Nadege Ferrier (Washer)

 

Nadege (left) with Gilberte Thirion and the Renault Dauphine

Nadege Ferrier, also known as Nadege Washer, was a Swiss driver who competed extensively in sportscar events in Europe in the 1950s. 

She began competing in hillclimbs, something she would return to throughout her career.

From 1954, she often partnered Gilberte Thirion in races and rallies, co-driving her to victory in the 1956 Tour de Corse. She had been an effective co-driver to Gilberte since 1954, when she helped pilot her Gmund Porsche 356 to sixth overall in the Randonnee des Routes Blanches in Belgium and fourth in the Soleil-Cannes Rally. The two women probably met via family connections; Nadege’s first husband Jacques Washer was a sometime rally driver and a cousin to Olivier Gendebien, Le Mans winner, team-mate and boyfriend of Gilberte for some time.

She and Gilberte shared cars, including the Tour de Corse Renault Dauphine and the Porsche 356 she drove on the 1960 Nürburgring 1000km. Their first major race together was the 1955 Mille Miglia, driving a Gordini T15S. Gilberte owned the car jointly with Annie Bousquet, who was down as the car’s entrant and had shared it since 1954, but had largely distanced herself from Gilberte by now. 

They travelled extensively together, taking the Dauphine to Sebring for the 1957 12 Hour race and finishing 35th, second in class. They were supported by the Renault factory.

She sometimes raced with other drivers, like when she and esteemed journalist Bernard Cahier contested the 1956 Mille Miglia in a Dauphine. She had intended to compete with Gilberte, but her usual team-mate decided quite late on to tackle the Italian classic by herself. Nadege knew that Cahier, another recipient of a works Dauphine, was looking for a co-driver and the pair joined forces.

The Tour de France Auto was one of her favourite events and she entered at least five times, between 1958 and 1962. Her best finish was sixth in 1961, assisted by Ginette Derolland. She excelled in long-distance multi-stage road races and was fourth in the 1959 Mille Miglia. Her car, a Porsche 356, was the first non-Ferrari home.

The 356 remained her favoured personal car for the rest of her career, at least when she was driving herself.

After Gilberte retired, Nadege continued to compete. She and Paul Frere raced a 356 in the 1959 Nürburgring 1000km, coming in 21st. The same year, she partnered the flamboyant French driver, Annie Soisbault, for the Monte Carlo Rally. Annie was part of the Triumph team that year.

The following year, she partnered Heinz Schiller, driving for Ecurie Leman. They were 16th in the 1960 Nurburgring 1000km and fifth in the 2000cc GT class. Unfortunately, the pair parted ways after the Trophee d’Auvergne at Clermont-Ferrand. Nadege had a big crash in the team’s 356B and it was severely damaged.

Back in her own Porsche, she did another Tour de France with Annie Spiers and then went on to the best result of her career: second in the Coupes du Salon at Montlhery. 

Later in her career, she also returned to hillclimbing, and was seventh in the 1961 Col de la Faucille event.

Women Drivers in the 12 Hours of Reims

Isabelle Haskell and Annie Bousquet with their Porsche in 1956

The 12 Hours of Reims was a major sportscar race that ran, on and off, between 1953 and 1967. It was held at the Reims-Gueux circuit in France, and was a round of the World Sportscar Championship (or the World Championship for Makes) between 1953 and 1965.

It is significant for the 1956 edition, during which Annie Bousquet was killed in a crash early on. This accident, and the negative publicity that stemmed from it, was the cause of women drivers being banned from major circuit races in France until the early 1970s, although the ban at Reims itself was lifted much earlier.

1953

Yvonne Simon/Jean Hémard (Panhard Monopole) – 14^th

1954

Gilberte Thirion/Olivier Gendebien (Gordini T15S) – 14^th

1955

Race cancelled

1956

Gilberte Thirion/Roger Loyer (Gordini T15S) – DNF

1500cc:

Gilberte Thirion/Roger Loyer (Gordini T15S) – DNF

Annie Bousquet/Isabelle Haskell (Porsche 550) – DNF

1957

No female entries

1958

No female entries

1959-1963

No race held

1964

Annie Soisbault/Claude Dubois (Porsche 904) – 13^th

1965

Annie Soisbault/Gérard Langlois van Ophem (Ferrari 250 LM) – DNF

1966

No race held

1967

No female entries

(Image from http://type550.com/)

Gilberte Thirion

Gilberte in the Porsche 550

Perhaps one of the first in a long line of fine Belgian all-rounders (Jacky Ickx, Marc Goossens, Olivier Gendebien), Gilberte was born into a motoring family in 1928. Her father was Max Thirion, a veteran sportscar racer with Targa Florio experience.

Naturally, Gilberte moved among motoring circles too, and in her early twenties, she was the public relations officer for Champion Spark Plugs. She had inherited her father's passion for motorsport and entered her first rally in 1951, at the age of twenty-three, driving a Healey. She failed to finish the event, the Soleil de Cannes Rally, but was not put off. Later that year, she encountered an aluminium-bodied Gmünd Porsche 356SL racing special, which had won its class at Le Mans, at a motor show. She was smitten, and her father went to great lengths to buy the vehicle for her. Eventually, its owner found it too powerful for road use and sold it to Max, probably to his great relief.

The 356 was Gilberte's car of choice for the 1952 season. With her father as navigator, she entered the Paris-St Raphaël womens' rally, and was rewarded with second in class. The father-daughter pairing entered three other rallies that year. They retired from the Lyon-Charbonnieres and Alpine events, but were an excellent fifth, with a class win, in Gilberte's second Soleil de Cannes. She also teamed up with former French Grand Prix driver, Germaine Rouault, for two African rallies, the Moroccan and the 12 Hours of Casablanca, but failed to finish either. Her final competition of the year was the Tour de France, with Ingeborg Polensky, but they were disqualified. She had had better luck in her first sprint, the 1 Kilometre Flying Start at Wolvertem; 191 kph was good enough for a class record. Switching seats in her rally car, she guided fellow Belgian van den Kaart to a 125th place in the Rally of the Tulips. They were the first Belgian finishers.

1953 started very badly indeed. Driving a new Porsche 356, Gilberte crashed badly on the Paris-St Raphaël Rally, right at the end of the event, in which she had been near the front. Her injuries put her out of action for over two months. She and Ingeborg Polensky withdrew from the Rally of the Tulips, and Max Thirion took his daughter's place in the Mille Miglia. (He came second in class.)

Gilberte could have been forgiven for giving up there and then, but she was not that kind of person. In May of 1953 she entered Ingeborg Polensky's Porsche into her first race, an event for Porsches at the Nürburgring. It nearly ended in tears again when she had an excursion off track, but she impressed many onlookers by fighting back to eighth place. The following week, she and Polensky entered the 12 Hours of Hyeres and came fourth in class. Her other race of the year was the Spa 24 Hours. She and Frenchwoman Annie Bousquet drove a Fiat 1100 to sixteenth place overall, the Ladies' Cup and the King's Cup for the best Belgian finisher.

Rallying has not been forgotten. The Alpine event brought mixed fortunes for Gilberte and Lise Renaud. They scored class wins in the Monza stage and the Cannes driving test but dropped to 44th overall with a broken clutch pedal and shock absorbers. The Porsche was running better on the Moroccan Rally, in which they were eighth overall, second in class and the first lady finishers. However, another retirement beckoned for the Thirion/Polensky partnership on the Tour de France, again due to clutch and suspension problems. Again, Gilberte managed to fit in more "extra-curricular" activities. She co-drove Gonzague Olivier to a class win on the Tour of Belgium, and Helmut Polensky to thirteenth on the Sestriere Rally. Driving solo, she set another speed record, just over 201 kmh, at Jabbeke, in her Porsche.

The partnership with Gonzague Olivier continued in 1954. They won their first rally together, the Rallye des Routes du Nord, in February. They also led the Bol d'Or race at Montlhèry until their Porsche's engine failed. Gilberte formed many strong teams with other drivers during her relatively short racing career and another of these began on her second event of 1954. She and erstwhile hillclimber Nadège Washer (later Ferrier) came sixth on the Randonnée des Routes Blanches Rally in the 356. They were also fourth, with a class win, on the Soleil de Cannes.

Her other rallying exploits for that year included a series of events with former Grand Prix driver Olivier Gendebien. As his co-driver, she was tenth on the Lyon-Charbonnieres in a Fiat, and when the roles were reversed the pair did even better. They were fourth on the Evian Mont Blanc-Megève Rally and seventh on the Tour of Italy, scoring class wins both times, in a Porsche and Plymouth respectively. On their racing debut together they were fourteenth in the Rheims 12 Hours in a Gordini.

Other partnerships had not been forgotten: Annie Bousquet and Gilberte contested the Mille Miglia together in a Gordini, she and Ingeborg Polensky drove a works Porsche to top-five finishes on the Tours of France and Belgium, and Lise Renaud partnered her again in the Morocco Rally. 1954 was also a year of superb solo efforts by the Belgian. She was third on the Paris-St Raphaël, 25th on the Rally of Rallyemen and second in class in a sportscar race at Spa, in the Gordini. By far her best result was her first race win; a single-handed drive in the Porsche in the 12 Hours of Huy. The only real disappointment that year was going out of Le Mans early on, in a Gordini T17S. Her co-driver was Andre Pilette. It is not clear whether Gilberte even got to drive.

The next season started with another win in the Huy endurance race, this time in the ageing Gordini 1100. That year, Gilberte switched between this car and a devastatingly quick Mercedes 300SL, as driven by Stirling Moss. In the Mercedes, she won the 1 Kilometre Flying Start of Waterloo, the Come hillclimb, the Coppa Corallo race at Cagliari and the Stella Alpina rally, this time with Olivier Gendebien. The Gordini brought her a sixth in class in the Mille Miglia with Nadège Washer, but gave up before the end of the Bol d'Or alongside Andre Milhoux. Her only other retirement of the year came on the Agadir GP, in a Porsche 550.

At the end of 1955, Gilberte teamed up with Lise Renaud again, in a Renault 4CV. They were second in class on the Tour of Belgium and 40th (second in the under 750cc class) on the Monte Carlo Rally of 1956. Gilberte later changed to a Dauphine for the Mille Miglia and was second in class again. This year, she would drive many different cars. In between her Renault drives she was second on the Lyon-Charbonnières Rally and first on the La Roche hillclimb in two different Porsches. After her first outing in the Dauphine, she won the Come hillclimb again in last year's Mercedes. A ride in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta with Italian touring car ace Ada Pace was good for sixteenth in the Nürburgring 1000Km race, and the Italian theme continued throughout the summer. She and Anna Maria Peduzzi drove Peduzzi's Ferrari 500TR to two tenth spots in the 1000km races at Paris and Monza, but a return to the Gordini 1100 in the Rheims 12 Hours brought another retirement.

In the Swedish Sportscar Grand Prix, Gilberte and Claude Dubois were twelfth in a Porsche 550. Her final Porsche drive of the year (and her career) was an eleventh place on the Tour de France, with Ingeborg Polensky. After that, she contested two more rallies in a Renault Dauphine, winning her class on the Tour of Belgium with Lise Renaud and winning the first ever Tour of Corsica outright with Nadège Ferrier. This achievement means that Gilberte is one of a select handful of women to have won a World Championship Rally. Rightly, she was awarded the Belgian Order of Sporting Merit at the end of the year.

1957 was her last year of active competition and she only entered one race. She and Nadege Ferrier crossed the Atlantic to race their Dauphine in the Sebring 12 Hours. They came 35th, second in class. Gilberte had entered the race before in 1954 but her and Annie Bousquet's entry was not accepted. Bousquet died in a racing accident at Rheims the previous year and this was perhaps one of the reasons that Gilberte decided to call it a day. She and Annie were sometimes rivals but often team-mates, and had shared ownership of a Porsche for the 1954 racing season.

On reflection, Gilberte had the sense to bow out while still near the top, before other, younger drivers could show her up. After leaving motorsport, she raised a family in Brussels. She died in 2008, aged eighty, after serious health problems arising from Parkinson’s disease.

(Image from www.porsche356sl.com)

Annie Bousquet

The name of Annie Bousquet is no longer well known, although she was a very influential driver, albeit in an unfortunate way. Adopted Frenchwoman Annie died following injuries sustained in a crash at the Reims 12 Hour sportscar race in 1956. Subsequently, women were barred from ACO-sanctioned events in France until 1971, due to fears for their safety. This chiefly meant the Le Mans 24 Hours. The ban had an impact on many female drivers' careers, like Maria Teresa de Filippis, who was unable to drive in the French Grand Prix.

Annie was born in Vienna, Austria, in the mid-1920s. Her exact date of birth is debated. Prior to her marriage to a Frenchman, Pierre Bousquet, she was known as Annie Schaffer. Pierre also raced, and it seems to have been through him that she got involved in motorsport.

Her first forays into competitive motorsport were in 1952. She entered the Alpine Rally in a Renault, but does not appear to have finished. As well as this, she entered other rallies in Europe, with varying degrees of success.

Annie's death put paid to a promising racing career, as well as making life difficult for other women drivers. She began circuit racing in earnest in 1953. Alongside the Belgian Gilberte Thirion, she came 16th in the Spa 24 Hours, using a Fiat 1100. Prior to that, Annie and the veteran Simone des Forest made the finish of the Mille Miglia in Annie's Renault 4CV. Annie, driving solo, also entered a race at Agen in a DB-Panhard, but it ended in a bad crash in which she was injured.

The Bousquet/Thirion pairing were to compete again the following year in the Mille Miglia, in a Gordini T17S. This time they were 55th and fifth in the 1500cc class. They owned the car together and it was Annie's regular mount that year. She came sixth in the Agadir Grand Prix in Morocco and continued her African adventures in the Senegal GP. Closer to home, she won a qualifying heat for the Nimes GP, but failed to start the final with car trouble. There was more bad luck for Annie and Gilberte in the Sebring 12 Hours. The authorities were not keen on female participants and did not accept their entry. She had a better run in the Tour de France, in which she was eighth with Marie-Claire Beaulieu, driving a Porsche 550. This was one of her best results.

Although Annie and Gilberte were still joint owners of the Gordini through 1955, they did not race it together. It was reported that the two had become very jealous of one another, whenever one got a better drive than the other. They competed separately from now on.

The powerful Porsche gave her her best-ever finish, second in the Bol D'Or at Montlhèry with Josef Jeser in 1955. However, she was only an active participant for the first four hours or so of the race. Another driver had to have a leg amputated at the scene due to a serious accident, which made her lose her nerve and sit the rest of the race out.

She was less successful in Agadir and crashed the Porsche, which had already suffered damage in an abortive speed record attempt at Montlhèry.

1956 was a turbulent year. Early on, Pierre Bousquet died in a traffic accident after skidding on ice. Annie, naturally, was badly affected and withdrew from competition for a while. During the spring, she resumed her career and accepted an offer to have another crack at the Mille Miglia in a Triumph TR2, driving for the works team this time. She came 95th. She also took advantage of an invitation to drive Alejandro de Tomaso's Maserati 150S in the Paris 1000km race. De Tomaso was her team-mate. They did not finish.

The 550 that brought Annie her greatest success would also be her downfall. The Reims 12 Hours was her first major competition of the year in the car and she was sharing it with Isabelle Haskell, the American driver who was the partner of Alejandro de Tomaso. She crashed heavily on lap 27 and was thrown out of the vehicle. Although she was rushed to hospital, she was pronounced dead on arrival. Fellow competitors blamed fatigue on Annie's part, as she had competed in two very long races in succession as well as driven to the Porsche to and from a workshop before qualifying at Reims. This meant that she had probably not slept for two nights. During her life, Annie was considered a very competitive driver, sometimes excessively so, who was keen to prove herself against men and often took risks to do so. Certain observers claim that this competitive streak turned to recklessness following her husband's death, but this is conjecture.

The turn at the Reims circuit where the accident happened is now named after Annie, and the Annie Bousquet award, for high-performing women in French motorsport, was created in her honour.

(Image copyright PA)

Anna Maria Peduzzi

Anna Maria with the Stanguellini

Anna Maria Peduzzi enjoyed a lengthy motorsport career spanning almost thirty years. She was born in Olgiate, Italy in 1912 and started racing very early, in the first years of the 1930s. She married Gianfranco Alessandro Maria Comotti, always known as Franco, in 1932. He was also a racer and the couple were team-mates occasionally. Franco was known more as a test driver and Anna Maria was definitely more the competition driver of the two.

Her career began in local races and hillclimbs. In 1932, she is recorded as having set the third fastest time in class F of the Gaisbergrennen hillclimb, driving an Alfa Romeo 6C. Here, she was credited as "Marocchina", rather than her full name. "Marocchina" means "Moroccan girl" in Italian and her nickname reflected her dark skin and black hair.

Anna Maria's first major race was the 1934 Mille Miglia. She and Franco were sharing the Alfa Romeo 6C she had raced the previous year. They won the 1500cc class and were thirteenth overall, a good debut. They were driving for the recently-formed Scuderia Ferrari. This was Anna Maria's only attempt at the classic race, pre-war.

"Marocchina" raced around Italy throughout the 1930s, in local championships and speed events. Exact details of her activities are sketchy. At some point in her life, she contracted polio, from which she made a good recovery, and this may explain some of her absences from race records. It is believed that this happened prior to World War II.

The Second World War put a stop to all motorsport activities in Europe in 1940, meaning an enforced hiatus for all drivers involved. Franco was a committed anti-Fascist and was almost executed for his resistance work during the war, which must have been very frightening for Anna Maria. I have never read that she was involved in any resistance activities herself, but it is feasible that she helped in one way or another.

After the war was over, things took a while to get back up to speed, but by the time we meet Anna Maria again in 1952, motor racing was back to normal. This year, her vehicle of choice was a 750cc Stanguellini. It proved to be an excellent car. Competing around Italy, she scored some very good finishes. At Montauban, she came fifth in her heat and seventh in the final. The Coppa Ascoli followed the same format and yielded a second in the heat and a third in the final. She was fourth in both rounds at Collemaggio.

The Circuito di Senigallia was probably her best race of the year; she was second in the 750cc event to Salvatore Casella, another Stanguellini pilot. Her next event was the legendary Pescara 12-hour road race, which she failed to finish, but she made up for that somewhat by winning her class at the Trofeo Sardo. At the Bari Grand Prix she was fourth.

It was not all good news for Anna Maria in 1952; in the Eifelrennen 750cc race she was disqualified from her class win for receiving a push start from a bystander. This was considered unfair by many, as Anna Maria's polio had left her with a weakness in her arms, making her unable to push her own car.

Wisely, she stayed with the Stanguellini for the 1953 season. This year, she appears to have concentrated on a smaller number of big races. The highlights of her year were a third in class in the Giro di Sicilia with Augusto Zocca and another third in class in her second Mille Miglia. Her car was shared with Franco Goldoni this time and they were 117th overall, out of 283 finishers.

Anna Maria's first Targa Florio was a difficult introduction, and she retired following an accident. This did not prevent her from returning the following year, in the Stanguellini. She did not manage to finish this time either, but her exit was less dramatic.

The rest of 1954 was a mixed bag. She and Augusto Zocca teamed up again for the Giro di Sicilia, but did not finish. Driving solo, she was third in the 750cc class at the Circuito Santa Gorizia and later won that class again in the Trofeo Sardo. She was less successful in the Giro della Calabrie, coming fifth in class this time. The Castelfusano 6-hour race gave her another third in class. The Mille Miglia saw her driving with Franco Goldoni again. They did not finish.

The Stanguellini continued to be Anna Maria's mount for the 1955 season. She revisited some of her previous haunts and ventured to new tracks as well. Her attempt at the Mille Miglia was more successful than the previous one; she and Augusto Zocca were 99th, fifth in the 750cc class. She was second in the same class in the Circuito di Gorizia and fifth overall in one of the two races she contested at Mugello. The other result has been lost, although it is known that she was on the start list. For a greater challenge, she entered her car into the up to 1100cc class event of the Circuito di Reggio Calabria and was seventh. Her second race in that region, the longer Giro di Calabria, resulted in a DNF.

For most of 1956, the lady from Olgiate raced a 2000cc, four-cylinder Ferrari 500 TR, the only one of its kind built. For her first major outings in this powerful machine, she formed a team with Gilberte Thirion of Belgium. They were tenth in the two big races they did together, the Paris 1000km and the Supercortemaggiore Grand Prix. In Paris, they also scored a 2000cc class win. Back in her native Italy, Anna Maria was ninth in the Circuito di Reggio Calabria and unclassified in the Circuito di Sassari, after coming fourth in her heat. For her last big race of the year, she changed her car for a Stanguellini S1100 and was eighth in the Roma GP. Throughout her career, Anna Maria was always very patriotic with her choice of cars, racing Italian models almost exclusively.

In 1957, she took a break from international competition. She retained ownership of the Ferrari and returned with it the following year. Again, she was rather selective with her events and chose to partake in a few bigger races rather than lots of minor ones. At the beginning of the season, she was eleventh in the Pergusa GP. Later on, she tried her hand at the Targa Florio for the third time, driving with Francesco Siracusa. They did not make the finish. In between, Anna Maria was scheduled to drive in the Buenos Aires 1000km, which would have been her furthest trip abroad. However, for reasons unknown, she did not go to the race herself. The Ferrari was crewed by Gino Munaron and Luciano Mantovani instead. For some reason, she rarely raced outside Italy at any time during her career.

Her career continued in the same vein in 1959. Using the Ferrari and a 750cc OSCA prepared by the Scuderia Saint Ambroeus, Anna Maria, who was now 47, entered a small selection of the bigger Italian races. In the Ferrari, she was third in the 2000cc section of the Coppa Ambroeus at Monza, and unclassified at the Messina GP. In the OSCA, she was 20th in the Targa Florio with Giancarlo Rigamonti. They were third in the 750cc class.

The Ferrari was retired in 1960. Anna Maria contested her last Targa Florio in another OSCA, this time a 1500cc F2 model. She was driving with Francesco Siracusa, also her partner in 1958. They were 17th overall, third in the class for cars under 1600cc.

Her other race that year was the Coppa Ascari at Monza. Her car this time was a little 600cc NSU Prinz and her co-driver was Luisa Pozzoli, another female sportscar ace who had competed against Anna Maria in previous years. They were fifth in class, 26th in the main standings.

Her last year of competition was 1961. The only major event she entered that year was the Coppa Ascari. She and Alma Cacciandra failed to finish in the Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

Throughout her lengthy career, Anna Maria competed against a good many future Grand Prix drivers and more than "held her own". Interestingly, someone she often raced against in the early 1950s was Maria Teresa de Filippis. The older Anna Maria sometimes beat the future Formula One driver and it is interesting to speculate what would have happened if Anna Maria had shown interest in single-seater racing, or travelled more widely to events.

After her retirement from the racetrack, Anna became a wholly private individual, and rather reclusive. Her date of death is not even widely known.

(Image from www.omniauto.it)