The VW Polo Ladies' Cup Turkey

Ann Tahincioglu, Nuray Esener and Melis Ceker

The Volkswagen Polo Ladies’ Cup was an all-female one-make series which ran in Turkey between 2005 and 2006. It was announced as part of a package of new club championships for Turkey in the wake of the opening of the Istanbul grand prix circuit.

The entry list contained a mixture of experienced circuit racers, drivers from other disciplines (including rally co-drivers), women who had achieved fame in other sports and a few celebrities. 2005 champion Ann Tahincioglu had been involved in Turkish motorsport for years and was the oldest driver at 49. Nuray Esener and Sanem Celik also had circuit experience. Didem Coksayar and Melis Ceker had co-driven in rallies; 2006 entrant Burcu Cetinkaya had been a Turkish ladies’ rally champion. Yasemin Dalkilic had set records in freediving and Zeynep Ozenc had represented Turkey in volleyball. The celebrity drivers included fashion designer Secilay Du Pre. 2006 champion Gunes Ippekan started the 2005 Cup as a complete novice and was also the youngest driver, at 25.

Seventeen cars lined up for the first race at Izmit Bay. The championship’s other three rounds were held at Istanbul. An additional race was held at Lausitz in Germany as a guest support for the DTM.

A 1900cc turbodiesel version of the Polo was used. Cars were run by various teams with different sponsorship deals.

In 2006, two drivers in the championship received a guest entry into a round of the DTM-supporting German Polo Cup. Champion Gunes Ippekan and fifth-placed Melis Ceker made the trip to the Netherlands for their two races.

Championship results

2005

1. Ann Tahincioglu
2.  Nuray Esener
3.  Melis Ceker

2006

1. Gunes Ippekan
2. Ann Tahincioglu
3. Nuray Esener
4. Ebru Sile
5. Melis Ceker
6. Ayse Sule Bilgic
7. Demet Kapani
8. Yasemin Dalkilic
9. Didem Coksayar
10. Aysa Alparslan

(Image copyright nurayurkmez.com)

Women Drivers in the DTM: the "Masters" years

Susie Wolff (then Stoddart) and Vanina Ickx

The DTM was revived in 2000, after its earlier incarnation folded, as the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. It was now a silhouette series, with cars based on production models. 

The new DTM attracted strong driving talent, and in recent years, it has become a favoured championship for teamless Formula One drivers and World Endurance Championship regulars, with some younger specialists. Female drivers have not done as well as before, and have been less present. This may change in the future.

1997-1999 

No championship held

2000-2005 

No female entrants

2006

Vanina Ickx - Audi A4 DTM (Futurecom TME) - unplaced

Susie Wolff - AMG Mercedes C-Class  (Mücke Motorsport) - unplaced

2007

Vanina Ickx - Audi A4 DTM (Futurecom TME) - unplaced

Susie Wolff - AMG Mercedes C-Class  (TV Spielfilm AMG Mercedes) - umplaced

2008

Katherine Legge - Audi A4 DTM (Futurecom TME) - unplaced

Susie Wolff - AMG Mercedes C-Class  (Persson Motorsport) - unplaced

2009

Katherine Legge - Audi A4 DTM (Abt Sportsline) - unplaced

Susie Wolff - AMG Mercedes C-Class  (Persson Motorsport) - unplaced

2010

Susie Wolff - AMG Mercedes C-Class  (Persson Motorsport) - 13th

Katherine Legge - Audi A4 DTM (Team Rosberg) - unplaced

2011

Rahel Frey - Audi A4 DTM (Team Phoenix) - unplaced

Susie Wolff - AMG Mercedes C-Class  (Persson Motorsport) - unplaced

2012

Rahel Frey - Audi A5 DTM (Audi Sport Team Abt) - 19th

Susie Wolff - AMG Mercedes C-Coupe  (Persson Motorsport) - unplaced

2013-2020 

No female entrants

2021

Sophia Floersch - Audi R8 LMS (Abt Sportsline) - 18th

Esmee Hawkey - Lamborghini Huracan (T3 Motorsport) - 20th

2022

Esmee Hawkey - Lamborghini Huracan (T3 Motorsport) - team withdrawn

(Image from www.motorsport.com)

Women Drivers in the DTM: the "Meisterschaft" years

Race winner, Ellen Lohr, in 1992

The DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft) was (and remains) Germany's top-ranked touring car championship. It began in 1986, evolving from the Group A-based German Production Car Championship. Women drivers featured in it right from the start, with Beate Nodes, and especially Ellen Lohr, achieving success.

As time went on, budgets for the series became very high, as DTM cars only had to be based on production models. In 1996, it was run as an FIA touring car championship, but after that, it was retired in its current form. The new DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) debuted in 2000. 

1986

Beate Nodes - Ford Sierra XR4Ti (Grab Motorsport) - 11th

1987

Beate Nodes - Ford Sierra XR4Ti (Ford/Grab Motorsport) - 21st

1988

Annette Meeuvissen - BMW M3 (Zakspeed/Linder BMW M-Team) - 31st

Mercedes Stermitz - BMW M3 (BMW M-Team Linder) - 37th

Beate Nodes - Ford Sierra XR4Ti (Grab Motorsport) - 42nd

             

1989

Annette Meeuvissen - BMW M3 (BMW M-Team Linder) - unplaced

1990

Annette Meeuvissen - BMW M3 (BMW M-Team Zakspeed) - unplaced

Ellen Lohr - Mercedes 190 E (AMG) - unplaced

1991

Annette Meeuvissen - BMW M3 (Linder M-Team) - unplaced

Ellen Lohr - Mercedes 190 E (AMG) - 26th 

1992

Ellen Lohr - Mercedes 190 E (AMG) - 11th (1 win)

1993

Ellen Lohr - Mercedes 190 E (AMG) - 10th

1994

Ellen Lohr - Mercedes C-Class (AMG) - 11th

1995

Ellen Lohr - AMG Mercedes C-Class (Zakspeed) - 17th

1996 

No championship held - FIA International Touring Car Championship held in its place

Ellen Lohr - AMG Mercedes C-Class (AMG Mercedes Team Persson) - 25th

(Image from http://www.dekra-motorsport.com/en/dtm/extnews/dekra-dtm-news/details/267)

Annette Meeuvissen

Annette was a German driver who raced in the 1980s and 1990s, in Europe mainly, but also further afield, as far as Bathurst in Australia. She began her motorsport career in 1980, when she was 18, and initially competed in slaloms. In 1982, she entered her first major championship, the Ford Fiesta Ladies’ Cup. She won the first race, at Wunstorf, and went on the win the Cup, after multiple wins. Throughout the season, Delia Stegemann matched her performances, and they were declared joint winners, the prize doubled. Despite her success, Annette was sometimes the target of disparaging comments from spectators, but she did not let this deter her. Despite her rivalry with Delia Stegemann, the two teamed up for the Nürburgring 24 Hours mid-season, in the Fiesta, with Peter Marx. They did not finish.

For the 1983 and 1984 seasons, she raced in the VLN long-distance series, at the Nürburgring. Apparently, she almost won her class at the 1984 Nürburgring 24 Hours, but was prevented from doing so by a mechanical problem. The complete starting and finishing lists for these races do not seem to be available.

In 1985, she stepped up to international competition, driving a Ford Escort for the Gerstmann team, in the European Touring Car Championship. Driving with Jörg van Ommen, she entered the championship in the third round, at Donington, and was 20th overall. After missing the Anderstorp round, she reappeared at Brno, with Arno Wester as a third driver. They did not finish. The trio were then fifteenth at Zeltweg. After another break, they entered the Spa 24 Hours, but do not appear to have finished. Back as a pair, Annette and Jörg van Ommen raced at the Silverstone Tourist Trophy, but were only 26th. Their last race of the season was at Zolder, but they did not qualify.

1986 was a quieter season for Annette. She raced a Porsche in the 944 Turbo-Cup, against her former team-mate, Jörg van Ommen, and the likes of winner Joachim Winkelhock, but was not among the front-runners. Mid-season, she was linked with another Gerstmann drive in the Spa 24 Hours, but this did not happen.

1987 was certainly not quiet. Annette was paired up with former beauty queen, Mercedes Stermitz, to drive the second Schnitzer Motorsport BMW M3 in the International Touring Car Championship (ITC), competing around the world. Their first race was the second round, at Jarama, and they qualified ninth. However, an accident put them out after eleven laps. Back in action after a short break, they did not finish at the Nürburgring either, driving as a trio with Altfrid Heger. For the Spa 24 Hours, they transferred to the satellite Linder team, still driving a works BMW, with assistance from Gerrit van Kouwen. Despite only qualifying 35th, they were seventh overall. Driving for the factory team, Annette and Mercedes were then fifteenth at Brno. They missed the Silverstone round, but then flew across the world for the Pacific-region races. The prestigious Bathurst 24–hour race in Australia ended in clutch failure, and third driver, Roland Ratzenberger, did not get a look-in. The second Australian race, at Calder Park, was more productive, and the two women were seventh again. Their last race was at Wellington, New Zealand, and it resulted in another crash. Annette was unplaced in the ITC standings.

Away from the ITC, the Schnitzer M3 was entered into the Zeltweg round of the ETCC, Mercedes Stermitz’s home race. They finished seventh, again. The team’s poor finishing record this season was blamed squarely on Stermitz, whose incautious and rather crash-happy style was ridiculed in the motoring press.

In 1988, Annette became one of the first women to race in the DTM, one of several at this time. She was driving another BMW M3, for the Zakspeed team. This year, she was very much a secondary driver, and at the AVUS race, had to give up her car to Markus Oestreich. That said, she participated in almost all of the other races, and finished a large majority of them. She appears to have had some degree of mechanical sympathy, unlike her previous team-mate. Although she was a reliable finisher, her results were not spectacular this year, with a twelfth at the Nürburgring being her best. Towards the end of the season, she was getting into the top twenty regularly, in large fields of about 35 cars. She was 31st in the championship.

 In 1989, she only managed a few DTM races, in a Linder-run BMW M3. She raced at the Hockenheim Rennsport-Festival, and was twelfth, 22nd and 21st in her three races. Later, at Hochenheim again, she was twelfth in a qualification race, but did not finish the race proper, after a rare accident. The rest of the year may well have been spent in the VLN once more, although results are hard to find.

The following year, she was back in the Zakspeed M3, and did the whole DTM season, apart from the fly-away season finale at Kyalami, South Africa. Her year started badly, with a double DNF at Zolder, but it soon picked up and settled down. Her qualifying performances were improving, and she often able to hold her position, just outside the top ten. Her best performance was at AVUS, where she was seventh in the qualification race, and converted it into eleventh in the first feature race. She was also eleventh in a feature race at Hockenheim, part of the Rennsport-Festival, after finishing eleventh in the preliminary qualifying race. That year, she was linked to a drive in a Rimstock M3 in the Spa 24 Hours, but it did not happen.

1990 saw her back in the DTM, driving for the satellite Linder team again. She was entered into the main championship, but not any of the extra races, some for privateers, put on that year. Her team-mates, usually Dieter Quester and Altfrid Heger, were not really on the pace, and Annette did not fare as well as she had in previous years, with a best result of fifteenth, achieved at the Diepholz airfield track. The Mercedes and Opels were more dominant that year, and she was getting left behind somewhat. This would be her last DTM season.

The Nürburgring was a happier hunting ground for her. She was fifth in the 24 Hour race, driving another BMW. During her career, she entered this classic event four times.

In 1992, she did less racing than in previous years. Her only big event was the Spa 24 Hours, in which she drove am M3, run by Bychl Euroracing. With her team-mates, Marc Gindorf and Heiner Weis, she was 17th overall.

Towards the end of her career, Annette became rather frustrated by motorsport and its vagaries. She retired in 1992, and for some time, worked as a performance driving instructor for BMW. In the mid-1990s, she travelled to Africa, where she ended up founding an animal sanctuary in Namibia. Later, she worked as airline cabin crew, and gave birth to a son. She was in the process of setting up her own kindergarten when she became ill with cancer. Sadly, she died a year later, in 2004.

(Image from http://www.carlosghys.be/html/autographs_meeuvissen.html)

Beate Nodes

Beate is most famous for being the first woman to finish on the podium in a DTM race in 1986. Her third place came at AVUS. She was driving a Ford Sierra XR4 Ti.

Her earliest noted motorsport experience seems to have been Formula Ford, in her native Germany, in 1982. Interestingly, she was driving alongside Ellen Lohr, and both of them would end up competing in the DTM, with varying degrees of success.

Her first steps in touring cars came in 1983, when she was nineteen. She entered the Ford Fiesta Ladies’ Cup in Germany, and was second in her first season. On her return in 1984, she won the championship. This began a long relationship with Ford and Ford-engined cars, which Beate raced almost exclusively during her professional career.

That year, Beate tried a few different styles of motorsport. She drove a Cosworth DFV-powered Gebhardt JC843 prototype in one Interserie race at the Nürburgring, finishing sixteenth, towards the end of the year, followed by a visit to Sandown Park in Australia with the Gebhardt team. Beate, Frank Jelinski and Günter Gebhardt were twelfth overall, third in class in the 1000km event. Driving a Fiesta similar to her Ladies’ Cup car, she scored a class win in the Nürburgring 24 Hours, finishing 22nd overall.

Her DTM career began in 1985, and her first car was a Ford Escort RS Turbo. She entered three races, driving for the Grab Ford team. Her only finish was a fourteenth place at Siegerland; she did not finish at either the Nürburgring or Zolder. Away from the DTM, she also entered some German Formula 3 rounds, as well as some production car races. She and her Manfred Burkhard were due to take part in the Zolder ETCC round in another Escort RS, but the clutch failed, and they did not make the start.

1986 saw her DTM programme increased to nine races. Her AVUS podium came during the fourth round. Elsewhere, she was eighteenth at Zolder, ninth at Hockenheim, eleventh at the Nürburgring, fourteenth at Mainz and eleventh at Wunstorf. The second Nürburgring round gave her a DNF, she was then eighteenth at Zolder again, and twelfth at the Nürburgring, all in a Grab Ford Sierra XR4 Ti. Her final championship position was eleventh, the best of her career.

The car and team stayed the same for 1987, with the season extended to all ten rounds. Beate was nineteenth at Hockenheim and fifteenth at Zolder, then a disappointing 27th at the Nürburgring. Back at her lucky track of AVUS, she was sixth, her best result of the season. She was then thirteenth at Mainz, eleventh at Nürnberg, 25th at the Nürburgring and 23rd at Wunstorf. The last two races of the season, Diepholz and Salzburg, ended in DNFs. This less-than-satisfactory season netted Beate a 21st place in the final standings.

Another attempt at the Nürburgring 24 Hours in a Group N Sierra seems to have ended in a DNF.

1988 was her last DTM season. The Grab team retained her services for six races, still in the Sierra. At AVUS, she was twelfth and eighteenth. As ever, her best results were achieved there. At the Nürburgring, she scored one 25th place and one DNF, and at Wunstorf, two 25ths. She finished the season 42nd overall.   

Away from the DTM, she won the 1990 Ford Fiesta Mixed Cup with Thomas Beyer, after a year-long break from motorsport. Driving with Achim Stegmüller, she was second in the 1992 Mixed Cup. In between, she campaigned a Sierra in the VLN, but did not achieve much success.

She retired after the 1992 season and concentrated on business interests, between then and her sudden death in 2008, following a heart attack. She was 44 years old.

(Image copyright Kurt Sikora)

Rahel Frey

Rahel in the DTM, in 2012

Rahel is a single-seater driver from Switzerland, who has recently branched out into top-line sportscar racing. Born in 1986, she began karting in 1998, aged twelve. Between then and 2004, she competed in both national and international events. In 2004, she moved on to cars.

Her first experience of full-size racing came in the Swiss Formula Renault 2000 championship. She was on the pace straight away, finishing fourth overall at the end of the season, defeating her future team-mate Cyndie Allemann, and future Formula One driver Romain Grosjean.

She was third in Swiss Formula Renault 2.0 in 2005, with two wins. In addition to this, she scored a further six podium positions, meaning that she was only out of the top three for one race. Four starts in the German Formula Renault series with Equipe Bernoise gave her an additional pole position, but no more wins.

2006 saw her make a double - pronged attack on the Italian Formula Renault championship, and the more competitive Formula Renault Eurocup. Success did not come as easily as it had in the Swiss series, and she was only joint 21st in the Eurocup, with eight points. She did slightly better in Italy, finishing eighteenth, with 24 points. Her Jenzer team-mate Dani Clos won the championship. 

She made a sideways move into International Formula Master in 2007. Her best Formula Master finish was fifth, at Brno, and she entered the top ten six times. However, a series of retirements, and less impressive results, meant that she was seventeenth overall. In 2007, she was also part of the Swiss A1 GP team, but acted as a reserve driver, and only drove the car in test sessions in Malaysia.

In 2008, she joined the German F3 Cup and was fourteenth overall. She finished in the top ten six times, with a best finish of sixth, at Oschersleben. Driving the same car, but for Jo Zeller Racing, in 2009, she fared much better. She won one race, at the Nürburgring, and achieved further podium finishes at Hockenheim, Oschersleben and the second Nürburgring race. For the whole season, she was only out of the top ten once, and she was seventh overall.

In 2010, she raced at Le Mans for the Matech team, driving a Ford GT with Cyndie Allemann and Natacha Gachnang. They did not finish after their car caught fire, losing them too much time. Prior to this, she had also raced for Matech in one Le Mans Series race, and two rounds of the FIA GT1 World Championship, as a replacement for the injured Natacha Gachnang, who broke her leg early in the season. In the GT1 series, she was a disappointing 18th and 22nd at Brno, previously a track at which she had performed well. In the Le Mans Series, Rahel, Cyndie and teenage Swiss male racer Yann Zimmer were a more competitive third, at Spa.

As well as this, she took guest spots in the German VW Scirocco R Cup. These gave her a twentieth and sixth place at the Nürburgring, plus one fastest lap. Later in the year, she also drove in the ADAC Chevrolet Cruze Cup enduro at the Sachsenring, finishing eighth as the guest of the Maurer team. Her co-driver was Dietmar Stanka.

In 2011, she changed direction again, and began competing in the DTM, despite little experience in touring cars. She was driving a 2008-spec Audi A4 for Team Phoenix. Although she did not score any points, her finishing record was good, and her best finish was twelfth. 

Her promise must have shown, as she was offered a deal by Abt Sportsline in 2012, racing a current-spec Audi A5. Her season started slowly, with a 16th place at Hockenheim, and she remained out of the top ten for much of the season. A pair of DNFs at Zandvoort and Oschersleben should have deterred her further, but an altered training regime started to pay off after that: a seventh place at Valencia, giving her her first DTM points. The season's finale at Hockenheim, never her favourite track, led to another 16th place. She was 19th overall in the championship. 

She was retained by Abt Sportsline Audi for the 2013 season, but decided herself that she did not want to run in that year's DTM. She remained with Audi, concentrating on sportscars, and split her season between the ADAC GT Masters, the Blancpain Endurance Series and the R8 LMS Cup, based in China. It was the Chinese races that gave her her best result: a win at Shanghai. She was fourth in that championship. 

The ADAC GT Masters, in which she also drove an R8, was more of a mixed bag. Rahel's best finish was sixth, at Spa and the Slovakiaring, but she was not as consistent as she might have liked, and was only 19th in the final standings. Her season was also marred by a serious accident at Hockenheim, from which she thankfully escaped unharmed. In the Blancpain Endurance Series, she drove with Marcel Fässler in the GT3 Pro class, and managed to finish two of her races, in fourteenth and fifteenth, at Paul Ricard and Monza respectively.

Another highlight of her season was finishing the rain-ravaged Nürburgring 24 Hours, in the R8. With Dom Bastien, Alex Yoong and Marco Werner, she was fourteenth in class. 

2014 was more of the same, hopping between championships in an Audi R8. Most of her European action was in the ADAC GT Masters, although she was not quite on the pace, only breaching the top ten twice, with two ninth places at Oschersleben. In a competitive season with large grids, she was only 39th in the championship. 

Mid-season, she made several visits to the Nürburgring. The 24-hour race came first, and she was twelfth in the SP9 class, 22nd overall. Her team-mates for Audi Race Experience were Dominique Bastien, Christiaan Frankenhout and Christian Bollrath. Later, in August, she made another appearance for the team in the VLN, and was fourth in class. In September, she joined fellow Swiss driver, Didier Cuche, and German Nico Muller for the Blancpain Endurance round at the 'Ring, but did not finish.

Much of her season, especially the latter part, was spent in the Asia-Pacific region. Her first race of the year was the Bathurst 12 Hours, driving a Phoenix Racing R8. Rahel, with René Rast and Laurens Vanthoor, was fifth in class A, in a race of high attrition. She then returned to the LMS Cup in Asia, and had another good season, with the Castrol team. She was third overall, with three second places and two thirds, although she did not repeat her 2013 win.

She raced the Audi again in 2015, again splitting her time between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Rahel and her team-mate, Philip Geipel, contested the ADAC GT Masters, and she was much more on the pace this year. Near the end of the season, she scored her first win, at Hockenheim, and she and Philip managed two thirds, at the Nürburgring and Zandvoort. She was tenth in the championship. Driving solo for the Castrol team, she raced in the Chinese LMS Cup in Asia, and was fifth in the championship, after a win in Korea, and five further podiums, from ten races. She also found time for a guest spot in the Audi TT Cup, and was fourth and fifth at the Red Bull Ring.

2016 saw her continuing her double-pronged assault on the Chinese LMS Cup and the ADAC GT Masters. Her GT Masters season was rather inconsistent, but she took another win, at Zandvoort, after a second place early in the season, at the Sachsenring. She was ninth in the championship. In China, in the same car, but for the Castrol team, she won two races, at Shanghai and Penbay, and finished on the podium on another five occasions. She was fourth overall.

She raced the R8 again in 2017, this time staying mostly in Europe. The GT Masters series was her main focus, but it was rather disappointing for her. She and team-mate Philip Geipel had a best finish of sixth, at Zandvoort. Rahel did much better at the Nürburgring, where she and her team-mates won the SPX class during a guest appearance in the VLN. They were third in the same class in the Nürburgring 24 Hours, finishing 31st overall.

At the end of the season, Rahel was invited to take part in the Audi TT Cup Race of Legends, the last-ever TT Cup race. She secured a fastest lap but did not finish.

The R8 was her main car again in 2018. She raced in GT Masters with Philip Geipel, but was not really on the pace this year. Her mid-season sojourn in the Seyffarth R8 LMS Cup was better and gave her three seconds and a third. Her Asian activities were limited to a guest appearance at Chang, where she did not finish.

The bigger endurance events were kinder to her. For the Nürburgring 24 Hours, she joined an all-female KTM team with Naomi Schiff, Lena Strycek and Laura Kraihamer. The quartet was second in the Cup X class and 39th overall. As part of another all-woman team, Rahel was second in class in the Gulf 12 Hours, sixth overall. The car was a Ferrari 488 run by Kessel Racing and her team-mates were Michelle Gatting and Manuela Gostner.

The three-woman Ferrari team continued in 2019, racing as the "Iron Dames" and managed by Deborah Mayer. They contested the European Le Mans Series and were accepted as an entry for Le Mans itself. The Iron Dames started the season well with second in the GTE class at Paul Ricard, which they repeated later in the year at Silverstone. They were fourth in the GTE championship.

Le Mans itself resulted in a finish, the first for an all-female team since 1977. They were 39th overall, ahead of their male Kessel team-mates in the sister "Iron Lynx" car.

At the end of the year, the Iron Dames reconvened for another attempt at the Gulf 12 Hours. Michelle Gatting was challenging for third in the second half of the race when she was involved in a collision with a backmarker and had to retire.

Away from the Iron Dames, Rahel continued to race for the Audi sportscar team. She competed in most of the Audi Sport Seyffarth R8 LMS Cup in Europe and would have been in with a strong chance of winning had she completed the whole season: she won six of her eight races and was second in the other two.

In the Nurburgring 24 Hours, Rahel and her three Audi team-mates were 19th overall and won the SP8 class for Giti Tyre Motorsport.

In Asia, she did some rounds of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia for Audi, picking up class third places at Fuji and Shanghai.

At the end of the year, Rahel was one of the five female pro drivers invited to join teams for India's X1 Racing League, a city team-based single-seater series. Each team had to consist of one male and one female international pro driver, plus pro and am Indian drivers. Rahel picked up second and third places in the two-driver relay events for DG Races Ahmedabad.  

Staying in the East, she started 2020 with the rain-shortened Dubai 24 Hours. She drove an Audi R9 LMS for Heide Motorsport and was eighth in the GT4 class, 41st overall. Two weeks later, she was due to join the all-female GEAR Racing team for the Daytona 24 Hours in their Lamborighini Huracan, but GEAR lost its main sponsor and the team was disbanded. The three drivers took over a Grasser Motorsport Huracan for the race but did not finsh.

She returned as an Iron Dame in 2020, in the same Ferrari 488. Alongside Michelle and Manuela, she contested the European Le Mans Series in the GTE class. They were fifth in their class with three third places, two at Paul Ricard and one at Monza, plus a fastest lap from the series finale at Algarve. The Dames' second Le Mans outing was relatively successful and they were ninth in the GTE Am class. 

This made up for some disappointment in the Audi R8, previously a car that worked well for her. She had an indifferent ADAC GT Masters season with Aust Motorsport, failing to get into the top twenty all year. A Racing Engineers R8 failed to get to the finish of the Nurburgring 24 Hours, although it ran better in the two rounds of the VLN that Rahel entered, giving her a best finish of second in class.

The Iron Dames contested the World Endurance Championship in 2021, with Rahel as the team leader again. She was part of the squads for the WEC and ELMS campaigns, usually accompanied by Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy. The Dames were 18th in the WEC LMGTE category with a 100% finishing record and Rahel was tenth in the Am standings. They finished thirteenth in class at Le Mans, despite an off in qualifying. The three-woman team was 36th overall.

Their best result was a class eleventh in the second round at Portimao.

Driving as a duo, Rahel and Michelle contested the ELMS together in the Ferrari. Despite two non-finishes at the Red Bull Ring and Paul Ricard, they were ninth in the LMGTE championship, with two third places at Spa and Portimao. Mid-season, the team also guested in the Italian GT championship in the Iron Dames car, finishing thirteenth in class.

As Iron Dames team leader, she was busy again in 2022. She did the full WEC season, driving again in the LMGTE class. At Le Mans itself, she was twelfth in class, seventh in the Am class, after a troubled race, but the Dames performed better in the second half of the season. They were second in the Am class at Monza and Fuji and third at Bahrain, seventh, seventh and eighth in LMGTE respectively.

She only did the first half of the Dames' ELMS programme, handing over to Doriane Pin after the Monza race, where they finished fourth. This was their second fourth of the year, after achieveing the same result at Paul Ricard.

Rahel was part of the team for its Fanatec GT World Challenge run, finishing with a championship second. They won one round at Spa after coming second at Paul Ricard.

The Iron Dames announced a switch to a Lamborghini Huracan for the IMSA season in 2023, plus a Porsche 911 for Europe. Rahel continued to be part of the driver line-up. The GTD Lamborghini came out for the Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta IMSA rounds, with a best class finish of eleventh at Sebring. The core team of Rahel and Michelle was assisted by either Sarah Bovy or Doriane Pin. They were 35th in GTD as a team.

The WEC was a better arena for Rahel and the Dames. After a shaky start in the Porsche at Sebring, they were third at Portimao and won the last-ever LMGTE Pro race at Bahrain. This was enough for second in the class championship. 

The Lamborghini was also called into service for the GT World Challenge Europe. A retirement from the Spa 24 Hours dented their confidence and championship hopes and their best finish was 28th at Monza. They were unplaced in the main championship and 24th in the Bronze Cup. 

Rahel continued with the Iron Dames for 2024. She only planned to race in the European Le Mans Series, but Doriane Pin's commitments in F1 Academy meant that she had to leave the team, opening up another space for Rahel. 

The ELMS was the only series where the Dames raced a Porsche, and it proved a good car. They won the LMGT3 class at Imola and were second at Portimao. Their final championship position was fourth. For the rest of the year, Rahel and the team raced a Lamborghini Huracan. They were twelfth in the WEC LMGT3 championship after a few disappointing races; Le Mans itself was their best finish of the year. Rahel, Sarah and Michelle were 32nd overall and fourth in class.

Over in the States, she did a part-season in IMSA, including runs in the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours. This was her best Daytona to date: assisted by Doriane, the Dames were 25th overall and sixth in class. Contact with another car put them out of the race at Sebring. 

In 2025, the Porsche will be the main Iron Dames car for IMSA.

(Image copyright Audi)

Vanina Ickx

Vanina in 2009

Belgium is the unlikely home of many female motorsport stars. One of the most famous is Vanina Ickx. Although her father is Formula One and sportscar legend Jacky Ickx, she came in to motorsport almost by accident. Whilst studying biology at university, a friend who went to the same gym as Vanina became pregnant. This friend had a sponsored drive organised in BMW's Compact Cup, and knowing Vanina's family background, asked her if she wanted to drive in her place. This was 1996, and Vanina's career had begun. In her first race she finished last, but she was undeterred and competed in the Compact Cup for two seasons, with a best finish of fourth. Her first Spa 24 Hours was in 1997, and she drove a BMW Compact run by the Fina Junior Team, with Kate Rafanelli and Florence Duez.

In 1998 she switched to the Belgian Procar series, first in a BMW 320i, and then in a more reliable Renault Megane. She was rewarded with a third, in a European race at Spa. At the end of the season, she was eleventh. At her second attempt at the Spa 24 Hour touring car race in 1999, she was fifth in the same car. She returned to BMW power for the 24 Hours of Zolder, and was third in class.

2000 saw a considerable hike in horsepower for Vanina, when she competed in the Ferrari 360 Challenge. She won at her home track of Spa and claimed fastest laps there, at Brno and at the A1-Ring in Austria. She was third at Brno and fourth at Magny-Cours. During this time she was also racing in America, in Formula Ford 2000. She racked up three wins, one pole position and a second before funds ran out. That was not all for the season though; Belgium's Belcar series beckoned, plus a drive to fifth in the Lamborghini Trophée, third at the Spa 24 Hours in a Peugeot 306 and a crack at the Nürburgring 24 Hour, with an all-female team in a Honda S2000. For a complete change, she also did some ice-racing in the Andros Trophy, and navigated her father to eighteenth place in the Paris-Dakar rally, one of her proudest achievements.

The Dakar opened the season for 2001, with Vanina in the driving seat this time, in a Toyota Land Cruiser. She was in demand as a test driver, and tried out for many formulae that year. She gained a seat with the elite Larbre Competition team for Le Mans, in their Chrysler Viper, but crashed out. She later admitted graciously that the car was much faster than she was used to. Another try at the Spa 24 Hours followed, in a Porsche 996, with Christophe Tinseau, Xavier Pompidou and Tim Verbergt. They did not finish.

More Porsche power brought another win in 2002. Vanina and her sister Larrissa were outright winners of the Rallye des Princesses in a 911. The Rallye is a classic event for female drivers only. She drove another 911 to eighth place in a Porsche Cup race.

She continued her rallying with a 24th place on the Dakar. Her sportscar outings were limited to a drive in a Vertigo Streiff in the Spa 24 Hours, alongside David Saelens and Renaud Kuppens. She kept her racing hand in with some very competitive Rotax Max karting, and a return to tin-tops in the Toyota Yaris Cup. This gave her some strong top-ten and five finishes. A couple of high-profile guest drives also came her way; she was eighth in a Porsche Carrera Cup race at Magny-Cours, and sixth in the VW Fun Cup 25 Hour race at Spa.

It was back to Le Mans in 2003. A more experienced Vanina drove a Porsche 911 to 27th place, with Sebastian Bourdais and Roland Bervillé. She returned to the famous track again for the Le Mans Story historic racing festival later in the season, where she was tenth in a classic Porsche. It would have been three visits but for an illness; Vanina was all set to drive the Chamberlain TVR Tuscan with Amanda Stretton and Liz Halliday, at the Le Mans 1000km, on the Bugatti circuit. She lost her place in the team to fellow Belgian, Fanny Duchateau.

She also returned to the Larbre squad for the Spa 24 Hours, driving with Jean-Luc Blanchemain, Pertti Kuismanen and Stefano Zonca. She was unlucky again, as the quartet went out with a blown engine. A trip to the Spa Ferrari Days event was much more productive, and Vanina went away with a second and third place in her races. To round off the season, she raced at Estoril in the Formula Renault V6 single-seater championship.

2004 was a busy year for the Belgian racer. She was third in the Oman Desert Express rally raid in a Nissan Pathfinder, navigated by Florence Bourgnon. She signed to contest the Le Mans Endurance series and returned to Belcar, sharing Daikin Racing's new Mini Cooper with Alexandra van de Velde. The duo were ninth overall in class TB, with a best finish of second in class after some initial reliability issues. They raced throughout Belgium and also at the Nürburgring.

Vanina's three LMES rounds were a mixed experience. She was part of a rotating driving squad at T2M Racing, in their Porsche 996 GT3 Cup. Her first outing was alongside fellow Speedqueen, Keiko Ihara, and Wolfgang Kaufmann, at Monza, which resulted in a DNF. At this meeting, Vanina had already driven in the supporting Formula X Sport race, and was third. Her Nürburgring partners were Paul Daniels and Thierry Rabineau, and they managed 30th position. Reunited with Rabineau for the Spa race, she was 22nd, assisted also by Christophe Tinseau.

As well as her full-series racing commitments, the Belgian racer took part in a great number of guest drives, usually at her home circuit of Spa. Back in her Porsche 996, an entry into the Spa 24 Hours, an FIA GT round, brought a tenth place finish and a class win. The Pirelli Ferrari Challenge was another good move, as she won in her 360 Modena. Sticking with Porsches, she was thirteenth in a Supercup race and fourth and fifth in two BTCS events. Remarkably, she took part in three 24-hour races at Spa that season: the Spa 24 Hours, the VW Fun Cup 25 Hour (32nd place) and even a round-the-clock race for Citroen 2CVs.

In 2005, Vanina continued to build on her progress in European sportscar racing. She was hired by the British Rollcentre Racing team for their assault on the LMES and Le Mans itself. She proved to be more than up to the challenge, and handled the Dallara-Judd LMP900 extremely competently. At Le Mans itself, she regularly set faster lap times than her team-mates Martin Short and Joao Barbosa. As a team, they began well, and ran as high as second, before a lengthy pitstop dropped them out of the running. They eventually finished eighteenth.

The LMES was a much greater success. Vanina, Martin and Joao were third at Spa, Monza and Silverstone and fifth at the Nürburgring, battling against the dominant Audi R8s. It was only a poorer eighth place at Istanbul that dropped them out of the title running. They settled for third.

With the LMES over, Vanina jumped ship for the last three rounds of the FIA GT championship. She was back racing for the Gillet Vertigo Streiff team, and more competitive this time. In the Chinese race at Zhuhai, she and Bas Leinders were thirteenth overall, with a GT2 class win. She repeated this feat in Bahrain with Renaud Kuppens, 20th overall this time. The same pairing could not finish in Dubai.

Belcar had not been forgotten either during this busy year. Vanina was reunited with the Daikin Mini and Alexandra van de Velde for selected rounds. The duo started from pole and claimed an outright victory in the Touring Class at the New Racing Festival of Zolder, 20th overall. In August, they were third in class at the 24 Hours of Zolder, accompanied by Gaby Uljee and Caroline Grifnée. This was Vanina's third 24-hour race of the year, following Le Mans and an attempt at the Spa 24 Hours in a 996 GT3, which ended in retirement for her and her three team-mates.

Not content with this busy schedule, Vanina also found time for trips to Germany for guest drives in the Porsche Supercup and the SEAT Leon Supercopa.

2006 began with a return to classic rallying. The Ickx sisters renewed their driving partnership in the Legend Boucles de Spa event, manning a Porsche 911. They were eighteenth overall. Not long after this, Vanina was signed by the Midland Audi team to race in the DTM touring car series. The announcement followed a rare joint on-track appearance by her and her father, testing the DTM car.

Vanina's DTM results were not brilliant, and her time in the championship must have been trying. The Midland car was a 2004-spec Audi A4, and so lagged behind the newer models somewhat. However, she managed to keep the pace with team-mate Jeroen Bleekemolen, who replaced Olivier Tielemans. She was 15th at Hockenheim, 16th at Lausitz, 18th at Oschersleben, thirteenth at the Norisring, 18th at the Nürburgring, 16th at Le Mans and eleventh at Hockenheim, her best result. The other three rounds resulted in DNFs.

Surprisingly to some, she returned to the DTM in 2007, this time as part of the TME team. Her car was a 2005-spec A4. It was another forgettable year. She was 15th at Hockenheim and Lausitz, 17th at Brands Hatch, 19th at the Nürburgring and 18th in the season finale at Hockenheim. The other five races ended in retirement, one before the race had even begun.

She walked away from the DTM at the end of the year and returned to sportscars and rally raids. The year began with the Tour of Senegal, and Vanina was all set to drive in another Dakar, until it was cancelled at the last minute. It is unclear how much of the Tour took place either.

The main part of her season was taken up with the Le Mans Series. She was back with Rollcentre Racing and their Pescarolo-Judd, as well as her old team-mates Joao Barbosa and Martin Short. Duncan Tappy, Charles Hollings and Mikael Forsten also joined them throughout the year. They were tenth at Barcelona and seventh at Monza, from 18th on the grid. The Nürburgring was less forgiving, and the team suffered technical difficulties, but they were still ninth. Spa was another frustrating race, plagued with car problems, and gave them another ninth, although Vanina beat her own lap record in the process. They were eighth at Silverstone, with Vanina on the last leg.

In between, Vanina drove at Le Mans once more, for Rollcentre. Her team-mates were Joao Barbosa and Stephan Gregoire. They were eleventh overall, first privateers home and fourth in the petrol car standings.

She also accepted a drive in the BTCS Spa 12 Hours, sharing a Delahaye Racing Silhouette Megane Trophy, with David Loix and Frederic Bouvy. They won the race comfortably. In the mood for more endurance, Vanina and Frederic Bouvy joined Alexandra van de Velde in a Red Bull Ferrari 430 for the Zolder 24 Hours. They could not manage a win, but were fourth overall, second in class.

Historics had not been forgotten either. Vanina attended the Le Mans Classic and drove in the Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix. Her car was a 1971 Ford Escort.

2009 was a much quieter year. Vanina entered three major events: Le Mans, the Spa 12 Hours and the Nürburgring 24 Hours. She joined the Creation team for Le Mans, teaming up with Jamie Campbell-Walter and Romain Ianetta, in a Judd-engine Creation CA07 LM1 prototype. They were 24th, 15th in class. Vanina was somewhat disappointed, but stated that it was always good to finish a 24-hour event.

Spa was better, although she did not repeat her 2008 win. Vanina, Frederic Bouvy and Christian Kelders piloted the Megane to second overall. This assisted the team of Bouvy and Kelders to a BTCS championship win.

Her car for the Nürburgring classic was a “green” VW CNG Scirocco, run by VW Motorsport. She was 17th overall, first in class, aided by Thomas Klenke, Peter Terting and Klaus Niedzwiez.

In 2010, she focused on the Le Mans Series. Driving a Lola-Aston Martin LMP1 prototype for the Signature Plus team, with Pierre Ragues and Franck Mailleux, she was seventh at Le Castellet, thirteenth at Spa, third at Algarve, 23rd at the Hungaroring and sixth at Silverstone. She finished the season in joint fourth place, with her team-mates.The same team entered Le Mans itself, but retired during the 19th hour.

As well as the Le Mans 24 Hours, Vanina also drove in the Le Mans Classic. She was demonstrating a fully-electric racing car produced by Citroen.

For 2011, sportscars remained her priority. She drove a Belgian Racing Ford GT in the FIA GT1 championship, experiencing a mixed season. The GT's reputation is a fragile car was borne out by five retirements. Vanina's best round was Silverstone, where she was seventh and ninth. She was only 33rd in the championship.

Once more, she entered Le Mans, driving for Kronos Racing, with Bas Leinders and Maxime Martin. Their car was a Lola Aston Martin B09/60. They were seventh overall.

For charity, Vanina entered the 25 Hour Fun Cup race at Spa. She was fifth overall, with Maxime Soulet, Nico Verdonck, Pascal Mathieu and Stephane Lemeret. They were driving an M&Ms sponsored car for Make A Wish, with each driver representing an M&M colour. Vanina was Miss Green.

She was also in action at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, driving a gas-powered VW Scirocco GT24-CNG. Along with Chrisptoph Niedzwiedz and Thomas Klenke, she was seventeenth, and won the class for alternative fuel cars. Vanina takes a keen interest in green fuels in motorsport; later in the year, she drove in the World Solar Challenge in Australia, for solar-powered vehicles. Her car was a Umicore Imagine.

In 2012, she was set to contest the European Le Mans Series, but did not, for reasons unknown. She announced her retirement from competitive motorsport in April 2012, for undisclosed reasons. She enrolled in business school, and became a mother in April 2013.

After retiring from professional driving, Vanina has occasionally competed, mostly in historic racing, such as the 2014 Le Mans Classic, which she entered in a Ford Shelby Mustang. She has also raced in the Fun Cup again, at the Nürburgring, driving with Marc Duez. In 2013 and 2014, she took part in the Stars Rallye Télévie, a celebrity motorsport event which appears on Belgian television.

Despite claiming that she really had retired for good and was only involved in motorsport in an administrative capacity, Vanina put on her driving shoes again in 2017. She was one of a group of invited drivers who took part in the Audi TT Race of Legends. The race, the last-ever TT Cup event held, was won by Frank Stippler. Vanina was seventh.

Earlier in the year, she had taken part in the Fun Cup 24 Hours as part of an Ickx family team: Jacky, Vanina and Larissa, plus their younger half-siblings Joy, Romain and Clement. She also tested a Formula E car at a promotional day.

She travelled to the USA for the Pikes Peak hillclimb in 2018, driving a Gillet Vertigo special with Tony Gillet.

When not driving fast, Vanina has also broken records on microlights and ski slopes, competed in triathlons and raced motorcycles. She has also sung live on stage with Francophone performer Khadja Nin, who is her stepmother. In 2015, she tried cycle racing, taking part in a relay race in Northern Finland during the Midnight Sun season, in suppport of skin cancer charities. She received her pilot's license in 2018 and continued to be involved in aviation in 2019, as well as riding some of the stages of the Tour de France on her bicycle.

After a long lay-off from international racing, she announced her return to the circuits in 2025. She was signed by the Iron Dames team for the Michelin Le Mans Cup, alongside Marta Garcia. Their car is a Porsche.

(Image copyright Anthony Megevand)

Susie Wolff (Stoddart)

Susie as a Williams driver

Oban's Susie Wolff (known before her marriage to Toto Wolff as Susie Stoddart) is currently one the top-ranked woman drivers in the world.

As a young karter she was certainly the best female driver. Between 1994 and 2001 she raced all over the world and picked up a string of victories, including a win in the prestigious Middle East 24 Hour Championship. She was also one of Britain's highest-achieving karters of the time.

Susie's introduction to cars came in 2001 in the Avon Junior Formula Ford championship. That year, she combined her on-track activities with college studies and accepted a place on a business studies course. The young Scottish girl was an academic high-flier as well as a racing star and introduced herself gently to full-sized competition in order to complete her education.

Formula Renault was becoming the most talked-about proving ground for young drivers after Kimi Raikkonen's success, and Susie entered the series in 2002 with DFR Racing. As part of a single-car team, she suffered from not having a team-mate to compare notes with and push against, but still ended the season in seventeenth overall, with a best finish of tenth at Oulton Park.

After impressing in the main 2002 championship and that year's Winter Series, top-line Formula Renault team Motaworld offered Susie a seat for 2003. She started well with some solid top-ten finishes but really came alive towards the end of the year, coming an excellent third at Snetterton. This was even more impressive considering that her car was completely destroyed in a fiery accident at the Silverstone round, sapping both her budget and her bravery. She bounced back immediately, to the surprise of some. She finished the year in ninth spot. The icing on the cake that season was being selected as a finalist in the Autosport Young Driver Award, given only to the best young British talent. After a series of driving tests in an F3 and DTM car, the eventual champion was Robbie Kerr.

Going into the 2003 Winter Series, Susie was one of the favourites, but bad luck struck again and she crashed early on. She never regained momentum and only impressed in the consolation race.

Never on to let a setback bother her, she returned to Formula Renault in 2004 with Comtec Racing after securing a lucrative sponsorship deal with BT Broadband. Another welcome cash injection came when she was named a BRDC "Rising Star". A much more accomplished and confident Susie was claiming top-ten finishes from the start and keeping up with her more experienced team-mate Westley Barber. Her best finish was second at Brands, and she was tipped to record her first win before the year was out. Unfortunately, this particular achievement eluded her, but she still finished the season in fifth, with three podiums to her name.

Throughout 2004, Susie was linked to a seat in GP2 for the 2005 season. This did not materialise. She tested a World Series by Renault car at Paul Ricard early in 2005, but instead ended up in British F3, a proven step on the Formula One career ladder. She was snapped up by Alan Docking Racing and much was expected of her. Sadly, her F3 season went out with a whimper rather than a bang after only two races. Susie had been racing with a foot injury sustained on New Year's Day and had to pull out to allow it to recover properly. Her only other competitive outing of the year was a VIP drive in the Porsche Carrera Cup at Brands Hatch.

A revitalised Susie made a comeback in early 2006, making somewhat of a u-turn with a switch to touring cars. She was enlisted by Mücke Motorsport for their DTM effort, diving a 2004 AMG Mercedes. In the first race of the season, the Scottish girl impressed many with a tenth position, up with the more-developed 2005 and 2006 cars. The next few races were more of a trial: she was 15th at Lausitz and Oschersleben and 16th at Brands Hatch, before retiring at the Norisring and the Nürburgring. She was more impressive at Zandvoort, finishing twelfth out of twenty, but was 15th and last at Barcelona. The last two races were more hopeful: she was thirteenth at Le Mans and ninth at Hockenheim, her second top-ten finish.

She stayed with the Mucke team in 2007, although she was now driving a 2005-spec Mercedes C-Class. Although it was newer than her previous car, it was still one of the oldest on the grid. On the track, it was another slow learning year, which must have been frustrating for Susie. She did not finish her first race at Hockenheim, was 16th at Oschersleben and a slightly more promising twelfth at Lausitz. However, she was back down to 16th at Brands Hatch, her home race, and the Norisring. Her best race was at Mugello, where she finished tenth. At Zandvoort, she was a disappointing 17th, and 18th at the Nürburgring. She retired from the Barcelona race and was fourteenth in her last event at Hockenheim.

Looking for a more competitive ride in a newer car, Susie left the Mucke operation at the end of the year, in favour of the Persson Motorsport team. She drove an 07-spec C-Class for the 2008 season. Her team-mate was Gary Paffett, an experienced and competitive racer. Sadly, Susie’s season started badly again, with a 16th at Hockenheim. She improved a little at Oschersleben, coming fourteenth, and was 15th at Mugello. She retired at the Lausitzring, but was a season’s-best tenth at the Norisring, which had previously been somewhat of a bogey track for her, judging by results. She was then 15th at Zandvoort, a more hopeful twelfth at the Nürburgring and 18th at Brands Hatch, before retiring at Barcelona. She was twelfth at Le Mans and retired once more from the Hockenheim round. It had been another difficult season, but it is also notable that Gary Paffett struggled to get into the top ten for a lot of it as well.

Persson retained Susie for 2009, alongside a new team-mate, Jamie Green. They were both given 08-spec C-Class cars. Yet again, Susie’s campaign, in her new pink-liveried car, started inauspiciously with a retirement at Hockenheim. She was then eleventh at Lausitz, tenth again at the Norisring and eleventh at Zandvoort. Pleasingly, she entered the top ten again at Oschersleben, and was only one place behind her team-mate. Another eleventh followed at the Nürburgring, and she was thirteenth at Brands Hatch. A slightly less competitive 15th was her final place at Barcelona. Le Mans gave her a twelfth, and she retired from her final race, at Hockenheim. Although Susie still did not manage to break into the points–scoring top eight in 2009, she showed more consistency in her finishing, and was close to Jamie Green’s finishing positions in some races.

She stayed with Persson for 2010, retaining her 2009 car and team-mate. At Hockenheim, she was eleventh, six seconds ahead of David Coulthard. At Valencia, she was tenth, and at Lausitz, a career-best seventh - her first DTM points. The Norisring was a disappointment, with only a fifteenth to show for it, and she did not finish at the Nürburgring, and she was an underwhelming fifteenth again at Zandvoort. Another early exit awaited her at Brands Hatch. She was back in the top ten at Oschersleben, and seventh again at Hockenheim, but only fourteenth at Adria. The Shanghai round gave her an eleventh. She was thirteenth in the championship.

She remained with the same team in 2011. In all other respects, the season ran in the same way. Susie's best finish was eleventh at Valencia, and she mostly stayed on the track, with one DNF at Oscherselben. She also pulled out of the Lausitz race.

Persson Motorsport retained her services for 2012, now racing under her married name of Wolff. Her best finishes were two twelfths, at Hockenheim and Zandvoort. She did not score any championship points. This was her last DTM season; the Williams F1 team signed her at the beginning of 2012 as a development driver, and she concentrated on this from 2013.

Although Susie enjoyed a high profile as a DTM driver in the UK and Europe, refreshingly, she steered clear of controversy and let her car do the talking. She did trade paint with the series’ other female driver, Katherine Legge, in 2009, but wisely did not allow it to become a media-orchestrated “cat fight”.

Susie continued in her development role in 2013, and also spoke extensively in the media in support of female drivers. Partly, this was due to some disparaging comments made by Stirling Moss, who debated with Susie on UK radio.

After two years with Williams, spent mostly working in the simulator, Susie was added to their active driver roster in 2014. She took to the track for the Friday practice sessions of the British and German Grands Prix in 2014. Her British session was a disaster, with an engine failure after only one lap, right in front of the world's media. This was the first time a female driver had been part of an official Formula One race weekend since Giovanna Amati in 1992, and it was big news. Susie and the Williams team handled the situation with dignity.

The German session threatened to go the same way after an electronic fault stopped her from changing gear, but the problem was rectified after a quick visit to the pits. Susie did several practice laps, some pit stop training, and undertook some aerodynamic testing, guided by her team. She was 15th (out of 22) on the day's time sheets, and her best lap was 2/10 second slower than team-mate, Felipe Massa. Her only faux pas was speeding in the pitlane, for which she was fined.

At the end of the season, she drove for Team Scotland in the Race of Champions, with David Coulthard.

In 2015, she continued her test driver role for Williams, making some appearances at free practice at Grands Prix. In November, however, she conceded that she was not going to be given a race seat, and announced her retirement. The Race of Champions was be her last event.

At the beginning of 2017, she was awarded an MBE for services to women's sport. This was in recognition of her work with Dare To Be Different, an organisation for  women in motorsport that she has founded. D2BD has remained active and organises regular events for young girls, and networking days for adult women.

She was appointed Team Principal of the Venturi Formula E team in 2018, and CEO in 2021, before stepping down in 2022 as the team was taken over by Maserati.

(Image copyright WRi2)

Mercedes Stermitz

Austrian Mercedes Stermitz, born in 1958, pursued a career as an international beauty queen until 1984, and was a contestant in Miss World. Surprisingly, she managed to combine some Austrian club racing with her pageants, but it was not until she hung up her tiara, at the end of 1984, that she began to race seriously.

The Ford Fiesta Ladies' Cup was her first destination in 1985. She campaigned her Fiesta XR2 around Germany and its neighbouring countries for two seasons, before making the jump up to mixed competition in 1987.

Prior to start of this season, Mercedes formed a competitive partnership with the German driver Annette Meeuvissen. Together they entered the ITC World Touring Car championship, using a BMW M3 provided by the Schnitzer team. The season was not a huge success: they failed to finish at Jarama, the Nürburgring, Brno, or the Bathurst 24 Hours. In the second Australian race at Calder, they were seventh, showing that when they kept it on the track, they had the speed. Sadly, they could not follow the finish up and went out of the Wellington round as well. Certain sections of the media jumped on Mercedes's over-enthusiasm and high-profile crashes; one magazine printed the headline "Mercedes Bends BMW", which stuck in a lot of people's minds, and probably annoyed Mercedes a great deal.

The Schnitzer team also entered her into her home round of the European Touring Car championship too, at Zeltweg. The series was playing second fiddle to the ITC that year, but still attracted some decent drivers. Mercedes and Annette kept out of trouble to finish seventh again. Seven must have been their lucky number, because they were seventh once more in the Spa 24 Hours, driving another M3 for the Linder team, with Gerrit Kouwen.

Spa was not the only 24-hour race that Mercedes and Annette did that year. Later in the season, they entered the Nürburgring 24 Hours with fellow female racer Ellen Lohr. Away from saloon competition, Mercedes also took part in one German Formula Three race, for Mönninghof Racing. She finished, but was not in the points.

After a year of close competition with Anette at her side, Mercedes decided to go it alone in 1988, concentrating on single-driver events. Her main focus was that year's DTM championship. She was competing against Annette this time, as well as established stars such as Roland Asch and Johnny Cecotto. The season started unremarkably at Zolder; Mercedes steered her M3 to a 22nd and 17th place and managed to keep out of trouble. She kept up the momentum at Hockenheim, coming a steady 22nd and 18th. Her first retirement of the year occurred during lap five at the Nürburgring, but she made it back out for the second race and was 24th. At Brno in the Czech Republic she was 27th and then 16th, one behind her former team-mate, but at Avus failed to finish again, this time ruling herself out of the second race as well. Following damage to the car, she also sat out the next three meetings at Mainz, the Nürburgring and Norisring.

Her return, at the Wunstorf airport track, yielded the best DTM result of her career: a ninth overall, followed by a 15th. She was much more on the pace and was on the same lap as the winners both times.

Salzburg would have been her home race, and she had performed well in Austria before, but both races were halted early on due to a series of accidents. No points were awarded. She was a disappointing 24th at the Hungaroring and then did not attend the Hockenheim finale, for reasons unknown. She was 34th in the final points table, and although she had shown some flashes of promise, this was her only season in the DTM. Her only other race of the year was another one-off drive in German F3, this time for the Walter Lechner Racing School team.

In 1989 she took part in some more German F3 races, contesting the B class in a Dallara F388.The results have proved impossible to track down, but it is unlikely she made much impact, or it would have been commented on. Mercedes was a very newsworthy driver in her heyday, albeit usually for the wrong reasons. Her only other activity this year was a guest spot in the Rothmans Porsche Turbo Cup, driving a 944.

It was back to sportscars in 1990, although F3 had not been forgotten. Mercedes made a token appearance in a works Eufra, before getting down to business with endurance racing. Her racing programme was ambitious, taking in the Montreal round of the World Sportscar Championship with Team Davey. Their car was a Porsche 962, which unfortunately did not make it to the end of the race. Earlier in the season, she was set to drive a Spice-Ford for the British Chamberlain operation, but the car did not make the start at Silverstone.

Despite the team's poor showing at Montreal, Mercedes stayed with them in 199,1 for her most high-profile appearance yet: the Le Mans 24 Hours. In a stroke of poor luck, Mercedes, along with her team-mates Val Musetti and Katsunori Iketani, narrowly missed qualifying for the classic French race. The Austrian promptly jumped ship and joined the established Kremer Racing team for the next round, the Nürburgring 430km race. The move paid off, as she and Otto Rensing steered a different 962 to eighth place overall.

Single-seaters had not been abandoned completely in 1991. Mercedes moved up a formula to F3000 in the UK, driving a Lola T89/50 for McNeil Engineering. She was only entered for the Oulton Park race and the car's clutch gave up after only seven laps.

Incredibly, she made a switch to open-wheeled competition full-time in 1992. As well as bringing up the rear of nine German F3 races in her Dallara-Alfa Romeo, she took part in the Formula Three Masters race at Zandvoort. Driving for Jacques Isler Racing, she was 23rd overall. Later in the season she flew to Argentina for a non-championship F3000 race at Temporada. Her GJ Motorsport Reynard did not make the finish.

It is hard to say whether Mercedes's career would have picked up again after a decidedly disappointing 1992. In truth, she was denied the chance to redeem herself by a severe road-traffic accident in 1993, which she was lucky to survive. Although her racing career was well and truly over, she did make a full recovery. After concentrating on family life for a time, she has appeared as a guest on German-speaking TV occasionally.

(Image from www.m3-klassik.de)