Olivier Chandon de Brailles
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Olivier Chandon, also called Olivier Chandon de Brailles, Oliver Chandon de Briailles, and Olivier Chandon Debrailles (born in France on September 17, 1955 - March 2, 1983) was a French race car driver, heir to the Moët et Chandon champagne, and one-time boyfriend and fiance of the American supermodel Christie Brinkley.
Chandon spoke five languages, was a race car driver and skydiver. A graduate of Le Rosey School in Switzerland, he served in the French Air Force and later moved to New York City. There he attended New York University to study marketing and worked in the sales department of United Technologies. Earlier, he began racing cars in Europe at age 18, whereby he assumed the shortened name of Olivier Chandon. He later resumed his race car career in the United States.
On March 2, 1983, Chandon, a member of the New York-based Fred Opert Racing Team, was killed while driving a Ralt Formula Atlantic race car in a solo practice session at Moroso Motorsport Park in West Palm Beach, Florida, while preparing for the upcoming Formula Atlantic series races. Traveling over 100 miles per hour, Chandon's vehicle crashed through a barrier, fell into a canal and landed upside down, where he was pinned in his car at the feet and drowned in an otherwise survivable accident. He is buried in the Laferte-sur-Aube cemetery, in Haute-Marne, France.
[edit] References
- New York Times 3/4/83 Obituary at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803E2DF1739F937A35750C0A965948260
- Motorsport Memorial at http://motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php??db=ct&n=1966
- Time Magazine 3/14/83 Issue Obituaries http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,951992-3,00.html
- Christie Brinkley Full Bio http://www.hollywood.com/celebrity/Christie_Brinkley/1195890#fullBio
- Online Photo http://www.motortrend.com/classic/features/112_0707_postcards_from_detroit/photo_07.html