Carole Vergnaud

Carole Vergnaud is a French driver who was a member of the Citroen works team for rallies. She won the 1986 Mille Pistes Rally outright, in a Citroen Visa with Marie-Claude Jouan as co-driver.

She got her start as a rally driver via the Citroen Total Trophy, a rally competition for women organised by Citroen France. She had been co-driving occasionally since 1982 and competed in the Swedish Rally twice.

The qualifying stages were held in 1983, with the main competition phase held through the 1984 season, using identical Citroen Visas. Carole, the youngest driver at 21, was joint fifth, having won one round, the Mille Pistes Rally. The women's trophy was run as a class in the rally, and Carole was 18th overall.

Her first international rally as a driver was in 1985. She entered the Monte in a Citroen Visa, driving for the French junior team. She did not finish, and she did not get to the end of her second World Championship rally, the Tour de Corse. The car's clutch failed. Later in the year, she tried again, entering the Sanremo Rally and the RAC Rally. She did not finish either.

Away from the international scene, she fared better, although the Visa did seem to suffer from a variety of problems. She was fourth in the Rallye de la Baule in June, then ninth in the Rallye Terre de Charente, showing her skill on both tarmac and gravel. A second gravel event, the Terres de Beauce Rally, gave her a seventh place.

A first international finish still eluded her in 1986; she retired from the Swedish Rally after the Visa's gearbox went. However, after that disappointment, she had a superb run in the French gravel championship, beginning with a fourth place in the Terre des Bruyeres Rally. Her first podium came a couple of months later, when she was third in the Terre de Provence Rally. The results kept on coming, with a second place in Terre de Charente event, then her Mille Pistes victory. Sadly, another international outing in the Hunsruck Rallye in Germany ended in retirement, and the Citroen was less reliable in the second half of the season. She scored on more podium; a second place in the Rallye Terre des Cardabelles. At the end of the year, she was fourth in the French gravel championship.

Spurred on by her 1986 successes, she attempted the European rounds of the 1987 World Championship. After Henri Toivonen's horrific accident in Corsica in 1986, regulations had changed considerably, leaving the Group B Visa largely ineligible. Carole and seven other French drivers were unclassified in that year's Monte due to this. After some revisions, the car was allowed to compete in the Swedish Rally, and Carole was 24th. The rest of her WRC campaign ended with a series of DNFs in Portugal, Greece and Finland, with the car unreliable once more.

A surprising avenue for another victory had opened up that year, spurred on by the Group B situation. Citroen entered Carole and the Visa into the Atlas Rally, a rally-raid event, against dedicated off-road vehicles. She managed to win a stage outright.

The Visa was retired for 1988, replaced by the Citroen AX, running in class A5. The Citroen works team entered Carole into the Portugal, Sanremo and UK WRC rounds, but again, it wasn't to be. She finished one, the RAC Rally, in 41st place, after crashing out of the earlier two. Her Sanremo accident was a lucky escape. She had come off the road on a sharp turn with a steep drop to one side, and had only just climbed to safety when Jean-Marc Dubois and Robert Moynier crashed their Citroen at the same spot, killing both.

Her final season as a driver was 1989. She stayed in France, supported by the Citroen team for at least some of her rallies. The AX ran in a few different configurations, the most successful of these being a class A2 version, which gave Carole an eleventh place and a class win in the Rallye Alpin-Behra. This was one of three finishes this year, the others being a twelfth place in the Rallye des Garrigues, and 24th in the Tour Automobile de Nice.

As well as rallying, Carole raced Citroens on the track with some success. She competed in the 1987 and 1988 French Touring Car Championship, driving a works Citroen EX. She was third in at least one race in 1988, at Rouen-les-Essarts.

After almost an entire career spent in Citroen machinery, she entered the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1991, driving a Toyota 4Runner with Nanouk de Belabre. They were 73rd overall.

Later, she did some ice racing in the Andros Trophy, in 1992 and 1995. 

(Image copyright Citroen)

Olympic Speedqueens

 

Divina Galica (left) and Ann Moore

Many Speedqueens have achieved success in other sports. Here are five of the best-known Olympian female racing drivers. This is in no way an exhaustive list.

Divina Galica was a downhill skier who competed in four winter Olympics between 1964 and 1992, in the downhill and slalom skiing events and later, speed skiing, a demonstration discipline. She attempted to qualify for three grands prix between 1976 and 1978 and enjoyed success in Group 8 single-seaters, truck racing and sportscars. Her introduction to motorsport came through a Shellsport celebrity race for sportspeople.

Showjumper Ann Moore also got into motor racing through the Shellsport organisation and its celebrity events. As an equestrian, she won a silver medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics, riding her horse Psalm. Her racing career was short, beginning with one ladies' race in 1975 and six further outings in a Formula Ford 2000.

Belgian swimmer Chantal Grimard made a surprise switch to touring cars in the 1980s. She first raced in the Belgian championship in 1985, driving a VW Golf, before appearing in the 1986 Spa 24 Hours in a Toyota Corolla. This was part of an all-female team. She also did some rounds of the French F3 championship in 1987 before retiring. As a swimmer, she had entered four events at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

Swiss sportscar racer Lilian Bryner was another equestrian, competing at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. As a racing driver, she was the first woman to win the Spa 24 Hours in 2004, driving a Ferrari 550. She had won the GT class the year before, finishing second. She has raced multiple times at Le Mans and has World Sportscar Championship wins in a Ferrari 333 prototype.

Carole Montillet of France won a gold medal in downhill skiing and also had a decent career in rally raids after her retirement. She won the all-female Rallye Aicha des Gazelles rally raid in 2011 and 2012, after class wins in the quad class in 2004 and 2005. In 2007, she took part in the Dakar, driving a Nissan, but did not finish.

Another Winter Olympian is Simona de Silvestro, who previously raced in Indycar and V8 Supercars, but took time out from motorsport to concentrate on bobsleigh. She qualified for the monobob competition at the 2026 Milan-Cortina games.

Aliyyah Koloc

 

Aliyyah Koloc is a Czech driver of Emirati and Seychellois descent who races trucks and GTs in Europe, as well as competing in cross-country rallies for the Buggyra team. 

Born in Dubai, she grew up around motorsport; her father Martin Koloc races a number of different cars and is now the principal of Buggyra. Both she and her twin sister Yasmeen began competing as seniors as soon as they were old enough.

It began with a few races in a Renault Clio in the 2019 Eset series. She was only 15 years old and had only just recovered from an injury that put a halt to a promising tennis career. Her first appearance was at Gronik in Croatia, where she won her class in both sprint and endurance races.

She was still only 16 years old when she first got in a truck, entering the French and European championships for the Buggyra team. The French championship was the most successful for her, with a third and a second place at Nogaro. The second place was updated to a win, as on-track winner Adam Lacko was not registered for the championship. Her best result in the European series was eighth, at Most. 

She also set a series of speed records over the 500m distance in July 2020, driving a streamlined Buggyra-Freightliner truck. 

In 2021, she did races in both the French and European truck championships, concentrating on the French. She earned four podium positions: two seconds and two thirds. Her final position on the leaderboard was fifth. The best result of her European part-season was a ninth place at Jarama. This year, she expanded her circuit experience further with some races in the Club Challenge section of the Whelen Euro NASCAR series. Her car was a Ford Mustang, run by the CAAL Racing team. Her sister Yasmeen was her team-mate in a Chevrolet Camaro.

She spent 2022 preparing for her first attempt at the Dakar in a Buggyra prototype, as well as racing GTs in Europe. She competed in some more Eset races in 2021, driving a Mercedes AMG GT3 and GT4 car in different classes. With Yasmeen and Adam Lacko, she entered the 12 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in a similar car, but did not finish. Yasmeen crashed during the first part of the race and injured her wrist.

Aliyyah teamed up with Buggyra designer and racer David Vrsecky for the FFSA GT championship, in another Mercedes GT4 car. He replaced the injured Yasmeen, who had shared the car at Nogaro. She was eleventh in the Silver drivers’ championship. In August, Aliyyah and David raced at the Silverstone Classic for the first time, in the pilot event for the Masters GT4 series. Aliyyah was fourth and third. 

Her Dakar training was based around the Middle East Cup for Cross Country Bajas, driving a Can-Am light prototype run by Buggyra. She won one event outright and scored podiums in two others and won a the championship.

Her Dakar run itself was compromised by problems on the second stage, dropping her and co-driver Stephane Duple to the bottom of the leaderboard. She did steadily improve over the course of the rally and had a best stage result of 36th, on the twelfth competitive section. She was 104th overall.

Less than a week after finishing the Dakar, she was back on the circuits, driving the Mercedes with David Vrsecky. They entered the non-championship 6 Hours of Abu Dhabi and won their class.

Her first 24H Series race of 2023 was the Mugello 12H, in which the team, including Adam Lacko, finished second in the GT4 class, 26th overall. She and her two co-drivers were second in the GT4 class of the championship, with one win at Spa.

She has also tested a bigger T1 Dakar prototype, in preparation for the 2024 Dakar, where she entered in a Red-Lined Revo T1+ with Sebastien Delaunay. Her build-up included testing in Abu Dhabi and some off-road bajas in South Africa. She finished 17th in class in the Dakar itself.

The 2024 summer season was spent in the 24H Series, in a Buggyra-run Mercedes GT4. Her team-mates were David Vrsecky and Adam Lacko again. They won the GT4 class in the first four races of the year, at Mugello, Spa, Algarve and Misano. Despite not doing a full season, they won their class championship, with a best overall finish of seventh at Misano.

She tackled the 2025 Dakar in a Buggyra Revo vehicle, alongside her father. She and her navigator Sebastian Delaunay were 25th in their class and 24th overall. They teamed up again for the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, but rolled their car, which meant a short trip to the nearest hospital for Aliyyah. They then finished the Taklimakan Rally in China, in 55th place. They were the only non-Chinese crew to finish. Her best rally raid of the year was the Rallye du Maroc, where she was fifth overall. This was a really brutal rally where only the winner, Ali Oubassidi, finished without stopping.

Her summer season consisted of more GT racing and some stage rallying in the Pacific. She entered the Vanuatu International Rally in August, driving a Ford Fiesta with Ysee Bedford. They were eleventh, finishing under SuperRally rules. She returned late in the northern hemisphere season to contest the Dry Creek Rally there, and was rewarded with fourth place. Her navigator this time was Noah Dinh.

On the circuits, she made some occasional appearances in the European GT Cup and in FFSA GT in France. She and Miroslav Mikes shared a Mercedes for the Lausitz GT Cup round, although Aliyyah was not eligible to score points. She was seventh. At Most, she also got a call from the Fullinrace team to share their Audi R8. On her GT3 debut, she and her team-mate were twelfth.

Aliyyah is open about having Asperger’s syndrome* and considers it an asset when on-track, as she is able to assess risk efficiently and concentrate.

Image copyright AS Sports Communication

*This is how Aliyyah describes herself, although others do not like this terminology.

Laia Sanz

 

Laia with Carlos Sainz

Laia Sanz races in Extreme E for Carlos Sainz's team, sharing an electric Odyssey 4x4.

The Spanish racer, whose full name is Eulalia Sanz Pla-Giribert, is better-known as a motorcycle endurance rider who has won 14 ladies' European trials championships and ridden in the Dakar ten times on a motorbike. She has finished every Dakar she has entered, between 2011 and 2020, with a women’s award each time. Her best overall finish has been ninth in 2015.  

She had been competing in trials aged seven, in 1992. Her first win was in 1997 and she won her first women’s title in 1998, still aged only twelve.

Her four-wheel career began at around the same time as her Dakar debut. Interestingly, she did not opt for off-road competition.

She entered a couple of Clio Cup races in Spain in 2011 and won class A2 of the 2011 Barcelona 24 Hours, driving a Renault Clio. She was 18th overall, assisted by Enric and Jordi Codony, Francesc Gutierrez and Santi Navarro. 

In 2014, she did some ice racing in Andorra, in the G Series, and competed directly against Ingrid Rossell in a match race. She also did two rounds of the SEAT Leon Supercopa, in Catalunya, and was 19th and 20th. 

In 2015, she returned to enduros, and was ninth in the Dakar on a KTM. She did do some four-wheeled outings in a SEAT Leon, including two races in the Supercopa and the Catalunya 24 Hours, at Barcelona. She was 16th overall and second in class, as part of a two-driver team. 

At the end of the season, she was signed by the works KTM team, and concentrated on motorcycles for a season. 

She did another car race in 2017, finishing 15th in the TCR 24H race at Catalunya. Her car was a SEAT Leon. 

She entered the same race in 2018, driving a SEAT Cupra for the Monlau team. She and her team-mates won their class. 

Her first start in Extreme E came after a long recovery period for wrist injuries sustained in the 2020 Dakar where she was riding for the works Gas Gas team. Her warm-up was a run in a Can-Am SxS vehicle at the Baja Dubai. She was fourth in the UTV class.

Carlos Sainz himself had requested that she join the Acciona Sainz XE team. Each Extreme E must have a male and a female driver and Laia was the first choice for the Spanish team’s female seat.

The first Extreme E race was held in Saudi Arabia and the second event in Senegal and this was her first time visiting the country, as the Dakar had stopped visiting Dakar itself by the time she made her debut. She and Carlos Sainz were ninth in Senegal, having finished fourth in Saudi.

Despite saying that she would carry on with motorcycles when her seat in Extreme E was announced, she decided to commit to four wheels during 2021, including her first run in the Dakar in a car for 2022.

Her first E-Prix in Saudi was a relative success and she and Carlos qualified second, although they were dropped to fourth in the final by mechanical problems. The pair tended to qualify well but come up against issues in finals and their best finish was third in Greenland. They were fifth in the championship.

The second season of Extreme E featured an unchanged Acciona Sainz driver pairing. They were third overall, with two second places in the Saudi desert round and the Chile race. Both drivers usually qualified well, but did quite not have the pace for the final.

Her Dakar adventure ended in a solid 23rd place in the Car class, driving a Mini All4 with Maurizio Gerini. The car was run by the X-Raid team.

Laia's third season in Extreme E featured a new team-mate in Mattias Ekstrom. The pair won two races in Saudi and Sardinia from pole, on their way to second in the championship. They were also second four times. They were also the fastest qualifiers for the second Chile race, but were beaten by the Veloce team, who won the championship.

She entered the Dakar again in 2024, driving an Astara T1.2 prototype. Her co-driver was the Italian Maurizio Gerini. They were 15th in the Car class.

Back in Extreme E, Laia partnered Jamaican driver Fraser McConnell. They won the second Desert E-Prix and were second in both Hydro races, finishing second overall in the final Extreme E championship.

The same pairing as 2024 entered the 2025 Dakar, driving for the Century Racing Factory Team, but they had to retire on the second stage.

Mid-season, she rejoined the Sainz Extreme E team for the Final Lap, the championship's last event before becoming Extreme H. Laia and Fraser McConnell were fourth and eighth in their two races.

(Image from enduro21.com)

Estelle Hallyday

 

Estelle Hallyday, later known as Estelle Lefébure, is a French driver who competed in cross-country rallies and other events in the 1990s and 2000s.

She drove in rally raids in 1999 and 2000, as part of a Mitsubishi-based private team run by Luc Alphand. Among her events in this debut year was the 1999 Rally Optic 2000, co-driven by Bernadette Sacy. She competed for the team in the 2000 Tunisian Rally, and also in the Dakar, driving a Pajero. She was paired with the experienced Eric Vigouroux for the Tunisia and Dakar rallies. In an interview with Le Parisien, he praised her driving ability. Luc Alphand also admitted to being surprised by her talent in his own autobiography.

Later, she was associated with an Italian team running a Nissan Pathfinder, but she does not appear to have actually competed. 

Rally raids were not her first forays into motorsport. In 1993, she raced a Venturi prototype in the Andros Trophy. This was when she first teamed up with Bernadette Sacy. They both competed alongside Julien Beltoise in 1994. In 1996, Estelle and Bernadette shared an Opel Astra for the Chamonix 24 Hours, another major ice race. They were 29th overall.

Estelle is better known as a model and actress. She modelled throughout the 1980s and 1990s, working for many designers and appearing on the covers of fashion magazines. 

She was married to singer-songwriter David Hallyday at the time she was competing. They separated in 2001.

(Image copyright BestImage)

Cristina Gutierrez Herrero

 

Cristina Gutiérrez Herrero is a Spanish off-road specialist who has won stage rallies and recorded stage wins on the Dakar. 

She mostly competes in rally raids, but has proved competitive in rallysprints, driving 4WD vehicles. She won one such event, the Tierra Alfoz de Quintanadueñas Rallysprint in 2012, driving a Toyota Landcruiser against both off-road and stage rally cars. 

She has been rallying since 2010 and previously competed in karting and motocross. Her first off-road rally was the 2010 Historicos Baja Tierras del Cid, with her brother as her co-driver. She was fourth, driving a Toyota Landcruiser. Her first major event was the 2011 Baja Espana, the first of eighth consecutive entries.

At the end of 2016, she embarked on her first Dakar Rally. She finished the event in 44th place and became the first Spanish woman to make it to the end. Her car was a Mitsubishi Montero.

Her second Dakar was a particularly tough one, as her production Mitsubishi was not quite as competitive as she wanted and she got very little sleep. Still, she improved on her finishing position from 2017 with a 38th place. This was in spite of a multiple roll down a sand dune on the opening stage.

She upgraded to a faster Mitsubishi prototype, an Eclipse Cross, in 2019. This proved a sensible move and she recorded her third consecutive finish, in 26th place. She was the first Spanish driver and the first Mitsubishi crew to finish.

Driving a new car for the Red Bull Junior team, she competed in the 2021 Dakar with navigator Francois Cazalet and became the first female driver to win a stage since Jutta Kleinschmidt in 2005. She won three stages overall, driving a Red Bull-sponsored Light Prototype vehicle. Sadly, the car’s gearbox gave up after the seventh stage. 

She has won the Spanish All-Terrain Rally championship: she was T1 champion and overall runner-up in 2015 after a series of second places in Spanish raids, including the Baja Aragon, which is part of the FIA Cross-Country Cup. Previously in 2014, she was seventh in the championship, and fourth in class. She was driving a Mitsubishi. To match her six Dakar outings, she has earned six Spanish women’s off-road titles.

In 2015, she was third in the FIA Women’s Cross Country Selection event in Qatar and won a funded drive in the 2016 Sealine CrossCountry Rally. She was the first female driver home.

She still occasionally competed in stage rallying during this time. In 2017, she drove a different Mitsubishi, a Lancer Evo VIII, in the Isla de los Volcanes Rally. She did not finish. Her only gravel outing in 2018, the Terra de Auga Rally, gave her a thirteenth place in an Evo X. 

After a break, she drove a Ford Fiesta in the 2020 Terra da Auga Rally and finished 18th overall, from 56 finishers. 

At the end of 2020, she was announced as a driver for the X44 Extreme E team, led by Lewis Hamilton. Her team-mate was Sebastien Loeb. They won the final round of the championship, held in Dorset, UK, having consistently qualified well but had problems in finals. Their final position was second.

This was doubly remarkable considering that Cristina suffered two broken vertebrae during the Kazakhstan Rally and had to take two months' rest. It was triply remarkable in that she had just won the Kazakhstan event for the Red Bull Off-Road Junior team, in severe pain after crashing on the final leg.

She was on form for the 2022 Dakar, driving a T3 Lightweight prototype for the Red Bull Junior team. A potential disqualification due to the team using a banned Bluetooth intercom was suspended, meaning she and Francois Cazalet kept their third place in class.

Another Extreme E season with Sebastien Loeb ended in a championship victory. They only won one event outright in Chile, but three further podiums kept them ahead.

She paired up with Jamaican Fraser McConnell for X44 in the 2023 Extreme E championship. They won races in Scotland and Sardinia and were fourth overall in the championship, often performing well in heats. In preparation for another Dakar in January 2024, she entered several cross-country events, finishing fourth in class in the Sonora Rally, third in Morocco and second in the Desafio Ruta 40. Her car is a T3 Taurus light prototype.

The Taurus gave her one of the biggest prizes in her career at the beginning of 2024: a class win in the Dakar after five stage wins. She was victorious in the Challenger class, co-driven by Pablo Moreno Huete.

She also signed for the Dacia team but only did preparation and development for them, in readiness for the 2025 Dakar. Her team-mate will be Sebastien Loeb once more.

During the main 2024 motorsport season, she took part in the last Extreme E championship, sharing a McLaren Odyssey with Mattias Ekstrom. They were fifth in the shortened championship, with a best finish of second in Saudi Arabia.

Right at the end of the year, she travelled to Saudi for her first Dakar as a Dacia works driver. She and her navigator were competing in the Ultimate category. Towards the end, they were setting top-ten stage times, although a slower start and early problems meant that Cristina was not in contention for an overall top ten finish. She made up one place on the final stage to finish 40th.

She did the Portugal and Morocco rounds of the FIA Cross Country championship for Dacia and had far fewer problems, finishing ninth in Morocco and eighth in Portugal. Back in the Taurus for Nasser Racing, she did two Spanish Bajas, scoring a strong fourth place in the Baja Espana Aragon.

In May, she even found time for a stage rally in Mexico. Her car for the Rally of Nations Guanajuato was a Skoda Fabia. Unfortunately, it caught fire on stage 10.

She is competing in the 2026 Dakar for Dacia.

Away from rallying, Cristina is a dentist.

(Image copyright Red Bull)

Bernadette Sacy

 

Bernadette Sacy competed in both stage rallies and rally raids in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as racing on the circuits in the Gordini Cup and Leyland Trophy. 

She came from a motorsport family and had a father who raced, although he did not consider it suitable for girls and did not encourage her to compete herself. Her first steps in motorsport were rallies in northern France, driving an NSU in 1972 and a  Simca Rallye in 1973. 

For several years she switched to circuit-based competition and took part in several one-make racing championships. Her first one was the 1974 Gordini Cup, which used the Gordini-engined Renault 12, although she only had enough budget for some of the rounds. Another part-season in 1975 was based around a Ford Escort championship in Belgium.

Her next plan was to race in the Trophee Leyland, which used Innocenti-badged British Leyland cars. Her car was a Mini and although she was not one of the overall winners, she was one of the best of several female drivers entered. She raced the Innocenti Mini between 1976 and 1978. 

Her return to rallying was with the all-female Aseptogyl team. The team’s director Bob Neyret had seen her on-track in the Mini and offered her a seat in another small car, the Fiat 127. The team was mainly focused on the Italian rally championship by then, but Bernadette was part of a multi-car French team. Her best result seems to have been a 35th place in the Rallye de Lorraine, with a fourth place in class. 

1980 was a year without regular competition, but Bernadette was busy opening her own British Leyland dealership and planning new adventures. The Leyland Trophee had put her in touch both with the British car company itself and with Monique Delannoy, a former actress who also raced in the championship. Monique would become the first woman to enter the Paris-Dakar Rally in the car class. She drove a Peugeot 504 in the 1980 Dakar and recruited Bernadette as her navigator for the 1981 event. Their car was a Mercedes 240 jeep and they were 25th overall, winning both the Coupe des Dames and the diesel class.  

For the 1982 Dakar she moved over to the driving seat herself in a Range Rover. Christine “Kiki” Caron, a former Olympic swimmer who had done some rallying with Team Aseptogyl, was her navigator. Christine’s husband J-C Lagniez was Bernadette’s main sponsor at the time and was the main instigator of the partnership.

They got to the finish in 35th place. The same driver pairing in the same car tackled the 1983 Dakar, but did not finish. They became lost for three days during a sandstorm in Niger and were found by a rescue Range Rover along with another car crew and two motorcyclists. 

She returned to stage rallying in France and Europe quite extensively in 1984, driving for the Citroen team after the Aseptogyl stable wound down. In 1984, she was one of the finalists for the Citroen Trophée Féminin, representing the Lille region, and was eighth overall. Her results were more modest than they could have been, as she had to sit out part of the season due to injury after hitting a tree during the Terre de Provence Rallye.

After recovering from her injuries, she returned to rally raids. She has taken part in the Pharaons, Atlas and Optic 2000 rallies. As late as 1999, she was navigating for Estelle Hallyday in the Optic 2000 Rally in Tunisia. 

She and Estelle also competed together in the Andros Trophy in 1993 and 1994, driving a Venturi with Julien Beltoise. They raced together on ice again in the Chamonix 24 Hours, driving an Opel Astra to 29th place. Bernadette apparently returned to Chamonix a few times, although the results are hard to find.

After retiring from active competition, she moved into the administration and organisation side of rally raids. She still comes out of retirement occasionally for classic rallies.

This post was made with the help of the following sources:

http://www.citroen-en-competition.fr/fiche-pilote.php?pilote=354&lettre=s

http://www.dakardantan.com/magazine/Bernadette-SACY-1981-82-83.html

(Image copyright Innocenti Motors Club)

Corinne Koppenhague (Tarnaud)

Corinne, left, with Bob Wollek and Jacques Rey in 1970

Corinne Koppenhague was a versatile French racer, probably best known for coming 11th at Le Mans in a Porsche Carrera in 1975, as Corinne Tarnaud. Her team-mates were Yvette Fontaine and Anny-Charlotte Verney.

Her motorsport journey began in 1968 or 1969, depending upon which source one trusts. Her cousin, Marie-Claire Cibié (Beaulieu), had been involved in events like the Tour de France, and Corinne had become friends with some of the young guns of French motor racing, including Jacques Laffite and Jean-Pierre Jabouille. Her first practical experience of a motor race was when she helped out in the pits at the Reims 12 Hours, working for Sylvain Garant. This spurred her on to start her own competition career. In 1969, she co-drove for Marie-Pierre Palayer in the Critérium des Cévennes, in a BMW. They won the Coupe des Dames.

In the 1970 Critérium des Cévennes, she navigated for Bob Wollek, and helped him to second place in his Porsche 911. She shared a similar car with Thierry Sabine for the AGACI 300 at Montlhéry, but the result has been lost. Her performance on the Critérium des Cévennes was enough to win her the French Coupe des Dames for co-drivers. She also drove herself in some French rallies, in the Porsche, at Chataigne and Poitou.

By 1971, she had moved more fully into the driving seat. Her biggest event of the year was the Tour de France, which she had entered in a Porsche 911. Her co-driver was Christine Rouff, later a key member of Team Aseptogyl, and they had a third team member in the shape of a tortoise, which slept in the Porsche’s glove box and was fed by the mechanics. Corinne and her team were 27^th out of 49 finishers, and ninth in the 2000cc GT class. Navigation had not been completely left behind: she sat beside Francine Warein in a Simca for the Morocco Rally. At some point, she also co-drove for Christine Dacremont in an Opel Kadett, perhaps this year.

In 1972, she stepped away from Porsches temporarily, and drove an Alfa Romeo 2000 GT. She did not finish this year’s Tour de France due to engine failure, but was 32^nd in the Ronde Cévenole. She was still active in French rallies in the Porsche, and entered that year’s Paris-St. Raphaël Rally. 

She did not compete in 1973. It was this year that she married, and thereafter, raced under the name Tarnaud or Koppenhague-Tarnaud. She was eighth in the 1974 Paris-St. Raphaël, driving an Alfa Romeo 2000. Another run in the Ronde Cévenole led to an 18^th place, out of 33 drivers, and she was 27^th in the Tour de France, in an Alfa Romeo again. Her team-mate for the Tour was a Madame Hoube, who had co-driven for her in rallies previously.

1975 was the year of her Le Mans adventure. She was part of an all-female team, led by Anny-Charlotte Verney, whose Porsche 911 Carrera RS they drove. Anny-Charlotte was another regular on the French racing and rally scene. Yvette Fontaine, the third team member, was also multi-talented, and from Belgium. They were the better of the two all-female teams that year, and were second in the Series GT class. She teamed up with Christine Beckers at Zolder, driving a Triumph Dolomite, and even made the trip out to Sweden, to race a Volvo in a one-make cup there. She was all set to drive in another Tour de France, too, but the death of her intended team-mate, “Charlotte”, in a road traffic accident, meant that she dropped out.

She attempted to qualify for Le Mans again in 1976, driving a TOJ SC204 with Jacky Haran and Jacques Marquet. They were not successful.

She was certainly still involved in stage rallying in 1976, and was part of one of the later incarnations of Team Aseptogyl. She drove a little Autobianchi A110 in the Monte Carlo Rally for the team, although she does not appear to have finished. She may well have rallied elsewhere in the pink A110, as she appears in Aseptogyl publicity material for that season. She entered the Mont Blanc Rally that year, but crashed out. As well as the Aseptogyl car, she also drove an Alpine-Renault 1800.

1977 was mostly spent away from motorsport, “resting”, as Corinne claimed in a contemporary interview in Echappement. In 1978, she raced an Alfasud in a European one-make series, finishing third at Albi, and setting a lap record in the process.

After 1978, she became more and more involved in rally raids, first on motorcycles, then on four wheels. In 1979, she entered the first Paris-Dakar Rally, on a motorbike, one of seven female riders making history that year. She rode a Suzuki, but did not finish. The following year, she moved into the car class, in a Willys Jeep. This led to another non-finish. She attempted the Dakar another eight times, once more on a motorcycle in 1985. Her last try was in 1988, when she drove a Land Rover. Her other vehicles included a Range Rover, a Jeep Hotchkiss in 1981 and a Toyota pickup in 1982.

After her retirement from active motorsport in 1988, she has remained involved in competitive sport. She still rides motorcycles recreationally, and skis competitively, despite her advancing age.

(Image copyright Michelle Wollek)

Women drivers in the 2012 Dakar

Isabelle Patissier at the start in Argentina.

The 2012 Dakar was not a vintage year for female participants. Isabelle Patissier was this year's leading female driver. She was 29th overall in the Dessoude Oryx Buggy, co-driven by Thierry Delli Zotti, just over 21 hours behind the winning MINI of Stephane Peterhansel.

Susan Jones was set to enter the Dakar in a Desert Warrior, but did not make the start.

No female drivers entered the Truck class this year. The only other woman finisher was motorcyclist Eulalia (Laia) Sanz Pla-Giribert, who was 39th on a GAS.

(Picture from www.automobilsport.com)