Although known to the general public for his career in song, David Hallyday, whose real name is David Smet - just like Paul Belmondo - had a career in the automobile.
He participated in numerous competitions until 2019 and took part, among others, eight times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
A pilot's dream.
However, things didn't always go the way he wanted.
Anne-Élisabeth Lemoine took it up again a few years earlier, in 2016, when David Hallyday was running during the endurance competition.
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"We led the race in our category until six in the morning and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, generally, there is morning dew,"
he told the columnists.
Bad luck, that very morning it had rained on the circuit.
"I called on the radio to get me in and get my tires changed for the rain and was told I had to stay behind."
So that's what the driver did for a few laps
“but two or three laps at Le Mans is a lot of kilometres.
I told them that the car was no longer holding and that I was going to crash.
And I planted myself
.
The singer still regrets today not having won that day.
“It was very complicated because it's the biggest endurance race in the world and I didn't want to contradict it
, he explains before adding:
I caused the team to lose and that was traumatic for me.
You don't just fail you, it's a whole team that fails at the 24 Hours of Le Mans so I had nightmares.
This failure, however, helped him to build himself for the future.
"Today, I look at it as an experience that you had to go through."
