Female Racing Drivers Page


This is are tribute to the many wonderful female drivers who have entered a man's world and taken them on with no quarter being asked or given.

Click on the names to read more.


Page 1 of 3
order by year
Name
Born
Died
1960
1909
1998
Achieved successes both as a racing driver and as a rally driver in the 1930s especially in Mother Gun, the 6½ litre Bentley.
1962
Only the fifth woman to enter a Formula One. She failed to qualify in South Africa and Mexico and after failing to qualify in Brazil she was replaced.
1965
1923
1956
One of the best known female racing driver in France in the 1950's. She was both a rally and circuit driver, sometimes sharing the wheel with her close friend Gilberte Thirion. Perhaps over enthusiastic at times, during her short career from 1952 to 1956, she had several accidents. She was killed during the early stages of the 12 Heures de Reims.
1916
1972
1959
1928
2001
Raced in Sprints and Hill Climbs. In 1961 she became the first British driver to compete in a full season of the European Mountain championship and in 1968 became the first woman to win the Brighton Speed Trials.
1939
In a comparatively short career, Lady Watson impressed with her natural talent competing on equal terms with her male counterparts in saloon car and sports car racing as well as rallying.
1941
1918
1980
Sara Christian has a number of firsts: the first woman to drive in a NASCAR race, the first and only woman to record a top five finish in NASCAR with 5th at the Heidelberg Raceway in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the first and only husband and wife to compete in the same NASCAR race.
1909
1979
1868
1942
Camille Du Gast, the first woman to achieve fame as a racing driver, also excelled at ballooning, fencing, parachuting, tobogganing, shooting with rifle and pistol and mountaineering. She was also an excellent horsewoman and later, when racing was banned to women, she raced powerboats. She became president of the French Anti-Cruelty to Animals Society and campaigned against bullfighting and also worked with the poor, establishing centres for orphans and impoverished women.
1933
2005
Michele Dubosc was the first ever professional time keeper in Grand Prix Racing. In the days before computers the art of timing in Formula 1 was a much more complicated business than it is today.
1972
Milka Duno is a Naval Engineer with four masters degrees. She is also a racing driver best known for holding the record of highest finish for a female driver in the 24 Hours of Daytona, coming second in 2007. She currently participates in the Indy Racing League.
1910
1967
Eileen Ellison became interested in racing in the late 1920s. Her main racing achievement came in 1932 when she won the Duchess of York's race for women drivers at Brooklands. Eileen married Squadron Leader Brian Lane in 1940 but he was killed in action in 1942.
Top female Dutch racing driver, she drove in the European Touring Car Championship as a works driver with Ford and with Auto Delta scoring some fine top-five finishes at the Zandvoort, Nurburgring and Spa.
1911
1932
Renée Friderich was daughter of Bugatti driver Ernest. She was killed during the Paris-St.-Raphaël Rally at the wheel of a Delage D8S. Her brother, Paul competed in Grands Prix in 1946 and 1947.
1946
Divina Galica MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) is best known for her Olympics career and her motorsport racing career.
1939
2007
Judy Ganley was an accomplished driver, race team member and race team administrator. She raced a Sprite and Mini-Cooper with the San Francisco Region of the SCCA in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1970 she drove a Le Mans Sprite Prototype with Janet Guthrie and Rosemary Smith to a class win and 19th overall in the Sebring 12 Hour race. Judy went on to work with the McLaren team as a timer and scorer and her skills were sought after by many of the top teams in Europe.