Pascale Neyret

Pascale Neyret rallied in France in the 1980s, having got into professional competition through the 1984 Citroen Total Trophy.

She had grown up around rallying as the daughter of Bob Neyret, creator of the all-female Team Aseptogyl. Born in 1962, she was a teenager when the early Aseptogyl rally teams were assembled and when Aseptogyl squads featured at Le Mans. The experience seems to have had an impression on her. She was always sporty but had no grand ideas of becoming a professional sportswoman. Instead, she studied and trained to become a journalist, writing for the likes of Paris Match. 

She was 23 when she entered the Citroen Total Trophy, an all-female championship, driving Citroen’s new Visa Mille Pistes in six rallies across France. At the time, she was working in the Citroen press office.

She was not one of the front-runners, although she did manage a 24th place on the Tour de France, second of the Total Trophy drivers behind Andree Andrina.

Although she was not one of the winners of the Citroen prize drive, she returned to the stages in 1985, having decided to give up her job at Citroen and become a professional driver. She had picked up some sponsors and was ready to attack the French championship. This time, her car was a Renault 5 Turbo. She entered her first World Championship rally, the Tour de Corse, and was 26th overall, second in class. Her best finish was a 16th place in the Rally of Aquitaine, one of two top-twenty finishes that year, the other being a 20th spot in the Rallye d’Antibes, a European Championship round.

Her career took both a step forward and a step back in 1986. Forward, as in her results improved, but backwards in that she went back to the Citroen Visa. She was French Ladies’ rally champion at the end of the year.

Her best overall result was a fifteenth place in the Tour de France, which also counted for the European championship. She performed strongly on both asphalt and gravel, with a 16th place in the Mille Pistes Rally and 17th in the Rallye d’Antibes. For her first overseas rally, she chose the Acropolis in June. As it often is, the Greek gravel classic was a real car-breaker. Pascale was one of the 30% of drivers who got to the end. She was 22nd, second in class.

This was her last season in a Citroen. In 1987, she had her first drive in a Lancia Delta HF, a marque she would use for the next four seasons. Her programme was based around the WRC, albeit only a limited one. Her first event in the Lancia was the 1987 Acropolis, which she could not finish. Her next attempt at the Acropolis also ended in retirement, but she did finish a pleasing 19th in the 1988 Monte Carlo Rally, earning a Coupe des Dames. 

She also tried circuit racing in 1987, in the form of the Renault 5 Turbo Cup. She was 21st in the championship. 

Her first attempt at the Sanremo Rally in October 1988 yielded a finish, in 33rd place. This was another rally with more retirees than finishers. Her car this time was a Lancia Delta Integrale, although still in Group N trim.

She entered two more Monte Carlo rallies in the Delta and finished both, although she did not top her 1988 top-twenty. In 1989. She drove on the RAC Rally for the first time and was 39th out of 84 finishers. Her second attempt at the Sanremo Rally in 1990 ended in a 22nd place. 

The main part of her career finishes here, having lost her main sponsor Danone. At around this time, she reprised her studies and qualified as a lawyer.

She did make a couple of appearances in a Suzuki Swift a few years later. She competed in the 1993 Cyprus Rally and the 1994 Rally of Lebanon but did not finish either. Her long-term navigator Carole Cerboneschi accompanied her on these two outings; the pair worked together almost exclusively from 1986. 

She is now the director of a legal firm in France and still competes occasionally in historic rallies.

Elisabeth de Fresquet

Elisabeth de Fresquet enjoyed a long rallying career in France in the 1980s and 1990s and won six Coupes des Dames in the Monte Carlo Rally.

She rallied in a series of small cars, including a Trabant. The Trabant drive, on the 1992 Monte Carlo Rally, was in support of Romanian orphans. 

Elisabeth’s rally career did not start until she was almost 30. Her first car was a suitably underpowered Autobianchi A112. The Autobianchi Cup for novice drivers in France was in its second year, and this is how she got her start. The car was almost standard apart from some safety equipment and modifications.

She used it for the Monte in 1979 and 1980 and failed to finish either time. The 1980 event ended in a crash on a road section. She continued to rally the Autobianchi on and off until 1985.

Her best international result was 28th, on the 1987 Tour De Corse. She won class A5 in an Opel Corsa. She was 21st in the 1989 Calais National Rally and won class A3, making it her best domestic finish. In 1990, she also won class A6 on the Tour de Corse. For most of this period she was driving a Peugeot 205, apart from her run in the Corsa which was a one-off.

She took part in sixteen World Championship rallies: nine Montes and seven runs in the Tour de Corse. She was the leading female driver in Monaco in 1982, 1985 and 1986, driving a VW Golf, the Autobianchi and an Opel Corsa respectively. In 1980, 1983 and 1984 she won the Promotion class Coupe des Dames, for French championship drivers. 

As she retired from the stages in 1994 she won her first championship, claiming the A6 class of the French asphalt championship. 

On her later attempts, her co-driver was her daughter, Virginie. They competed together between 1991 and 1994. Her son Vincent inherited his mother’s fondness for Autobianchi A112s and is now the president of the Autobianchi Club of France.

Elisabeth is probably better known as a politician affiliated to the UDF party. She was elected to commissions for Paris and Ile-de-France and was part of Francois Bayrou’s 2002 presidential campaign.

Nicole Drought

Nicole Drought is an Irish driver who mostly races saloon cars. She was the first female driver to win a round of the C1 Challenge in 2019.

Nicole first came to prominence racing touring cars in the Irish championship (ITCC). Her car was a Honda Integra, which runs in the Touring class. She started saving up for the car herself when she was 16.

2015 was her first year of serious competition, although she is from a motorsport family (mostly involved with rallying.) Her season got off to a shaky start with a crash in her first race, but she was soon on the pace. Her best finishes were a pair of second places, and she was second in the Touring class at the end of the season. As well as the Honda, she was invited to race a Porsche 944 at the Classic Car Live meeting, and finished fourth. 

She carried on in the ITCC with the Honda in 2016, in the Production class. After leading the Production standings for part of the season, she was fourth on the final leaderboard. She picked up her first win this year in the second round, at Mondello Park, crossing the line eight seconds in front of her nearest rival. She had been pushed off-track in the first race but still finished second in class. Her momentum was interrupted in later rounds due to car trouble.

Her first trip to the UK mainland was a run in a Global GT Light at Anglesey this year. As one of her first activities with the Sean Edwards Foundation, for which she is an ambassador, she also tested a Porsche GT3 at Paul Ricard.

A deal to run in the 2017 CSCC New Millennium Series in a Ginetta seems to have fallen through. She spent some of the season as a brand ambassador for Nissan, having reached the last eighteen of the NissanGenNext competition. She missed out on a prize drive.  

In 2018, she competed in Endurance Trials with a Nissan Micra. She was the Class 1A Endurance Trial champion in 2018 and defended her title in 2019 with several wins. On track, she raced in the 2018 Stryker sportscar series in Ireland, having first raced the Lotus Seven lookalike in 2017.

She also came to England for her first Citroen C1 endurance race for Preptech UK in 2018, with whom she would win the following year.

In the middle of 2019, she became the first female driver to win a round of the Citroen C1 Challenge, sharing with Colin Edwards at Anglesey. The pair were in the lead for a good proportion of the four-hour race, having started from eighth, and Nicole was 21 seconds ahead of her nearest rivals at the finish. Nicole and Colin raced together again at Snetterton but were only twelfth this time. 

She also raced in the Stryker Challenge and continued in Endurance Trials. Shortly after her C1 victory, she drove a Formula 1 car for the first time in a demonstration at Mondello Park. The car was an ex-Derek Daly March 811, as raced in 1981. It has a Guinness livery and was shipped over to Ireland especially by its owner John Campion. She also drove a Jordan owned by Campion in a private test in February, alongside James Roe Jr.

Nicole is a founding member of Formula Female, which was started by hockey player Nicci Daly. In March 2019, she challenged 20 of Ireland’s top sportswomen to beat her lap time around Mondello Park in her Stryker.

She moved to mainland UK to compete in 2020, driving a Porsche 718 Cayman in Britcar with CJJ Motorsport and the Valluga team. Her team-mates were Sean Doyle and Lorcan Hanafin. She was sixth in the championship and second in Class 4. Her best overall finish was fifth at Croft, in the first race of the season.

In 2021, she made one guest appearance in Britcar with the Motus One team, driving a Hyundai TCR car. She won her class at Silverstone with Danny Krywij.

Although she did not contest any full championships in 2022 either, she tried out some new disciplines, including historics. She demonstrated a Lola T70 at the Mondello Park Historic Festival, as well as racing a 1855 MGA. In England, she raced a Lotus Elise in the 750MC Club Enduro series and a Mini Cooper in the BRSCC Mini series, although not all of these outings was successful. She also raced in the C1 Cup and was third in her class in the Race of Remembrance, driving the C1.

Rallycross was her biggest new adventure. She raced a Renault Clio in both the Irish and British series.

She went back to the circuits in 2023, competing in the MSVR EnduroKa series. She was instantly on the pace and won her second race at Oulton Park. This had followed one-off drives in the Clubsport Trophy (in a Mini) and in a Group C Spice-Hart sportscar at the Mondello Historic Festival. It wasn't even her first win of the year: she won the Clubsport Trophy race at Donington after making a late deal. She also raced the C1 again.

(Image from tipperarylive.ie)

Alba Cano

Alba Cano is a driver from Malaga who is the 2019 Spanish TCR Champion.

Even though she is one of the world’s most successful female drivers today, she is relatively unknown outside Spain.

Her 2019 championship year was her second in the TCR series in its current format, following a part-season in 2018. She did all but one of the 2019 races single-handed, apart from the final round at Catalunya when she shared with her Monlau-Repsol team-mate David Cebrian.

After a low-profile 2020 she was one of the leading drivers in the 2021 Spanish TCR series, racing a SEAT Cupra Leon. Her win tally increased at Jarama mid-season, when she finished ahead of Michelle Halder. She was second twice and third in the first round of the championship, on the way to fifth in the final standings.

She has been racing with Monlau since at least 2015, when she came second in the Alcaniz 500km race in a Renault Clio. As this attests, she was far from a new face on the scene in 2019. 

Her career began in 2012. In her first year of racing, she tried out one-make cups for Mazda and Hyundai, and won the Andalucian category in the Mazda championship. A part-season in the pre-TCR incarnation of the Spanish Endurance Championship followed, driving a Renault Clio. Even without the whole championship, she was ninth overall.

In 2014, she won the Ladies’ award in the Spanish Clio Cup, and was tenth overall, with one fourth place as her best finish. She won the outright championship for Andalucian drivers. 

She raced in the Spanish Clio Cup again in 2015. This was her fourth year of senior competition, and her second in the Clio Cup. She achieved at least two podium places, although she has always been a stronger driver in endurance events than sprints. 

In 2016, she did another few rounds of the Spanish Clio Cup, with a best finish of tenth at Jarama. She drove a SEAT Leon in the 24H TCR Endurance series in 2017, and was sixth in the championship after her all-Spanish Monlau team won two races at Magny-Cours and Misano. Monlau gave her another outing in the 2018 Catalunya 24 Hours, driving a Cupra. She and her team-mates won the TCE class. 

Despite not racing much in 2022, but she was selected as part of Team Spain for the second FIA Motorsport Games. She was part of the four-driver karting endurance team. The team was second in the final.

Previously, she was active in karting from the age of twelve, and was the first Spanish female driver to win a championship. Away from the track, she works in motorsport engineering and divides her time between the UK and Spain.

(Image from https://www.tcr-series.com/)

The Oulton Park Ladies' Handicap

This picture was possibly taken at the Ladies' Handicap. Gabriel Konig is in dark overalls and Rosemary Smith is next to her in a raincoat

A Ladies’ Handicap was held at Oulton Park in April 1967, during the Spring Trophy. Most of its entrants came from the British Women Racing Drivers’ Club.

The race was held over ten laps and was a handicap for saloons and sportscars. It formed part of a “ladies day” held at the circuit, which also included a fashion show sponsored by local department store Browns of Chester. Rosemary Smith was promoting her “Rally Girl” clothing line at the time and her designs were modelled at the show. The event was in aid of the International Grand Prix Medical Service.

Eleven drivers started. Three of them, Anita Taylor, Mary Wheeler and Gabriel Konig, had competed in the Fast Girl Trophy four years earlier. Gabriel Konig, winner of the Fast Girl Trophy, was the winner of the handicap. No incidents were reported.

Results

1. Gabriel Konig (Austin Healey Sebring Sprite)
2. Mary Taylor (MGB)
3. Anita Taylor (Ford Lotus Cortina)
4. Margaret Cooper (Alfa Romeo GTC)
5. Jean Denton (MGB)
6. Natalie Goodwin (Ford Lotus Cortina)

(Image copyright BWRDC)

Sabrina Shaw

Sabrina Shaw found fame as the youngest-ever competitor on the RAC Rally, aged seventeen years and two months, in 1998. 

She was briefly British rallying’s “next big thing”, following on from Janie Eaton and Francine Bogg who had been the youngest women drivers before her earlier in the decade.

Her 1998 RAC Rally car was a SEAT Ibiza and she was 79th. This was not her first rally car; she had used a Daihatsu Charade to do her first events in order to get the appropriate signatures on her license. Her first rally came just four days after gaining her driving license and she ended up rolling the Daihatsu down a cliff after a suspension component failed. She was not seriously hurt, although the car was a write-off. It had been borrowed and incredibly, she was loaned another car for the five more rallies she needed to complete to get her international license. 

Her father Lindsay was a rally driver himself and acted as Sabrina’s co-driver for her early events. Experienced navigator Mike Panes sat with her for the RAC Rally.

The SEAT drive was a one-off and Sabrina’s car for her next outing was a Ford Ka. She drove it in the 1999 Vauxhall Astra Stages Rally. She and Julia Rabbett were 54th overall and second in class. This was replaced by a Peugeot 106 which she used for the rest of the year. Most of this was spent in the UK, with outings in the British Rally Championship and the National Rally Championship. She entered the Ulster Rally but did not finish, and was 59th overall on the Bulldog Rally.

She also drove a Peugeot 106 Rallye in the China Rally in 1999, finishing in 25th place, alongside Chinese navigator Shouli Xu. The drive came about through the Chinese magazine Champion Racers, for which Shouli Xu was the editor, and Sabrina’s manager Andy Moss, who was instrumental in bringing rallying to China. Sabrina’s second World Championship rally ended in a 25th place. She had taken part in one of the earliest rallies in mainland China open to international drivers, as part of a female crew.

Later, she acquired an Impreza for the 2000 RAC Rally, but failed to finish, going out on the fourth stage with a mechanical problem. 

She continued to drive the 106 in 2000, in rallies including the BTRDA North Humberside Forest Rally. 

Early on, Sabrina expressed a wish to become a professional driver and she took time out from catering college in 1998 to commit herself. She was instructed and mentored by Gwyndaf Evans and SEAT UK provided her with her car for the 1998 RAC Rally but her family was still having to find large sums of money for each event. The 2000 RAC was her last international rally.

(Image copyright Getty Images)

Alexandra Whitley

Alexandra Whitley is an Australian driver who is chiefly known for racing a Ute in New Zealand, as part of the SsangYong Actyon Ute series. She is one of its most successful female drivers.

The 2014-2015 season was her first in senior motorsport, after several years of karting. Compared to many of her contemporaries she was quite a late starter at 16, but she still got a few years in, winning seven Australian ladies’ titles. She had written off a switch to cars for financial reasons until she met New Zealand racer and speed record competitor Heather Spurle, who lent her a car and helped her to find a race seat. They tried for the Australian Suzuki Swift series to begin with, but then put a package together for Alexandra to race in New Zealand.

It was a cautious start in Utes, with Alexandra’s deal only for the first rounds as a trial. She was only 23rd in her first race but she impressed fellow driver and Ssangyong importer Deon Cooper, who offered to support her for the rest of the year. His faith was repaid; by February, Alexandra was winning races. She was sixth overall, having been in contention for the title for part of the season. 

Having decided to decamp to New Zealand from her home in Toowoomba, she committed herself to her Ssangyong drive. The following season, she added another win to her tally, as well as some more podiums. It was not all plain sailing as she had to contend with her share of truck trouble, but she kept hold of her sixth place.

She undertook her third Ssangyong season from 2016, and was tenth overall. She scored two podium finishes: third at Hampton Downs and Pukekohe. By now, the calibre of drivers in Utes was getting higher and many of them were able to undertake more testing than Alexandra. She also had more mechanical problems and was taken off-track by another driver.

She continued to add to her tally of successes in 2017-18, with three podiums this time. She continued to work with Deon Cooper and they even teamed up in Cooper’s SuperUte, which races in endurance events against Porsches and other sportscars. 

As well as the Ssangyong single-make championship, she entered the NZ V8 Ute series, the first female driver to do so. She drove a Holden truck and was fifth overall, with best finishes of fourth at Manfeild and Hampton Downs. At Manfeild, she also posted a fastest lap.

At the end of 2018, Alexandra was announced as one of the qualifiers for the first season of the all-female W Series. She got through two qualification events but was not selected to race.

In 2018-19, she raced in the NZ V8 Ute championship and was one of its leading drivers. She was sixth overall, with one win at Pukehohe and two third places, at Hampton Downs and Manfeild. 

In Australia, she raced a VW Golf in the TCR championship and had an inconsistent season. Her best finish was ninth at Phillip Island and she was 15th overall. She had not raced on all of the Australian circuits, on slicks or in a front-wheel drive car before.  

She raced in the BNT V8 series in 2020, in New Zealand, driving a Toyota Camry. Despite starting the season with no testing, she scored podium finishes in her first five races at Pukehohe, two third and three seconds. She was second in the championship.

When the Australian Grand Prix was cancelled due to coronavirus fears, Alexandra missed out on a drive in the Asia Pacific TCR Cup in a VW Golf. The New Zealand TCR series, in which he was set to compete, was also cancelled.

It was back to a full season in 2021 and she raced in the New Zealand Toyota 86 Championship, a one-make series for the Toyota TR86. Although she was not among the front-runners, she was a consistent top-ten finisher. Her best finish was seventh at Pukehohe and she was ninth in the championship.

(Image copyright The Chronicle)