The RAC Rally Ladies' Cup

Ann Wisdom (left) and Pat Moss in 1961

The RAC Rally, now known as the Wales Rally GB, has its own ladies’ award, usually for the best-performing all-female crew. It is not awarded every year, but this list is almost certainly incomplete and will be extended in the future. If you have any information, please comment or message me.

In the early days, separate awards for female drivers in Open and Closed cars existed. These were scrapped in the mid-1950s when car classes changed.

1936

Joan Richmond (Triumph) - open car Ladies’ Cup

Midge Wilby (Armstrong-Siddeley) - closed car Ladies’ Cup

1939

Kay Hague (Riley) - open car Ladies’ Cup

Joan Chetwynd (Fordd) - closed car Ladies’ Cup

Hiatus for WWII

1951

Anne Hall (Newton)/Margaret Newton (Jaguar XK120) - open car Ladies’ Cup

Sheila van Damm/Elsie Wisdom (Hillman Minx) - closed car Ladies’ Cup

1952

Anne Hall (Newton)/Mary Newton (Jaguar XK120) - open car Ladies’ Cup

Hazel Dunham/Charlotte Sadler (Rover) - closed car Ladies’ Cup

1954

Mary Walker (Triumph TR2)

1955

Sheila van Damm/Anne Hall (Sunbeam Talbot)

1956

Angela Palfrey/Aileen Jervis (Austin A40)

1957

No rally held

1958

Pat Moss/Ann Wisdom (Morris Minor 1000)

1959

Anne Hall/Patsy Burt (Ford Anglia 105E) - 20th

1960

Anne Hall/Valerie Domleo (Ford)

1961

Pat Moss/Ann Wisdom (Austin-Healey 3000) - 2nd

1962

Pat Moss/Pauline Mayman (Austin-Healey 3000) - 3rd

1963

Pat Moss/Jennifer Nadin (Ford Cortina GT) - 7th

1964

Pat Moss/Liz Nystrom (Saab 96) - 4th

1965

Pat Moss/Liz Nystrom (Saab 96) - 10th

1966

Pat Moss/Liz Nystrom (Saab 96) - 9th

1969

Jill Robinson/Audrey Scott (BMW 2002 Ti) - 58th

1970

Liz Crellin/Pat Wright (Austin Mini Cooper) - 36th

1971

Marie-Claude Beaumont/Martine de la Grandrive (Opel Ascona)

1973

Eeva Heinonen/Selia Saaristo (Volvo 142) - 32nd

1974

Pat Moss/Liz Crellin (Toyota Celica GT) - 28th

1985

Louise Aitken-Walker/Ellen Morgan (Peugeot 205 GTi) - 16th, class win

(Image copyright S&G and Barratts/EMPICS Sport)

Nancy Mitchell

Nancy with the MGA

Nancy Mitchell was one of BMC’s squad of British lady rally drivers in the 1950s, and competed all over Europe. Although  her career never reached the heights of that of Pat Moss or Anne Hall, she was still a versatile and respected driver, winning two European Ladies’ championships. She was a professional in her sport for many years.

Nancy got a relatively late start in motorsport, at 31. Douglas Mitchell, her husband, bought her an HRG sports car, a rare Aerodynamic model, and their first event together was the Eastbourne Rally in 1947. They apparently won one of the awards, although it is unclear which one.

Between then and 1950, Nancy entered not only rallies, but hillclimbs, sprints, trials and circuit races in HRG cars, first the Aerodynamic, then a faster 1500. Her results are proving difficult to locate, but she is said to have driven in the Alpine Rally and Alpine Trial at least once, as a member of an HRG works team. Her season in 1950 was apparently curtailed, due to a family situation, but she did manage a seventh place in a Silverstone international meeting race, in the HRG.

In 1951, she appears on the entry lists for the RAC and Scottish rallies, finishing second in the 1500cc Open class in the RAC Rally. She was second in the Ladies’ Open class to Anne Newton, later Anne Hall. She also competed in the Paris-St. Raphaël event and was second in class. Away from rallying, she drove a Healey Silverstone in hillclimbs, including the Rest And Be Thankful event, in which she was tenth in class.

From 1952, Nancy really showed her versatility, using the HRG and a series of other cars, including a Sunbeam Talbot. In this car, she drove in the Monte Carlo and Alpine rallies. She did not finish the Alpine after losing a wheel, but seems to have finished the Monte, driving as part of an all-woman team with veteran Elsie “Bill” Wisdom and Sheila van Damm. On the track, she managed second places in races at Silverstone and Castle Combe, in the HRG, and a fifth place at Silverstone in an Allard.

As well as rallying, Nancy competed extensively in hillclimbs during the 1950s, using several different cars, including a single-seater Cooper 1100, in which she set a ladies’ record at Prescott in 1953. She is also known to have hillclimbed in Cornwall, and taken part in the Lands’ End Trial.

Her rallying year was also quite busy. She drove in another Alpine Rally, in a Ford Zephyr this time, and was 36th overall. In the same car, she was sixth overall in the Lisbon Rally, winning the Coupe des Dames. She apparently drove a works Standard in the RAC Rally and an Alvis on the Monte, but the results have been lost. 

In 1954, she drove the Zephyr again on the Monte, starting in Glasgow. She used the same car for the Tulip Rally, and was 50th overall, with Joyce Leavens on the maps. Later in the year, she entered the Stella Alpina in an Austin Healey, but retired after an accident. She may have won a team award in the RAC Rally in a Ford Anglia, but the result has been lost, although she is down as an entry in that car. In British domestic events, she apparently competed in several different cars, including a Morgan in the London Rally, and a Triumph TR2 in the MCC National Rally, and had her last outing in the HRG.

Her hillclimbing highlight this year was a Ladies’ Record at Shelsley Walsh, set in the Cooper. It was to stand for three years.

1955 saw her driving for Daimler, in a Conquest. She scored her best result in the Monte Carlo Rally: 17th, navigated by Lola Grounds. Among the other rallies she contested was the Tulip event in the Netherlands, in which she was third in the Ladies’ standings. Driving the Daimler, she also won two circuit races, a Ladies’ race at Goodwood and a scratch race at Silverstone. 

The most remembered part of her career, her time with BMC, began in 1956. Nancy usually drove MG models, and her rallying year began with a 59th place in Monte Carlo, with Doreen Reece and Susan Hindmarsh. Nancy and Doreen also drove a Magnette in the RAC Rally, and seem to have finished. During the summer, Nancy and Pat Faichney were 15th overall in the Alpine Rally, third in class, with a Coupe des Alpes and the Ladies’ prize. Their car was an MGA. Nancy also drove it in the Liège-Rome-Liège rallies, with Anne Hall, finishing 26th, with a Coupe des Dames. She always preferred to compete alongside other women. Her achievements were enough to win her her first European Ladies’ Rally title this year.

Away from pure rallying, Nancy and Pat Faichney also drove together in the Mille Miglia, in the MGA (a famous car, still extant, christened “Mabel”).  They were 72nd overall, and first female crew.

Nancy and “Mabel” continued to work together in 1957. Nancy was 16th overall in the Liège-Rome-Liège Rally, with Joan Johns, and 32nd overall in the Lyon-Charbonnières Rally, with Doreen Reece. She won the Coupe des Dames both times, leading to her second European Ladies’ championship.

She and Pat Faichney attempted the Mille Miglia again this year, in a Triumph TR3, but they did not finish. Nancy had not abandoned circuit racing either, and managed a fourth place at Silverstone in June, driving an MG Magnette.

By 1958, “Mabel” was no longer Nancy’s first-choice car. She stuck with an MG, another Magnette this time, for the Monte Carlo Rally, with Joan Johns, but seems to have been unplaced. In the Alpine Rally, she drove an Austin-Healey 100-6 and was twelfth, two places behind the Coupe des Dames winner, Pat Moss. She drove the same car in the Liège-Rome-Liège Rally, finishing 15th overall, sixth in class, and helping BMC to the team prize. Later in the season, she was driving a Riley 1.5 in the RAC Rally, skidded on ice and ended up down a steep drop. She was not seriously harmed.   

1959 saw a partial change of team for Nancy; she was part of Ford’s Ladies’ team, driving a Zephyr. Alongside Anne Hall and Lola Grounds, she finished the Monte in 78th place. During the summer, she and Anne entered the Alpine Rally, run as the Critérium International des Alpes, but a broken propshaft put them out. Going back to BMC power, Nancy and Pat Allison finished the Portuguese Rally, in 54th place, in an early rally Mini.

Her final year of competition came in 1960. Her major events were in her favoured mountain terrain. The Monte only brought a retirement for Nancy and Pat Allison in their Austin Seven, but the Alpine Rally, her last rally, went better. She and Rosemary Seers were 24th overall, second ladies’ team, in a Sunbeam Rapier.

After retiring from the circuits and the stages, Nancy did not abandon the motoring world. She was the motoring correspondent for Vogue magazine, conducting road tests of luxury cars, for several years. She was also involved in motorsport administration, as part of the BTRDA.

She died in 1996. Some of her cars have remained in her family, and have even been entered into historic events by her daughter, Sue Chapman, and granddaughter, Anna Chapman. 

(Picture from this article by John Sprinzel)

Sheila van Damm

Sheila (left) in 1954, with Pauline Jesty and Joyce Leavens

Sheila van Damm was born in 1922, the daughter of London theatre impresario, Vivian van Damm. As with many other female drivers of her era, her first taste of motoring came during the Second World War, when she worked as a driver in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Encouraged by her father, she learned to fly an aeroplane too. For a time, she took part in aerobatics contests, although aircraft were never really her passion. Vivian van Damm employed a female personal pilot himself. 

Sheila and her sisters grew up around showgirls as well as a number of professional women employed by their father. In her autobiography, No Excuses, she comes across as clearly loving her father, but being somewhat scared of him. She admits to doing anything he told her to do, and that included driving a rally car.

She got her break in rallying in 1950, driving a works-prepared Sunbeam in the Daily Express Rally. The car was sponsored by her father’s infamous Windmill Theatre, which was known for its risqué revues. Vivian's aforementioned pilot, Zita Irwin, was one of those who persuaded her to have a go. Sheila, navigated by her sister Nona, drove a Sunbeam Talbot, with “Windmill Girl” proudly emblazoned down the side. This was to be Nona's only outing as a rally driver; she was car-sick and did not enjoy herself, returning to her beloved horses afterwards. They were third in the Coupe des Dames, and their performance impressed the Rootes team sufficiently for them to offer Sheila a works seat for the following season.

Although Nona never took to rallying, Sheila's mother, Natalie, later took it up in the mid-'50s.

Her first drive for Rootes was the 1951 Monte Carlo Rally, in a Hillman Minx. She was unplaced. Later in the year, navigated by the veteran Elsie “Bill” Wisdom, she won the Ladies’ Prize in the Closed car category of the RAC Rally. 

In 1952, she remained with Rootes, as she would for her entire rally career. As part of a three-woman team, she drove a Sunbeam Talbot in the Monte Carlo Rally. The other team members were Bill Wisdom and Nancy Mitchell. Sheila is also reported to have won a ladies’ award in an MCC Rally in the UK, in the same car.

1953 was a busy year. It began with the Monte Carlo Rally, in which Sheila was the second lady in her Sunbeam Talbot. Her co-drivers that year were Francoise Clarke, who sat beside her for the RAC Rally, and Anne Hall, who navigated her to the Coupe des Dames and a Coupe des Alpes in the Alpine Rally. They were 24th overall. The three almost always drove together and took turns at navigating, timekeeping and driving. Sheila was always in charge and admits to being rather harsh on her team-mates, although they all understood one another and their idiosyncrasies. Her best finish was eighth overall, in the Lisbon Rally. This was probably her best career result.

The furthest she travelled during her career was the USA; Rootes included her in a team for the 1953 Great American Mountain Rally. Unfortunately, she ran into problems on the tough terrain and was not among the leading finishers.

Sheila almost always drove with an all-female team, and had friendly rivalries with other female drivers like Nancy Mitchell, Madeleine Pochon and Lorna Doone Snow. However, she was also quite at home in the largely-male Rootes team, where the more experienced men were happy to help her out in becoming a better driver. Among them were Stirling Moss and Peter Collins.

1954 was full of action all over Europe for Sheila, ably assisted by Anne and Francoise. They drove a Sunbeam Talbot in the Monte Carlo Rally, but were unplaced, and later came tenth in the Tulip Rally, with a Ladies’ prize and second in class. In the same car, they also entered the Austrian Alpine Rally. For the Stella Alpina, they were allowed use of the Sunbeam Alpine prototype, and made off with the Ladies’ Trophy, and fifth in class. The Alpine Rally gave them another class fifth, and they were second in class in the Geneva Rally. A Coupe des Dames in the Viking Rally was another highlight.

1955 continued in the same vein. The Monte Carlo Rally produced her best result on that particular event: eleventh, and first lady. She was driving another Sunbeam with Francoise Clarke and Anne Hall. With Anne in the navigator’s seat, she won another Coupe des Dames on the RAC Rally, and was second in that category on the Tulip Rally, behind Greta Molander. Sheila and Greta were great rivals at this time, often in close competition for Ladies’ and class awards.

During and after her rally career, Sheila was a popular media personality. She wrote for the Daily Express, which sponsored rallies at the time. In 1955, she confessed to being very hard on Francoise Clarke in her role as co-driver and praised Francoise's patience. In the same interview, she also mentioned taking "pep pills" during longer events, which was common practice at the time. She was one of the favourites of rally journalist, Basil Cardew, who championed female talent.

In 1954 and 1955, she was European Ladies’ Champion, after her string of Coupes des Dames. She also helped Rootes to the team prize on the Monte Carlo Rally in 1954, 1955 and 1956.

1956 was her last year as a Rootes driver. She entered the Monte Carlo Rally in a Sunbeam. She finished but did not place in her class. Greta Molander also had an indifferent rally. 

Anne Hall now moved back to full-time driving, and Sheila prepared to wind down her motorsport career. She had wanted to reunite her original team, but the others were both busy. The Monte was her last event. She had the rare distinction of having finished every rally that she entered. Sometimes she only just managed to finish, but she managed.

As well as rallying, she proved a capable record-breaker and road-racer, winning her class on the 1956 Mille Miglia. She drove a Sunbeam Rapier with Peter Harper, and was 72nd overall. She was persuaded out of retirement for the 1957 Mille Miglia, again in a Rapier, with David Humphrey, but did not finish this time. Her record-breaking happened in 1953; during the Monte Carlo Rally, she hit 120mph in her Sunbeam, on the Jabbeke highway in Belgium.

After her competition career was over, Sheila helped her father with operations at the Windmill, and was its general manager between his death in 1960, and its eventual closure in 1964. In the late 1950s, she managed an all-female karting team, comprised of "Windmill girls". The theatre had always been her first love and her motorsport career was almost a stopgap before she could take over from Vivian. That said, she enjoyed her rallying and the life it entailed.  she remained in touch with her old world through her Vogue motoring column, and her presidency of the Doghouse Club, for “motorsport wives and ladies”.

Sheila's unconventional background was replicated somewhat in her own personal life. As well as the final demise of the Windmill in 1964, she had to contend with the sudden deaths of her friends Nancy Spain and Joan Werner Laurie in an air crash. The three had lived together in a menage a trois of sorts; Joan was probably Sheila's lover as well as Nancy's.

After the trials of 1964, she retired to a farm with Nona. Her mental health deteriorated and she received treatment for depression, including electroconvulsive therapy. The two sisters lived quietly and reclusively.

Sheila died in 1987. She had been suffering from cancer in secret for some time. Just two days after she confessed to her family and friends that she had the disease, it killed her.

(Image copyright Bournemouth Daily Echo)

Denise McCluggage

Denise with Stirling Moss.

Denise started out as a motorsports journalist, before embarking on a long and varied driving career in the late 1950s. She took part in many international sports car races and saloon events, picking up a number of class wins. Unusually for an American, she drove in rallies in Europe and the Americas, as well as circuit races.

She was born in 1927, and began her motorsport career through her writing. As a sports reporter, she wrote about chiefly motorsport and skiing for a number of increasingly-important American papers, and used this as a springboard for her own participation.

Her first competition car was an MG, which was upgraded to a Jaguar XK140MC a year later. She used this car in local circuit events during the 1955 and 1956 seasons. Part-way through 1956, she exchanged it for a Porsche 550 RS, in which she won a ladies’ race at Nassau Speed Week. She also tried to qualify in an Osca MT4-2AD, but only managed sixth.

Back in the Porsche in 1957, she won a Ladies’ race at Watkins Glen and came fifth in a mixed SCCA National at Montgomery. On her return to the Bahamas, she was ninth in the Nassau TT race, against a strong field, which included Masten Gregory, Stirling Moss and Olivier Gendebien. She was also fourth in the Governor’s Trophy, eighth in the Memorial Trophy and first in all three Ladies’ races.

She continued to enter SCCA events at home throughout 1958, still driving the Porsche. Her exact placings are hard to come by, but it is known that she was eighth in a National race at Lime Rock in June, entered by Briggs Cunningham. This year, she seems to have made her first forays into European racing: she was seventh the Rheinland-Pfalz Preis for 1300cc sportscars at the Nürburgring, driving an Alfa Romeo Giulietta. At the end of the season, in the Bahamas, she shared a Lotus 11 Climax with Marion Lowe and was ninth in the Nassau Trophy.

Still supported by Briggs Cunningham, Denise was eighth and fifth in two SCCA races at Montgomery in 1959. She was fifth in the Porsche and eighth in an Osca 750. In a move up the motorsport ladder, she shared a similar Osca with Isabelle Haskell and Alejandro de Tomaso in the Sebring Twelve Hours. They were 18th overall, second in class. In the familiar Porsche, she made the step up to the USAC Road Racing Championship at Lime Rock, and was twelfth. At Nassau, she drove the Osca again and was not quite as competitive as in previous years: 17th in the Governor’s Trophy, 27th in the Nassau Trophy and thirteenth in a Governor’s Trophy preliminary.

It was this year that she got her first taste of rallying, having been selected for the Triumph team to run in its three-car effort in the Cross Canada Rally.

There were no more USAC races for Denise in 1960, but she continued her rise with another run at Sebring. She and Marianne Rollo drove the Osca in the first part of the race, until a bearing jammed after an oil leak.

In 1961, she drove a Ferrari 250 GT SWB with Allen Eager. They won their class at Sebring and were tenth overall. The Nürburgring 1000Km brought a DNF, but when Denise returned to the States with the car, she won two National races in it. Denise later claimed that this car, which she owned herself, was one of her favourites; she drove it on the road and to and from race meetings, as well as on the track.

The Ferrari was traded for an Osca S1000 the following year. Denise and Allen Eager went out of the Sebring Twelve Hours very early after an accident, starting the season badly. Denise, driving solo, is listed as a driver in both of the Bridgehampton events, driving the Osca and an Austin Healey Sprite respectively. She crashed out in the Osca.

In 1963, undeterred by a bad previous season, she did a number of US and European races with Christabel Carlisle, in the latter’s MGB. Their fortunes were mixed: they went out early on yet again at Sebring, but did manage a third in class at Brands Hatch. It was about now that Denise really got into, rallying. She drove and navigated in the UK and France, usually in a Mini. It was in the Mini that she navigated Terry Hunter to the end of the Tour de France. In the RAC Rally, she drove a Ford Falcon with Rosemary Seers, but got stuck in a ditch. The two also retired from the Alpine Rally, for unknown reasons. With a different Ford, a Cortina, she appears to have finished the Spa-Sofia-Liege marathon with Anne Hall.

She co-drove for Anne Hall in 1964. Their car for the Acropolis as a Rover 3L. On the Monte Carlo Rally, they drove a Ford Falcon, but their car details for the Spa-Sofia-Liege event have been lost.

After 1964, Denise fades from the competition scene somewhat, and her journalistic career takes over. She was one of the founders of what became the car magazine, Auto Week, in the States, and wrote many articles, columns and books about cars and driving. She continued to publish until shortly before her death, in May 2015.

(Image from www.barcboys.com)

Anne Hall

Anne rallying a Ford Anglia, 1962

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Anne Hall (or Anne Newton in the early days) was one of Britain's best known rally drivers, and certainly one of the leading ladies. She too up the sport just after purchasing her first sports car in 1951, a Jaguar XK120. Everyone was surprised when Anne and her sister came seventh overall and won the Ladies' award in the Open class of the RAC Rally. The Jaguar became Anne's car of choice for the next few years as she rallied around Britain, gaining experience and some good finishes, such as a repeat of her Ladies' Open victory in the 1952 RAC event. Another highlight was a ninth place in the competitive Rally of the Tests in 1953.

In 1952 she switched seats and took up navigating, after she was talent-spotted by the Rootes team and their established lady star, Sheila van Damm. Sheila and her new co-driver rallied a Sunbeam Talbot all over Europe and became European Ladies' Rally Champions. One of their best finishes was a tenth in Monte Carlo that helped Rootes to the team prize. They parted in 1956, as Sheila was winding down her career. Anne sat beside another British lady star, Nancy Mitchell, that year, and joined her in several impressive finishes, including strong placings in class in the Lyon-Charbonnieres and Alpine Rallies. During this time, Anne continued to drive in selected rallies herself. She drove a Ford in the 1956 Alpine Rally, her first major outing for that marque.

For 1957 she returned to the driving seat with the works Ford team, driving the Zephyr. She won the Coupe des Dames in the Tulip Rally. In 1958, she drove another Zephyr at Monte Carlo, but suffered an accident. Anne was an enthusiastic participant in the Monte Carlo Rally, which led to her being nicknamed "The Queen of Monte Carlo". She was the first British woman to win the Coupe des Dames since 1932 and had a best finish of tenth, as a navigator. In 1958, she was 78th in the Zephyr, assisted by Nancy Mitchell and Lola Grounds. That year, she drove the Anglia on the RAC Rally as well.

It was in this car that she was 36th in the 1960 Monte. She and Val Domleo crashed out of the Alpine Rally. In 1961, the same pairing added a Coupe des Dames from Monte Carlo to their collection. One of the biggest achievements that Anne is remembered for also happened this year: her third place on the arduous East African Safari. Ford team bosses had urged her to slow down and make sure that she finished, so that they could win the Ladies' trophy, but she was having none of it and wanted to push for the win. Driving a Zephyr again, she was seventh in the RAC Rally later in the year.

She went back to the Anglia in 1962 for the RAC, Monte and Alpine events, but with less success.

In 1963, she sampled the Ford Falcon rally special. Her first outing was inauspicious: an OTL on the Monte. A switch to the Cortina for the rest of the season brought better results, the best being 16th on the RAC Rally. A return to the Falcon gave her another finish on the 1964 Monte, but after that, she moved to the Rover team, driving different models in the Acropolis, Spa-Sofia-Liege, Alpine and RAC events. Her navigator for much of the season was Denise McCluggage.

1965 was her last season as an international driver, and it was an adventurous one. Anne and Lucille Cardwell rolled their Mercedes 300SE on the Safari Rally and were unable to continue, and Anne, in a Rover, also crashed out of the Acropolis Rally. She managed to finish the RAC and Alpine Rallies, but not as competitively as she might have liked.

Back home, in domestic events, she drove in the Targa Rusticana road rally at least once, and finished eighth in the Rally of the Tests in 1961. 1961 also saw Anne's first major win, on the Morecambe Rally, partnered by Val Domleo and driving a Ford Zephyr. It was the first win for a ladies' team on a British national event.

Although Anne made a comeback and was still competing in historic events as late as 1993, she had not been well for a long while before her death in 2003. Perhaps fittingly, she died on the eve of that year's Monte Carlo Rally.

(Image copyright Ilkley Motor Club)