Dorothy (left) with Kay Petre at Le Mans
Dorothy Champney is most famous for racing at Le Mans in 1934. She and Kay Petre were thirteenth, in a Riley Ulster Imp.
A bout of diphtheria meant that Dorothy missed the 1935 race, but her car was driven by Elsie Wisdom and Kay instead. This seems to mark the end of her short motorsport career.
Dorothy Conyers Nelson Champney was born in Scarborough in 1909. Her first appearance in newspaper coverage of motorsport came in 1932, when she and co-driver Miss GJ Derby crashed their car into a telegraph pole between Honiton and Exeter during the RAC 1000 Miles Rally. Neither the drivers or their un-named female passenger were seriously injured. The car was a Riley, the marque to which she was loyal throughout her career.
Her Le Mans achievements are her most documented, but she was more of a rally driver and actually rarely ventured onto the circuits.
Despite an inauspicious start, she became a fine rally driver. In 1933 she entered the Brooklands, Scottish, Ulster and RAC Rallies in her Riley, coming sixth in Class 3 in the latter. 1933 was a “hat trick” year for her, as she secured Ladies’ Prizes in the RAC, Scottish and Ulster Rallies. Her Scottish win helped Riley to a clean sweep in the Small Car class. Dorothy’s own car then won her a class second in the coachwork competition.
She also won the Coupe des Dames in that year's Alpine Rally, co-driven by a Miss L Hobbs. Using the same car, she competed in a Shelsley Walsh hillclimb, and in the Women's Automobile and Sports Association's Cotswold Trial.
In January 1934 she tackled her second international rally, the Monte Carlo. She made the finish in 58th place, having started at snowy Umea in Sweden. A second run in the Alpine Rally followed in summer, after Le Mans, after her third RAC Rally.
She married Victor Riley, of the Riley car company, in 1934. They had two children, a son and a daughter. Dorothy died a widow in 1968, at the age of 58.