War hero, aristocrat, and a brave racing driver who deserves more than a mere footnote in history
WORDS PIOTR R FRANKOWSKI
COUNT STANISŁAW Czaykowski was the antithesis of a celebrity: he showed up, he drove. He didn’t care if people knew how much money he had and his wife always accompanied him at races. His family, a branch of a noble clan, had emigrated to the Netherlands from Poland in the 19th Century when the Polish state was partitioned by Russia, Prussia and Austro-Hungary and those who could escape the persecution started new lives elsewhere.
Stanisław was born in The Hague in 1899 and, growing up, had absolutely no intention of relying on family wealth for an easy life. He joined the French Foreign Legion aged 17 and fought with distinction in World War One. Later in life, while preparing for night practice at Le Mans, he compared getting up pre-dawn at La Sarthe to awaking in a cold, damp trench.
As a naturalised Frenchman, the Count owned a house in Paris but lived mostly at his mansion in Cap d’Ail on the French Riviera. Little is known of his career but, having built his own fortune, at the age of 30 he decided to race cars and bought a Bugatti Type 35A from Nice-based Bugatti agent Ernest Friderich.
Friderich was an accomplished racer and became Czaykowski’s friend and mentor. Since the Count was not a works driver, he had to pay for his car to be upgraded by the Molsheim factory and, in a smart move, poached brilliant Alsatian mechanic Jean Georgenthum. Known affectionately to Czaykowski as ‘Yéri’, he remained his personal mechanic to the end.
The Count’s first race was the Grand Prix du Comminges in France’s Haute-Garonne and the inexperienced Pole calmly won the under-1500cc class. In 1930 he contested five Grands Prix, bought a faster T35C mid-season, and finished fourth in the French GP. The following year he finished last at Monaco, which angered him enough to invest in a Type 51. Czaykowski then won the Casablanca GP with it.
He subsequently drove well in the qualifying session for the Grand Prix of Geneva, but while taking evasive action crashed into the porch of a house in Meyrin, fatally wounding a spectator. The Count broke a rib and injured his leg, but it didn’t discourage him. He did well in the Grand Prix de la Marne, run at the Reims-Gueux circuit, and also led the Dieppe GP, cementing his status as a racing driver on a European level.
The Tunis GP in April 1932 had an entry list comprising such names as Varzi, Chiron, Wimille, von Morgen, Veyron, Fagioli, Dreyfus, Étancelin… and Czayko
