Alison Davis was one of Britain's most successful female club racers and the first woman to win a club championship outright.
She won the 1979 BRDC Production Sportscar Championship in a Ginetta G15 and also won races in the 1984 MG Metro Challenge.
The first racing car that she owned was a Diva GT which she and her husband Roger bought from Frank Williams in 1970. Before that, she had done some hillclimbs and sprints in borrowed cars or her roadgoing Austin Healey. The Diva helped her to transition from speed events to wheel-to-wheel racing but it was replaced for the 1971 season by a Ginetta G15.
The Ginetta was her most successful car; it also gave her a string of class wins in the few-holds-barred Modsports championship 1971 and 1972. She was voted Driver of the Day at Brands Hatch in 1972 and won the British Women Racing Drivers’ Club’s Embassy Trophy for the best performance by a club member in circuit racing. This was one of a collection of trophies she earned that year.
Alison’s time in Modsports was supported by an unusual sponsor: feminine hygiene product Femfresh. She even appeared in 19 magazine as part of a promotional competition where a reader could win herself a Ginetta sportscar.
The Femfresh G15 was sold at the end of the 1972 season. Alison experimented with a number of different cars. She was a leading competitor in the BWRDC Shellsport Ladies’ Escort series, finishing second in the 1976 and 1977 championships with several wins. Two further standalone ladies’ races were held in 1978 and Alison won one of them.
One of the cars she raced was a Fiat 124ST and it was this that she used on the 1973 Avon Tour of Britain. She was partnered by Sheila Scott, a pilot. They competed against eventual winner James Hunt, Graham Hill, Rosemary Smith and others.
Most of her outings during this time were in production saloons. She often competed alone, but sometimes teamed up with other drivers, including future Le Mans starter Juliette Slaughter, with whom she shared a Triumph TR7.
Coming back to a Ginetta brought her back to winning ways in 1979. Her new car was a yellow G15 that she and Roger converted from road spec. It always carried the number 33 and became a common and popular sight in parc ferme. Alison had the most successful year of her career in it, winning the BRDC Prodsports championship with a clean sweep of class wins. This was the first time a woman had won a British racing championship outright and she was awarded the BWRDC Wakefield Trophy, for outstanding contribution to motorsport by a woman.
The trophy was not just the result of her BRDC Prodsports win. Her BRDC campaign was run in tandem with a strong attempt on the similar BRSCC CAV championship, finishing second ten times and setting three lap records at Silverstone, Castle Combe and Brands Hatch.
Although she did not win the championship again outright, she was joint champion in the DB Prodsports series in 1981, winning five times. In between, she scored two further wins and twelve second places in the 1980 season.
Despite her success in the Ginetta, Alison moved on to an MG Metro for the 1982 MG Metro Challenge. It was a steep learning curve for her and she crashed out of her first race. She made up for this by becoming a permanent fixture in the top six by the end of the season. This continued during the 1983 season while Roger and her team of mechanics got to grips with the Metro.
In 1984, she was offered a seat in Terry Drury’s Alfa Romeo GTV for the Tourist Trophy Six Hours at Silverstone. According to newspaper reports at the time, she had to embark on a funding drive to be able to take up her drive. She managed it, although she and Paul Everett were unable to finish the race itself.
For the Metro series itself, she was sponsored by the Melitta coffee brand.
Away from this disappointment, the team had finally got to grips with the Metro and Alison was flying at last. She won the first three races of the 1984 championship and cemented her reputation as a wet-track specialist with a victory at a rainy Silverstone. After her third win, a protest was lodged and she was accused of having an illegal car. A thorough examination by the scrutineers proved this allegation to be false and probably the result of wounded male pride.
Alison left motorsport on a high, as a leading driver in Metros and in Prodsports. She turned to showing Irish draught horses and entered the Horse of the Year Show on five occasions.
Her husband Roger points out that she would have been eligible for membership of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, but it would be another few years before that august organisation permitted female members.
(Thanks to Roger Davis for the information and picture)