Lisa Caceres

 

Lisa Caceres raced sportscars and saloons in the USA in the 1980s. She is probably most famous for winning races in the SCCA Endurance Series in 1987, with Desiré Wilson. 

They won the Sears Point race, in a Saleen Mustang. Lyn St. James and Donna Sue Landon were also members of their team, and they raced together throughout 1987 in endurance events, with Molly Elliott filling in with Desire was unavailable.  

She had driven a Saleen before, in 1986, sharing with Steve Saleen himself and Alice Ridpath in the SCCA Endurance championship. She was 21st in the Longest Day of Nelson 24-hour race and 15th in the 6 Hours of Road Atlanta. A slightly different team, including Skeeter McKitterick, was twelfth in the 24 Hours of Mosport, with a class win. The final race of the year, at Mid-Ohio, resulted in a 17th place. 

In June 1985, she entered the IMSA Firestone Firehawk race at St Louis, double-driving in two different Camaros with Les Linley. This was her first appearance in a pro-level race after a few seasons of production car competition.

That year, Lisa drove a Chevrolet Camaro in at least one IMSA race, at Riverside, running in the GTO class. She did not finish, but was classified 41st despite crashing out after a tyre blowout. Her car was struck by two other cars, leaving her with a broken jaw, three cracked ribs and a broken bone in her foot.

In a 1986 interview, she described how she had first started racing in 1982. She had been watching action at Sears Point and was asked by one of the Bob Bondurant racing school instructors whether she wanted a ride in a racing car. The experience inspired her so much that she signed up with the racing school as soon as she could.

Later, in 1996, after some time racing jet skis and karts, she drove a Chevrolet Lumina in the Pro GT-America series. 

As well as competitive motorsport, she works as a driving instructor, particularly in karts, and has done some screen driving stunts. 

(Image copyright The San Francisco Examiner)

Women in Indy Lights

Sarah McCune in 2004, during a test for Kathryn Nunn Racing

Indy Lights is the second-tier racing series of the Indycar ladder. Over the years, it has had several changes of name and been run by CART, Indycar and the IRL. The basic formula of a one-model junior championship has remained roughly the same, however.

Until recently, Indycar was not a particularly welcoming place for female drivers. Indy Lights has had correspondingly few women entrants. A higher number were involved with the Toyota Atlantic series, a similar championship in the USA.

1986 (CART American Racing Series)

Desire Wilson (driver) - 24th

1987-88

No female entrants

1989

Cathy Muller (McNeill Motorsports) - 26th

1990

Cathy Muller (McNeill Motorsports/Stuart Moore Racing) - 16th

Cheryl Glass (Glass Racing) - 22nd

1991 (CART Firestone/PPG/Dayton Indy Lights Series)

Desire Wilson (Leading Edge Motorsport) - 24th

Cheryl Glass (Glass Racing) - unplaced

1992

Kat Teasdale (Leading Edge Motorsport) - unplaced

1993-2004

No female entrants

2005 (IRL Infiniti Pro Series)

Mishael Abbott (Hemelgarn) - 13th

Sarah McCune (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) - 23rd

2006 (IRL Indy Pro Series)

Mishael Abbott (Michael Crawford Motorsports) - 26th

Veronica McCann (United & Classic Trailers) - 37th

2007

Leilani Munter (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) - 33rd

2008 (Indycar Indy Lights)

Bia Figueiredo (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) - 3rd

Cyndie Allemann (American Spirit Racing) - 14th

Christina Orr-West (Alliance Motorsports) - 30th

2009

Bia Figueiredo (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) - 8th

Pippa Mann (Panther Racing) - 14th

2010

Pippa Mann (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) - 5th

Carmen Jorda (Andersen Racing) - 16th

2011-23

No female entrants

2023 (Now running as Indy NXT)

Jamie Chadwick (Andretti Autosport) - 12th

2024

Jamie Chadwick (Andretti Global) - 7th

Lindsay Brewer (Juncos Hollinger Racing) - 21st

2025

Hailie Deegan (HMD Motorsports) - 14th

Sophia Floersch - (HMD Motorsports) - 26th

(Image copyright Gregg Ellmann/motorsport.com)

Bonnie Henn

Bonnie, centre, with Janet Guthrie and Lyn St James

Bonnie Henn raced Ferraris and Porsches in IMSA between 1979 and 1985, usually as part of her father, Preston Henn's, team. She and Preston were IMSA’s first father-daughter racing team. Her other team-mates included Kathy Rude, Janet Guthrie and Desiré Wilson.

Bonnie’s career developed in tandem with her father’s. He only began racing two years before she did, having made his money buying disused drive-in cinemas, which he turned into flea markets.

Her first major finish was a seventeenth place at the 1979 Sebring 12 Hours, driving a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 with Lyn St James and Janet Guthrie. They were sponsored by Thunderbird Swap Shop, the Henn family business. Bonnie also entered the IMSA Daytona Finale, driving the Ferrari with Hal Sahlman. They were 28th overall, fifteenth in the GTO class. In between, Preston Henn ran an AMC Pacer for Bonnie in the Daytona 6 Hours. She did not finish. The underpowered Pacer must have been a stark contrast to the Ferrari she was more used to.

In contrast to her first season, 1980 was very quiet, as Bonnie concentrated on developing her driving skills. She was linked to a drive in an Alfa Romeo Alfetta in the Daytona 6 Hours, but did not start. The car belonged to Janis Taylor, who drove instead, with Del Russo Taylor.

1981 could have been her first attempt at the Daytona 24 Hours. Preston put together a Swap Shop team of himself, Bonnie, Desiré Wilson and Marty Hinze. Although she had practised in the team’s Porsche 935, she decided that she did not have enough experience to tackle the race itself, and stepped down. She did race the 935 at the Daytona Finale in November. Preston was her team-mate. They did not finish.

Desiré Wilson became something of a mentor to Bonnie at this time. She gave her advanced driving tuition and supported her through a part-season in IMSA in 1982. Desiré’s race seat with the Swap Shop team was largely down to her work with Bonnie.

Bonnie and Desiré aimed to start 1982 by teaming up again for the Daytona 24 Hours, but Bonnie, along with Janet Guthrie, dropped out. The three worked together again at the Sebring 12 Hours, where they drove a Ferrari 512BB/LM in “Miss Budweiser” colours for North American Racing. For her next race, the Charlotte IMSA round, she shared a Swap Shop Porsche 935 with Preston, and was rewarded with an eleventh place. Her best result of the year was a fourth place in the Daytona 250 Miles. She had jumped into the 935 of Preston and Randy Lanier after her own Swap Shop 935 expired after eight laps.

She raced with Desiré again at Mosport and Road America. At Mosport, she was 24th. Later in the season, she and Preston travelled to Japan to race in the Fuji 6 Hours, in the Ferrari. They crashed out on the tenth lap. At the end of the year, she decided that she no longer wanted to race. Sadly, this meant that Desiré Wilson’s place in the team became redundant.

Having announced her retirement once, Bonnie was persuaded back into action in 1983 with an all-female team, led by Deborah Gregg and carrying her Brumos colours. The third driver in the team was Kathy Rude. They drove a Porsche 924 Carrera in the Daytona 24 Hours and gave Bonnie her best finish of her career: thirteenth. They were sixth in class. Bonnie’s last event with the team was the Sebring 12 Hours. Driving the same car, she was 35th with her two team-mates. After Sebring, she retired for good, aged just 27.

She died suddenly in 2006. She was 49.

(Image from www.lynstjames.com)

Female Drivers at the 2011 Goodwood Revival

This year’s Goodwood Revival was one of the best I’ve attended yet in terms of on-track action: the right mix of audacious moves, skilful racing and beautiful cars. Highlights were the Whitsun Trophy, and the Freddie March Memorial Trophy for sportscars, although the single-seaters and motorcycles were all great. My Driver of the Meeting was Sam Wilson, a young male driver who won the Chichester Cup and Earl of March Trophy in fine style, driving a Cooper T59 and Kieft-Norton respectively. The Goodwood awards panel agreed.
Speedqueens were very much in evidence, although not among the winners this year. Desiré Wilson probably stood the best chance in the all– E Type Fordwater Trophy, but crashed out spectacularly through the circuit’s beleaguered chicane. She was unhurt, although she declined to drive in the RAC TT Celebration the following day. She was awarded a trophy for the fastest female lap of the meeting, at 96.6mph in the Jaguar.
Below are the results for all Speedqueens (and their team-mates) competing during the weekend.


Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy Race 1:
Sophie Smith/Tony Smith (McIntyre Matchless G50) - 16th
Race 2:
Sophie Smith/Tony Smith (McIntyre Matchless G50) - 19th


St. Mary’s Trophy Race 1:
Claudia Hürtgen (Austin Mini Cooper S) - DNF/NC


Fordwater Trophy
Desiré Wilson/Emmanuele Pirro (Jaguar E-Type) - DNF


Freddie March Memorial Trophy
Holly Mason Franchitti (Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica) - 23rd


Richmond Trophy
Niamh Maguire (Cooper-Bristol Mk1 T20) - 18th

Julia de Baldanza (Maserati A6GCM) - 21st


(Fordwater Trophy picture from http://www.ultimatecarpages.com/)

Women in Formula One - the results

Maria Teresa de Filippis

This post gives a complete set of results for female drivers in the Formula One World Championship.

1958

Monaco

Maria Teresa de Filippis (Maserati 250F) - DNQ

Belgium

Maria Teresa de Filippis (Maserati 250F) - 10th

Portugal

Maria Teresa de Filippis (Maserati 250F) - DNF

Italy

Maria Teresa de Filippis (Maserati 250F) - DNF

1959

Monaco

Maria Teresa de Filippis (Behra Porsche F2) - DNQ

1974

Great Britain

Lella Lombardi (Brabham BT42) - DNQ

1975

South Africa

Lella Lombardi (March 741) - DNF

Spain

Lella Lombardi (March 751) - 6th

Monaco

Lella Lombardi (March 751) - DNQ

Belgium

Lella Lombardi (March 751) - DNF

Sweden

Lella Lombardi (March 751) - DNF

The Netherlands

Lella Lombardi (March 751) - 14th

France

Lella Lombardi (March 751) - 18th

Great Britain

Lella Lombardi (March 751) - DNF

Germany

Lella Lombardi (March 751) - 7th

Austria

Lella Lombardi (March 751) - 17th

Italy

Lella Lombardi (March 751) - DNF

United States

Lella Lombardi (Williams FW04) - qualified, but not allowed to start.

1976

Brazil

Lella Lombardi (March 761) - 14th

Great Britain

Lella Lombardi (Brabham BT44B) - DNQ

Divina Galica (Surtees TS16) - DNQ

Germany

Lella Lombardi (Brabham BT44B) - DNQ

Austria

Lella Lombardi (Brabham BT44B) - DNQ

1978

Argentina

Divina Galica (Hesketh 308E) - DNQ

Brazil

Divina Galica (Hesketh 308E) - DNQ

1980

Great Britain

Desiré Wilson (Williams FW07) - DNQ

1992

South Africa

Giovanna Amati (Brabham BT60B) - DNQ

Mexico

Giovanna Amati (Brabham BT60B) - DNQ

Brazil

Giovanna Amati (Brabham BT60B) - DNQ

(Image copyright Hulton/Getty Images)

Cathy Muller

Cathy in 1985

France's Cathy Muller had a promising start to her racing career. She competed, mainly in single-seaters, between the ages of twelve and 33, and showed that she had the talent to go far.

Her first victory came in the European Karting Championships in 1979. She remained in karting for a further year before switching to cars in 1981, when she raced first a Renault 5 and then a Volant Elf single-seater. After a learning year, she carried on the Renault connection and drove in French Formula Renault. She scored her first win at Le Castellet that season, as well as four podium positions.

Cathy continued to progress up the motorsport ladder rapidly. Moving up to Formula 3 with David Price Racing and Ecurie Elf, she jumped straight into the European championship. Her best result was a fourth place, at Le Chatre, and she also achieved seventh places at Magny-Cours and Zeltweg. She attempted to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix support race, but could not make it. In November she was eleventh in the Macau Grand Prix race, one of only a handful of women to have ever taken part.

By 1984, she was challenging for wins in Euro F3. Driving first for the Scuderia dei Longobardi team, then MC Racing, she finished the season tenth. Her season had begun well, with a seventh at Donington, and she qualified for the Monaco race this time, finishing in eighth place. Her best championship finish was another fourth, at Knutstorp, but she was comfortably in sixth or seventh for most of her races. Her best finish of the year was due to a guest appearance in the French championship, at Albi, where she won.

She also had her first taste of major sportscar racing, driving a BMW-powered Gebhart JC843 at Sandown Park in Australia. Her team-mates were Margie Smith-Haas and Sue Ransom.

At that time, the British F3 championship was the place to be for aspiring stars, so she decamped to England for a year to drive for David Price Racing in 1985. Although she did not achieve any top-three places, she was still ninth overall. Among her results, which are hard to find, she was seventh at Zolder, ninth at Spa and did not finish at Zandvoort. A trip to the Monaco F3 race ended in another DNF.

Feeling she had learned enough from F3, Cathy climbed the next rung in 1986 and moved into Formula 3000, the last step before Formula One. However, the swift hike in budgetary requirements hit her hard. She could only muster the funds for a part-season with three different teams, with no testing. In her first race at Spa, she came 17th. She was also 17th at Mugello and Le Mans, retired at Imola and failed to qualify for the other four races she entered.

Perhaps disheartened by her experiences, she went back to Formula 3 the following year. Back with MC Motorsport in the French championship, she started her season with a tenth at Nogaro. It took her a while to get back up to her usual pace, having missed out on a lot of racing in 1986, but towards the end of the season, she was back in the top five. Her best finish was fourth, at the Le Mans Bugatti circuit, and she was fifth twice, at Nogaro and Lédenon. 

Cathy also entered one race in Germany, and drove a Porsche 962C in a round of the World Sports Prototype Championship at the Nürburgring 1000km. She, Bernard de Dryver and Jurgen Lassig were seventh.

She had another stab at F3000 in 1988, resulting in a DNQ at Jerez. It was time for a different challenge now, so she went to America and drove in single-seaters there for two seasons, as well as competing once more in French F3. She entered nine Indy Lights races between 1989 and 1990 and four of these ended in top-ten finishes. The best of these were two fifth places at Meadowlands and Toronto in 1990.

This led to a drive at Le Mans in 1991. She shared a Spice Ford with Desiré Wilson and Lyn St James, but the team crashed out early on. She also tried ice-racing, in the Andros Trophy.

After a season's break, Cathy entered the Peugeot 905 Spider Cup in 1993. This was a popular one-make sportscar series in France. In her first season she was fifth, but in her second, she was the runner-up, winning three times.

Remaining with sportscars, Cathy took part in the Ferrari Challenge in 1995 and continued her winning streak. She finished the season in second. It was on this high that she decided to retire from racing and start a family.

Motorsport was not forgotten completely: in 1998, she tested a Ferrari for her old team, to still whether she could still handle it as a mother. It turned out that she could, but after over 20 years, Cathy did not wish to race any more. She was now content managing her own team, and acting as her brother Yvan Muller's manager.

In 2010, she made a partial return, taking on two guest races in the SEAT Leon Supercopa, at Magny-Cours. She was fourteenth and fifteenth. In 2011, she also ran in two rounds of the Andros Electric Trophy, at the Pau event. She was eighth in one race, and did not finish the other.

She is now involved in motorsport management once more, for a WTCC team. She is also a member of the FIA's Women in Motorsport Commission, working as a talent scout.

Desiré Wilson

South African Desiré Wilson is most famous for not qualifying for the 1980 British Grand Prix, although elsewhere in her career, she was a big success. She began driving midget cars at the age of five and it was soon clear that she had outstanding talent. At twelve, she came second in the South African nationals. Despite her obvious skill, she decided not to pursue midget racing much further, and concentrated on athletics and riding.

Eventually, she returned to the sport. In 1972, when she was 19, she stepped up to full-size long-track competition and was fourth in South African Formula Vee. The following year, she was runner-up. Ambitious for an international racing career, she switched to Formula Ford, and won the South African championship in 1976.

In order to make further progress up the international motorsports ladder, Desiré moved to Europe for the 1977 season. She competed mainly in Formula Ford still, in the Benelux and UK championships, where she was third and fourth respectively, winning a race at Zandvoort. She also took part in Formula Atlantic, hillclimbs and a few sports and saloon races.

She took another huge jump in 1978 after testing a Formula One March. After impressing team bosses, she signed up for the Aurora F1 Championship, a series for superseded Formula One cars, with a few F2 machines thrown in, similar to the recent EuroBOSS series. She drove a Cosworth-powered Ensign and her best finish was third, at Thruxton. She also came sixth twice and was tenth overall. As she learnt the European tracks, her placings improved. In 1979, at Zolder, she became the first woman to lead an F1 race, in her Tyrrell. Although she spun in the wet, she still fought back to third place and claimed the fastest lap. This was the first of a string of podiums that year. Desiré also kept her hand in in sportscars, driving a Lola to a number of meritorious finishes.

1980 was the year that Desire hit the big time. It started inauspiciously; despite the previous year's triumphs, she was without a sponsor for the Aurora series and retreated to New Zealand to race in Formula Pacific. Teddy Yip's Theodore team came to the rescue, and she was back in the UK, driving a Wolf WR3 for the second round at Brands Hatch. She won the race, having led from the start, the first and so far only woman to have done so. She was also second at Thruxton, a favoured track with Desiré, and third at Mallory Park.

Her Aurora achievements were not her only successes that year. She had formed a partnership with Alain de Cadenet and was sharing driving duties in his self-built Ford prototype in international sportscar races. Back at Brands, scene of her Aurora victory, she and de Cadenet were an impressive third, but the best was yet to come. The pair won both the Monza 1000km and the Silverstone 6-Hour races.

Desiré's star was rising fast. Her exploits in Aurora F1 and with de Cadenet drew the attention of at least one Formula One team. She was selected by private team RAM to drive a year-old Williams FW07 at that year's British Grand Prix. Things looked promising in pre-qualifying, where Desiré was twelfth overall. However, it was not to be her weekend. The car that she had practised in was hurriedly replaced with an inferior, adapted Williams which she had beaten several times that year in Aurora F1. The car's poor aerodynamic modifications and Desiré's lack of experience with it meant that she could not qualify, lapping faster only than Keke Rosberg.

Her run of rotten luck at the top also included that year's Le Mans. After a practice accident, she and Alain de Cadenet managed to set the eighth fastest time, but they were not allowed to start, in view of their earlier shunt.

The following year, she got a chance to redeem herself. After a break from the track, she accepted a drive in her home Grand Prix, with Tyrrell. Disagreements within F1 meant that it was being run as a non-championship race, but it was a strong field nevertheless. She qualified sixteenth and suffered a nightmare start, stalling on the grid. However, once away, she quickly caught up, overtaking her team-mate Eddie Cheever and running as high as sixth. An altercation with Nigel Mansell's car on lap 51 sent her off the track and she retired with gearbox trouble, but she had managed to impress Tyrrell. She was offered further drives, but due to her lack of sponsorship, she was unable to take them up. The political situation in South Africa did not help her cause.

Again at Brands Hatch, she was eighth in a World Championship sportscar race, driving a Porsche with Preston Henn, Edgar Doren and Skeeter McKitterick. Sportscars now became her main focus for the time being. In a similar 935, she raced in the 1982 IMSA series, but failed to finish any races. Preston Henn had hired her for his Swap Shop team, mainly as a driver coach and mentor to his daughter, Bonnie, who was racing for the team that year. When Bonnie decided that motor racing was not for her at the end of 1982, Desiré was let go.

She did not fare any better in the Ford Grid Plaza, in IMSA or at Le Mans. She only lasted 24 minutes of the French classic before the engine expired. Her only really good result that year was a fourth with Jonathan Palmer in an endurance race at Brands, her favourite stamping ground, where there is now a stand named after her.

1982 also saw the start of Desiré's Indycar career. She passed her Indianapolis 500 rookie test without a problem and set a female lap record during qualifying, but once again she was out of luck at the blue-riband event itself. Due to repeated engine failures and the death of a team-mate during practice, her qualifying runs were aborted and she failed to make the grade. The following year she also failed to qualify a March, but took part in eight other Indycar races, with a best finish of tenth at Cleveland. Her finishing record was poor, not always due to driver error, but the two finishes she did score that season were impressive for a novice. This is especially true as she was driving through the pain barrier, due to a leg injury sustained at a sportscar event.

Between 1984 and 1986, she took part in three more CART events, with a best finish of thirteenth, although she never qualified for the Indy 500.

Sportscars had definitely not been forgotten during this time. She competed around the world in different series and scored some decent finishes, but her highlight of 1983 was her seventh place at Le Mans, driving a Porsche 956. With the help of Axel Plankenhorn and Jurgen Lassig, she finally broke her major-race duck with an excellent overall finish and class win.

Although her racing schedule was thinning out somewhat, there was still plenty of competitive spirit left in Desiré. In 1987, she won an enduro at Sears Point, driving a Saleen Mustang with Lisa Caceres. Still with Saleen, she won the Sebring 6 Hours with Scott Pruett, and also won them the constructors' championship. After a few Porsche sportscar outings in Japan and the UK, she returned to single-seaters in 1989 to come fourth in a British F3000 race. In 1991, she had another crack at Le Mans in a Spice SE90C Ford, driven by an all-female crew. Desiré and Lyn St. James were both former Indycar drivers and Cathy Muller was an aspiring single-seater talent. They crashed out early on. Desiré also crashed out of the Daytona 24 Hours two years later. However, that season she redeemed herself, by coming second in a sportscar race at Willow Springs, driving a Mazda RX-7.

After a break from competition, Desiré had a good year in saloon cars in the USA in 1996. She won the Grand Prix-supporting Chrysler Neon Challenge at Detroit, and raced a Mazda in US touring cars. Her best finish there was sixth. Before retiring, she drove the pace car for CART events and helped to organise the all-female PPG pace car team.

For a couple of years, Desiré busied herself with motorsport administration and helping to run her husband Alan's track design business. She was one of the directors of the short-lived Women's Global GT Series, and she and Alan were much in demand as consultants to the motorsport industry. However, she could not get racing out of her system, and continues to race historics to this day. She got a resounding cheer whilst driving a Tyrrell F1 car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2002, where the commentator announced her as "the only woman to have won an F1 race". That year, she renewed her partnership with Lyn St. James, piloting a Ford Galaxie 500 touring car. Her best finish on the historic scene is probably fifth at the Goodwood Revival, driving an Aston Martin DB4 Zagato with Gillian Goldsmith.

Desiré was a regular visitor to Goodwood: at the 2008 Revival, she fought tooth and nail to keep her Gordini in second place in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy, only to see the car expire before she could hand it over to her team-mate.

Desiré is truly a speedqueen; throughout her racing career, she was easily recognisable by the crown design painted on her helmet. She is one of South Africa's finest motor racing exports.

(Helmet image from www.wilsonmotorsport.com)