At the General Assembly of the club at Silverstone the attending members were introduced to our new General Secretary Tanya Gilbert who takes over from the man who has been Secretary for many years and has had a great influence on the many changes that have taken place over the forty-six years since the Club was formed on top of a Swiss mountain at Villars: Theo Huschek
Theo became involved in motorsport and grand prix racing sixty-four years ago when, on a ski holiday in Sant Anton in Switzerland, he met Maria-Teresa de Filippis who, a year previously, had retired from racing following the death of French driver Jean Behra. Behra had developed his own grand prix car, the Behra-Porsche that he loaned to Maria-Teresa for the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix.
Due to her earlier racing with Maserati she was involved as an early member of the Grand Prix Drivers Club originally called the Club International des Anciens Pilotes de Grand Prix F1 for which she was to become President. Meanwhile, her husband Theo took over from French photographer Bernard Cahier as Secretary of the club full time and from then the club flourished.
In recent years, Theo has suffered from ill health following the death of Maria-Teresa eight years ago but has supported the work done mainly by present Club President, Emanuele Pirro and vice-Presidents Tim Schenken and Mario Theissen to bring together the Grand Prix Drivers Club with Silverstone Circuits Ltd.
Sadly due to ill-health Theo was unable to join the Club members at their first General Assembly at Silverstone but the members unanimously voted for Theo to be made an Honorary Member of the Club for the work that has until recently been his life’s passion. All the Club members sent their good wishes to Theo who is in a nursing home in Bergamo.