Marcel Balsa

Marcel Balsa
Born(1909-01-01)1 January 1909
Creuse, France
Died11 August 1984(1984-08-11) (aged 75)
Maisons-Alfort, France
Formula One World Championship career
NationalityFrance French
Active years1952
Teamsnon-works BMW
Entries1
Championships0
Wins0
Podiums0
Career points0
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry1952 German Grand Prix
Last entry1952 German Grand Prix

Emanuel Marcel Lucien Balsa (January 1, 1909[1] in Creuse – August 11, 1984 in Maisons-Alfort) was a French racing driver.

Balsa started in racing after World War II, when he acquired a Bugatti Type 51 and became quite competitive in the French national events. He later built a BMW-engined Formula 2 car, and had a good reputation, until he tried a Jicey-BMW[2] developed by Jean Caillas.[3] With it he finished third in the Grand Prix of Cadours, the same event where fellow racer Raymond Sommer was killed. He returned to his previous race car and in 1952 raced in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, only to retire after six laps. In 1953 he won a race at Montlhery but then faded from the racing scene.

  1. ^ "Marcel Balsa". oldracingcars.com. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  2. ^ "516_4b.JPG (50x35 pixels)". Archived from the original on 2012-07-12. Retrieved 2012-07-12. (fr) article about Jicey the French race car designer
  3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-05-28. Retrieved 2008-01-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) The Jicey of Jean Caillas has been found !