Mishael Abbott

Mishael Abbott is an American single-seater racer who rached as high as the IRL Infiniti Pro Series (Indy Lights) in 2005 and 2006.

Her best Pro Series finish was eighth at Miami, in 2005, after qualifying fourth. This was her first race in the championship, driving for Hemelgarn Racing. They ran Mishael in four events that year and she finished all of them: ninth at Phoenix and eleventh and twelfth in two races at Indianapolis. The eleventh place was in the Freedom 100, held on the oval. She was thirteenth in the championship and her results were on a par with her team-mate Jerry Coons Jr's. There was considerable media attention around her as she was the first woman to race in this particular iteration of Indy Lights, and because Danica Patrick was racing in Indycar that year.

In 2006, she did three races, two for Michael Crawford Motorsports and one for the SME team. She was thirteenth in her first race at Miami-Homestead, 17th at Indianapolis and twelfth at Watkins Glen. After that, her sponsorship money ran out.

At the same time, she acted as a spotter for Indycar driver Jacques Lazier on ovals.

Her time in single-seaters began in Formula Star Mazda, the third rung on the Indy ladder, after some years of karting and midget racing. She was particularly successful in 125cc gearbox karts. After growing up watching her father compete in club racing, she had wanted to race herself from the age of about six.

She first competed in cars in 2001, aged 20, racing a Formula Star Mazda car at club level. She took it more seriously in 2002, entering three rounds of Formula Mazda at Sebring, Pikes Peak and Road Atlanta. She finished the first two, with her best result being a 19th place at Pikes Peak. She finished 19th again at Road Atlanta in 2003, one of two races she did in the national series that year. Her programme also included the Eastern regional championship, where she scored her first podium at Watkins Glen.

After her Pro Series sponsorship ran out, she returned to national-level motorsport. Proving herself in a bigger single-seater, she raced a Formula Atlantic car in SCCA events in 2007 and 2008, with good results. Her best finish in 2008 was second, and she was rarely out of the top ten, finishing fourth in her championship. The car was a Ralt RT41, similar to those previously used in the Toyota Atlantic development series.

In 2008, she also substituted for her father in some SCCA Formula Mazda races. 

The previous year, she also raced sportscars in the IMSA Prototype Challenge series, in the L1 class. Her car was a spec Elan-Van Diemen DP-02. She was fifth in her first race at Sebring, although she was unable to start the second. She did four races that year.

At the end of 2008, she had to pull out of motorsport, due to health problems.

(Image copyright Indycar)

Marianne "Pinkie" Windridge (Rollo)

Marianne Windridge, who was nicknamed Pinkie and later known as Marianne Rollo, raced in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s. 

She got into motorsport through her first husband, Fred Windridge. As an accomplished equestrian who competed in dressage, she already had bravery and balance on her side. Her first car was a Jaguar XK140. In 1956, she won one of her first races, the Marlboro 6 Hours, sharing with Fred. They were three laps up on the second-placed car. That year, she also raced a brand-new Alfa Romeo Giulietta in SCCA events. She was third in her first race in it, at Beverly. 

She took the Alfa over to the Bahamas for the 1958 Nassau Speed Week, finishing ninth in the Ladies' race. This was her first race after a long break, probably due to her being pregnant with her daughter.

Her preference for European cars continued in 1959, this time leaning more towards endurance events. Driving a FIAT Abarth Allemano, she entered the Marlboro 6 Hours again, with Toni Cappiello. In August, she teamed up with Evelyn Mull for the 8-Hour Little Le Mans, held at Lime Rock. Their car was an NSU Prinz and they were 22nd, having blown an engine up during the race. Their pit crew took 53 minutes to install a new engine. The biggest race of her season, in terms of prestige, was probably the ladies' event that supported that year's US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Briggs Cunningham entered a Stanguellini single-seater for her and she was third overall, winning the Formula Junior class.

She and Denise McCluggage entered the 1960 Sebring 12 Hours together in an Osca S750, prepared by Briggs Cunningham's team but run under the banner of Camoradi Racing. They failed to finish; Pinkie only got to drive it for two laps before the oil pressure tanked. Denise had driven for two hours beforehand.

For the rest of the year, she raced the Alfa in SCCA events, and also had another run out in the Stanguellini Formula Junior. She was second in a Ladies' race at Cumberland in this car, behind Denise in an Osca Formula Junior.

Eve ready to try out new vehicles, Pinkie and Fred joined the Karts Unlimited team for the President's Cup kart race at Marlboro. Their finishing positions in the multi-heat event are not recorded. Later in the year, she got the best time for a female driver in the SCCA Field Trials at Epping Forest, Annapolis. Her car was the Alfa. 

Her racing in 1962 was also based around Marlboro, in an Alfa. She entered the 6 Hour race again, but had to retire after being forced into a fence by a spinning car. She suffered some cuts to her face which required "35 stitches and plastic work for a cut lip" according to the Evening Star newspaper. Her car was a Veloce belonging to Reed Rollo, another racer and a physicist who would become her second husband the following year.

As Pinkie Rollo, she returned to the track in 1964. She raced a Triumph Spitfire in some SCCA National events, winning her class at least once, but also joined forces with another female driver, Pat Mernone, in a Peugeot 404. They entered the Marlboro 12 Hours together and were tenth overall, fifth in class. In September, a month later, they took on the Four Hour Endurance event at Vineland.

They continued to race the Peugeot together in 1965. Their season started at Marlboro again, with a ninth overall and class third in the Washington Regional SCCA championship race. They followed it up with fifth at Vineland in New Jersey, runners-up in a ten-car class. In comparison, Pinkie driving solo in the Spitfire did not fare quite as well, although she and Reed won two races in the same day at Cumberland in it. Her season was cut short this year as she was involved in a serious road accident and suffered another head injury.

1966 was in some ways a change of direction, although she continued to race European saloons. She and Reed had got hold of a BMW 1800 TiSA and entered the fourth round of the Trans Am championship together. The deal came about as Pinkie was now working for BMW Imported Cars as their safety director. She only seems to have done one Trans Am race at Virginia, but she and Reed were seventh. It was Reed's last major event. He had been injured quite badly in the same car accident as Pinkie the previous year. The couple were both involved in the setting-up of an SCCA Sedan (saloon) championship. Pinkie spoke about her fondness for tin-tops in an interview with the Telegram & Gazette, she said "...I'm a frustrated stock car driver. If I were six feet two..." She was reportedly 5'5", so not even particularly short for a woman.

Despite claiming in a syndicated newspaper article the year before that she was "sick of driving with other women", Pinkie and Denise returned to Sebring in 1967. This time they were driving a Ferrari 275 GTS/4, and were 17th, second in class and the only Ferrari finishers. Their car was prepared by NART and this was the only time this model ever competed. The very same car was later driven by Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair.

Her career tails off after Sebring. Back in the BMW, she entered that year's Watkins Glen 500 with Ed Diehl, but it isn't clear if she actually made the start.

Throughout her time in the spotlight, Pinkie often presented herself as a family-oriented housewife away from the track, but she had a professional career of her own, first working with prisoners leaving jail, then finding work placements for young adults with special needs.

(Image copyright Sussman)

Viviane Elder

Viviane Elder, a French driver, pilot and actress, is most famous for her Le Mans start in 1949. 

She was born in 1904. Her given name was Eugenie Anne Marie Madeleine Hignette, but she always went by the name Viviane Elder. She married very young and the marriage did not last, although she did have one son. After extricating herself from the union, she began acting. Her first film was French crime drama Mephisto in 1931, which became a series of films. 

Her petrol-powered career began with air races, not long after she started making films. Given her interest in aviation, it is possible that she took her stage surname from the American pilot and actress, Ruth Elder. She owned at least two aircraft during the 1930s, a Farman and a Caudron. At first, she entered French flying rallies and races, then she began flying further afield into the Mediterranean and North Africa, then largely French-occupied.

In popular record, the first mention of her in a car was when she and three colleagues got lost during a rally in the Sahara in 1936. However, sources such as "L'Aerophile" magazine suggest that the misfortune happened during an air race or rally. "Le Record" states this unequivocally. It also names Guy Hansez as one of her co-pilots, the same as the reports describing the incident as happening during a motor rally. The four crew members waited for two days to be rescued. Later that year, she was also picked up by a Greek ship after bailing into the Mediterranean on the way to Morocco.

It was not until the end of the 1930s that she became interested in motor racing. There was a crossover between pilots and racing drivers, and Guy Hansez was one who did both. He apparently introduced her to Amedee Gordini and others. The war then intervened. Her flying comes to an end here.

Motorsport took some time to get going again in Europe after the deprivations of World War II, and it was 1948 before Viviane actually got on track. During the war itself, there are suggestions that she was investigated for supposed links to Italian fascists, but she does not appear to have been interned or imprisoned.

She drove solo in her first major race, which was the Grand Prix des Frontieres at Chimay in Belgium. Her car was a Simca-Gordini T8 and she was third in the 1100cc race.

A little later, she joined up with Jean Estager in a Simca-Gordini T8 for the Paris 12 Hours, held at Montlhery. She was 28th overall. The winner was future Formula One driver Luigi Chinetti in a Ferrari.

The following month, she was back at Montlhery for the Coupes du Salon. She was eighth overall, ahead of one of the works Gordini cars.

In 1949, the 45-year-old Viviane and her co-driver Rene Camerano entered the little Simca into the Le Mans 24 Hours. The 1100cc car lasted for 95 laps before it retired. She was the first woman to race in the 24 Hours since before the war. 

This appears to have been her last appearance on track until French sources are consulted. According to L'Equipe, she entered the 1951 Coupes du Salon in a Ford Vedette, finishing 27th. This was a departure from her usual Simca cars, but the Vedette model would soon be rebadged as a Simca in France.

She died in 1960, aged 56.