Marie-Claude Charmasson got the passion for car racing from her father and her mother. Her dad was a Citroen car dealer and an amateur rally racer, once finishing third in the 1953 Monte Carlo Rally. Het mother did also some local rallying. Marie-Claude, when she was around 20 years old, gave a hand to the Citroen crew when the passed the city of GAP on their way in the Rally Monte Carlo, the Coupe des Alpes or the Tour de France. Rene Cotton, the Citroen competition manager, used her one time to check the mountain roads in her mother’s car before the rally cars would pass through. The Charmasson garage was later used as the assistance point for Citroen during the rallies, but also for other English teams, because ‘the small blonde’ spoke excellent English.
In 1964 French Rally champion Claudine Trautmann offered Marie-Claude the chance to be her co-driver in the Routes du Nord and the Rally Neige et Glace. This ended in two wins in the Coupe des Dames. When Claudine left Citroen to join her husband at Lancia, Marie-Claude followed as co-driver. In order not to create problems for her father, she changed her name into Marie-Claude Beaumont.
During 1965, Claudine joined husband, Rene Trautmann. Marie-Claude, winning eight Coupe des dames and the Rally Paris-St Raphael got noted by other teams. Among them 'Titi' Greder, official Ford driver. It is without any doubt that the Greder/Beaumont history started in May 1965 during the Rally de LaBaule in a Ford Mustang ; it was more than a sports relation…She got well integrated in the team, but slowly she wanted to get behind the steering wheel. At the official ceremony of the Tour de Corse, Greder presented her to Pierre Ferry, the director of the CEIDA-NSU rally team. He was looking for an all-woman rally team for the 1966 season. When Henri said that she had to try the NSU first before signing a contract, Marie-Claude listened to him. And so, Beaumont and team mate Ginette Desrolland did a good Criterium des Cevennes rally in 1965, winning again a Coupe des Dames.
That made her a professional racing driver in a world next to champions Gerard Larousse and Guy Chasseuil in a works drive for NSU. Together with Ginette, Marie-Claude won in 1966 the Coupe des Dames in the Rally du Touquet, Rally de Mont Blanc, Tour de Corse. In 1967 she won the Coupe in the Rally Bordeaux-Sud Ouest and became second in the Paris-St Raphael. In 1967 she got her first taste of circuit racing at the Spa 24 Hour race. Driving for NSU Belgique together with Christine Beckers through the fog and rain they won the Group 1 title and the Coupes des Dames. They teamed together for 1968 and won the Coupe des Dames in the Tulpen Rally, the rally du Lorraine and finally the Paris-St Raphael rally.
After a final win in the Criterium des Cevennes 1968, Beaumont felt it was time to move up to cars with more power and speed. Henry Greder had just formed “Greder Racing” running General Motors cars. Marie-Claude, knowing the team, joined him. It was a difficult start with an Opel in the Rally Monte-Carlo 1969, but she was right on it in the Rally Lyon- Charbonnieres. An Opel was a good car, but why not try a Chevrolet Camaro ? That car is not really a ‘girl’ thing, but Marie-Claude did it. After winning the Coupe des Dames in the Rallye del’Ouest, she won in the Toerism-class in the Course de cote du Minier and the ultimate explosion was winning this class in the Tour de France 1969. With co-driver Martine de la Grandrive, she finished 17th in the Tour de Corse and in total they won the French Women’s Rally Championship in 1969 . She did that again in 1970 (also finished 4th in the overall standings) with an Opel Commodore and Kadett and GT, still for the Greder Team. She won in total 15 Coupes des Dames that year. In between, she started to drive the Chevrolet Corvette GT on circuits together with Greder.
She was not yet known to the public, but that would change in 1971. For the first time since long, a woman was at the start of the 24 hours of Le Mans. The press got interested in “the blond doll” driving a muscle car, the Corvette. Why did she participated in this race ? Well, she did not want to stand still but went for an evolution of her career. Driving a highly modified Chevrolet Corvette (#2) with Henry Greder, they retired at 4.50 in the morning. In rally. she took her third straight ladies title in 1971, finishing 6th overall still together with Martine de la Grandrive and the Opel GT. She raced a Chevrolet Camaro in the Tour Auto that year winning the Group 1 title.
In 1972 she competed in the European Rally Championship, winning the title. She drove an Opel Ascona Tourism Special and had a new team mate, Christina Giganot. She also won the Coupe des dames in the TAP rally, the rally of Spain, Tour de Corse and the RAC. She finished 5th in the Tour Auto with a Chevrolet Corvette. Again in Le Mans, she retired the Corvette (#29) after a coming together with Howden Ganley's Matra at the Hunaudières with 4 hours to go in the race.
In the 1973 rally championship, nothing worked. To many times, she had to stop the rally due to mechanical failures. But in fact, she wanted to stop rally racing after 1973. In Le Mans, she controlled the 1500 kg machine (#30) with a 7L engine and brought the car to 12th ( P05 GTS)over the finish line.
After the race, she parted from Greder Racing and rented a Lola T290 from JL Lafosse. She finished eight at Magny-Cours and 3th in the Coupes du Salon at Monthlery.
After an outing in the East African Safari Rally 1974 in a Renault 16TS, she went racing in the French Championship Circuit Gr1.Her car was the Opel Commodore GSE Groupe 1 from Greder Racing. With two race victory’s she ended second in the championship behind Greder. This fierce competition between them was also the end of their relation.
In 1974 she finished 18th at Le Mans once again in a Corvette (#51) with Henry Greder.
Petroleum giant Elf was looking for a female racing driver for their program. They decided to give Mari-Claire a test during the Coupes de AGACI on the Monthlery circuit at the wheel of an Alpine Renault A440 from the equipe Archambaud. And, although she was not able to do the same lap times as Gerard Larousse, she won the thrust from Elf.
For 1975, Elf and co-sponsor Switzerland decided to race with an all-women team in the World Sports Car Championship. So Beaumont teamed up with Lella Lombardi in a Renault Alpine A441.
In the 1000 km of Mugello they finished second in class and sixth overall. The next round at Dijon saw them suffer an engine failure. However they were still classified in 13th place and third in class. The fourth round was at Monza, the 1000km. A fine drive saw them win the 2Lclass and cross the line in 4th place overall. A rear suspension failure before the start of the Coppa Florio at Enna-Pergusa meant that they didn't get to race, and at Zeltweg the cam belt went on lap 20 before Marie-Claude got to drive.
They were favourites for the 24hLe Mans. They were 8th in qualifying but in the race the car went out with fuel feed problems in the 1th hour. Marie Claire tried to fix it, but it did not work.
At the end of the season Marie-Claude and Elf2-BMW F2 car at Vallelunga but decided against trying single seaters in competition.
After an outing again in Rally, driving an Alpine A310 in the Monte Carlo Rally, she returned to the French touring car championship in 1976 driving a BMW 3.5 CSI from the MRS team of Pierre Maublanc.It was a difficult season despite a pole=-position at Rouean and awin at Paul Ricard. She had a problem with Titi Greder in Dijon. He ran into her and both cars collided; Grder used some violence at the site in order to get his situation set straight. Again at Le Mans she shared a Kremer Porsche 934 with Didier Pironi and Bob Wollek, finishing 19th outright.
She was then offered a job in the Renault Sport press office, thanks to Gerard Larousse. She accepted the post and hung up her helmet. She worked for Renault F1 from 1977 until 1982 when she left to pursue her passion for photography covering some F1 races and Le Mans.
