Gustave Gosselin

The Ferrari 250LM with which Gustave Gosselin competed in sports car races in 1965

Gustave "Taf" Gosselin (born December 28, 1927 in Quevaucamps ) is a former Belgian racing driver .

Career

Gosselin began his career as a racing driver in national club and hill climbs in his home country Belgium. As an amateur, he drove his first international race. At the Mille Miglia in 1955 he drove a privately entered Mercedes-Benz 180 D . The then completely unknown Belgian finished 240th in the overall ranking. A year later he was back in the Italian road race and this time achieved a place in the top hundred in a Peugeot 203 with 100th place overall.

The Belgian became internationally known in the 1960s as a works driver for the Belgian racing teams, the Equipe Nationale Belge and the Ecurie Francorchamps . In 1964 , he won the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race and narrowly missed victory in the Le Mans 24-hour race a year later . Gosselin shared a Ferrari 250LM with Frenchman Pierre Dumay . On Sunday, almost two hours before the end of the race, the Belgian 250LM was safely in the lead when Gosselin had a puncture at the end of the Les Hunaundiers straight. The tire exploded and destroyed the body on the rear of the car. Gosselin brought the car back to the pits, but the tedious repair work meant that the team lost seven laps. In the end it was enough for second place overall.

Gosselin went until the early 1970s sports car race and won in 1971 together with Teddy Pilette the 500-km race at Villareal on a Lola T70

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1965	Pierre Dumay	Ferrari 250LM	Pierre Dumay	Rank 2
1966	Equipe Nationale Belge	Ferrari 250LM	Eric de Keyn	failure	Engine failure
1969	Racing Team VDS	Alfa Romeo TT33 / 2	Claude Bourgoignie	failure	accident
1970	Racing Team VDS	Lola T70 Mk.IIIB	Teddy Pilette	failure	Gearbox damage
1971	Racing Team VDS	Lola T70 Mk.IIIB	Teddy Pilette	failure	Cylinder damage

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1955		Mercedes-Benz 180 D.	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
					240
1956		Peugeot 203	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
					100
1959	Jaques Charlot	Alfa Romeo Giulietta SV	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
					30th
1962	Equipe Nationale Belge	Lotus Elite	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
																	DNF
1963		Fiat-Abarth 1000	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
								DNF
1964	Ecurie Francorchamps Equipe Nationale Belge	Ferrari 250 GTO	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
									18th													13
1965	Georges Marquet Ecurie Francorchamps	Ferrari 250LM Alfa Romeo TZ	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
							DNF			12	DNF			2	DNF
1966	Ecurie Francorchamps Equipe Nationale Belge	Ferrari 250LM	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
							8th		DNF
1967	Racing Team VDS Matra Benelux	Alfa Romeo TZ Matra Djet	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
						12		DNF
1968	Racing Team VDS	Alfa Romeo T33	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
						DNF	DNF	13	16
1969	Racing Team VDS	Alfa Romeo T33	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
					DNF	DNF			11	DNF		DNF
1970	Racing Team VDS	Lola T70	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
						16		DNF	DNF
1971	Ecurie Francorchamps Jacques Swaters VDS Team	Ferrari 512S Lola T70	BUA	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
			6th	DNF				6th		DNF	DNF

Web links

Commons : Gustave Gosselin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Results at racing sports cars