Speedqueens

Deborah Gregg raced sportscars in the States in the 1980s, and ran Brumos Motorsport after the premature death of her husband, Peter Gregg, in 1980.

The Greggs first met at a party, and initially bonded over a late-night road race they held with friends. Deborah had never actually raced. Peter competed internationally, as well as owning four car dealerships.

Their relationship progressed quickly, and they married within a few months. However, just five months after they met, Peter drove out into the desert and shot himself. He had changed his will in favour of Deborah, and left her a note telling her not to blame herself for what he had done.

She was now a widow, and went through the normal grieving processes, but she was also, now, a very wealthy woman, with the resources at hand to go racing, an ambition she had always harboured. According to her mother, she had been interested in cars since the age of five.

Her first IMSA event, in 1982, was the Daytona Finale. She drove a Porsche 924 with Elliot Forbes-Robinson. They were 22nd overall, and eleventh in the GTO class.

In 1983, she started racing for the Brumos team, which now technically belonged to her, as it had been owned by Peter since 1965. Hurley Haywood, a former team-mate of Peter’s, was on hand to help. Deborah ran a Porsche 924 for an all-female team of herself, Bonnie Henn and Kathy Rude. Their first event together was the Daytona 24 Hours, and they were thirteenth overall. The trio reunited for the Sebring 12 Hours, in which they were 35th. Deborah and Kathy then did the next three rounds of the IMSA series together, with a best finish of 17th, at Charlotte.

Mid-season, Deborah travelled to Germany for the Nürburgring Grand Prix. She shared a car with Lili Reisenbichler and Jürgen Hamelmann, but they did not finish. Back at home, she did the last two rounds of IMSA in two different Porsches 924s, driving alongside Elliot Forbes-Robinson and George Drolsom.

1984 was a much quieter season. She raced with the El Salvador team, in another 924. Her team-mates were Jim Trueman and Alfredo Mena. They were meant to do the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours together, but Deborah never got to race at Sebring. The team did not finish either race anyway.

1985 saw her back in a Brumos car for the Road America Trans Am round. This time, it was a Buick Regal. She was 23rd. She also drove an Alba AR4 for Malibu in the Watkins Glen 500km, and was fifteenth.

She returned to IMSA in 1986, driving a Tiga GT286. For Daytona, she was part of a four-driver Rinzler Motoracing team with Mike Brockman, Steve Durst and Jim Trueman. They qualified in 28th place, but the car’s engine failed. Sharing with Jeff Kline, Deborah was eleventh at Laguna Seca, then ninth at Charlotte, with Jim Trueman. This was her best finish of the year. Later in the season, the car was taken over by Brumos. This particular team’s best result was a twelfth place at Palm Beach, before another Tiga was brought in, which did not run as well.

Her fourth Daytona 24 Hours was the best of her career. She got a ride in a Roush Racing Ford Mustang, with Scott Pruett, Scott Goodyear and Bobby Akin. They were ninth overall, third in class. This was more remarkable considering that they were unable to set a qualifying time, and started from the back of the grid.

Deborah remained a Roush driver for the rest of the season, and tackled the Trans-Am series in a Mercury Capri. This car seemed to suit her. She was eighth in her first race at Long Beach. By the third round at Portland, she was into the top five. Her first podium happened at Road America, and was quickly followed by another third place at Memphis. She was fifth in the championship, and won the Rookie of the Year award.

In 1988, she joined up with another Roush driver, Lyn St. James. They drove a Mercury Capri at Daytona with Mark Martin and Pete Halsmer, but crashed out quite late on. Deborah and Lynn had more success as a duo, finishing eighth at the Sebring 12 Hours in a Mercury Merkur XR4Ti. They were second in the GTO class.

Deborah had not always had such good relationships with other female drivers. Shortly before her 1988 Daytona run, she had appeared on a speaking panel with Janet Guthrie, who said, in front of her, “as for Deborah Gregg, I don't know how much money Peter Gregg left her, but it was evidently enough for her to buy herself a ride.'' It is unclear what her grudge was, or what the context of her remarks was. Others were more complementary. Including former team-mate Elliot Forbes-Robinson, who praised her progress that year.

Deborah’s Trans-Am season was not quite as strong as her 1987 run, although she remained a solid competitor. Her best result was at Detroit, where she was fifth in the Merkur. This was one of four top-tens she earned that year.

During her time at Roush, Deborah also did some truck racing in a Mitsubishi and a Jeep Comanche, although results are proving hard to track down. Lyn St. James used a Ford Ranger.

After the 1988 season, Deborah took a break from racing, although she came back to Trans-Am in a Chevrolet Camaro, in 1991. She was 18th in the 1991 championship, and tenth in 1992. A part-season in 1993 gave her a 21st place.

Her last IMSA race also occurred in 1993. She was twelfth at Miami, in her self-entered Camaro.

Shortly afterwards, she sold her interest in Brumos, and concentrated on other things, including family.

(Image copyright Mark Windecker)

Cheryl Glass is most famous for being the only African-American woman ever to race sprintcars professionally, and to race in Indy Lights.

She was born in December 1961 in California, and moved to Seattle two years later with her parents. They were a high-achieving family; her mother was an aircraft engineer, and her father a vice-president of the Pacific Northwest Bell telecommunications company.

Encouraged by her father, she took up dirt-track racing at the age of nine, in a quarter-midget car. A younger sister, Cherry, also raced, although not to the same level as Cheryl.

She competed all over the country, winning some races and titles, and moving through the sprintcar ranks. She made it onto the professional circuit and won the Northwest Sprintcar Association’s Rookie of the Year award in 1981. Among her rivals was Al Unser Jr.

In tandem with her developing sprintcar career, Cheryl graduated from high school with honours at sixteen. Before that even, she had run her own business, creating and selling ceramic dolls, which she started when she was only nine. She enrolled at university to study Electrical Engineering, but did not graduate, preferring to concentrate on her racing career.

Between 1980 and 1983, she continued to race sprintcars. A series of spectacular accidents did not put her off, although she sustained damage to her knees that required surgery. The worst of these happened at Manzanita, Phoenix. In 1982, she took part in the USAC National Sprint Silver Crown at Indiana.

By 1984, she felt that she needed to try a different discipline within motorsport. She set her sights on road circuits, and entered the Dallas round of the Can-Am single-seater challenge, driving a VW-powered Van Diemen. She had to retire after six laps, from eighth place.

Although she hoped to have the funding to contest the rest of the Can-Am calendar, she did not. The Dallas race appears to have been run in a second-choice car, as she was originally scheduled to drive an Ausca Racing Toleman.

In 1985, she tried truck racing, in a Toyota pickup, but she crashed during testing at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and did not actually race.

It was about this time that her father acquired a Penske PC-6 Indycar, which Cheryl tested at Seattle International Raceway. This car was built in 1978, and would never be competitive against the current generation of Indycars. Talking to the Los Angeles Times, she stated that her aim was the 1987 Indianapolis 500, after at least a part-season in CART in 1986.

There is some talk of Cheryl taking the Indianapolis Rookie Test, but I cannot find any concrete information to confirm or deny this. Her 1985 accident seems to have been a considerable setback to her career, as she disappears from the scene for a while after that. She remained hard at work on her business interests, which by now included a high-end bridal and eveningwear design studio. She was a vocal advocate for young black people wanting to get into business and engineering. This, coupled with her photogenic looks and bold career path, meant that she remained a popular media figure.

She reappeared in 1990, and entered the penultimate round of the CART American Racing Series (Indy Lights), finishing seventh at Nazareth. Among her rivals were Robbie Buhl and Paul Tracy, the latter of whom finished below her. Although she was listed for the final Laguna Seca event, she did not start.

The following year, she entered the first two races of the season, but did not finish either, driving for her own Glass Racing team, sponsored by Elegente Eye eyewear. The car’s electrics gave up after fourteen laps of Laguna Seca, and she crashed out at Phoenix.

After that, things started to go very wrong for Cheryl. She appears to have become the target of criminal activity, motivated by racism. Her house was broken into and daubed with swastikas, and she was sexually assaulted by intruders. The police were called, but the incident ended with Cheryl herself being arrested for assaulting a police officer. Her family and friends protested her innocence with her.

She committed suicide in 1997, at the age of 35, although some mystery surrounded her death. She is still remembered as a pioneer in the sport.

(Image copyright Paul Jackson)

Catie Munnings won the European Ladies’ Rally Championship in 2016, aged eighteen and in only her second season of rallying.

She started in 2015, driving a Peugeot 106 in British club rallies, with her father Chris as her co-driver. Chris used to run the Brands Hatch and London rally schools, so Catie grew up around rally cars from a very young age.

Her best finish was 26th in the Lynn Stages Rally. During the season, she tested a Peugeot, and so impressed watching team managers that they decided to put her straight into the European Championship the following season. In order to be eligible, she needed to have completed six rallies, so she did the Donington Park and Red Dragon events near the start of the year, to add to her four finishes in 2015.

Her ERC car was a Peugeot 208, co-driven by the more experienced German, Anne Katharina Stein. She won two Ladies ERC awards, in the Ypres Rally and the Liepāja Rally in Latvia. In Belgium, she was 65th, seventh in the Junior class and eleventh in ERC3. Her Coupe des Dames was assured when Melissa Debackere retired with accident damage. In Latvia, she was 25th overall, ninth in the ERC3 class, and eighth in the Junior class. She was 16th in the Junior standings at the end of the year, and won the Ladies’ championship.

In 2017, she declined a university place in favour of continuing her rally career. In June 2016, she had hurried back from Ypres in order to take an A-level exam.

Catie’s 2017 season will be her second in the ERC with the Saintéloc Junior team. At the time of writing, she has retired from the Azores Rally after an accident, and finished the Islas Canarias Rally in 68th place, out of 89 finishers.

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

Rebecca Jackson is best known for racing Porsches in the UK, and for her “Project Le Mans” plan.

She grew up around motor racing, having been introduced to the sport as a baby by her dad. However, she was never a junior karter and only started competing once she was an adult, with her education finished. After university, she ran her own car sales business, which she started in 2007. For fun, she drove her Subaru Impreza on track days. She set up her own Youtube channel, in which she posted her own car reviews of vehicles she was selling. This was the start of her media career, which progressed in tandem with her racing ambitions.

Her first Porsche was a 924, in 2011, which she raced in the BRSCC’s Porsche championship. The car had cost her £5000, the proceeds from the sale of the Impreza, and was pretty basic. She was eighth overall. Her best finish was fifth, at Oulton Park.

Having gained valuable experience, she was fourth in 2012, having scored her first win at Snetterton, as well as a second and third. That year she also raced a Toyota MR2. Quite early in her career, she picked up a reputation as a wet-track specialist, having prevailed in a number of wet races.

For 2013, she swapped the 924 for a production-class Boxter, remaining in the same championship, but a different class. She won the class comfortably, and was 19th overall, six places above her nearest Boxter rival.

2013 saw her launch “Project Le Mans”, a four-year plan that would end with her racing at Le Mans. She used the Autosport International Show to canvass support. To begin with, this was in the form of spare parts, but she did get some cash sponsors on board.

In 2014, she planned to move into the Race Spec Boxter class, the highest level of Porsche club competition. However, she opted for the Cartek Roadsports Endurance Series, a production-based championship, run by the 750MC. Her best results were two fifth places, at Snetterton and Silverstone, and she struggled a little with non-finishes and development issues with the Boxter. However, her performances were enough to earn her some good Class B finishes, including a second at Snetterton. Later in the season, she drove in the Birkett Six Hour Handicap Relay, as part of Team Turtle Wax, all driving Porsches or Ginettas. They were fifth on handicap, and 22nd on scratch, winning their class. Turtle Wax became her principal sponsor for the next three seasons.

Rebecca moved a little further up the Porsche racing ladder in 2015, with a view to a Le Mans seat in 2016. For this, she needed some top-level GT3 experience, which the GTUK championship provided. She was sixth in the GTB class of the GTUK series, driving a Porsche 997 Carrera Cup car. Her best result was a third place, at Donington, and she was normally in the top five. Although she was still in a Porsche, this was the most powerful car she had raced yet.

Another of her 2015 activities was her RecordRoadTrip, sponsored by the RAC and Audi. The aim of the trip was to visit as many countries as she could on a single tank of fuel. She was assisted by Andrew Frankel, and the car, an Audi, had a special enlarged fuel tank. The pair set a Guinness-ratified world record, having travelled most of the way round Europe.

Later in the year, she did another road trip, the Track 2 Track Challenge. Rebecca and Russian racer Natalia Freidina travelled around the UK and Eastern Europe and raced each other on circuits along the way, including some forgotten F1 tracks.

She spent most of 2016 in the GT4 European Series, driving a KTM X-Bow in the Pro class for the Reiter team. Her best finish was fifth, at Pau, and she was 20th overall. This was her first experience of a sports prototype. She also paid another visit to Dubai for the 24 Hours, but did not finish in the Sorg Rennsport BMW 325i.

This was the final year of her Project Le Mans plan, and true to her word, she raced at Le Mans. She did not compete in the 24 Hours itself, but in the Road to Le Mans support race for LMP3 cars. She drove a Nissan-engined Ligier to sixteenth place, with her By Speed Factory team-mate, Jesus Fuster. This was only the second time she had driven the Ligier. The first time was a month earlier, at Paul Ricard, where she raced in a round of the VdeV championship, finishing sixth.

In 2017, she is racing in the UK Mini Challenge.

Away from actual racing, she is a motoring journalist and broadcaster who writes for The Telegraph’s motoring section, among other publications.

(Image from www.rebeccaracer.com)

Sally Stokes in her Mini

Brands Hatch, 19th May 1963

Joey Freeman (Aston Martin Spa Special)
Michaelle Burns-Grieg (Austin Mini)
Wendy Hamblin (Lotus 7) - fastest lap
Sally Minter (Austin A40)
Sally Stokes (Austin Mini Cooper S)
Ann Glover (Morgan Plus Four)

Anita Taylor (Ford Anglia) - DNF

Jean Dorken (Lotus Ford) - DNF

Entered, finishing position unknown:

Gabriel Konig (Austin Healey Sprite)

Mary Wheeler (Vauxhall VX4/90)

Gillian Sturgess (Daimler SP250)

Isobel Robinson (Ford Anglia)

Kim Stevens (Austin Healey Sprite)

Fritzi Landes (Austin Mini Cooper)

Wendy Atkinson (Austin Mini)

Sylvia Mason (Austin Mini)

Entered, did not race:

Jenny Tudor Owen (MGB)

Rosemary Seers (Sunbeam Rapier?)

Louisa Squires (Porsche 1600)

Tessa Hollis (Austin Healey Sprite)

Jean Aley (Mini Cooper)

The original Fast Girl Trophy was part of the BRSCC’s Members Meeting at Brands that weekend. Fifteen drivers took the start; as many as 21 may have attempted to qualify. The race was open to female drivers in saloon or sports cars and was run in a handicap format.

It was originally scheduled to run for ten laps, but was shortened to twelve minutes. Michaelle Burns-Grieg and Gabriel Konig had a low-speed collision on the formation lap, which had to be dealt with before the race commenced. On the fifth lap, Jean Dorken’s clutch blew up, then Anita Taylor rolled her Anglia after puncturing a tyre on the debris. The resulting pictures were picked up by several daily newspapers, who were all over this story of women drivers and carnage. Anita Taylor joked to a reporter that she would have to do her shopping by bicycle until the car was repaired. Some of the drivers used their own cars, while others were borrowed, from the likes of Chris Craft and Gordon Spice.

The race was won by Joey (Jocelyn) Freeman in an Aston Martin. This was her comeback race after a heavy crash in 1962, and her first all-female event. Anita Taylor and Michaelle Burns-Grieg had previously raced each other in the BSCC, the fore-runner of the BTCC. Fifth-place finisher, Sally Stokes, was making her competition debut. She was better-known as the long-term girlfriend of Jim Clark.

Another Fast Girl Trophy was apparently held at Mallory Park later in the year, but no results are forthcoming.

Full results for the race are rather hard to track down. There were fifteen starters, who were pictured in the Daily Express. One of the names on the list must have either dropped out or not qualified.

I am grateful to Richard Page, John Winfield and Richard Armstrong for their help in finding entry lists.

(Image copyright Alamy)

Bonnie, centre, with Janet Guthrie and Lyn St James

Bonnie Henn raced Ferraris and Porsches in IMSA between 1979 and 1985, usually as part of her father, Preston Henn's, team. She and Preston were IMSA’s first father-daughter racing team. Her other team-mates included Kathy Rude, Janet Guthrie and Desiré Wilson.

Bonnie’s career developed in tandem with her father’s. He only began racing two years before she did, having made his money buying disused drive-in cinemas, which he turned into flea markets.

Her first major finish was a seventeenth place at the 1979 Sebring 12 Hours, driving a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 with Lyn St James and Janet Guthrie. They were sponsored by Thunderbird Swap Shop, the Henn family business. Bonnie also entered the IMSA Daytona Finale, driving the Ferrari with Hal Sahlman. They were 28th overall, fifteenth in the GTO class. In between, Preston Henn ran an AMC Pacer for Bonnie in the Daytona 6 Hours. She did not finish. The underpowered Pacer must have been a stark contrast to the Ferrari she was more used to.

In contrast to her first season, 1980 was very quiet, as Bonnie concentrated on developing her driving skills. She was linked to a drive in an Alfa Romeo Alfetta in the Daytona 6 Hours, but did not start. The car belonged to Janis Taylor, who drove instead, with Del Russo Taylor.

1981 could have been her first attempt at the Daytona 24 Hours. Preston put together a Swap Shop team of himself, Bonnie, Desiré Wilson and Marty Hinze. Although she had practised in the team’s Porsche 935, she decided that she did not have enough experience to tackle the race itself, and stepped down. She did race the 935 at the Daytona Finale in November. Preston was her team-mate. They did not finish.

Desiré Wilson became something of a mentor to Bonnie at this time. She gave her advanced driving tuition and supported her through a part-season in IMSA in 1982. Desiré’s race seat with the Swap Shop team was largely down to her work with Bonnie.

Bonnie and Desiré aimed to start 1982 by teaming up again for the Daytona 24 Hours, but Bonnie, along with Janet Guthrie, dropped out. The three worked together again at the Sebring 12 Hours, where they drove a Ferrari 512BB/LM in “Miss Budweiser” colours for North American Racing. For her next race, the Charlotte IMSA round, she shared a Swap Shop Porsche 935 with Preston, and was rewarded with an eleventh place. Her best result of the year was a fourth place in the Daytona 250 Miles. She had jumped into the 935 of Preston and Randy Lanier after her own Swap Shop 935 expired after eight laps.

She raced with Desiré again at Mosport and Road America. At Mosport, she was 24th. Later in the season, she and Preston travelled to Japan to race in the Fuji 6 Hours, in the Ferrari. They crashed out on the tenth lap. At the end of the year, she decided that she no longer wanted to race. Sadly, this meant that Desiré Wilson’s place in the team became redundant.

Having announced her retirement once, Bonnie was persuaded back into action in 1983 with an all-female team, led by Deborah Gregg and carrying her Brumos colours. The third driver in the team was Kathy Rude. They drove a Porsche 924 Carrera in the Daytona 24 Hours and gave Bonnie her best finish of her career: thirteenth. They were sixth in class. Bonnie’s last event with the team was the Sebring 12 Hours. Driving the same car, she was 35th with her two team-mates. After Sebring, she retired for good, aged just 27.

She died suddenly in 2006. She was 49.

(Image from www.lynstjames.com)

Marika in 2011

Marika Diana is an Italian driver who is most famous for winning the 2005 Italian Formula Ford Challenge.

Her 2005 victory was only her second season of car racing, and her second in motorsport. She began karting in 2003, and did her first races in a Formula Ford in 2004, aged seventeen.

Winning the championship brought her to the attention of the motorsport world. Observers including racing instructor Henry Morrogh commented on her speed and commanding performance. She was keen to progress up the single-seater ladder and looked to the rest of Europe for opportunities.

She raced in Formula Three in Germany in 2006 and 2007. 2006 was a tough season for her. She drove for Ombra Racing and could only manage thirteenth as her highest finish, at the Nürburgring.

Ombra retained her for another year. Her best result of 2007 was ninth, at the Nürburgring. She was fifth in the Class B championship, with one runner-up spot and a series of podium places.

In 2008 she resumed racing in Italy, in the Campionato Italiano Prototipi, a sportscar series. However, she only managed two races in a Ligier, driving for two different teams. She scored one third place at Vallelunga.

In 2009, she managed a brief comeback, competing in three Prototipi races. This translated into a longer Prototype season in 2010, driving a Wolf for BF Motorsport. She was thirteenth overall, and had a best finish of fourth in class.

She stuck with the Wolf in 2011, but only appears to have competed in the first two rounds, the best being the Misano race, in which she was fourth.

Another comeback in 2013 took in a couple of races in the Prototype championship again, at Vallelunga. She had taken two years out in order to have a child, a daughter named Danika. Even then, she expressed a desire to try a different motorsport discipline, possibly touring cars.

In 2016, she finally switched to saloons, and did two rounds of the Italian Touring Car Championship, in a SEAT Leon Cupra. She scored two ninth places at Magione. This was her first experience of touring cars, apart from a test session at Mugello. She had linked up again with the BF team.

She has not competed since then and her official Facebook page has not been updated.

(Image from /www.acisport.it)

Chantal van der Sluis raced in the early and mid 1990s, in the Netherlands. She was a race-winner in one-make series and a popular figure at the time.

She was introduced to karting at the age of thirteen, by her then-boyfriend. For three years, she steadily gained experience, competing up to European level. Her first senior season was in 1991, when she entered the Citroen AX GT Cup. For her first race, she qualified in fifth place, but went off at the first corner trying to out-manoeuvre her rivals.

This would not be the last of Chantal’s offs. At Zandvoort in 1992, she managed to vault her car over the armco barrier, although she was not hurt. Despite these mishaps, she became one of the star drivers of the series in 1992, winning two races outright and finishing third in the championship. She won the Ladies’ Cup, ahead of Sandra van der Sloot. This was Sandra’s debut year, and she looked up to Chantal as her earliest female role model. The two later became friends. The Ladies’ Cup was quite hotly contested that year, with at least seven female drivers racing in the series.

That year, she tested an Alfa Romeo 155 Cup car, alongside Allard Kalff and Ton Roks. She was almost as fast as the experienced Allard Kalff. Her other activities included posing for some pictures in Dutch Playboy.

The following year, she moved to the Renault Clio Cup and was on the pace in her new car straight away. Her best finishes were two second places and she was sixth overall.

In 1994, she drove in some rounds of the European Renault Clio Cup, although she was not as successful. It was this year that she crashed very spectacularly at Zandvoort, sending her Clio over a crash barrier and through an advertising hoarding. Her season was not all about crashes, however; she did manage a third place at Spa, behind Allard Kalff and Jip Coronel.

1994 was her last season of competition. She died in 2008, aged 38, after a long struggle with cancer.

(Image from www.autosport.nl)

Gillian Fortescue-Thomas (Goldsmith) was active in sports and touring car races in the UK and Europe between 1970 and 1975, then later in historic motorsport.

She rose to prominence in 1971, when she drove in the Ford Escort Mexico series, almost winning a race from Jody Scheckter. This was her second year as a racing driver. In 1970, she had campaigned a Formula 1200 Rejo and won one race at Lydden Hill, despite losing second gear. This car proved too expensive for her to run, as did the TVR Griffith that preceded it.

Ford were using female racing drivers to promote their cars at the time. Their competitions manager, Stuart Turner, had previously capitalised on Pat Moss’s success at BMC as a marketing tool, and was now doing the same at Ford. Gillian entered a driver search for women, organised by Ford. Rallycross featured heavily. She emerged as one of the victors, and earned a drive in the Ford Escort Mexico Challenge.

Through the Mexico series, she became involved with the Shellsport team, which usually used Mexicos. This was run out of Brands Hatch by John and Angela Webb, two more proponents of the publicity value of female racers. Her first major Shellsport event was a “Fast Girls Consul Challenge” at Brands Hatch in 1972. This race supported the Formula 5000 meeting and was highly publicised. Seventeen women took part in Ford Consul GTs. Gillian, as the winner from Jenny Birrell and Micki Vandervell, received a mink coat, presented by Graham Hill.

Gillian also travelled to Spa in 1972, to drive in the 24-Hour race in an Escort. This was one of her semi-works drives that she had won in 1971. Her team-mate was Yvette Fontaine, and they had to retire after a head gasket blew. They had qualified in eleventh spot. The pair had raced against each other in the Consuls, with Yvette finishing fourth.

In 1973, Gillian continued to appear at Shellsport events, including a “Relay Triathlon” at Brands. The traditional swimming leg was replaced by a four-lap race around the track. She was not part of the winning team, although she was one of the leading drivers. At the time, she was a popular figure in British motorsport and appeared in the likes of the Daily Express, jumping over her cars on a horse. She was usually described as a “farmer’s wife”.

At Llandow, she took part in another Ladies’ race, run by the British Women Racing Drivers’ Club. It was a handicap race, and she won in her Mexico.

As a Ford driver, she started the BSCC in an Escort. The engine failed at Brands Hatch. She did most of the rest of the season, although it is unclear whether she was driving for Ford, or her own team. The car was very unreliable, although she did manage a seventh place in the Silverstone GP support race. This was definitely a works entry.

Ford also provided a Mexico for her in the Avon Tour of Britain, as part of a works team that included Roger Clark and Prince Michael of Kent. Her co-driver was Carolyn Faulder.

Later, in 1975, Gillian drove a Triumph Dolomite in BTCC races in the UK. Her car was run by Shellsport again, and she was sixth at Brands in her first appearance. She was then ninth in the very competitive Thruxton race. Her best finish was fourth at Silverstone, just behind her Shellsport team-mate, John Hine.

1975 was her last season for quite a while. She drifted back to her early love, horses, and became a successful amateur jockey, initially in point to point racing. In 1976, she was the first female National Hunt champion jockey.

After one retirement and a marriage, she started competing again as Gillian Goldsmith in the early 1980s. One of her first cars was an HWM-Jaguar.

She returned to the circuits in 1989 in an Aston Martin DB4. Since then, she has appeared at many major historic meetings, including the Goodwood Revival and the Le Mans Classic. She normally drives an Aston Martin, most frequently the DB4.

She still works as an ARDS instructor and races occasionally, as well as supporting her daughter, Samantha, in her own equestrian and motorsport career.

She is still fondly remembered from her BSCC days, when Gerry Marshall nicknamed her “Gillian All-Askew Thomas”.

(Image copyright Ronald Speijer)

June 11th marks 120 years since a woman first raced a motor vehicle in an official event.

Léa Lemoine won the Championnat des Chauffeuses at Longchamp racecourse, from seven other women. All of them drove De Dion-engined tricycles. You can read more about the Championnat here, and about some of the chauffeuses, including Léa, here.

This was no one-off. Later in 1897, Léa drove her tricycle in the Coupe des Motocycles. In 1898, Madame Laumaillé drove her own De Dion tricycle in the Marseille-Nice Trial. Every year since then, women have raced cars or motorcycles, somewhere in the world, with the possible exception of during part of the Second World War, when no-one raced at all.

Speedqueens are active in every continent of the world, in circuit racing and rallying, every week of the year. Here's to another 120 years!

Gillian Fortescue-Thomas

1. Gillian Fortescue-Thomas

2. Jenny Birrell

3. Micki Vandervell

4. Rosemary Smith

5. Yvette Fontaine

6. Gabriel Konig

7. Susan Tucker-Peake

8. Margaret Blankstone

9. Carolyn Tyler-Morris

10. Sheila Islip-Underwood

11. Jenny Dell

12. Juliette Scott-Gunn

13. Jill Robinson

14. Vicki Graham

15. Tish Ozanne

DNF Liz Crellin

DNF Trisha Morris

The “Fast Girls Consul GT Challenge” was held on August 26th, 1972 at Brands Hatch, during the Formula 5000 meeting.

It was a launch event for a Ford Consul one-make series and was intended as a one-off. The British Women Racing Drivers’ Club supplied many of the drivers. Some had come through the Shellsport “charm school” at Brands Hatch, including winner, Gillian Fortescue-Thomas, and Juliette Scott-Gunn. Some very experienced rally drivers took part as well as circuit racers. Tish Ozanne, Liz Crellin and Rosemary Smith had been active much earlier. Jill Robinson was more current. Yvette Fontaine was the only international entrant.

It was run over ten laps of the club circuit. Jenny Birrell started on pole.

The winning driver was presented with a mink coat by none other than Graham Hill.

(Image copyright Autosprint, 1971)

Muriel in her FANY uniform

Muriel Thompson was Brooklands’ first female winner in 1908, when she won the Ladies’ Bracelet Handicap and the Match Race that followed it, defeating Christabel Ellis.

She was a member of the Berkshire Automobile Club from at least 1904. Among her earliest practical motorsport experiences was a run in the club’s Gymkhana in 1904. She drove a Wolseley in a “Legal Limit Race” on a grass track at Hall Place near Maidenhead. She was second overall.

She made another appearance in the Berkshire AC’s Gymkhana in 1905. She was third in the “Bending Race”, a slalom between markers, driving an 18hp Siddeley, belonging to her brother.

Her first motorsport success seems to have been a win in a Blindfold Test at the Berkshire Club’s 1907 Gymkhana. The competitors were required to drive blindfolded towards a flag 75 yards away, from a stationary position facing away from the flag. Muriel got within forty feet of the flag, in 25 seconds.

Her car was an Austin, nicknamed "Pobble", which had belonged to her brother, Oscar, a regular racer. He was a member of the BARC, and as such, was able to enter his car into the first ladies’ event at Brooklands, held in July 1908. Eight ladies entered the Ladies’ Bracelet Handicap, with five making the start. Muriel won comfortably, after the favourite, Christabel Ellis, ran into trouble. Commentators likened Muriel’s upright driving stance to that of “an American jockey”. Shortly afterwards, Muriel and Christabel challenged each other to a match race at Brooklands. Muriel won again.

In 1908, she also went up against Dorothy Levitt in the Aston Hill Climb, driving the Austin. She was eighth overall. Her achievements were reported in Queen magazine.

Opportunities for Muriel to race "Pobble" were quite limited, due to the BARC's ban on women drivers, but she did make some other appearances.

In 1909, she was part of the winning Berkshire Motor Club team in the five-mile Inter-Club Team Trophy, at Brooklands. She was permitted to race due to the meeting being a non-BARC sanctioned event.

The same year, she was appointed by the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) as an official driver. She acted as chauffeur to Emmeline Pankhurst and other prominent suffragettes in the WSPU’s own Austin. She was succeeded as chauffeur by Vera Holme, but was still an active member of the Union in 1912.

In July 1911, at the RAC's Associated Motor Clubs meeting, she won the Declaration Handicap, in the Austin. At the same meeting, she revisited her blind-driving skills, winning another blindfold driving competition.

The following year, she returned to Brooklands for the RAC Associated Clubs meeting once more. She drove Pobble in the Skilful Driving Race. She posted a very fast time in the hillclimb section up the Test Hill, but clipped an obstacle in the reversing section. In yet another blindfold driving competition, she did not live up to her usual high standards and did not stop when she reached the marker.

She later became a decorated war hero, as a WW1 ambulance driver and medic, in the FANY. Among her awards was a British Military Medal, French Croix de Guerre, and from Belgium, the Order of Leopold II and Queen Elisabeth Medal. Muriel commanded convoys and delivered aid to soldiers on the frontline. She took her own Cadillac, named “Kangaroo”, over with her and it was used as an ambulance. Muriel kept a detailed diary throughout the war, which has been useful in piecing together the history of the FANY. Her nickname among her FANY colleagues was “Thompers”.

She continued testing cars occasionally until the 1930s. In 1939, she died of encephalitis lethargica (sleeping sickness), probably contracted during a flu epidemic. She was 65.

(Image from http://www.ocotilloroad.com/geneal/thompson3.html)

Pat Coundley raced sports and touring cars in the 1960s, in the UK.

She was always quite sporty and her first love was horses, in common with several other speedqueens, such as Pat Moss and her contemporary, Jean Aley.

She started her motor racing career in 1959, in speed events, driving a Jaguar D-Type belonging to her husband, John, another racer who was a Jaguar specialist. It was he who persuaded her to enter her first event, the North Weald hillclimb, in which she won the ladies’ award. She drove another of John’s cars, a Lister-Jaguar, in 1960, winning the sportscar class in sprints at Castle Combe and Long Marsden Airfield.

After some years in club races and sprints, often using Jaguar sportscars, she made her debut in the British Saloon Car Championship in 1964, driving a Lotus Cortina run by John Coundley Racing Partnership, her husband’s team. She was not overly competitive. Her first race was the second round at Goodwood, where she was seventeenth overall. She is recorded as a finisher at Oulton Park, but her position is not forthcoming. At Aintree, she may have shared the car with John. The Coundley Cortina was 22nd. The team disappears from the BSCC grids after that.

The same year, she drove a single-seater Lotus Climax 19 in the Brighton Speed Trials.

The year before, she used a D-Type, entering the 1600cc+ sportscar class, and the Ladies’ class.

At the Antwerp Speed Trials in 1964, she drove a long-nose Jaguar D-Type, and set a European women's speed record of 161.278 mph. This made the front page of at least one British newspaper. Pat was described as a “housewife”.

The Coundley Racing Partnership Lotus Cortina made some appearances in the 1965 BSCC, but it was not driven by Pat.

At some point in the early 1960s, Pat also raced a Lotus Elite, including a Ladies’ Handicap at Brands Hatch. In Motor Sport in 1962, she likened driving the Elite to “handling a beautiful horse”.

(Image copyright Getty Images)

Laleh Seddigh is Iran’s top woman driver. She has won several races against men, as well as her country’s Ladies’ Championship.

Laleh was born in 1977. Her family was wealthy; her father owned several factories, including a car spares firm. She was a car enthusiast from a very early age and learned to drive at home, in the family’s yard. Some articles claim this was when she was eight, or eleven. A 2008 interview with Laleh for the German magazine Spiegel says she was thirteen.

By the time she was fourteen, she was being stopped by police and returned home, having “borrowed” her father’s car for a nocturnal excursion. Again, some sources claim this happened when she was much younger. She got her license later. As a teenager and young adult, she was very sporty and competed in athletics, equestrianism and volleyball.

Her first motorsport experience came through rallying. Her website says that she first competed in 2000, when she was 23, but details are hazy, partly due to language and information barriers. She took part in the Iranian championship between 2001 and 2005 and won the 2004 Ladies’ Championship. Part of the problem was that her activities were deemed un-Islamic by Iran’s religious authorities, and a media blackout was imposed on reporting her successes. She eventually petitioned for legitimate participation, which was granted. One fact in motorsport’s favour was that it was easy for Laleh to adhere to strict Muslim dress codes while clad head-to-foot in Nomex. In 2005, she was pictured at the start of the Arjan Rally close to Tehran, getting into her car. Her schedule involved both stage rallies and longer cross-country raids. She drove a Proton for an official team, and apparently won three rallies before 2004, from 28 starts.

In 2004, she started circuit racing as well as rallying. She used two different Protons and a Peugeot 206 over the course of five races. One of her first, at the Asadi Park stadium track, gave her a third place.

She won the Iranian 1600cc GT championship outright in 2005. Her car for the eight-race series was a works Proton.

From 2006, she was barred from competing in her own country after accusations of cheating. She was prohibited from entering the Open class of the Iranian touring car championship after her 2005 win, so she disguised her new 2400cc car as her last season’s 1600 model in order to compete. She was found out and banned.

After that, she did some training for Formula BMW Bahrain after receiving a licence there. It is not clear whether she actually raced. She is also reported to have raced a Formula 3 car in Italy. Some reports say this happened at Monza, but no results are forthcoming.

For a while, things went fairly quiet for Laleh. Her website states that she won a “ladies’ rally” organised by Tehran motor club in 2009, but further details are not available.

A film was made about her in 2012, supported by none other than Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It caused huge controversy in Iran. For one, its depiction of a Muslim woman was deemed un-Islamic and supportive of Western stereotypes. The film received a huge amount of state sponsorship, which was also criticised.

In 2014 and 2015, she entered Iran's Shiraz Rally, driving a Peugeot 206 and a Mitsubishi Lancer, respectively. She finished in 2014, in thirteenth place.

In 2015, she did some testing for the Indian Mahindra team, in their XUV500 4WD. Once more, it is not clear whether this was during or in preparation for competition.

Since then, her profile, outside Iran at least, has been lower. She has undertaken a PhD and teaches at a university, as well as speaking publicly about her motorsport experiences. In 2016, she talked of setting up a women’s racing school.

She was nicknamed “Little Schumacher” in Iran during her first brush with stardom.

(Image from http://arhiva.dalje.com)

Vivien Keszthelyi is a Hungarian driver who had her first senior races in 2014, aged only thirteen. She was competing in the Suzuki Swift Cup in Central and Eastern Europe.

Her best result was second, achieved at the Panonniaring and her home race at the Hungaroring. She finished in the top ten in all races she finished, and was on the podium in the Junior class every time. Her overall position at the end of the year was sixth. An outing in the Austrian Suzuki Cup gave her a fourth place. This was all despite having almost no prior motorsport experience. She had not been a junior karter in any serious way and only attended her first motor race a year earlier. Having said that, her parents liked cars, and she got an electric jeep for an early birthday.

In 2015, she returned to the RCM Swift Cup, and was a much stronger driver, despite a shaky start. Her first race ended in eleventh place, the first finish outside the top ten of her career. She scored her first win at the Pannoniaring, one of two this season. She was second three times, at the Hungaroring and the Slovakiaring. At the Hungaroring, she was also third in a multi-marque endurance race, driving solo in the Swift.

Always adding to her experience, she entered a couple of rounds of the Central European Touring Car Championship in Slovakia, in the same car. She was fifteenth and ninth, third and second in class.

In 2016, she raced an Audi TT Cup car in the Hungarian touring car championship. She was among the leading drivers, and won five races, mostly the sprints. The first of these wins was at Brno, where she won two in a row, with two fastest laps. Later in the season, at the Hungaroring, she won another three races at the same meeting. This gave her the Hungarian Touring Car and CEZ Endurance titles.

She stayed with the TT Cup car in 2017, but took a further step up into the Audi TT Cup in Europe. She is now a member of the Audi Sport Academy and receiving professional coaching from Pierre Kaffer. She was still only sixteen at the start of the season, having had to wait for a year to be allowed to start in the series.

Her season began badly, with a non-start in the first race, then a non-finish in the second. She was struggling without her race engineer, who had been in hospital, then had the embarrassing experience of sliding off during the parade lap and damaging her car. It was patched up for race two, but tyre problems intervened. Things got worse at the Nürburgring; she was caught up in a Fabian Vettel’s crash on the first lap, hit the wall, and spent the next two days in intensive care.

At the Norisring, she had recovered sufficiently to take part, and was rewarded with her first points finish, an eighth place. She will contest the rest of the 2017 season.

Her aim is to race in the DTM or the WEC.

(Image copyright Gabor Muranyi)

Valérie Chiasson is a Canadian driver who is now based in Luxembourg and racing in Europe.

She began racing in 2007, after five years of karting from age thirteen to eighteen. Her family background is not motorsport-related, but her father encouraged her in karting anyway especially as it kept her from taking up motocross.

She started in the one-make Toyota Echo Cup, and was second in the rookie standings in her first year despite a huge learning curve. She raced the Echo again in 2008, although she did not run a full season.

In 2009, she moved into the American Canadian Tour series, a stock car championship. She was 19th overall in her Chevrolet Impala, and second in the Rookie championship.

She continued to compete, on and off, until 2012, when she left the motorsport world for a year to concentrate on her other sporting interest: equestrianism. She entered the 2013 Canada Games in dressage.

In 2013, she started planning a comeback, and funding for a part-season in the 2014 Canadian Touring Car Championship was available. She joined the Lombardi Honda team for four races in their Civic, and was fourth and fifth at Montreal and tenth at Trois-Riviéres. One of these races was a Grand Prix support race; she became the first woman to take a (class) podium position at the Grand Prix meeting.

She intended to carry on part-time in 2015 and did continue to race, although in the one-make Nissan Micra Cup rather than the CTCC. Her final position was sixth overall, with one podium finish. She was second in the ladies’ standings, behind Valérie Limoges.

In 2016, she raced both the Micra and a Porsche 911. Her sponsor for the Micra Cup, Nissan Gabriel, was able to arrange her Porsche seat. The Porsche was the better car for her, and she was eighth in the Canadian Porsche GT3 championship. Her best finish was sixth, which she earned three times at Bowmanville and Montreal.

She was eighteenth in the Micra Cup. This was only a part-season. She managed three top-tens in the early part of the year.

At the end of 2016, she was elected Canada’s representative to the FIA Women in Motorsport Council.

Shortly afterwards, her career went international. Valérie began dividing her time between Canada and Luxembourg. She signed up for the Canadian and Benelux Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge series. At the time of writing, she has run better in Canada, earning two runner-up spots at Montreal. Her best result in the Benelux series has been a twelfth place at Zandvoort.

Away from the track, Valérie has business interests in both Canada and Luxembourg. She has her own automotive marketing company and collaborates with others.

(Image copyright Dario Ayala)

This weekend’s commemorations of the Battle of Passchendaele have inspired me to write something slightly different for Speedqueens.

Women served in and alongside the military in many ways during the First World War. Ladies who had been part of the motoring scene were well-represented among them.

Muriel Thompson was probably the most famous of the military Speedqueens. Muriel, who had raced at Brooklands, served in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry from 1915. She was stationed in Belgium. Her motoring experience made her an ideal choice for driving ambulances; transporting casualties and performing battlefield first aid were among the duties of the FANY.

Her first diary entry of 1916 reads:

Jan 1st We have started the first woman’s M.A.C. (Motor Ambulance Convoy) ever to work for the British Army. Our camp is on a little hill near the sea, behind the Casino. Most of us live in tents and bathing machines. I share a small chalet with three others. The weather is fiendish, gales and torrents of rain. The cars are old and in a bad state, and we are short of drivers. We mess in a big tent, all together. Lots of work but are all so very pleased to be here.

“Thompers”, as she was known, received the Order of Leopold II from the King of the Belgians, in recognition of her courage under fire. This was in addition to the French Croix de Guerre and the British Military Medal. The British award was for “conspicuous devotion to duty during an hostile air raid”, during which the FANY drivers continued to work under aerial bombardment.

She rose up the FANY ranks and was commanding convoys before the end of the war. Aside from occasional testing, she did not return to motorsport after the Armistice.

Muriel’s greatest rival in the Brooklands Ladies’ Bracelet Handicap of 1908 was Christabel Ellis. Christabel also served in the military and used her motoring skills. She was one of the original leaders of the Women’s Legion and served as a Commandant in the Motor Transport section. The Legion was formed in 1915. Christabel is said to have driven ambulances in France and Serbia prior to this, as a Red Cross volunteer. Her main job post-1916 was handling recruitment to the Legion. She was also involved in managing teams of despatch riders. She was made an OBE in 1918 and a CBE the year after.

Christabel Ellis sometimes hillclimbed a sidecar combination with her cousin, Mary Ellis. Mary was much younger than Christabel, but the pair were good friends. The younger Miss Ellis was an ambulance driver too and served with the Red Cross in 1917. At about this time, she became one of the first qualified female medical doctors in the UK.

Ethel Locke King was one of the founders of Brooklands, the first woman to drive on the circuit and runner-up to Muriel Thompson in the 1908 Ladies’ Bracelet Handicap. She did not venture to the front herself but she did found fifteen auxiliary hospitals in Surrey for injured soldiers. One of them was set up in her own house at Brooklands itself. Ethel was the Assistant County Director for the Voluntary Aid Detachment, a female nursing corps. She was in charge of 19 companies of VAD nurses, over 700 individuals. For this, she was made a Dame in 1918.

Some Speedqueens began their racing careers after the War, perhaps having developed their driving skills in military service. Gwenda Hawkes, the Montlhéry and Brooklands record-breaker, drove a Red Cross ambulance on the Eastern Front. She may have been a colleague of Christabel Ellis. She was Gwenda Glubb then, and began racing motorcycles with her first husband, Sam Janson, whom she met during the war.

Morna Vaughan and Lady Iris Capell would become senior figures in the Women’s Automobile and Sports Association in the late 1920s. They both competed in rallies, including the Monte Carlo Rally.

Like Mary Ellis, Morna Vaughan (then Morna Rawlins) was a medical doctor, one of the UK’s first female surgeons. She is believed to have served in a military hospital. Her specialism was gynaecology and genito-urinary medicine, so it is unclear what sort of medicine she was practising at the front.

Iris Capell joined up as a nurse with the Red Cross, aged nineteen. She worked in military hospitals in the south of England. Iris was a lifelong committee woman and a senior figure in the Women’s Voluntary Service during the Second World War.

This is not an exhaustive list and it is very Anglocentric. Please feel free to comment with your own suggestions, or email me.

(Image copyright Mary Evans Picture Library)

Sue with her Radical SR3

Sue Hughes, also known as Sue Hughes-Collins, is a longstanding figure in Australian motorsport. She has experience in most disciplines, but is most known for saloon racing.

She has raced on and off since 1988, when she started driving in hillclimbs. Motorsport is part of her family background; she uses her family name of Hughes as a tribute to her father. He was a speedway rider. In hillclimbing, she won her class in the New South Wales championship, and was runner-up in the Australian championship. Her car both times was a Formula Vee.

She was part of the all-female Mazda 121 Challenge in 1996, which brought her into the limelight. Her solid on-track performances gave her a fifth place. The championship was dominated by Tania Gulson and Paula Elstrek.

The next ride for Sue was a Suzuki Swift in the Australian Production GT Championship. Her first appearances were one-off drives, then a full-season in the series followed in 1999. This was a good year; she was third in Class E and won some rookie awards. Hughes Motorsport, Sue’s family team, made its first appearance this year.

She returned to the GTP series in 2000, and switched between a Mazda MX-5, Ford Falcon and BMW 323i. She was not as competitive in these cars as she had been in the Swift; the Falcon was probably the best drive for her. Competing in Class D, she was ninth. Her combined efforts in the BMW and the Mazda in Class B gave her a fourteenth place.

In 2001, she stuck with the BMW. This was her favourite of her three 2000 cars. She was ninth in Class B. Her season ended with the two-hour GTP Showroom Showdown, in which she shared the BMW with David Lawson. They were 24th, with a class fifth.

A break from active competition followed. Sue worked as a driver trainer for BMW, including teaching celebrities to race for a BMW Mini Celebrity Challenge. She also drove the medical car at Mount Panorama.

Her return to the circuits came In 2008, when she raced a BMW M3 in some national production races, but with no spectacular results.

In 2010, she tried single-seaters, racing a 1600cc Formula Ford, but in 2011, she settled on a Radical sportscar as her car of choice. In her first year of Radical racing, she won one race and was fourth in Class Two of the Australian Sports Racer Series. She was also thirteenth in the Radical Australia Cup and earned one podium finish.

Three more seasons in the Radical Cup followed. Sue was not quite as competition as in 2011, although she was active for most of the season each time. She was 22nd in 2012, then 17th in 2013 and 2014.

She continued to race Radicals in 2015 and 2016, increasingly with her son, Jon Collins. 2015 was spent mostly in the Australian Sports Racer Series, in which she was ninth. Her best finish was a runner-up spot at Phillip Island. At different times, she made guest appearances in the NSW Supersports Cup and the Radical Cup.

In 2016, she was 20th in the Australian Sports Racer series, in spite of a bad end to her short season which included two non-finishes. Two appearances in the Radical Cup at Mt Panorama gave her a fourteenth and eleventh place.

At the time of writing, Sue is still racing the Hughes Motorsport Radical in 2017. She has driven in some rounds of the Australian Prototype Championship. Her best finish has been twelfth at Sydney.

Sue continues to support her son Jon in his sporting endeavours, including Formula 3.

(Image copyright Hughes Motorsport)

Osmunde Dolischka rose through the European single-seater ranks during the 1990s, after winning a regional karting title in 1994. She was one of a small group of women who came within touching distance of a Formula One career in the 1990s.

She was a latecomer to motor racing. Prior to 1994, she had competed in alpine skiing and was Austrian champion in the giant slalom. Even then, she showed signs of versatility and competed in water-skiing as well as the more traditional alpine form.

In 1995, she raced in the German Formula Ford championship, winning the last round, at Salzburg and finishing seventh overall. She was third in her state championship.

Formula Ford was followed by Formula Renault in 1996. She was second in her first race, at Zolder, and picked up another win part-way through the season.

Her progress faltered in 1997 when she moved again into Formula Opel. Her single season in the category was hit by a series of car problems and she was unable to finish higher than twelfth place.

In 1998, Osmunde got her career back on track. She raced in Formula 3 in central Europe, driving for the Fritz Kopp team. Her first races were at the A1-Ring and she was fifth and ninth. Two non-finishes at the Sachsenring came next, but then she managed a fourth at Most. Later in the season, she picked up another two fourth places at Most, having bounced back from another DNF. A second visit to the A1-Ring and a trip to Brno gave her two second places, the best of her season. She was third in the second race at Brno. Her last race of the season was at Hockenheim, where she was fifth. She was third in the Formula 3 Austria Cup, in her first F3 season.

Her form was impressive enough to attract the attention of Peter Sauber, who wanted to run her in Formula 3000. However, her biggest sponsor, Fujitsu-Siemens, pulled out in favour of her rival, Claudia Steffek, making this impossible. Osmunde and Claudia had fought it out on the track all year in F3, with Osmunde the more accomplished driver. Claudia was sixth in the championship and had a best finish of fourth. Fujitsu-Siemens opted for Claudia anyway, possibly due to her being younger and driving an older car. Her career stalled as suddenly as Osmunde’s did, a couple of years later.

1998 was her only season in Formula 3. She continued to compete in 1999, in the ADAC VW New Beetle Cup. Saloon cars were a new experience for her. She was eleventh in the championship.

That year, she also raced a Porsche 993 GT3 in endurance races. The results are not forthcoming. This marked the end of her circuit racing career. She had always had some money for her racing from family business interests, but without a sponsor, she was unable to continue at the level of which she was capable.

She attempted a comeback as a rally driver, in 2007, but crashed her VW Golf on her first event, and thought better of it. The accident happened on the first stage of the Ostarrichi Rally. It was one of a series of crashes on the stage and part of the rally was cancelled.

Osmunde is still involved in motorsport, running a kart hire firm and supporting her daughter’s karting career. Jorden was born in 2004 and has competed at a high level since the age of nine.

(Image from vn.at)

Sue with Lella Lombardi

Sue Ransom mainly raced saloons in Australia, in the 1970s and 1980s. She drove a variety of cars and entered the Bathurst 1000 five times between 1973 and 1980.

Her earliest big races seem to be in 1973, in an Alfa Romeo GTV 2000. She drove this car at Bathurst, then running as the Hardie-Ferrodo 1000, sharing with Christine Gibson. They did not finish. The same pairing drove in the Phillip Island 500, but did not finish there either.

The Australian touring car scene in the 1970s is not particularly well-documented. Sue does not appear to have entered the Bathurst 1000 in 1974, but she was eleventh in 1975. Her car was a Ford Escort RS2000, run by Jubilee Motors and shared with Bill Brown.

She was fifth in the Australian Supercar Championship in 1978, driving a Ford Capri. Her best finish was seventh, at Waneroo, and she was second in the under 3000cc class. This was one of four top-ten finishes, from seven starts.

In between, she had driven the Capri at Bathurst in 1977 with Russell Skaife. They just finished the race, but were unclassified.

During the 1980s, she moved more into drag racing, and even raced a jet car in 1981 and 1982. At the time, she was the only woman to do so. She still holds the outright speed record at the Tasmania Dragway in this car. A little later, she tried her luck in the USA and competed in NHRA Top Fuel events.

However, she did make one return to the circuits and teamed up with Cathy Muller and Margie Smith-Haas for the World Endurance Championship race at Sandown Park in 1984. They drove a Ford-engined Gebhardt JC843, but retired early on, due to suspension failure.

She continued in drag racing for a while. After her retirement from active competition, she remained involved in motorsport for many years.

(Image from http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au)

Deborah Gregg

Cheryl Glass

Catie Munnings

Rebecca Jackson

The Fast Girl Trophy

Bonnie Henn

Marika Diana

Chantal van der Sluis

Gillian Fortescue-Thomas (Goldsmith)

Ladies, Start Your Engines!

The Fast Girls Consul GT Challenge

Muriel Thompson

Pat Coundley

Laleh Seddigh

Vivien Keszthelyi

Valérie Chiasson

Speedqueens at War

Sue Hughes

Osmunde Dolischka

Sue Ransom