FF-40 DAYS
BRUSSELS SEP 27 1992
Olivier Gendebien and André Milhoux, posing with Carlos Ghys

A useful sports and production car driver, Milhoux, in what was his only single-seater appearance of note, took part in the 1956 German Grand Prix as a substitute for Andre Pilette, who had injured himself in practice. Milhoux had successfully handled huge Plymouths and Fords in Belgian events and partnered compatriot Paul Frere to win the 2-litre touring car class in the 1953 Mille Miglia, the pair driving a Chrysler - highly unsuitable, one would think, for this event. Subsequently Andre moved into pukka sports machines. He finished fifth overall with Seidel in the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours (taking second place in the 1100-1500 cc class), and fourth in the Paris 1000 Km in 1956 sharing an Equipe National Beige Ferrari with Pilette. He crashed heavily in practice for the 1958 Spa GP driving one of the team's yellow Ferraris but, having been lucky to escape unhurt, quit while he was ahead.

Best remembered as a sports car ace of international repute, winning Le Mans for Ferrari on four occasions (1958, 1960, 1961 and 1962), this former wartime resistance fighter came from an aristocratic background. It was during a four-year spell in the Belgian Congo, clearing virgin forest for what would become the residential area of Stanleyville, that he met a friend who introduced him to the ways of motor sport as a rally navigator. Gendebien's handful of Ferrari Formula 1 outings were regarded as a reward for his prowess at the wheel of the Scuderia's sportscars. In 1958 and 1961 his works Ferrari ran at Spa carrying the Belgian national yellow racing livery under the Equipe Nationale Belge banner. At the end of 1962 he retired from racing.

Olivier Gendebien and André Pilette (back seat) leaving the Spa circuit on Sunday.