Yana Pelenichenko

 

Yana Pelenichenko is one of Kazakhstan’s leading rally drivers. 

The Kazakh rally scene is quite small, and Yana is part of a team aiming to raise its profile. 

She started young, co-driving for her father Mark from the age of fourteen in 2012. Mark Pelenichenko only ever competed at club level due to health problems. Yana then started learning to drive and preparing herself for a career behind the wheel.

Her first rally as a driver, the Rally Stepniye Volki in 2012, resulted in an eighth place. Her car was a Citroen C2, which she has continued to drive since then. The car was bought in Moscow.

In 2013, she managed two fifth places, in the Sapsan and Vostochnyy Marafon rallies, and also travelled to Italy for her first European event, which was the Rally Ronde Prealpi Mastershow. She drove a Subaru Impreza and was 94th. 

She continued to be very competitive in her home country in 2014, still in the C2. She was sixth in the Sapsan and Saryagash Rallies. Unfortunately, she also had quite a few retirements, and was one of three drivers excluded from the Stepniye Volki event.

She does not appear to have competed in 2015, but she came back in 2016, again in a C2. She was eighth in the Rally Sapsan. A repeat of this car and rally pairing in 2017 resulted in a fourth place. 

In 2018, she earned two further fourth places in rallysprints in Kazakhstan. She did some rallysprint events in 2019, still in the C2. The first of these gave her a runner-up spot. 

She does not appear to have competed for the following three years, but she returned to the stages in 2023, driving a Lada. She entered at least two rounds of the Kazakh national championship.

(Image from ticketon.kz)

Female Drivers Around the World: Korea

Kwon Bo Mi

This page has been created to document the increasing numbers of women racing cars in Korea. It will be expanded but the profiles below have been split off from Circuit Racers from Southeast Asia.

Kwon Bo Mi – Korean driver who races saloons in her home country. She began senior competition in 2011, after some years of karting. She only started karting to get herself out of depression due to her music career faltering. Her first season was interrupted by her car catching on fire during her first race, and broken ribs from a crash in a subsequent one. In 2014, she raced in the Veloster Turbo Cup in Korea, as well as acting as a coach to younger drivers. This is a Hyundai one-make series. As well as racing, she is a motoring TV presenter.

Min Jin Lim - Korean driver who races in the GR1 class of the Super Race championship. She has been involved with the series since 2018 and drives a Cadillac 6000 for the One Racing team. Her best result in 2019 seems to have been a tenth place towards the end of the season. Language barriers have prevented further information about her and her career being accessible, although she did make an apperance in the 2021 championship at Everland Speedway, finishing 20th in a spec Toyota Supra. She was part of the ONE Racing team for the 2022 championship. In 2024, she raced in Super 6000 for ONE again. She was tenth in the championship.

Hyemin Moon – South Korean driver who competes in the TCSA (Touring Car Series Asia). She started out in 2015, racing a Toyota GT86 in a one-make championship. 2016 was her first season in the TCSA. Her car was a Honda CL7, and she did a full season, with at least one Independent class win, at Motegi. In 2017, she was second in one round of the TCSA. Unfortunately, language barriers have prevented any further effective research into Hyemin’s activities.

Sabina Park - South Korean driver who races sportscars. She won the Superrace Sports Prototype Cup in 2022, driving a Radical. She won two races outright. This was her second season of motorsport, having begun in the same championship in 2021, when she was 39. That year, she was second. It is unclear whether she raced again in the following seasons.

(Image copyright rpm9.com)

Female Drivers at the Macau Grand Prix

Tatiana Calderon in 2014

The Macau Grand Prix is the longest-standing motorsport event in Asia. It started life as a motorised treasure hunt, then became a sportscar race, before evolving into a single-seater event. It ran under Formula Libre rules from 1961 to 1973, then becoming part of the Formula Pacific championship in 1974. Since 1983, it has been a Formula 3 race, and has been contested by Formula One hopefuls from around the world, including Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher.

The race is held on the Guia street circuit in Macau, a Chinese special territory. Speeds reached at Macau are can be extremely high due to the circuit’s long straights. As well as the single-seater race, the event hosts a major touring car race (previously the finale of the WTCC), a motorcycle Grand Prix and a number of support races for saloons, sportscars and local single-seater formulae.

Women drivers have been a distinct rarity throughout the history of the Grand Prix. More have contested the Guia touring car race, or the other support races, and there have even been pro-am women’s races on the bill in the past. Anne Wong won the touring car race in 1970, in a Mini. However, only a handful of female drivers have contested the blue-riband Grand Prix. 

Below is a list. It may be added to in future, as the results for the earlier runnings of the race are not easy to find.

1976

Diana Poon  (Brabham BT40) DNF?

1980

Desiré Wilson (Ralt RT1) – 6^th

1983

Cathy Muller (Ralt RT3) – 12^th

2014

Tatiana Calderon (Dallara-Mercedes) – 13<sup>th

2018
Sophia Floersch (Dallara-Mercedes) - DNF (accident)

2019
Sophia Floersch (Dallara-Mecachrome) - DNF</sup>

²⁰²³

^{Sophia Floersch (Dallara F3 2019) - 11th}

(Image from www.tatianacalderon.com)

Female Single-Seater Drivers Around the World: Southeast Asia

Alexandra Asmasoebrata

Most of the entries in this post have been split off from Circuit Racers in Southeast Asia. Diana Poon, Juju Noda, Michele Bumgarner, Miki Koyama, Ai Miura, Bianca Bustamante, Gaby dela Merced and Natasha Seatter now have their own posts.

Alexandra Asmasoebrata (Allida Alexandra) - Indonesian driver who has competed up to international Formula Renault level. After several years of karting, she first drove in the Asian Formula Renault Challenge in 2006, aged eighteen. She was 24th overall after participating in seven races. In 2008, she reappeared in AFR, after a year spent karting. She was twelfth this time, with a best finish of fifth, at Zhuhai. A shorter season in 2009 meant that eighth was her best finish, also at Zhuhai, a feat she repeated in 2010. In 2011, she drove in both the Asian Formula Renault Challenge and Formula Pilota in China. She was third in Formula Renault. Unfortunately, she only entered four races in 2012: three rounds of Asian Formula Renault. Her finishes were two sevenths, and two DNFs. In 2013, she took part in Asian Formula Renault, entering six races and earning two thirds and four fourths. She was fourth overall. In 2014, she was set to race in Asia Formula Renault again, but does not appear to have competed. 

Kotoka Goibuchi - raced in Japanese Formula 4 in 2017. She did most of the season with CSI - Reon Kids Racing and had a best finish of fourteenth, at Sugo. This was her third season of F3, following two shorter part-seasons in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, she raced for the Silver Star team and scored a surprise podium at Motegi, finishing third. She does not appear to have raced in 2018.

Grace Gui (Gui Meng) - Chinese racer who was second in the “B” class of the Asian Formula Renault championship in 2017. Her car was an older-spec Formula Renault 2.0. She scored her best outright finish at Sepang in Malaysia, a tenth place with a class win. She does not appear to have raced in 2018 but was involved with the all-female W Series in 2019. She made it through two rounds of selections but was let go. According to some, this was due to crashing a car during testing.

Ayaka Imahashi – races for the miNami aoYama Project team in Japanese Formula 4. She was born in 1995. In 2015, she did two rounds of the series, driving for the same team, and managed 25^th and 28^th at Fuji. She sometimes competed alongside Miki Koyama. In 2016, she did another part-season in Japanese F4, but only finished one of her races. This was at Okayama, where she was 22nd. She also tried rallying in a Toyota GT86, entering the Montre in Tsumagoi Rally. In 2021, she raced in the Japanese Inter Proto one-make series, winning at least one race. 

Akiko Kobayashi - raced in Asian Formula BMW in 2003. She was not one of the front-runners, but finished most rounds, and managed to score a few top-ten positions. Her best finish seems to have been eighth, at Goldenport.

Selina Li - Chinese driver who raced in the Formula Renault Super Challenge in 2022. She did a part-season with the FRD Racing team and was thirteenth in the championship, scoring a sixth and fifth at Zhouzhou. The season was disrupted by China’s Covid measures and she missed out on another couple of rounds. Little other information is available about her, other than that she may have been active in karting before tackling Formula Renault.

Diana Rosario - racer from Macau who has competed sporadically in Asian Formula Renault since 2008, with a best finish of ninth in 2010. Away from Formula Renault, Diana raced in Ford Formula Campus, and she won the Chinese Formula Campus championship in 2009. She has been driving since at least 2002, when she did some Asian Formula 2000 races, and she had several successful years of karting before that. During 2011, she drove in Asian Formula Renault, and was fifth overall. She had a quieter year in 2012, racing a Ferrari F430 in the City of Dreams Macau GT Cup. In 2013, she was linked with a drive in the Asian Le Mans series, but does not appear to have competed. Later, in 2018, she made a comeback in the Asian Blancpain GT Series, driving a Mercedes GT4 for Craft Bamboo Racing. Her best finish was fourth at Ningbo.

Cherie Schloemer – ex-pat racer in Southeast Asia in the late 1970s. She and her husband, Del, both raced a Chevron B20 during the 1977 and 1978 seasons, in their adopted home country of Thailand and Malaysia. In 1979, Cherie, driving solo, entered the biggest race of her career, the Selangor Grand Prix in Malaysia. Her car was a Chevron B34, but the engine blew and she did not finish. She does not appear to have raced after that.

Vivian Siu - single-seater racer who represents Hong Kong, although she lives and works in the USA. She competed in Formula 4 in 2023, beginning with the first two meetings of the Chinese championship. This was a first for a female driver to begin with, but she also managed to score points at Ningbo, finishing tenth. During the winter season, she entered the first round of the Southeast Asia (SEA) F4 series at Zhuzhou Circuit in China, finishing sixth twice and tenth once for the BlackArts team. She switched to Champ Motorsport for the non-championship Macau support race, finishing 17th and 14th. Away from motorsport, she works in financial services in New York.

Shi Wei - competed in the Shanghai round of F1 Academy in 2025, as a wildcard entry. She crashed out of the first race, then finished fourteenth in the second. She has been racing in F4 since 2023, when she did a part-season in the Chinese F4 series. She raced at Ningbo and Zhuhai, earning a best finish of sixth at Ningbo. This was enough for second in the rookie championship. In 2024, she did another part-season, racing only at Shanghai, and managed another sixth place in the first round. That year, she also raced a Hongqi H5 and a Toyota Supra in the China Endurance Championship. She scored two class wins in the Toyota at Zhuhai and two second places in the Hongqi.

(Image from http://www.talkmen.com/articles/read/378/women-we-love-12-alexandra-asmasoebrata/)