Theodore
Pilette

Theodore "Teddy" Pilette was born in Brussels on 26 July 1942 into a racing family: his father André Pilette and his grandfather Théodore Pilette both raced before him. His career began in karting, where he won many races. He was then sent to England to attend the Jim Russell Racing School. This gave him the opportunity to appear in John Frankenheimer's film Grand Prix and later in Le Mans with Steve McQueen. He raced for Abarth in 1963 and 1965, and in 1967 he began racing for the Belgian VDS Team. In 1973 he won the European Formula 5000 Championship in a Chevron B24, and he took the title again in 1975 in a Lola T400. He also competed in Formula 5000 in the United States.

Pilette started a Formula One race on 12 May 1974 for Bernie Ecclestone's Brabham team, which remained his only start in the World Championship. In 1977 he was entered three times by BRM but did not start any of those races. In 1978 he drove in the Aurora AFX Formula One Championship and won the Spa 24 Hours in a Ford Capri, the final running of the race on the long circuit. He also tried three times to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, failing in 1977, 1982 and 1983. In 1981 he took part in a CART race at Watkins Glen, where a gearbox failure ended his race after 14 laps. It was his only start in that series.

In 1992 he set up the Pilette Speed Tradition Formula Ford team in Europe. In 1994 he built his own Formula Three car, the Pilette PWT 94C, and raced it in the German Formula 3 championship with Paolo Coloni, but without success. In September 2013 he was elected vice president of the Grand Prix Drivers Club.

Source: Wikipedia, “Teddy Pilette”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.