VERNEY, VIDI, VICI

Considering she’s a native of Le Mans, you might expect Anny-Charlotte Verney to have attended the city’s daylong race a fair number of times. This is, of course, the case, but she’s not merely been present — she’s actually taken part. In fact, Verney holds the record for the highest number of 24 Hours of Le Mans participations by a woman, having competed at the event for ten straight years between 1974 and 1983.

Back in 1923, her grandfather was one of the initiators of the twenty-four-hour enduro. With this in mind, you might think it her destiny to have competed at Le Mans. You’d be right, and although she drove BMW, Ford, Nissan and Formula Renault single-seaters and touring cars in other events, her weapons of choice at Sarthe were air-cooled Porsches of various kinds, usually privately entered by herself. She has a great memory — and, shrewdly, retained a set of diaries — and was more than happy to talk us through her palmares at her home in Biarritz.

How did you first get involved in motorsport?

In 1972, I drove twelve races at circuits in France with a Citroën MEP. It was a single-seater, and I carried the car on a trailer being towed by my Citroën DS 11. I frequently spun the MEP, usually during practice on Fridays when familiarising myself with circuits in advance of race day, but this was a good environment to learn my craft in. It gave me strong character. After all, when you’re the only woman racing and the competition is twenty-five men, you have to demonstrate you’re