18/2/1943 - 1/5/1966
Record updated 01-May-19
Jacques Bernusset was a French citizen with a Belgian racing licence. He suffered fatal injuries and burns when his F3 Cooper T76-Ford crashed and caught fire on Sunday May 1, 1966 at Magny-Cours.
Jacques Bernusset was French citizen though he spent most of his life in Belgium and had a Belgian racing licence and it is possible that he acquired Belgian citizenship.
He began racing when he was 19 years old in an old Lola MK5 Formula Junior which he bought for a bargain price. In 1964 he had a Cooper T72 F.3 for Team Swaelens with which he won the Belgian F.3 Championship that year and 1965 he retained his title in a new Cooper T76.
He had his best results in International F3 winning F3 races like the ADAC Eifelpokal Rennen at Nurburgring in 1964, ahead of Manfred Mohr (Brabham BT9) and Walter Habegger (Brabham BT9), and the Littoral G.P. at Porto Roz in Yugoslavia.
Jacques Bernusset had retired with gearbox problems during first heat af the F3 race at Magny-Cours, but he decided to start the second heat in spite of this.
During first laps he passed a few cars in his Cooper, but while approaching the fastest bend on the circuit, he went off the road, overturned and crashed into a tree. He died at the scene, the rescuers discovered Bernusset trapped in the tubes of the chassis.