Gabrielle Renault

A Renault R8 Gordini from 1966, similar to those rallied by Gabrielle

Gabrielle Renault, often known as Gaby, competed in European rallies in the 1960s. She was the winner of the Paris-St. Raphael women’s rally in 1961. 

She competed on at least two Monte Carlo Rallies, winning the European Championship Coupe des Dames in 1961. She recorded another finish in 1966, starting from Lisbon with Colette Gassier who was her regular navigator that season. The team was captured on a Pathe newsreel film that focused on the British entrants. They tackled the Rally dei Fiori in the Gordini later in the year and finished 14th. 

The Paris-St. Raphael appears to have been one of her favourite events. Following her 1961 victory, she was second in the 1962 running, driving a Dauphine. She was third in the same car in 1963.

She usually drove Renault cars, normally a Gordini-engined Dauphine or R8 for rallies, but she also competed in hillclimbs in other cars. In 1964 she raced an Alpine A108 in the Mont Ventoux hillclimb, finishing 16th. The A108 was based on the Dauphine, but with a sporty fibreglass body. The following year, she drove a Ford Lotus Cortina at the Mont Ventoux climb and was twelfth. 

Among the other cars she sampled are an Alpine-Renault A110 at the 1969 Ronde Cevenole and a rotary-engined NSU Ro80 in the 1970 Tour de France. This proved less successful; she and Francoise Brun were disqualified for being too slow. 

Her career continued until at least 1972, when she entered the Mont Ventoux hillclimb again in an Alpine A110, finishing 37th.

Gabrielle always appeared on entry lists as “Madame Renault”. Her own family name is unclear and it is equally vague as to whether she was married to a member of the Renault motoring family. 

(Image copyright Hagerty Insurance)

Dora Bavio

Dora Bavio raced touring cars in Argentina in the 1960s and 1970s. She began racing in a Renault Gordini, and favoured French cars throughout her short career. The Gordini, her first racing car, was a gift from her father, although intended for road rather than competition use.

She was born in 1942. Unusually for her time, she actually began her motorsport career in karting. Her first car race was in 1966, at Vuelta de Lobos. She was sixth in class in the Gordini. Her next race was two weeks later, at the Autodromo Buenos Aires, and she was third.

Things went rather quiet for “Dorita”, as she became known, after her promising first year. She disappeared from the circuits for a while.

In 1970, she entered the Argentine national touring car championship, driving a Peugeot 404 in the Improved Touring class. She drove in seven events, and had a best finish of eighth, in her first race at Salto. At least some of these races were two-driver enduros; Susana Renzulli was among her co-drivers. Her last event of the year was the Argentine Touring Car Grand Prix, which she did not finish, stopping after the third stage.

In 1972, she raced a Peugeot 504 in the championship, but only did one race, which she did not finish. In between races, she worked as a racing instructor.

Much later, in 1985, Dora reappeared on the rally stage. She took part in the Rally of Argentina, driving a Peugeot 504, and was 39th overall. The car was considerably older than most of the field, but not the only 504 in the rally.

She may also have driven in the 1995 Rally Argentina, in a Suzuki, but the result is proving hard to track down.

After her retirement, Dora ran an auto accessories firm for many years.

(Image from http://recuerdodeautos.blogspot.co.uk)

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)