"Party-vi" (party-vi)
11/26/2014 at 09:34 • Filed to: History lesson
6
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"Party-vi" (party-vi)
11/26/2014 at 09:34 • Filed to: History lesson | 6
| 0 |
Well remembered as Formula One's most efficient time keeper in the sixties and seventies, Michéle Dubsoc played a significant role in motorsport's top category for 20 years, all of which she was at service for French manufacturer Matra. Those who met her have fond memories of her professionalism, her honesty, her kindness and her love of life. On top of her stool or on a pile of tires somwher in te pits, stopwatch in one hand, lap chart in the other, Dubosc was an icon of the circuits at the time.
Michéle Dubosc was born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, and became addicted to motorsport through her godfather Robert Brunet who raced before the War.
Initially she competed in rallies as a co-driver to a variety of racing celebraties like Henri Pescarolo, Marie Claude Beaumont, Annie Soisbault and Bernard Consten until she met Jose Rosinski, racing driver and journalist, in 1961. He had bought a Cooper Formula Junior and was in need of a timekeeper. Ken Tyrrell and Gerard Crombac, the master of the lap chart at the time, introduced Dubosc to this task and she soon improved it to amazing prefection.
Rosinski joined Alpine and Michéle Dubosc went with him. In 1965 she joined Matra as their timekeeper and moved to F2 in 1966 and to F1 in 1968 with the French team. She was also involved in Matra's victorious sports car programs of 1973 and 1974. Recognised for her professionalism and her love of life, Dubosc famously timed and lap-charted the entire Le Mans 24 Hours without pause on several occasions.
Michéle Dubosc was the first ever professional time keeper in Grand Prix Racing. In the days before computers the art of timing in Formula 1 was a much more complicated business.
She achieved fame when the organizers of the Long Beach Grand Prix messed up the timekeeping and couldn't present a grid. Bernie went to Michèle to get her times which were 'made official' and the grid was formed.
After Matra withdrew from F1, Dubosc stayed on to work with other F1 teams, while still on Matra's payroll, she could be seen doing her job with the usual determination at the pits of teams like Tecno, Hesketh and finally Ligier.
The stopwatch came to a final stand still for Dubosc, aged 72, on Friday, 26th of August 2005, after a long illness.