Following the death of Mr. Jean-Louis Guillou, Hervé Poncharal, his right-hand man for 10 years, shared his feelings with us.
Hervé Poncharal, we of course saw the message published by Tech3 after the death of Mr. Jean-Louis Guillou, and we know you were particularly moved by this news since he was someone who was very important to you...
"Yes, it's true that since early Friday afternoon when we learned the sad news, I've been sad, I'm moved, and obviously I can't help but think about Jean-Louis Guillou who has passed away. I always called him Monsieur Guillou, I didn't call him Jean-Louis, and every time I think about it, because it's still very new, I can't get used to the idea that he's gone. And when I think about it, I'm associated with all the memories that are linked to the time when I worked with him, magical memories. It's clear that, as I've already said a few times, Monsieur Guillou is someone who was extremely important for motorcycling in France, for competitive motorcycling in France too, and not just in France. And he was someone of capital importance in my professional life, in my commitment to motorcycling competition. I said it, and it wasn't just in the blink of an eye, it's a reality.
At the end of 82, beginning of 83, Japan had clearly decided to expand its racing activities to promote road racing, road racing, because there was a new engine architecture, a new technology, which was the V 4. And to support the launch of the V 4, competition was the number one tool. Plus in the off-road championships in which we were involved as Honda France, the African rallies, with a high point, the single-cylinders were starting to seriously struggle against the BMW twin-cylinders, and so we were going to see the creation one or two years later, of the Honda NXR. So Mr. Guillou decided to increase his staff in the competition department, since he was director of the competition department of Honda France, direct bridgehead of Honda Motor and its racing department which was called HRC, and he decided to hire Guy Coulon as technical director and me, Hervé Poncharal, as his assistant. My title was assistant to the director of the competition department. And so when he hired Guy and me, obviously, Mr. Guillou was the link that made Guy and I end up working together, getting to know each other, and even if we spent a decade with Mr. Guillou, a decade later Guy and I decided to leave the Honda France ship to fly on our own, and create Tech3. So if we want to take a little shortcut, I think that Jean-Louis Guillou, in a way, is the one who is at the origin of the meeting and the Hervé-Guy association, and in a way he is our godfather.
And if we did Tech3, it's also because we learned a lot from Jean-Louis Guillou. He taught us rigor, intellectual honesty, respect for the people we work with, sponsors and manufacturers, and to have a strong bond with the drivers. When you start competing, when you're young like I was at the time, you love racing, during the day you work and in the evening you're a group of friends who tend to want to have fun. It's a bit like the Continental Circus in the 60s/70s. Mr. Guillou, he taught me that when you get to a certain level, there's a factory involved behind it, partners who invest significant amounts of money to create a positive brand image, and everything has to be organized, everything has to be framed and everything has to be managed in a professional and serious manner. And that's all he taught me. At the beginning, since I had raced and we had met when I won the ACO handlebars which were sponsored by Honda, I was still a bit of a rider in my head when I started working with him. And one day I said “Can’t I, on Monday after the race, try out the bikes and have a little ride?”, because I was still dreaming about it. And he told me something that struck me but was very important to me, “Hervé, we’re on one side or the other of the wall! Either we’re on the side of the wall where we take the times, and that’s management, or we’re on the track and we’re a driver, but we can’t do both”. And that struck me. At the time, at the time, I thought that my boss wasn’t very nice. Then I understood and I remember that thing a lot, which struck me a lot. He taught me rigour, you can’t be a jack of all trades, and even if at the time there was still a bit of rock and roll, there had to be a meticulous organisation within all that.
I learned a lot from him, a lot, a lot, a lot. And it's clear that he's the one who got me into this field of race management, directly into an official team which was the official Honda France team which was the extension of Japan's commitment, the armed wing of Japan in endurance and African rallies. He obviously introduced me to a lot of people, a lot of drivers, a lot of sponsors. Thanks to him, when there was the Rothmans International agreement with Honda Motor International, I was able to meet the people at Rothmans, I knew the people at Honda in Japan, and the first season of Tech 3, it was with Rothmans and with Honda, so it's clear that there is a continuity between what we were doing at Honda France and the first seasons of Tech3.
So Mr. Guillou is my professional dad, he is my godfather and he is the godfather of Tech3.
So okay, professional, rational, yes, but also human values, because you didn't really have a job interview before he decided to make you his assistant...
"Mr. Guillou, I met him for the first time when I won the ACO Honda handlebars, during the winter of 51-82, so I must have been 25 or 26 years old. There was a meal to celebrate all this, and I was sitting next to Monsieur Guillou, so I was super impressed and everything. But we had already exchanged a little because I had spent lunch with him. And then at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 82, the official Hondas, the last 4 cylinders, they all broke, and the first Honda, well it was the Honda that I was driving. And so out of 24 hours he must have spent 00 hours in our box, and we had known each other a little, yes. So he knew me, I knew him, but I was super impressed. And when, a year later, there was this desire, or rather this need, for Honda Motor to expand the Honda France structure, he obviously remembered me. And yes, there was still a job interview. He called me, there were no cell phones back then so I don't even remember how he got my number, and he said he asked if I could come see him. So I was all trembling because it was at Honda France which had just set up in Marne la Vallée at the time, they were magnificent premises. It was in October, I think, there was full preparation for the Dakar and so he was running everywhere, we called him non-stop, so I was there in a little corner, waiting for him to find the time to see me. And I always remember, he had a fairly large desk, he had an armchair like you have behind this kind of desk, and opposite there was a small folding seat without a back. I was sitting on my little stool, so to speak, and I had a little chat with him, but a very nice one. I think in his head it was already done. And me, in this interview, I almost devalued myself, because I said to him “but why are you taking me? I have no experience. Will I really be up to it? Want to be your assistant, but I have never managed a competition stable, a competition program, etc.” And he said to me “precisely, I took you for that, because you are young, because you have no preconceptions, and I saw you and I want to work with you”. Here. When I left there, I was happy, but on the other hand, I was worried because I really wondered if I was going to be up to it. But there was an interview anyway, and after that I spent almost 10 years where we really experienced a lot of things together. For example, every lunchtime, it was his bubble of oxygen, we didn't eat in the canteen, we ate at the small aerodrome in Lognes, at the Air Pub. So I spent time with him, sharing many, many moments where we obviously talked about work, but we also talked about other things. He spoke to me about Normandy at the time, about its flowers, I spoke to him about my native Var. And yes, I spent 10 years, really, really close with him. I think he spent more time with me than with his family, and vice versa. Mr. Guillou was someone who was charismatic, but he was one of the few people in the world that I could never have addressed informally. Somewhere there was a kind of modesty, as some people of that generation do, perhaps even more so. There was always a distance. I told you that I ate lunch with him every day, with him every day, but there was always this distance.
Finally, one last thing, when we left Honda France, we created Tech3 and we didn't see each other much anymore. We didn't part on bad terms at all, but we were fully into our adventure. In addition, physically, we had moved to the Var, he was still in Marne la Vallée, so we saw each other less. We called each other, but we didn't see each other anymore. But there was a time when he decided to sell Normandy to come and settle down and live in the Var, in Beausset. And I saw him again in the years, I would say 2010, at the Sunday Ride Classic. And I found him different. He didn't have that side with the reserve anymore. At one point, I don't even know if he didn't address me informally. I think that as we get older, a lot of restraint goes away, and we tell ourselves that we have to get to the point and we may have less of a filter between what our heart wants to say and what comes out of our mouth. I liked that a lot. When I left him, he was my boss, he was Monsieur Guillou, incredible respect, but always with a certain distance. I was always on my guard when I was with him. And there, at the limit, I would have practically taken him in my arms and talked with him. We laughed a little more than before. It made me happy to see that and to experience that with him, even if it was relatively fleeting.
In any case, I am very sad and very moved to speak about it again now, and yes, as I said, it is infinite and eternal Thank You for everything I owe him."
