Katarina Kyvalova is a German-based Slovakian driver most famous for her exploits in historic racing, at the Goodwood Revival and as part of the Bentley Belles team. She took her first steps in modern motorsport in 2018, in the GT4 European Series.
Katarina has been active in historic motorsport since 2000, starting off in rallies in Germany before switching her focus to circuit racing. She still drives in classic navigational rallies on occasion, usually in a Jaguar E-Type.
On track, her first car was an Austin-Healey 3000 which she raced in the UK and Europe. She has competed at Goodwood, the Silverstone Classic and several VSCC meetings.
In 2015, she raced the Healey in the Le Mans Legend, and was 37th out of 43 finishers.
She is also part of the “Bentley Belles”, a quartet of female historic racers who drive Bentleys. They teamed up for the first time at the 2014 Benjafields 24 Hour race in Portugal, having only met each other in person the day before. The quartet were twelfth overall, in a Bentley 4 ½, having run as high as fifth. The team is involved in various Bentley-related rallies and races, and were third overall in the 2015 Spa 6 Hours historic race. In their individual cars, they raced in the VSCC Pomeroy Trophy in 2015.
Driving with Nigel Batchelor and others, she entered the 2016 Le Mans Classic in two different cars, the Bentley and a Jaguar XK120. She doubled up in these two cars again in the 2018 Classic, driving solo this time.
In 2017, she raced a Jaguar E-Type, and a Cooper T43 in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy at Goodwood. Goodwood has been one of her happiest hunting grounds; she was ninth in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy at the 2018 Revival in the Cooper. Earlier in the year, she raced this car in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix and was 14th from 26 finishers.
Her modern racing debut was at the wheel of a Mercedes AMG GT4. She raced in the GT4 European Series at Spa with Egidio Perfetti and secured a class third in her first event.
(Image copyright Katarina Kyvalova)