with Pironi when their Colibri-sponsored powerboat during the Needles Trophy race off the Isle of Wight.