Sylvia Österberg

May 3, 2016, 2:30 pm

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Sylvia Österberg was Swedish driver active in the 1960s and 1970s, winner of the European Ladies’ Rally Championship in 1963.

Her earliest motorsport experiences were in rallycross, at club level. She only took up rallying after some strong encouragement from her husband, Ingemar. After seeing her drive in treasure hunt-type road rallies, he signed her up for the Swedish ladies’ championship in 1960, and the two competed together during that season. Their first stage rally together, an event for novices, led to a fifth place, with a class win.

Her performances in the Swedish championship caught the eye of the Volvo team management, and she was offered a contract as a works driver for 1962. Her car was to be a 122. Her first major rally in it was the 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland. With Inga-Lill Edenring as co-driver, she did not disgrace herself with a 21^st place, narrowly missing out on the Coupe des Dames to her Swedish rival, Ewy Rosqvist. Later in the year, she was tenth in the RAC Rally, driving the same car. This was her first international top-ten finish, and she did particularly well on the forest stages, tying with Paddy Hopkirk for third on the Wark Forest stage.

Her performances in 1962 were enough to convince the Volvo team to keep her on in 1963, with an expanded programme of rallies across Europe. Once again, she teamed up with Inga-Lill Edenring, who would be her regular co-driver for much of her career. She started with a 20^th place in the Monte Carlo Rally, losing the Coupe des Dames to Ewy Rosqvist, in a Mercedes. After the Tulip Rally, in which she was thirteenth, she drove in the Acropolis Rally for the first time, and scored another tenth place, ahead of Ewy Rosqvist this time. Her second top-ten of the season came in the Deutschland Rally, along with a Coupe des Dames. The best was still yet to come, however; she then broke into the top five in the Polish Rally, in fourth place. Before the end of the season, she had secured another fourth place, in the Geneva Rally. This was enough to secure her the European Ladies’ Championship.

For most of 1963, she drove the 122 again, although she did have at least one outing in the PV 544, the Midnight Sun Rally, which she does not seem to have finished.

1964 started with another run in the Monte in the 122, in which she was 33^rd, a somewhat disappointing result, but not a bad performance in the ageing 122, and ahead of her rival, Ewy Rosqvist. The rest of the season was spent in a PV 544, which was faster, but not quite as sturdy as its predecessor. Sylvia could not finish her first Safari Rally, a brute of an event which almost three-quarters of the field failed to complete. She does not appear to have finished the Acropolis Rally, another car-breaker, or the Midnight Sun Rally, which, despite being her home event, was never her favourite. Later in the season, she was fifteenth in the 1000 Lakes Rally, and back in the top ten for the RAC Rally, in tenth. Her navigator this year was Siv Sabel, as Inga-Lill Edenring was taking some time out from rallying.

After 1964’s ups and downs, Sylvia went back to the 122 for 1965, trading some power for reliability. In February, she was rewarded with a sixth place in the Rallye dei Fiori, among Lancias and Renaults in the top ten. The KAK Rally in Sweden followed, and then the Tulip, which she finished over the time limit. She was in good company, and her Volvo team-mate, Tom Trana, also in a 122, was another on the OTL list. The Acropolis was another non-finish, and she followed it up with a 24^th place in the 1000 Lakes, with a Coupe des Dames as a consolation prize. She ended the year with the RAC Rally, but does not seem to have been classified.

She and Siv Sabel stuck with the Volvo for one more rally in 1966, the Rallye dei Fiori, which had been a good event for them last year. They did not finish, and the 122 was promptly replaced with a Renault 8 Gordini, supported by the Swedish arm of Renault. Sylvia picked up another Coupe des Dames in the 1000 Lakes, and was 23^rd overall, but did not finish the Alpine Rally. Reunited with Inga-Lill Edenring, she was tenth in the season-ending RAC Rally. On the first special stage, Bramshill, she was second, behind Roger Clark.

Her second season in the Gordini was shorter, but more fruitful. In January, she finally managed to pick up a Monte Carlo Coupe des Dames, finishing 25^th overall, just behind her countryman and fellow Gordini driver, Harry Källstrom. A non-finish in the Swedish rally followed. She was then nineteenth in the 1000 Lakes Rally, before enjoying a good run in the French tarmac rallies. The Alpine Rally, usually a good event for her, led to a tenth place, and she was sixth in the Tour de Corse. Both times, she was the fastest lady. Her season was to have ended with the RAC Rally, but it was cancelled, due to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

After 1967, Sylvia’s career wound down somewhat. She began driving Opel cars, beginning with a Kadett in 1968. She and Ingemar teamed up once more and tackled the Swedish championship. They were thirteenth in class at the end of the year, with a best finish of tenth, in the Jämt Rally.

A couple more seasons in the Kadett followed, although it seems that Sylvia and Ingemar were part-time competitors at this point, rallying within Sweden and not regularly in major events. Another attempt at the Swedish Rally in 1971 led to another non-finish.

Despite her profile being lower than previously, the Opel works team took an interest in Sylvia. In mid-1972, she was part of a six-driver team that attempted a series of speed records in a diesel-powered Opel GT prototype. The tests took place at Dudenhofen in Germany. The other drivers were Marie-Claude Beaumont, Giorgio Pianta, Paul Frère, Henri Greder and Joachim Springer. As a team, they set a whole series of class records for speed, endurance and economy.

1972 saw a revival of Sylvia’s rally career, too. She was once again reunited with Inga-Lill Edenring, her most successful co-driver, and they drove a works Opel Ascona in Europe. The faster Ascona seemed to suit Sylvia’s driving style; after a slightly tentative 26^th place on snow in the Swedish Rally, she was seventh in the Olympia Rally in Germany. Sadly, the RAC Rally, one of her favoured events, led to a retirement.

Sylvia’s last major international rally looks to have been the Monte in 1973. She drove an Ascona to 28^thplace. She carried on competing occasionally until 1975, then retired as a driver. This retirement was meant to be final, but she reappeared about ten years later, as a navigator in historic rallies. She assisted Tom Trana, her old Volvo team-mate, to two historic championships, and carried on in this role until the mid-1990s.

She died in 2012, at the age of 78.

Having been most active in an era where there were some extremely competitive female drivers – first Ewy Rosqvist, then rally winner, Pat Moss– Sylvia’s achievements are overshadowed somewhat. She was a very capable driver, particularly on forest stages and on asphalt, and perhaps would have scored an outright win, had she had a few more opportunities in big rallies and powerful cars.

(Image from http://rallyklassikerna.se/)

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Sylvie Seignobeaux

May 7, 2016, 2:52 pm

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Sylvie (right) with Sylviane Sitarz in 1984

Sylvie Seignobeaux is a French rally driver, and was the winner of the Citroen Total Trophée Féminin in 1984.

Born in 1957, she enjoyed cars and driving from a very early age. In an interview with Rétro Course magazine, she talks about her earliest driving experiences, which involved crashing her aunt and uncle’s Citroen DS into a tree, when she was five years old. Later, as a teenager, she got further into cars through her boyfriend.

She got her start in motorsport in 1978, initially as a rally co-driver. In 1981, she took up driving herself, and was quite successful in hillclimbs. Her first car was an Autobianchi A112, in which she won her class in the 1981 Razal hillclimb. In 1982, she switched to a Citroen Visa for a regional Rallye Féminin, and was fifth in her first event, and second in another. During this time, she was far from being a professional driver; she worked for a ski school, and was a regular skier herself.

An early highlight of her career was a third place in the 1983 revival of the women-only Paris-St. Raphaël Rally. Her car was a Citroen Visa, and her co-driver was Brigitte Aymé.

Citroen would be the marque that had the most influence on her career. In 1984, she decided to enter a selection event for a women-only motorsport initiative organised by Citroen, devised to promote the Visa Mille Pistes rally homologation model. At the beginning of February, Sylvie was the best of 596 women who entered the Lyon heat. The selection challenges included slaloms and gymkhanas, economy runs and even driving around a disused quarry whilst blindfolded. Sylvie’s heat win put her in the final eleven-woman championship, ahead of the experienced Dominique Perrier. She paired up with Sylviane Sitarz as co-driver.

The first round of the Citroen Total Trophée Feminin was on gravel, the Terre de Provence Rallye. Sylvie won comfortably from Andrée Andrina. On asphalt at La Baule, she won by a smaller margin from Patricia Bertapelle. This early lead meant that her eighth place in the Mille Pistes Rally did not affect her chances too much, nor her seventh in the Boucles de Boulages. In the Tour de France, the biggest rally on the six-event calendar, she was a comfortable fourth, which she repeated on the Picardie Rally. Her relative consistency meant that she won the championship by four points from Christine Driano, representing Aquitaine-Charentes.

Sylvie’s prize was a contract with a Citroen works-supported team for the 1985 season, driving a Group B Visa Mille Pistes. Her first event as a works driver was the Critérium de Touraine. She did very well, finishing ninth overall, just behind her team-mate, Christine Driano. A little later, she was eleventh in the Rallye des Garrigues. An engine valve failure put her out of the Critérium Alpin, then a head gasket did the same during her first overseas rally. Both she and Christine Driano had travelled to Bulgaria for the Albena Rally. Back in France, she crashed out of the Touquet Rally, before getting back on track in the Rallye Aquitaine-Pays Basque with a seventh place. She was then twelfth in the Mont Blanc Rally, and a strong tenth in the Tour de France, as well as fourteenth in the Antibes Rally. Her second overseas rally was the Lois Algarve Rally, in Portugal, but she did not finish, due to another engine problem. During her works team year, she scored five Coupes des Dames, a class win and three top-tens.

After a promising debut year in the French championship, with some excellent results, she took a year out in 1986.

Her return to rallying in 1987 was quite low-key. She drove a Citroen Visa GTi in the Lyon-Charbonnières Rally for the Ecully team, and was fifth in class. As well as rallying, she tried some ice-racing at Flaine, in the same car, but professes not to remember much about it.

The Visa was exchanged for a Group A AX in 1988. It was prepared by Citroen Ecully and used for rallies and hillclimbs. This was a new car, and Sylvie’s season had its fair share of the technical problems that come with new models. She did not get to the finish of the Monts Dôme, Lozère or 1000km de la Réunion rallies. This last event was probably her most far-flung rally. (Réunion is a French dependency off the coast of Mauritius). When the car ran, it was quite competitive: she won her class in the Lyon-Charbonnières Rally, and was ninth in the Bricolles-Côteaux-Varois Rally. The car was more reliable in hillclimbs, and she had a best finish of fourth at Razal, with a class win. It was sold at the end of the season.

She did one more event in 1989 with the AX, this time in Group N form, and was ninth in the Ronde de Lans en Vercours. It was then replaced by a Peugeot 205 GTi, previously belonging to her partner, Claude, which she continued to rally for a while, with a best finish of eighth, in the Vins de Macon Rally, in 1989. That year, she also acted as a co-driver in the same car.

The first part of Sylvie’s career ends here. For some years, she was out of motorsport, and did other things, including flying aeroplanes. In recent years, she has returned to the stages in historic rallies in France, and has even revisited the Visa Mille Pistes. She acts as both driver and co-driver, and has even rallied with Sylviane Sitarz again.

As well as participating, Sylvie has discussed her experiences in quite a lot of detail on the http://www.forum-auto.com/ forum. She remains in touch with some of the other “Troféminin” competitors.

This post was written with the help of Sylvie’s reminiscences and list of results.

(Image from http://vccf.free.fr/Autour_Visa/Trofeminin/trof03_mob.php)

Circuit Racers from India

May 11, 2016, 3:18 pm

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L-R: Mira Erda, Sneha Sharma, Neha Dabas, Ria Dabas

The Indian motorsport scene is growing rapidly. In the past two or three years, female drivers have been part of this, in both single-seaters and saloon racing.

Alisha Abdullah – best known for racing motorcycles (she is one of India’s only professional bike racers), but started on four wheels, and still competes in cars occasionally. Between 2010 and 2012, she raced in the Indian Volkswagen Polo Cup, with a best overall finish of eighth, in 2011 and 2012. In 2011, she scored her first podium. After a few years of racing bikes almost exclusively, she travelled to Thailand for a women’s race, part of the 2014 Toyota Vios Cup. She won the race outright. In 2016, she is planning a return to four-wheeled competition.

Neha Dabas– the elder of the Dabas racing sisters. In 2015, she competed in the Volkswagen Vento Cup in India. This was her first season of racing. Her best overall result was eighth, in the second round at Coimbatore. In 2016, she was selected again by Volkswagen India as one of its twenty drivers for the Vento Cup. She was previously, as a teenager, a national-level basketball player for India.

Ria Dabas– the younger of the Dabas racing sisters. Her first season of racing was in 2015, when she was chosen as one of the drivers for the Volkswagen Vento Cup in India. Previously, she raced motorcycles, and was India’s youngest female superbike racer. Despite her track experience, she was not quite as fast as her sister, and had a best finish of thirteenth, at Buddh.

Mira Erda – Indian racer who is the youngest Indian woman to race cars. She was only fourteen years old when she made her debut in Formula 4 in 2014. She continued to race in Formula 4 in 2015, as part of India’s JK Tyre Racing Championship. Previously, she was active in karting all over Asia. Race results for Mira are proving very hard to track down, although she is said to have scored podium positions in 2015.

Sneha Sharma – races in Formula 4 in India, as part of the JK Tyres Racing Championship. She began in 2013, after several years of karting, which gave her several notable wins. The Indian Formula 4 championship is not sanctioned by the FIA, and finding its race results has proved impossible. Sneha has also raced in the VW Polo Cup and the Toyota Etios one-make championship, and got into the final twelve of a Mercedes driver development challenge, in India. Despite only being 23 years old, she works as an airline pilot.

(Image copyright M. Periasamy)

Female Drivers in the "Marathon Rallies" of the 1960s and 1970s

May 15, 2016, 2:17 pm

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Bronwyn Burrell, Katrina Kerridge and Tish Ozanne in 1970

The late 1960s saw the first of a series of cross-continental marathon rallies taking place. The first of these was organised by the Daily Express newspaper in 1968, to show off British engineering and bring some excitement to a rather unsettled Britain. Women drivers took part in all of them.

The Daily Express London-Sydney Marathon Rally, 1968

It was 10,000 miles long, and ran from London to France and Italy, then the former Yugoslavia and further south, before passing through Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The cars were then transported by boat to Australia, for the final leg.

The entry list was limited to 100 cars. Four of these were driven by women, and two further crews had female co-drivers. As with the rest of the entry, the female contingent was a mix of seasoned professionals and enthusiastic adventuresses. Rosemary Smith had been tipped to win the Ladies’ award, but ran into trouble up the Khyber Pass and lost time, as well as losing a cylinder in her Lotus Cortina. The winner of the Coupe des Dames was a four-woman, Anglo-Australian crew in the unlikely choice of a Volvo estate. Elsie Gadd, an Australian property surveyor, assembled the team, drafting in British racers, Jenny Tudor-Owen and Sheila Kemp, and Anthea Castell, an Australian ranch-hand with experience of driving in adverse conditions.

In common with many other entries, some of the female teams were sponsored by other media outlets, including Nova fashion magazine (Jean Denton). The Morris 1100 of Eileen Westley was sponsored by the Sydney Telegraph, for which all three drivers worked. It was named “The Galloping Tortoise” in the Australian press, and was prepared by BMC.

The rally was won by Andrew Cowan in a Hillman Hunter. Fifty-six cars finished. Below is a list of all the female finishers.

Elsie Gadd/Anthea Castell/Sheila Kemp/Jenny Tudor-Owen (Volvo 145S Estate) – 41^st

Jean Denton/Tom Boyce (MG B) – 42^nd

Rosemary Smith/Lucette Pointet (Ford Lotus Cortina) – 48^th

Eileen Westley/Minny Macdonald/Jenny Gates (Morris 1100) – 50^th

Sylvia Kay (co-driver to John Cotton in a Peugeot 504) – 21^st

Jenny Brittan (co-driver to Nick Brittan in a Ford Lotus Cortina) – DNF

L-R: Pat Wright, Liz Crellin, Jean Denton

The Daily Mirror London-Mexico World Cup Rally, 1970

The next big marathon rally was themed around that year’s World Cup, which was held in Mexico. It was even longer than its predecessor, at 16,000 miles, and ran through Europe to Spain and Portugal, before transferring to Brazil, and then across South and Central America to Mexico.

Again, the field was a mix of professionals, such as eventual winner, Hannu Mikkola, in a works Ford Escort, and amateurs, including some celebrities, such as footballer Jimmy Greaves. Five female drivers entered, and Rosemary Smith was the best of them. Her car was an Austin Maxi, continuing the trend for unlikely rally cars winning the Coupe des Dames.

Below are the results for the female crews.

Rosemary Smith/Alice Watson/Ginette Derolland (Austin Maxi) – 10^th

Jean Denton/Pat Wright/Liz Crellin (Morris 1800) – 18^th

Claudine Trautmann/Colette Perrier (Citroen DS 21) – 24th

Patricia Ozanne/Katrina Kerridge/Bronwyn Burrell (Austin Maxi) - DNF

Lavinia Roberts/David Jones/Arthur Hazelrigg (Ford Mustang) – DNF

London-Sahara-Munich World Cup Rally, 1974

The second World Cup Rally contained quite a lot of improvisation. The route between London and Munich was not long or dramatic enough, so the organisers added in a huge loop through Spain, North Africa, and as far south as Nigeria, before travelled back up through Turkey, the Balkans and Italy, to Germany. This caused untold problems, as the route itself was not well-plotted, and a large number of competitors got lost in the desert. Out of seventy starters, nineteen finished. Only five cars completed the full route; among them were the Team Aseptogyl Peugeots of Christine Dacremont and Claudine Trautmann. The rally was not as well-supported this year, due to the 1973 oil crisis and financial pressures on the works teams. It was not revived in 1978.

Christine Dacremont/Yveline Vannoni (Peugeot 504) – 2^nd

Claudine Trautmann/Marie-Odile Desvignes (Peugeot 504) – 4^th

Anne O’Connell (co-driver to Mike O’Connell in a Ford Escort Mexico) – DNF

Singapore Airlines London-Sydney Marathon Rally, 1977

A final big marathon rally was held in 1977, a new edition of the original London-Sydney event. Some of the manufacturers came back on board, including Mercedes, who dominated the rally, and Leyland. Very few women took part, apart from those in Team Aseptogyl diesel Fiats.

Christine Dacremont/Yveline Vannoni (Fiat 131 Diesel) – DNF

Marianne Hoepfner (co-driver to Bob Neyret in a Fiat 131 Diesel) – 15^th

Further revivals of the Marathon took place from 1993 onwards, but these were classic events.

(Morris 1800 image copyright Woman Magazine)

Charlotte Versigny

May 29, 2016, 2:34 pm

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Charlotte (left) in a Bugatti T35, 1928

Charlotte Versigny competed in races and rallies in France, in the late 1920s. She often drove a Talbot or a Bugatti.

Her beginnings in motorsport are not very clear, like most of her private life and biography. She was involved in motoring generally, and ran a large driving school in Paris.

Her first major motorsport event seems to have been the Monte Carlo Rally in 1927. She drove a 1460cc Fiat, and was 26^th overall, second in the Coupe des Dames rankings, behind Mildred Bruce. This was not her first event, however; she is listed in an article in L’Aérophile as having won the Ladies’ Automobile section of a “Rallye-Ballon”, combining motor races and a hot air balloon race. Her car was a 15hp Oakland. This American vehicle was her first competition car, which she initially entered into Concours, from 1926 onwards.

By 1927, she was racing her Talbot 70 in France. Her first big race was the Grand Prix de la Baule, in which she was fourteenth, just behind Lucy O’Reilly Schell in her Bugatti. She was sixth in class.

That August, she was one of twelve drivers, including the eventual winner Elisabeth Junek, who took part in a “Championnat Féminin” held at Montlhéry (not the Journée Féminine del’Automobile). The race was over 60km, and Charlotte was second. Another women-only event, the Paris-La Baule Rally, saw Charlotte and her Talbot in action again in September. In mixed competition, she was fifth in the Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, having started at Pau, the same start point she used for the Boulogne-Le Touquet Rally.

The Talbot came good at the start of 1928. Charlotte won the Coupe des Dames in the Monte Carlo Rally, and was third overall, one of the best-ever results for a female driver, to this day. This was followed by a run in the Paris-Nice Trial, in the 2000cc class. Her car was a Bugatti, and she won the Dauphinois Automobile Club trophy, plus another award for being the only woman driver to finish without penalties, and a fastest time in a speed trial at Grenoble.

The Bugatti was her chosen car for that year’s  Journée Féminine de l’Automobile. She qualified for the final race, and won the speed trial for open cars. This was her second entry into this particular event, although she had to pull out in 1927.

She had first driven the Bugatti towards the end of 1927, in hillclimbs. Another all-female event was held at Saint-Germain in July, as part of the Bol d’Or, and Charlotte was on hand for the Formula Libre race.

She also drove the car in the Coupe de Bourgogne that year, against Jannine Jennky.

The Oakland had not been forgotten this year, either. Charlotte drove it in Concours d’Elegance events, and in the hillclimb attached to the “Rallye-Ballon”.

Charlotte was an enthusiastic and skilled addition to the already-vibrant, Paris-based ladies’ motor racing scene. Some sources have her down as entering the Paris-St. Raphaël Rally, and while this is certainly possible, I have been unable to find any results. She disappears from the entry lists after 1928, and the Paris-St. Raphaël began in 1929.

She is credited as the one of the inspirations behind Hellé-Nice’s decision to become a professional racing driver.

(Image from http://www.bugattibuilder.com/)

Jean Denton

June 2, 2016, 2:18 pm

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Jean Denton with her MGB

Jean Denton was an international rally driver between 1969 and 1972, after some years as a circuit racer.

She did particularly well in long-distance events, such as the 1968 London-Sydney rally, in which she won the sportscar class in her MGB. Her co-driver was Tom Boyce, a Canadian who had been a friend of Jean and her husband Tony at the London School of Economics, where they all studied. They were 42^nd overall, out of 56 finishers and 100 starters. Jean was just pipped to the Coupe des Dames by the Volvo crew led by Elsie Gadd, who were 41^st. The MGB was sponsored by Nova, an influential fashion magazine of the time. Jean was a marketing consultant for IPC Magazines, who knew how to use her contacts well.

In the 1970 World Cup event, which ended in Mexico, she, Pat Wright and Liz Crellin were eighteenth in a Morris 1800. Again, they did not manage to get the Ladies’ award, which went to tenth-place finisher, Rosemary Smith, in an Austin Maxi. Jean, however, did manage to secure another good sponsorship package. The car was nicknamed “The Beauty Box”, and was sponsored by Womanmagazine.

Jean usually drove BMC/Leyland cars, including an Austin–Healey Sprite in the 1970 RAC Rally. It is not clear whether or not she and co-driver Sandy Lawson finished.

Despite her usual loyalty to British power, she drove a Fiat 128 on the RAC Rally in 1972. Her co-driver was the experienced Elma Lewsey, and they were 80^th.

Rallying was not her first love, but her motorsport career had a far from orthodox trajectory. Her background was academic, and not particularly sporty. She did not even learn to drive until 1961, when she was 26. Just four years later, she was competing in a Cooper single-seater that had previously belonged to Jackie Stewart. In this car, she was ninth in the 1965 Leinster Trophy, in Ireland.

In between, she drove a Mini in British club races, although she sometimes found it lacking in power. The Mini was her first racing car, and she began driving it shortly after passing her driving test.

After a while, the expense of maintaining the Cooper to a competitive standard became too much, and Jean took a sideways step into sportscar racing. Her first experiences in a sports racer were in a Morgan Plus 4, much earlier, in 1964. In this car, she won a Ladies’ Handicap at Brands Hatch, organised by the London Motor Club.

In 1966, she started racing a heavily tuned MGB on the British circuits. Her first major race in this car seems to have been that year’s Brands Hatch 500 Miles. Driving with her husband, Tony, Jean was twelfth overall.

Another year of racing the MGB in the UK followed, although details are a little sketchy. One of the races she entered was a Ladies’ Handicap, part of the Oulton Park Spring Cup. This event was associated with the British Women Racing Drivers’ Club, of which Jean was a long-standing member. She was fifth overall.

In 1968, her career went pan-European, with appearances in races at Vila Real, Montes Claros and Mugello. Sadly, the results seem to have been lost. She entered the Nürburgring 1000km with fellow BWRDC member, Natalie Goodwin, but they did not finish. This was a big race, a round of the World Championship for Makes, and won by Jo Siffert and Vic Elford, in a Porsche 908.

This year, she won the second of her British Women’s Racing championships, awarded by the BWRDC.

A second attempt at the Nürburgring 1000km in 1969 led to a finish, in 36^th place. Jean was driving an MGB for her own team, and assisted by Mike Garton. The pair raced together in Europe at least twice more that year, at Mugello and Barcelona, but did not make the finish either time.

Jean only became a rally driver through a coincidence. She was apparently at the dentist’s, and found out that the dentist rallied himself. She thought it sounded like a good idea, and got in touch with Tom Boyce again, who, she knew, owned a rally-prepared MG. Her husband, Tony, was unsuitable as a co-driver, as he often suffered motion sickness when a passenger in fast cars. Thus began the professional part of her motorsport career, in 1968, from very unlikely origins.

After 1972, she retired from active competition, and returned to the world of business. Bringing her race and rally experience with her, she worked in corporate communications in the motor industry, up to and including being the head of that department in the MG Rover Group, previously her staunchly-supported British Leyland. She was the most senior woman in the British motor industry.

Later, she became a Conservative politician and a Cabinet member, at first in the Trade and Industry Office, and then in 1994, the Northern Ireland Office, until the Conservatives were deposed in 1997. She was made Baroness Denton of Wakefield in recognition of her achievements.

 She died in 2001, of cancer. Before her death, she used her influence and organisational skills to set up a support group called “Women On The Move Against Cancer.”

She is fondly remembered in motorsport circles as being down-to-earth and funny, as well as being a good driver.

(Image copyright Alamy)

Lili Reisenbichler

June 7, 2016, 2:29 pm

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Lili on a motorbike

Lili Reisenbichler raced in German touring car championships from 1974 to 1987, including touring-based prototypes in sportscar races.

Slovenian-born but living in Germany, she got into motorsport through her partner, a Mercedes engineer. Her first racing cars were a Ford Escort and an NSU TT. In the former, she appeared in her first major race in 1975: the Hockenheim 100 Miles. She was seventh in Group 1. The car was an RS2000. In the same car, she tackled the Sembach DRP round, and was fifth in class. Early in the season, she had taken part in another non-championship event, a street race at Saarlouis. She was sixth, and fourth in her class.

For the next few seasons, she made occasional appearances in circuit races and hillclimbs in Germany and Austria. In 1977, she raced an NSU TT in the Mainz-Finthen round of the DRM, finishing seventh in class. In the same car, at the same track, she also tackled a round of the DRP series, finishing second in class. Later in the season, she was fifth in class at Kassel-Calden, another airfield circuit.

In 1978, she teamed up with Heidi Blechinger for the Grosser Preis der Tourenwagen at the Nürburgring. They drove an Audi  50 together, and were ninth in class. Driving solo, Lili took the Audi to a class fourth in the 100 Meilen Hockenheim. This was the start of a part-season in the Audi, sponsored by Duckhams; her other results were a ninth in class at Saarlouis, and eleventh at Hockenheim again.

She also competed in the Nürburgring 24 Hours in an Alpine-Renault, but the results are not readily available.

Lili encountered various problems with funding in the early part of her career, in common with many other drivers, but she was better at finding solutions to this than most. She stayed clear of genuine scandal, but was not afraid of using her good looks and lively personality as a selling point. As well as this, she worked in various jobs to finance her motorsport habit. This made her either very popular, or unpopular, depending on whose opinion was sought.

In 1979, her career started to take off, albeit slowly. She got herself a seat with the Warsteiner team in a BMW M1, and entered the ADAC Bilstein Super-Sprint at the Nürburgring. She was eleventh overall in Division 1, against a series of Porsches, and fourth in class. She also continued to race the Audi, and was in second place in one race at Zandvoort, when she went onto the grass and suffered an embarrassing roll, thankfully unharmed.  

The start of the new decade saw Lili taking another step up in the motorsport world. She started with another run in a BMW M1, driving for Team Airpress Wind Deflectors. She was ninth at the Hockenheim DRM round (the Jim Clark Trophy). Not long after, she teamed up with Ford Berkenkamp Racing, initially for the Nürburgring 1000km. The team put her in two of its cars, a Capri and an Escort. She did not finish in the Capri, but was seventeenth, with a class win, in the Escort. Her co-drivers were Dieter Selzer and Günther Braumüller. A similar arrangement ensued for the Nürburgring Grand Prix meeting, although it was less successful for Lili. Later in the season, she drove solo for the team in an Escort, and was eighteenth at Salzburg and twentieth at Hockenheim, in the DRM. In the second-tier DRP touring car championship, she drove a new Ford Fiesta. She was third in class at Avus, and would have been second at Hockenheim, had she not been disqualified. The reasons for this are unclear.

A second season with the Berkenkamp Ford operation followed in 1981, with a much expanded programme for Lili. In the first three rounds of the DRM, she scored three top-ten finishes, two ninths and an eighth. The rest of the DRM season was rather inconsistent for both her and team-mate Dieter Selzer, mostly just missing the top ten. Her highlight of the latter part of the season was a tenth place, at the Nürburgring Supersprint.

She stayed in the DRM in 1982, but moved teams to Zakspeed Ford, one of the leading touring car stables of the time. Their Capri prototype remains the stuff of legends. Lili got to drive it this year. Her season began badly, and she dropped out of the first DRM round, at Zolder, on only her second lap. None of her other three races in the Capri led to a finish, either.

In 1983, she was part of the Berlin-based Autoveri team, driving a Ford Escort. She was entered into the German and Central European rounds of the ETCC, and managed to finish one, the Brno Grand Prix, in 27^th place. For the Touring Car Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, she was paired with Jürgen Hammelman and the American driver, Deborah Gregg, but they did not finish. She entered the Spa 24 Hours, but only got in as a reserve driver, and did not race.

The main, professional part of her career finishes here, at the age of 35. She continued to race occasionally until about 1987, but not in major events. Her business acumen and media experience meant that she was not out of work for long, and she became a successful journalist and photographer, covering a range of subjects, as well sitting on the board of a furniture company, and running a film production company.

In recent years, she has been competing occasionally in historics in Germany. She has driven a BMW in classic rallies.

(Image copyright Kräling Picture Agency)

Leona Chin

June 10, 2016, 2:35 pm

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Leona Chin came to prominence as a member of Malaysia’s Red Bull Rookies all-female driving squad in 2008. She beat many other young Malaysian women to the coveted team spot.

She was sixth in Class B in the Merdeka Millennium Challenge in 2008, driving a Honda DC2 with Puteri Ayu Jasmin, Norlina Johor and Norbaizura Ruslan. They had qualified first in their class.

Prior to her first year as a Rookie, she had not done any circuit racing, but she had done some drifting, which is very popular in Southeast Asia, competing since 2006. She got into drifting and the modified car scene as a teenager. As soon as she was old enough to own a car, she got involved herself.

In 2009, she tackled the Sepang 1000km in a Honda DC2, with Puteri, Diana Chin and Nur Hayati Omar. They were 21st and fourteenth in class. Her calendar also took in rallysprint events in the MAM Championship, winning a Ladies’ and Junior title. Her car was a two-litre Proton Satria.

She raced a Honda in the Ultimate Challenge in 2010. The Challenge is a Honda-sponsored amateur motorsport competition, involving karting and circuit racing.

2011 was mostly spent drifting, although she did take part in the HPC 4-hour endurance race in Malaysia, and was fourth in class, driving a Mazda Miata. She also did some Autocross grass racing. Although she did not do much wheel to wheel racing, her profile remained high, due to promotional work and TV appearances.

In 2012, she continued with drifting, time attack, gymkhana and grass racing, and did some speed events in 2013, using a Radical, among other cars. For the next three seasons, she competed around Southeast Asia, winning several ladies’ prizes and becoming something of a name in the modified car scene.

She returned to the circuits in 2015. This was a new challenge, as she was racing a Caterham, and she had not really driven an open sportscar before. She was competitive from the beginning. In only her second race, at Sepang, she won the Supersport class. Out of the eight races she did, all ended in podium finishes.

At the end of the year, she also drove a Subaru Impreza in the 6-Hour Endurance race at Guangdong Raceway, as part of a four-driver team with Sam Lau, Xi Xu Ping and Sun Qiang. They were fourth in class. Her promotional activities this year were also more circuit-focused, and included autocrossing against Jari-Matti Latvala for the launch of the VW Polo Trophy model in Malaysia.

For 2016, she stuck with one-make series and travelled to China to compete in the Renault Clio Cup. This was a move that paid off; she was immediately on the pace, and on the podium. In her second race, at Zhuhai, she was third, and then scored two seconds in Korea. At the time of writing, she is second in the championship.

Leona has many sponsors, for whom she makes appearances in the Asian media. As well as racing herself, she runs her own car accessories firm, Kuraz Motorsports, and works as a stunt driver for TV.

(Image from http://leona.kurazmotorsports.com/)  

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"The Paris Scene", c1927-1932

June 14, 2016, 3:15 pm

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"Albertine" Derancourt in her Bugatti, 1929

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, there was a considerable vogue for women’s motorsport events in Paris, and women in motoring generally. It seems to have started with Concours d’Elegance, then informal rallies, sometimes attached to hot-air balloon races, and then bigger organised events. The best-known and longest-lived of these was the Paris-St Raphael Rally, which began in 1929. The Journée Féminine de l’Automobile, promoted by the newspaper, Le Journal, was a yearly racing championship. There was also a regular Paris – La Baule ladies’ rally, and other rallies to Cannes and Juan-les-Pins, among others.

These rallies and races attracted some star names, such as Elisabeth Junek, and more drivers, such as Charlotte Versigny and Jannine Jennky, went on to enjoy success in mixed-sex competition. Others stuck to the women-only events.

Below are short profiles of some of the main participants in the Paris ladies’ motor racing scene.

Marie-Léonie Derancourt - popular but not particularly successful French racer of the late 1920s and possibly, early 1930s. In 1927, she entered the Grand Prix de la Marne in a Salmson, but did not finish. She later owned one of Elisabeth Junek's old Bugattis. In this car, she was eighth in a heat for the 1928 Bugatti Grand Prix. In 1929, she drove a Bugatti T35, almost certainly the same car, in the Grand Prix de la Marne. She was fifth in the 2000cc class. She is often called “Albertine”, probably after her son, Albert, who drove the Bugatti as a daredevil act when he was a child. The T35 was still registered to her in 1930, although other race results are proving elusive.

"The Baroness d'Elern" (Aniela d'Elern) - Frenchwoman who raced and rallied a Bugatti T35 internationally in 1929 and 1930. She entered the first Paris-St Raphael Rally in 1929. She died during the 1930 Algerian Grand Prix, trying to overtake another driver. Her car hit a telegraph pole and she was killed.

Marcelle Leblanc – winner of the Championnat race at the 1929 Journée Féminine de l’Automobile, driving a Peugeot 5CV. The same year, she entered the Tour de France Auto, in the same, or a similar, car. She finished the event with no penalties. In 1931, she entered the Paris-St. Raphaël women’s rally, and won her class. In 1933, she won the Paris-St. Raphaël outright, in another Peugeot. The following year, 1934, she entered the Monte Carlo Rally, and was fourth in the Coupe des Dames. According to Paris-Soir, she won the Paris-Les Pyrenées-Paris Rally outright, in a Peugeot 401. Driving a 601, she won her class in the Paris-St. Raphaël.

“The Comtesse de Lesguern” (Arlette de Lesguern)– born in 1900, she seems to have begun her involvement in the motoring scene in the late 1920s, entering Concours d’Elegance. She was an active and enthusiastic participant in the many women’s motorsport events that happened in and around Paris in the late 1920s and early 1930s, including the early runnings of the Paris-Saint-Raphaël  Rally. She entered the first Rallye in 1929, driving a Rosengart, and again in 1931 and 1932. In between, she won the Championnat Féminin of the Journée Féminine de l’Automobile at Montlhéry, in a Simca-Standart. It was not only women-only events which she entered: she won her class in the Ostend Rally at least twice, in 1929 and 1930, driving the Simca, which was a showroom-spec model. After 1932, she appears to stop rallying. She died in 1977, after possibly having a career as a translator.

“Madame Liétard”– winner of the first two Paris-Saint-Raphaël  Rallies, in 1929 and 1930. Her car was a Salmson on both occasions. Her 1929 win was not her first triumph; she won the 1100cc Touring class of the Paris-La Baule Rally in 1928, another female-only event. Her car was a Salmson. She was a regular on the Paris-based women’s motorsport “scene” of the late 1920s and early 1930s. After about 1930, her name disappears from the entry lists. Her given name is never used.

Lucienne Radisse - noted French cellist and actress who had a brief rallying career in the early 1930s. She is reported to have won the Paris-St. Raphaël Rally in 1931, driving a small-engined Renault. She used the same car on that year’s Paris-Nice rally. Later, in 1932, she acquired an eight-cylinder Delage D8, which she used in the Paris-Juan les Pins rally. At this time, she was undertaking a series of driving adventures around the world, as well as shooting a film.

Colette Salomon - raced a Bugatti T35 in 1927. She was listed as an entrant in that year's Course de Formule Libre de l'ACF. She was the winner of the first Journée Féminine de l’Automobile in 1927, driving a Salmson.

(Image from http://www.bugatti-trust.co.uk/)

Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky

June 25, 2016, 2:46 pm

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Mikaela in 2015

Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky is a Swedish driver who has raced in international one-make series for Volkswagen and Audi.

She began karting at the age of twelve, and spent five years in various championships. In 2009, she was fourth in the Swedish Rotax Max championship.

Her first full season of senior competition was in 2012. Instead of learning the ropes in a Swedish national championship, she jumped straight into the VW Scirocco-R Cup, based in Germany, having passed its selection procedure. It was not the easiest of years, with two thirteenths at Oschersleben her best finishes. She was 19^th in the championship. As well as other up and coming young drivers, she raced against guests such as Damon Hill and WRC champion Sébastien Ogier. At the end of the season, she secured an invite to the FIA Women In Motorsport commission’s Scirocco-R Shootout, a competition for female drivers with a funded season in the 2012 Cup as its prize. Mikaela was second, behind Michelle Gatting.

As well as tin-tops, she tried her hand at GT racing, taking part in some rounds of the Scandinavian Porsche Carrera Cup. Her best finish was eighth, at Solvalla, one of three top-tens she achieved in five races. She was twelfth in the championship.

A second season in the Scirocco-R Cup saw a more assured Mikaela. Towards the middle of the season, she broke into the top five for the first time, finishing fourth at the Norisring. She followed this up with a second at the Nürburgring, her best race of the season. She was eighth in the championship.

In a somewhat backwards move, she spent some time in 2013 in Sweden, racing in the Clio Cup, which ran as the Swedish Junior Touring Car Championship. She was twelfth in that championship, too, after a part-season. Her best finish was sixth, at Kinnekulle.

She had her best season yet in the Scirocco-R Cup in 2014, and was the strongest of the female entrants. She won one race, at the Norisring, the first female driver to do so. Despite five more top-tens, four of those being top fives, some poor finishes at Oschersleben and Hockenheim let her down.  She was ninth in the championship.

That year, she also took part in rallycross, racing an RX Lites Ford Fiesta. She raced in the Swedish and Turkish rounds, and performed best in Sweden; she was fifth in the final. In Turkey, she got as far as the semi-final. At the end of the season, she was fourteenth in the championship. She had a similar experience during her part-season in the Swedish Supercar Lites championship: fifth in on final at Höljesbanan, and eighth overall in the championship.

In 2015, she entered the Audi Sport TT Cup, the successor to the now-defunct Scirocco series. A series of non-finishes, including a crash at Oschersleben, dropped her down the leaderboard to fifteenth. However, her race results were quite good, and included a third place, at the Norisring. When she made the finish, she was almost always in the top ten.

For 2016, she remained with the Audi marque, but took a step up into sportscar racing, in an R8 LMS. At the time of writing, she is racing in the ADAC GT Masters in Germany, for Aust Motorsport, as a team-mate to Marco Bonanomi. It has been a steep learning curve for both of them, and Mikaela has a best finish of seventeenth, at Oschersleben.

She is the daughter of rally driver Susanne Kottulinsky, and grand-daughter of Freddy Kottulinsky, another rally driver. Although she grew up in a motorsport family, she had no interest in it whatsoever until she was a teenager, preferring dance and gymnastics.

Mikaela’s profile has risen recently, due to her being romantically linked to Max Verstappen. However, she remains focused on her own racing career, and aims to compete in the DTM in future.

(Image from http://www.mikaelaracing.com)

Morna Vaughan

June 30, 2016, 3:14 pm

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Morna with her Standard in 1933

Morna Vaughan was a British rally driver from the 1930s onward. She is mostly remembered for her drives in the Monte Carlo Rally between 1931 and 1952, which were often eventful rather than strictly successful.

Morna was born Morna Lloyd Rawlins in India, in 1882. Rallying was very much a second career for her; she was one of the first wave of women to qualify as medical doctors, and worked as an Army surgeon during the First World War. This made her one of the first female surgeons in the UK. After the war, and her 1917 marriage to Francis Vaughan, she continued to practise. She was the head of the “Female VD” department (genito-urinary medicine) of Guy’s Hospital in London from 1917, until at least 1935. In addition to this, she was a consultant surgeon to several London hospitals, specialising in women’s GU medicine.

She began driving in 1924, when she was forty-two. Her first major competition experience seems to have been in 1930, when she entered the JCC Half-Day Trial, in a Standard. She was one of the “First Class” award winners. Trials were something to which she would return throughout her career, with some success. That year, she drove a Wolseley Hornet at Shelsley Walsh, making the climb in 80.8 seconds.

Her first Monte Carlo Rally was in 1931, and she drove a Riley. She does not appear on the lists of finishers, but there are no reports of her getting involved in any particular accidents or other drama.

In 1932, she was sixth in the Light Car class of the Monte Carlo Rally, driving a Triumph Nine. This year, she also won her only Monte Coupe des Dames. This was in spite of a lengthy stop close to the end of the rally, when Morna and her co-driver, Charlotte Nash, a medical student, stopped to help another crew. They set several broken legs and gave extensive medical assistance, giving up any chance of a good final time, but still hanging on to the Ladies’ prize.

The following year, she drove a Standard on the Monte, with Elsie Wisdom as her navigator. They started from Tallinn in Estonia. Later in the year, Morna did the RAC Rally in a Wolseley Hornet. Her co-driver’s name is not recorded, and she may not have finished.

After 1933, she took a break from international competition. That year, she entered the Colmore Trial for at least the second time, winning a third class award in the Standard. Between then and 1937, she was an active and enthusiastic member of the Women’s Automobile and Sports Club (WASA), the British women’s motorsport association. She took part in their trials, which often seemed to be held in the Cotswolds, in the Standard.

Her fourth Monte was in 1937. Driving the Standard, she did not make the finish this time, due to accident damage. Her last pre-war event was the 1939 Monte, still driving the Standard. She finished in 48^th place, trailing Yvonne Simon and Louise Lamberjack for the Coupe des Dames.

Unusually, she resumed her motorsport activities after World War II. By this time, she had retired from medical practice and was well into her sixties. In 1951, she returned to the Monte Carlo Rally, in an AC Ace, but did not finish.

Her last major rally was the 1952 Monte. In classic style, this was an eventful test for Morna, now 69. In an interview at the start, she professed not to remember how many rallies she had taken part in. She completed the greater part of the event in a decent time, but unfortunately ran out of petrol near Paris. Despite terrible winter weather, she managed to refuel, with the help of a passerby, and get on her way again. However, somewhere near Clermont-Ferrand, another car ran into the back of her Jowett Javelin, which burst into flames. She was not seriously hurt.

After her retirement from medicine, she lived on a smallholding. She died in 1969.

Morna’s collection of trophies and newspaper cuttings is now held at the National Motor Museum. Their online summary of its contents was a great help in writing this article.

(Image copyright http://www.motoringpicturelibrary.com/)

Francesca Linossi

July 5, 2016, 3:12 pm

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Francesca with her Ford Mustang

Francesca Linossi is a versatile Italian racer, active since the age of 16. She is from Brescia.

Her senior career began in 2007. Following several years of karting, she drove in four rounds of the Citroen C1 Cup, the youngest competitor to do so in Italian saloon racing history.

Unsatisfied with the little C1, she moved up to the Italian Touring Car Endurance Championship, in a BMW 120d, the following year. She was driving for Team Millennium with Stefania Grassetto. This earned her a third place in the diesel class. She also raced in the Porsche Cayman Cup, and was the youngest driver in Italian history to drive a 2000cc+ car.

By then, she was gravitating towards GT racing, and she raced in the Coppa Shell Ferrari Challenge in 2009. She was a solid eighth in the championship.

Ever-keen to advance, she drove another  Ferrari 430 in the Italian GT Cup in 2010, and scored her first podium places, a third and a second at Vallelunga. She also managed a fifth at Misano. The rest of her season was rather up and down, with several DNFs, and she was 21st overall. This year, she drove some races against her father, Luciano Linossi, who was racing a Lamborghini. They also teamed up for one round, at Mugello, but did not finish.

In 2011, she retained some involvement with the GT Cup, driving the Ferrari in the GT2 class this time, but she only did two races. These both resulted in class wins, and she was fifth in the championship. This was largely down to her third place overall at Mugello. Her co-driver was her father, Luciano.

However, apart from some guest runs in the Lamborghini Pro-Am Trophy, which did not result in many points, her focus this year was touring cars, once more. She raced in the Superstars championship in a BMW M3, which proved rather difficult, and her best finishes were a pair of elevenths, at Algarve and Misano. She was unplaced in both the International and the Italian championships.

Not surprisingly, she did not return in 2012, instead competing in a familiar Ferrari F430 run by Black Team. She was racing in the International GT Sprint Series, in which she was seventh, after nine races. Her best result was fourth, at her favoured circuit of Mugello.

In addition to this, she did a part-season in the MINI Rushour series, and was tenth.

Having found a tin-top she liked, she ran in all twelve Italian Mini Challenge races in 2013. It was a good career move, which saw her recording her first win, at Red Bull Ring, and four further top-three finishes, at Mugello, Franciacorta, Imola and Monza. She was fourth in the final standings.

In 2014, she raced in the NASCAR Whelen Euroseries, in a Chevrolet stock car. Her best finish was eighth, at the Nürburgring, and she was 20th overall. This was mainly down to a shaky start to the season; she had to miss one of the early races at Valencia, after a DNF, and then did not finish round three at Brands Hatch, either. She picked up speed shortly after.

Later in the year, she made an appearance in the EuroV8 Series in Germany, driving a BMW M3. She was substituting for Maurizio Copetti, and was tenth at the Sachsenring.

Most of 2015 was spent on a second season in the NASCAR Whelen Series, in the Elite 2 class. A more assured Francesca managed five top-ten finishes, the best of these being a seventh, at Brands Hatch. She was ninth overall in her Ford Mustang.

Early in the season, she also took part in the Mugello 12 Hours in a Porsche 911, but did not finish. She was driving for the Dinamic team, with Niccolo Mercatali, Tiziano Cappelletti and Alex de Giacomi, all from Italy.

In 2016, she moved away from stock cars again, and back to the Italian GT championship. In another departure, her car is not a Ferrari, but a Nissan GT-R Nismo, which she races in the Super GT3 class with Lorenzo Bontempelli. At the time of writing, her best finish is a fourth place, at Misano.

(Image from http://www.bresciaoggi.it/)

Claudia Steffek

July 8, 2016, 3:23 pm

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Claudia Steffek is an Austrian former Formula 3 driver who had a high profile during her short career in the late 1990s. She was a rival to her fellow Austrian, Osmunde Dolischka, and was touted as a Formula One hopeful.

After a short but successful karting career from the ages of thirteen to sixteen, she started racing Formula Ford at 17, in 1996. Her first season brought her first win, in the last race of the year, at Brno.

A second season in Formula Ford followed. She was second in the German international championship. No race results are forthcoming for this series. With some good performances in Formula Ford under her belt, Claudia was keen to progress up the ladder. The same year, she stepped up to Formula 3, in the Zone A European series, and was apparently third in the championship. Unfortunately, no results for that championship are forthcoming either.  She was driving for the Italian ADM team, who would continue to support her for the next two seasons.

Formula 3 was her main focus in 1998, and here, she starts to turn up on the bigger starting grids that are still available to consult. Claudia appears in the Austrian and Central European championships, driving an Alfa Romeo-engined Dallara F391, under the banner of her own Claudia Steffek Racing Team. She had a best finish of fourth in the Austrian championship, at Brno, in September. In addition to this, she was fifth on several occasions. She was running in the Austria Cup class for older cars, but finished above drivers in much more recent machinery more than once. Her final position was sixth in Austrian F3, and she was also fifth in the Austrian Racing Championship.

1999 was her best season yet. She had secured sponsorship from Fujitsu Siemens, from under the nose of her female opponent, Osmunde Dolischka. This caused some rancour, but did not affect Claudia’s on-track performances too much. This year, she had access to a newer car, a 1994 Dallara, and her year started promisingly with a fifth place at Spielberg. She was then fourth at Most, eighth twice at Brno, and in August, secured her first Formula 3 podium, a third at Most. This then improved to a second place, at Rijeka in Croatia. She would also score a third and fifth at this track. The final meeting, at Brno, gave her another third, and a fifth. Her consistency and speed meant that she was an impressive third in the Austrian F3 championship.

For the 2000 season, she set her sights on Italian Formula 3000. She was named as a driver for the Malta Racing* team in March, and stated that her aim was to be racing in Formula One by 2002. The team, however, pulled out before the season started, and she does not appear to have raced since. This does suggest that she lost more than sponsorship, and that her own money may have been taken. It is a shame that she did not get the chance to make a comeback, as she was still only twenty when her career finished.

*no connection is implied with other motorsport organisations with similar names.

(Image from www.motorline.cc)

Women Drivers in National Sportscar Racing: the Nordic countries

July 14, 2016, 2:00 pm

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Heidi Frydenhaug

This post consists mainly of entries split off from the Women Drivers in National Sportscar Racing post. The Nordic countries have produced several women drivers for their domestic sportscar series in recent years, both in one-make championships like the Ginetta Cup, and in the popular Thundersports category.

Jenna Brorsson - Swedish sportscar driver. The Porsche Carrera Cup of Scandinavia was her home in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. She came seventh in 2004, despite only entering four rounds, and sixth in 2005. After a break in 2006, she switched to the Swedish Ginetta Cup in a G20, winning a race in 2007 and coming third in the championship. Although she could not repeat her race win in 2008, she was never out of the top ten, apart from one retirement. Her best finish was third, at Falkenberg, and she was sixth in the championship standings. She also takes part in historic events: her earliest motorsport experiences were in her father's Lotus Cortina, and she competed internationally in a Porsche 962 in 2005.

Heidi Frydenhaug– Norwegian driver who races in the Danish Thundersports Championship (DTC), in a Ford Mustang. 2016 is her second season in Thundersports; she was 22^nd in the 2015 championship, with a best finish of ninth, at Rudskogen. Previously, she raced in the Seven championship in Norway, and was the winner of the Junior Rookie Cup in 2010, at the age of 21. She began her senior racing career in 2009, in the Seven, after ten years of karting. In between racing the Seven and the Mustang, she drove a Renault Clio in the Norwegian GT4 championship.

Linda Johansson - Swedish driver who began her senior racing career in 2005, in the Swedish Renault Junior Cup. She was eleventh overall in a Renault 5. After a break where she returned to karting for a while, she reappeared in 2010, in the Ginetta G20 Cup. She was immediately in the top ten, and had a best finish of sixth, at Kinnekulle. She was eighth overall. Her second G20 season did not go quite so well, with several DNFs and only eleventh in the championship, although she managed to better her top finish to fifth, again at Kinnekulle. Her 2012 season was curtailed due to pregnancy, although she rejoined the G20 championship and posted seven top-ten finishes, including a fourth, at her favoured Kinnekulle track. She was seventh overall, despite missing almost half of the season. In 2013, she raced in the Swedish Clio Cup. Her best finishes were two fifth places, at Karlskoga and Ostersund, and she was normally in the top ten. She was ninth overall. In 2014, she had a very good year in the Clio Cup, with a win at Göteborg, and four other podiums. She was fourth in the championship. She does not appear to have raced in 2015. 

Kirsi Kangas - has raced Porsches in her native Finland since at least 2011, when she took part in some national-level GT racing in a 997, in the mixed Avon GT and Porsche GT championship. In 2012, she raced in both her club’s Porsche GT Racing Cup, and the Finnish GT3 Cup, in a 997 GT3. She was eleventh in the club cup and sixth in the GT3 Cup, with several seventh places as her best finishes. In 2013, she raced in the GT3 Cup again, which was part of the Finrace championships. She did not do as well as in 2012, partly because the field was much larger this year, and finished fourteenth overall. Her best result was eleventh, at Ahvenisto. She was active in Porsche club motorsport in Finland in 2014, and was quite successful, earning a number of runner-up spots. 

Molly Pettit - Norwegian driver who races a Ford Mustang in Scandinavia. She began in the Norwegian GT championship in 2009, in a Nissan 200SX, which she used for several seasons. After changing it for a Toyota Altezza in 2012, she was second in the GT4 class. In 2013, she switched to stock cars in the Mustang, competing in Thundersports. In her first season, she was eleventh in the Danish championship, with a best finish of seventh, at Padborg, and second in the Norwegian series. In 2014, she continued this arrangement. She was fifteenth in the Danish championship, and made one appearance in the Northern European championship. In 2015, she raced in Danish Thundersports again. However, her season was cut short by a massive accident in the second race. She hopes to return in 2016. As well as her own racing, she got a job as a TV reporter for the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

(Image copyright HF Racing)

Anett György

July 21, 2016, 2:57 pm

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Anett in 2016

Anett György is a Hungarian driver who races a Lotus Elise in the Hankook Racer Cup in Hungary.

She began her racing career in 2013, in the Lotus Ladies’ Cup, which was based in Eastern Europe. She was seventeen years old, and the youngest driver on the grid. It took her a few races to get into her stride, but she was soon fairly competitive, and averaging fourth or fifth place. Her first podium was at the Hungaroring, behind Adrienn Bende and Liesette Braams. She was fifth in the championship.

Anett returned to the Ladies’ Cup in 2014, and was soon one of the front-runners. By the time the series was cancelled in August, due to a dispute with the Hungarian motorsport authorities, she had scored three third places from six races, and had started from pole at the first round at Oschersleben. Unfortunately, she did not finish that race. She was fourth overall.

Later in the season, she joined the RCM Swift Cup for the last three races, at the Hungaroring. It proved a tough initiation, and her best results were two fourteenth places.

In 2015, she did the full series, and was a much improved driver. In her first race at the Hungaroring, she broke into the top ten, finishing ninth. During the season, she averaged tenth place, with a pair of sixths, at the Slovakiaring and the Hungaroring, as her best results. She was tenth in the championship.

In 2016, she went back to racing a Lotus Elise, but now in mixed competition. She entered the Hankook Racer Cup, and started the season in the best way possible, with a maiden win. This was followed by a second and third win at the same meeting. At the time of writing, she is leading the championship after a fourth win, at the Pannoniaring, a third and two second places.

During her first Lotus season, Anett became one of a tiny handful of father/daughter racing pairs to compete in FIA-sanctioned series at the same meeting. Her father, Gábor, also competes in the RCM Cup, and they raced against one another in 2015. The same year, Anett navigated for her father on the Szilveszter Rally, in a Suzuki Swift.

(Image copyright Anett György)

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Lucile Cypriano

July 24, 2016, 2:52 pm

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Lucile on the podium in 2015

Lucile is a French driver who races saloons. She was the winner of the 2013 FIA Women in Motorsport Scirocco-R Shootout.

Prior to her burgeoning senior career, she raced karts from the age of twelve, winning her first race at seven years old, and finishing in the top ten of several French championships. During her time in karting, she was scouted by the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission as a future talent.

Her first step into senior motorsport was in 2013, in the French F4 championship. She was still not quite seventeen. Her best finish was eighth, at Le Mans, at the start of the season. It was not the most consistent of years for her, and she was troubled by non-finishes later on, but this was a learning period. She was 21st overall in the championship.

At the end of 2013, she was selected for the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission’s Scirocco-R Shootout. She was one of twelve young drivers who got through to the final stage, and she beat the likes of Naomi Schiff and Gosia Rdest to the award. Her prize was a funded season in the Volkswagen Scirocco-R Championship in 2014.

In 2014, she took her prize drive in the VW Scirocco-R Championship. She held her own on track, and finished all ten rounds. Her best overall finish was eighth, achieved at the Norisring and Oschersleben. She also finished in the top ten on three more occasions: two ninths and a tenth. She was twelfth overall, second out of the championship’s four female regulars.

In 2015, the Scirocco Cup was shelved, to be replaced by the Audi TT Cup. Lucile was set to make a double-pronged attack on the Audi TT one-make series, and the SEAT Leon Eurocup. After quietly dropping out of the TT Cup, her main focus became the SEAT series, and it was a good move. Lucile scored her first senior win at Catalunya, in the last round of the season, having managed two previous thirds, at Estoril and Monza. She was ninth in the championship. 

She also had her first taste of full international competition, making a guest appearance in the Spanish rounds of the TCR International Series, driving a SEAT Leon. Out of two races at Valencia, she scored one twelfth place.

The SEAT Leon Eurocup was her chosen destination for 2016, building on her 2015 success. At the time of writing, she has scored a second place at Estoril and a third at Paul Ricard.

She continues to be supported by the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission.

(Image copyright Lucile Cypriano)

Lucette Pointet

August 1, 2016, 1:48 pm

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Lucette (right) with Jacqueline Fougeray and the DS, after their 1966 Monte Coupe des Dames

Lucette Pointet was a French rally driver and co-driver, who often drove a Citroen DS.

Born in 1936, she started rallying at a young age, acting as a navigator to a family friend, Nicole Pizot, the daughter of Paul Pizot, another rally driver. Nicole’s rally car was a DB Panhard, which was an unusual choice, but seemed reliable enough. Some sources say that the duo began their automotive adventures in 1954 or 1955, with Lucette’s parents arranging her entry for the 1955 Monte Carlo Rally, but her name does not appear on the 1955 Monte entry list. They were definitely competing together early in 1959, when Nicole, with Lucette on the maps, was second in the Paris-St. Raphaël women’s rally. They first appear in the Monte in 1960, in the DB, starting at Paris, but are missing from the final classification. Apparently, their first event together was the Rally of Beaujolais, but the date of this is uncertain. Other sources state that Nicole Pizot only started rallying in 1958, which fits in with the Monte start lists.

Early in her career, she apparently drove karts as well as rally cars, but no information about this is forthcoming.

In 1961, she drove a Renault Dauphine 1093 in hillclimbs, running particularly well on snow and ice. This was her first experience of driving herself. As well as the climbs, she did some stage rallying, and proved a very capable driver, finishing third in the Neige et Glace Rally with Simone Petit. Navigation had not been forgotten, and this year, she sat beside drivers including Gérard Larrousse. The following year, she drove a Volvo in rallies and hillclimbs. The results are not forthcoming.

For the 1963 season, she became involved with the Paris-Île de France Citroen team, having met its manager, René Cotton, the previous year. This was her first time with a fully funded car, with her own recce vehicle and service crew. The car was a DS19; the DS was a model that would become almost synonymous with Lucette as a rally driver. She repaid Cotton’s confidence in her by winning the Paris-St. Raphaël Rally, despite a small crash and an attempt by another team to get her disqualified. They claimed that the loss of some bodywork in the accident left Lucette’s car underweight, but this was thrown out.

The rest of the 1963 season was spent as a navigator to Claudine Bouchet in another DS19. The pair figured strongly in Coupes des Dames, and Claudine was sixth overall in the Tour de Corse. After Claudine moved to the Lancia team for the 1964 season, Lucette took over as the team’s main Coupe des Dames hopeful.

Her 1964 co-driver was usually Françoise Houillon. The pair tackled the Monte Carlo and Acropolis rallies together, although it is not clear whether or not they finished. The Acropolis was a difficult event for them, as Lucette was struggling with illness, and had quite a severe crash at one point. As well as driving herself, navigation still remained part of her rallying life. She read the maps for Jean-Claude Ogier on the Alpine Rally.

The Paris-Île de France operation took over the running of the works Citroen team in 1965, taking Lucette with them. She continued in her dual role, utilising both the familiar DS19 and the newer DS21. She drove the latter on that year’s Monte, and was a respectable 25^thoverall, third in the Coupe des Dames rankings. She reverted to the DS19 as part of a ten-car Citroen attack on the East African Safari, and was fourteenth, third of the DS19s and winner of the Coupe des Dames. As it often was, the 1965 Safari was a real car-breaker, and the fact she finished at all is a testament to Lucette’s driving skill.

In 1966, Lucette and her new co-driver, Jackie Fougeray, finally won a Coupe des Dames on the Monte. Later in the year, in September, she added another Coupe to her collection, in the Alpine Rally, finishing in thirteenth. In between, she took part in the Geneva Rally, and was an excellent tenth. This was a privateer outing in a Panhard 24CT; Jean-Claude Ogier was third in a similar car. At the end of the season, she tackled the Rallye des Routes du Nord in a Citroen, but crashed out heavily at Reims, and had to be airlifted to hospital.

In addition to her international rallying activities, Lucette was a regular fixture in the French championship, usually in a Citroen. She won the French ladies’ championship in 1967. One of that year’s best results was an eighth overall in the Mont Blanc Rally. Her international outings that year were limited to a run in the Monte Carlo Rally, in which she was 33^rd, behind Sylvia Österberg for the Coupe des Dames.

In 1968, she was runner-up in the French rally championship. On the international stages, she achieved a twelfth place in the Rally of Portugal, driving a DS21 with her new co-driver, Michèle Veron. Her two other world outings were the two classic French rallies, the Monte and the Tour de Corse, but she did not finish either. As a navigator, she was once again paired up with her partner, Jean-Claude Ogier, and helped him to win the Safari Calédonien Rally. Her brother lived on the island of New Caledonia, and the pair only entered after deciding to visit him, and being persuaded by a Citroen team.

Away from Citroen, Lucette also acted as a navigator to Rosemary Smith in the London-Sydney Marathon, in a Ford Lotus Cortina. They finished the gruelling event in 48^th place. Rosemary had been tipped to win the Coupe des Dames, but a series of problems, including a cylinder failing on the car, having to drive backwards up the Khyber Pass, and almost becoming the victims of a highway robbery, dropped her and Lucette down to third. Communication difficulties between the pair did not help matters.

A much quieter year followed in 1969. Lucette, having travelled the world with Rosemary Smith in 1968, only did one major international rally, the Rally of Portugal. She drove a DS21, but did not finish. As a navigator, she helped Jean-Claude Ogier to another win in the Safari Calédonien Rally.

Lucette and Jean-Claude married in 1970, and continued to rally Citroens as a couple, with Lucette using the name Pointet-Ogier. Breaking one long-term relationship as she cemented another, she did some rallies in France as a driver, using a Ford Capri and Escort prepared by Ford France. Among the rallies she entered in the Escort was the Tour de Corse, which she did not finish. She was sixteenth in the Critérium Alpin and 24^th in the Rallye Neige et Glace.

1971 was her last active season as a regular competitor. She navigated for Jean-Claude Vinatier in an Alpine-Renault, in France and also in the Rally of Jamaica.

Along with her husband, she came out of retirement for one event in 1982, to drive a Citroen Visa in the Acropolis Rally, which had been one of her first major rallies. Sadly, they did not get to the end. After that, she worked on the organising committee for French rallies, including the Tour de Corse and the Monte.

During her career, she was twice French ladies’ rally champion, although the dates are proving hard to track down. She was (and remains) quite a private person and not as much has been written about her as about some of her contemporaries, such as Claudine Trautmann. Relatively few photographs of her have been published.

Her daughter, Catherine Ogier-Falzon, has competed in rallies, and in recent years, has navigated for her father in historic events. Her son, Jean-Francois Pointet-Ogier, played ice hockey internationally prior to his untimely death in 2009.

Robyn Hamilton ("Charlie")

August 5, 2016, 10:27 am

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Robyn at Bathurst, with Frank Gardner and Ralph Radburn

Robyn Haimlton raced in saloons and Formula Ford in Australia, with some success, in the 1970s. She was famous for using the nom de course of "Charlie", after her sponsor's perfume. Her reputation on-track was an aggressive one.

She began racing on circuits in 1976, although she had been involved in the illegal street drag racing scene for some time, having started during her undergraduate studies. Apparently, “a brush with the law” caused her to enrol in Frank Gardner’s racing school.

Her first wheel-to-wheel circuit experiences came in the Formula Gemini one-make series, for Holden Gemini saloons. The championship had a reputation for crash-happy driving, and on her third-ever race, Robyn was involved in a nasty-looking shunt at Calder, in a race which had seen a six-car pile-up in the first lap. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in 1978, she claimed that the male drivers deliberately ran into her to scare her, and dissuade her from racing.

A second season of Formula Gemini in 1977 led to her first win, which was one of two that year, including one at Calder. She had learned from her peers in 1976, and soon developed a reputation for the sort of hard driving the series was known for. Some went as far as describing her driving style as “dirty”, so willing was she to take risks.

In 1977, she also drove in the Renault Newstar one-make series, and was regarded as one of its stars. She won three races, at Winton, Adelaide and Sandown. She came quite close to winning the title, which would have meant a trip to Europe to attend a prestigious racing school.

A one-off Ladies’ Invitational Race was held at Oran Park that year, which had a decent grid of fifteen experienced racers, mostly from touring cars. They drove Renault 12s. Robyn was the winner, and walked away with a thousand dollars, provided by Ansett Airways. In mixed competition, she was 23^rd in the Phillip Island 500k, driving a Gemini.

In 1978, she took part in the Bathurst 1000 with Ralph Radburn. Their Holden Torana failed to finish, following an electrical failure, although they were classified in eleventh place. 

Never one to shy away from publicity, Robyn appeared in some quite famous images during her time at Bathurst. She had had a race suit made for her, after complaining that existing suits were dull and did not fit her feminine physique correctly. The resulting set of overalls proved very figure-enhancing, and Robyn’s back view made the papers. She claimed afterwards that this was not deliberate, and that the suit was too tight.

After 1978, she moved away from saloons and into single-seaters. It was during the 1979 season that she raced under the nom de course of “Charlie”. This was intended as a publicity stunt to promote Revlon’s Charlie perfume line. Robyn had approached Revlon with this marketing idea, but they were not keen on it immediately. She changed her name nevertheless, in a move designed to persuade them to sponsor her anyway. The final aim of this career move was to secure funds to race in Europe.

On the track, she proved a very capable driver. In her first full season she was fourth in the Formula Ford Driver To Europe series, driving an Elfin 620B. She scored one podium finish, a second place at Oran Park.

In 1980, she continued to be competitive, finishing in the top three, three times. She was fifth in the championship, and her media profile remained high.

After the 1980 season, her career tailed off sharply. She ended up leaving motorsport behind, and threw herself into business instead. She was a make-up artist, working for Revlon, then later founded her own beauty salon, and a company that runs three catamarans sailing around the Sydney bay area. As of 2016, she is still sailing catamarans.

(Image from Robyn’s Facebook page)

Female Drivers at the Macau Grand Prix

August 7, 2016, 1:51 pm

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Tatiana Calderon in 2014

The Macau Grand Prix is the longest-standing motorsport event in Asia. It started life as a motorised treasure hunt, then became a sportscar race, before evolving into a single-seater event. It ran under Formula Libre rules from 1961 to 1973, then becoming part of the Formula Pacific championship in 1974. Since 1983, it has been a Formula 3 race, and has been contested by Formula One hopefuls from around the world, including Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher.

The race is held on the Guia street circuit in Macau, a Chinese special territory. Speeds reached at Macau are can be extremely high due to the circuit’s long straights. As well as the single-seater race, the event hosts a major touring car race (previously the finale of the WTCC), a motorcycle Grand Prix and a number of support races for saloons, sportscars and local single-seater formulae.

Women drivers have been a distinct rarity throughout the history of the Grand Prix. More have contested the Guia touring car race, or the other support races, and there have even been pro-am women’s races on the bill in the past. Anne Wong won the touring car race in 1970, in a Mini. However, only a handful of female drivers have contested the blue-riband Grand Prix. 

Below is a list. It may be added to in future, as the results for the earlier runnings of the race are not easy to find.

1976

Diana Poon  - DNF?

1980

Desiré Wilson (Ralt RT1) – 6^th

1983

Cathy Muller(Ralt RT3) – 12^th

2014

Tatiana Calderon (Dallara-Mercedes) – 13^th

(Image from www.tatianacalderon.com)

Natalie Goodwin

August 25, 2016, 2:43 pm

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Natalie in the Lotus 7/20

Natalie Goodwin is most famous for racing in Formula 3 in the 1960s. The British Women Racing Drivers’ Club’s annual racing trophy is named after her.

Natalie was from a background that was both privileged and sporty. Her mother, Marjorie, was a member of the Cussons family, and the Marketing Director of the Cussons toiletry firm in the 1970s. She played hockey for England. Natalie’s cousin, Nick Cussons, started racing GT cars in 1959. However, her initial first love was music; she played piano to concert standard, and performed in a jazz band with her brother. After losing a fingertip in an accident involving a door, she had to stop playing professionally, and seek other things to do.

She bought her first racing car in 1961, when she was twenty-one years old. It was a boyfriend, rather than any of her relatives, that stirred her interest in motorsport. Her racing career started very badly, reversing into a pit wall at Silverstone, but she carried on and finished the race, not even in last place. Among her first cars were a Mini Cooper, Mini Marcos and an Austin-Healey 3000. Soon, she was winning club races.

For the first few years of her racing career, she often drove Lotus cars. The 7, initially painted black, carried her through her many of her early days in British club racing. Between 1962 and 1964, she raced the car both as a self-entry, and as part of the Ashley Smithy Garage team, which necessitated a change of paintwork to a McLaren-esque orange. The three drivers used custom number plates for racing, reading “NAT1” (Natalie), NIT1 and NUT1. As well as racing for Ashley Smithy, she worked for them, handling paperwork.

In 1964, she bought a Lotus 7/20, one of only two built, although at least four replicas were produced. It was a Lotus 7 with independent rear suspension and the brakes from a Lotus 20 Formula Junior.  Hers had previously been owned and raced by Colin Chapman, David Porter and Wendy Hamblin. She sold her original 7 to the team, and kept the 7/20 for three seasons, before selling it to an American collector.

1965 was the year that she switched her attention to single-seater racing, acquiring the first of her Brabham Formula 3 cars. Not stopping there, she purchased two more, and set up her own three-driver team to take on the European Formula 3 circuit, along with her brother. John Cardwell and Dave Rees were her other drivers. Managing the paperwork at Ashley Smithy had proved to be useful training.

Her first outing on the European stage appears to have been the Pau Grand Prix, which she entered in a Brabham BT15, but did not qualify for. Her first Formula 3 finish was at Magny-Cours, where she was twelfth. The best of the Goodwin Racing Brabhams was driven by John Cardwell, who was third. Goodwin Racing then took three cars to Zolder, and Dave Rees was third, in a BT9. Natalie had planned to race, but did not. The team had its best race of the year at Chimay, the Grand Prix des Frontières: John Cardwell won, Natalie was seventh and Dave Rees, ninth. At Caserta, John Cardwell was second. Natalie did not finish, despite coming third in her heat. It was a similar story at Monza, although Natalie did not qualify this time. None of the Goodwin cars finished at Rouen, and the team then pulled out of the Ville Nevers Grand Prix, at Magny Cours. A few more entries for John Cardwell followed, but Natalie did not race herself.

As well as its European forays, the team competed on and off in F3 in Britain. Natalie’s best finishes were a pair of second places, at Oulton Park and Aintree, which she earned in 750MC and BARC races. She was also seventh in a BARC event at Aintree.

Goodwin Racing went even more international in 1966, starting the year with a race in Buenos Aires for John Cardwell. He contested the Argentine F3 series in a BT15, with some top-five finishes. After this, he parted ways with Natalie and her team.

At Pau, a Brabham BT18, driven by Charles Crichton-Stuart, was added to the team. He had moved over from Stirling Moss’s SMART team. Natalie, driving a similar car, made her first appearance at the Barcelona GP, but did not finish. Monza in May was a similar scenario. Natalie’s first finish of the year was at Chimay again, where she was thirteenth. She did not qualify at La Châtre, after not finishing her heat, and lost out at Vallelunga, too. At Caserta, Charles Crichton-Stuart broke into the top ten, but Natalie struggled again. Neither BT18 qualified at Monza in June. Driving solo, Natalie entered the 1900 F3 championship in France, and finished fifteenth at Rouen. After another couple of DNQs, she was tenth at Hockenheim, in the Touring Car Grand Prix support race. After another couple of disappointments, Natalie earned another finish at Zolder, a fifteenth place. This was during a spell of competition in Belgium with Charles Crichton-Stuart, and it was her last finish of the year.

As well as the European calendar, Goodwin Racing was a semi-regular presence in British Formula 3, with either Natalie or Charles Crichton-Stuart as driver. Natalie’s British season did not really get going until late on, and she managed a best result of fifth, in the Louth Trophy at Cadwell Park. She was also eighth at Silverstone and Mallory Park.

The following year, she proved she could cut it as a driver as well as a team owner, and apparently won her first major F3 race. Unfortunately, the details of where this win happened are proving hard to find.

In the UK, Goodwin Racing was mostly represented by Natalie, as a single-car entry. She was particularly effective at the more northerly circuits, such as Oulton Park and Rufforth, close to her Cheshire home, and particularly after she swapped the BT18 for a newer BT21. Her best result was third, at Oulton Park.

In Europe, she dismissed the BT18 and made her debut in May, at her favoured circuit of Chimay, in her new car. She was fourteenth overall. At the Prix de Paris at Montlhéry, she was third in the “B” race, which left her classified 21^st in the main standings. A fifth followed at La Châtre, at the beginning of June. A run in the Coupe de Paris gave her an eleventh place in September.

After running a car in the Argentine championship the previous year, Natalie got to drive there herself in 1967. Her best result was seventh, at Mar del Plata.

The same year, she tried her hand at endurance racing, and entered the Spa 24 Hours. She drove a Goodwin Racing Ford Lotus Cortina with Cyril Williams. They finished, but were unclassified. A second Goodwin Racing Lotus Cortina did not get to the end.

In 1968, she had another go at endurance racing, sharing Jean Denton’s MGB at the Nürburgring 1000km. They did not finish. Jean and Natalie had previously raced against each other in Formula 3, in 1965.

For much of the year, she was still campaigning the BT21 for Goodwin Racing. In the UK, they entered the MCD Lombank Championship, with principal driver, Cyd Williams. Williams served the team well, winning some races, but Natalie was no slouch behind the wheel either, earning herself a second and third at Oulton Park, her favourite British circuit, and a fourth at Rufforth.

During the early part of the season, she raced in Spain, but struggled to qualify or finish her races there. In April, accepting a drive from the Paul Watson Racing Organisation, she was fourth in the Sprite Cup, at Jyllandsring. She was also eleventh at Roskilde, driving a BT21 for Tony Birchenough’s team. As a Goodwin Racing entry, she was eighth and seventh in the Prix de Paris races at Montlhéry. A couple of weeks later, she was fourth again at Jyllandsring. At the start of June, she was sixth at Chimay, another circuit at which she usually ran well. During the year, she also raced in Portugal and Finland, although she did not do as well there.

Natalie and Cyd Williams continued as a two-car Goodwin team for the 1969 season. Driving the BT21, Natalie was ninth at Barcelona in May. Later in the month, Chimay gave her a seventh place, and she was ninth at Reims in June. She did enter more races, in France and Sweden, but either did not finish, or did not qualify. That year, she competed at Monaco, and was almost prevented from starting by police, who refused to believe she was a genuine driver. Graham Hill ended up vouching for her.

British F3 was not her major priority in 1969, although her team remained a regular presence. A Chevron had been added to the Goodwin stable, which was driven by Alan Rollinson, among others. Natalie declined to race herself for most of the season, although she put in an appearance at the Oulton Park BARC race, and was sixth overall.

1969 was her last season of active competition. During her time in F3, she had raced against the likes of Piers Courage, François Cevert, Patrick Depailler and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, sometimes getting the better of them.

Between 1964 and 1967, she was Britain’s highest-performing female driver, and won many awards from the British Women Racing Drivers’ Club, of which she was a founder member, alongside Mary Wheeler. In recognition of her success, the BWRDC awarded their original racing trophy to her in perpetuity. Natalie responded by donating three silver trophies to the club, which are still named the Goodwin Trophies, and are awarded to this day. She was also a Vice-Chairman of the club for many years.

(Image copyright Ferret Fotografics)