Yet his place in the history of the French enduro was sealed when he hit more than 250mph on the Mulsanne Straight at the wheel of a Peugeot-powered WM Group C car during the race in 1988.
Or rather it was assured two years later when the four-mile drag of public road that is correctly called the Ligne droite des Hunaudieres was split into three with the construction of the pair of chicanes we know today. Never again would the kind of speeds hit by Dorchy, who has died aged 78 after a battle with Parkinson’s disease, be attained around the eight and half miles of the Circuit de la Sarthe.
