Women in the Targa Florio

Elisabeth Junek in the Targa Florio

The original Targa Florio was a legendary endurance road race in the mountains of Sicily, which began in 1906. It ran in various forms until 1973, when it was downgraded to a national sportscar event, and then a rally. It was a round of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 and 1973.

The first female competitor was Madame le Blon in 1906. She acted as a riding mechanic for her husband, Hubert le Blon, who finished sixth in his Hotchkiss.
Below is a list of all the female drivers who have taken part in the original race. Where male/female pairings are entered, the woman's name is placed first for clarity.

1920
Maria Antonietta d’Avanzo (Buick) - DNF

1922
Maria Antonietta d’Avanzo (Alfa Romeo ES) - DNF

1927
Elisabeth Junek (Bugatti T35B) - DNF

1928
Elisabeth Junek (Bugatti T35B) - 5th
Margot Einsiedel (Bugatti T37) - 12th

1953
Anna Maria Peduzzi (Stanguellini) - DNF

1954
Anna Maria Peduzzi (Stanguellini) - DNF

1955
Maria Teresa de Filippis/Luigi Belucci (Maserati A6GCS) - 9th

1957
Isabella Taruffi/Piero Taruffi (Lancia Appia 1100 ) - 1st

1958
Ada Pace/Carlo Peroglio (Alfa Romeo Giulietta SV) - 15th
Anna Maria Peduzzi/Francesco Siracusa (Ferrari 500 TR) - DNF

1959
Anna Maria Peduzzi/Giancarlo Rigamonti (OSCA Sport 750) - 20th
Ada Pace/Carlo Peroglio (Alfa Romeo Giulietta SV Zagato) - DNF

1960
Ada Pace/Giancarlo Castellina (OSCA S1100) - 11th
Anna Maria Peduzzi/Francesco Siracusa (OSCA F2/S 1500) - 17th

1963
Ada Pace/Vincenzo Arena (Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero) -  DNF

1968
Pat Moss-Carlsson/Rosadele Facetti (Lancia Fulvia HF Zagato) - 19th

1969
Gabriel Konig/Mark Konig (Nomad Mk2-BRM) - DNF

1970
“Patrizia”(Silvia Strobele)/Luigi Moreschi (AMS SP-Ford) - DNF

1971
Christine Beckers/Ennio Bonomelli (Porsche 911 S) - DNF

1972
Rosadele Facetti/Marie-Claude Beaumont (Opel GT) - DNF

1973
Giuseppina “Giusy” Gagliano/Sergio Mantia (Alfa Romeo GTA) - DNF

(Image source unknown)

Margot Einsiedel

Margot at the 1928 Targa Florio

A contemporary of Elisabeth Junek, German noblewoman Margot (or Margaret) Einsiedel was one of a small group of major female racers in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

She usually raced either in her native Germany or in Sicily, and was also an accomplished hillclimber. She held the Ladies' Record at the challenging Klausen hillclimb from 1927 until 1932, fending off challenges from other talented ladies like Madame Helle-Nice in the process.

1927 was the year she started racing in earnest, in a Steyr VI Sport. That season she was fifth in the Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring and won her class at Solitude. She and the Steyr were sixth overall.

For the following season Countess Margot acquired a Bugatti T37, and switched the focus of her racing activities to Italy. She crashed out of the Premio Reale di Roma but escaped injury, and failed to finish the Coppa Etna. However, she came away from that race with a fastest lap as a consolation.

Sicily did give her a good result on the Targa Florio, where she came twelfth and sixth in the Voiturette class. Her achievement was perhaps overshadowed by the heroics of Elisabeth Junek that year. She was also entered into the Grosser Preis von Deutschland at the Nürburgring, but the bearings failed on her Bugatti. This again was overshadowed by the fatal accident to Elisabeth Junek’s husband and her subsequent retirement.

Margot carried on racing her Bugatti into the early 1930s, mainly at the Nurburgring and Solitude. After the Second World War, she married her third husband Harold Rydon and settled in Africa.

Margot is sometimes confused with another German racer, Bea Gilka-Bötzow, who was part of the Einsiedel family, and sometimes styled as the Countess Einsiedel. She also drove a Bugatti.

(Image from www.bugattibuilder.com)

Elisabeth Junek

This Czech lady is perhaps one of the most famous speedqueens, best known for her heroics on the legendary Targa Florio. Until the arrival of Tomas Enge onto the Formula One scene in 2001, she was also the only Czech to have driven in Grands Prix.

Elisabeth, also known as Eliška Junková, was married to a banker called Čeněk Junek. He was interested in motor racing and competed at national level. Initially, Eliška had little interest in cars, but she warmed to them, and by 1923 was acting as Čeněk’s riding mechanic. She began driving herself in 1924. Her first race was at Pilsen and she came away with a win in the touring car class. She continued to compete in a Bugatti Type 30 known as Babushka in 1925, and soon her achievements on the track began to eclipse her husband's. She won her first race at Zbraslav-Jiloviste that year.

Her first major win came in 1926, an international race held in Prague, with Babushka. Soon afterwards, Elisabeth visited the Bugatti factory and drove away a much newer Type 35. Although she never drove for the works Bugatti team, she was a good friend of Ettore Bugatti and especially his daughter, L'Ebé. Whenever she bought cars from them she always drove them away herself instead of having them delivered. It was in this car that she was runner-up in the 2000cc class of the Klausen hillclimb. She was eleventh overall, after driving through wet, changing conditions for the duration of the twenty-minute climb.

Elisabeth became more ambitious in 1927 and attempted the treacherous Targa Florio for the first time. An accident broke the steering of her Bugatti this time, but she would be back. More pleasing was her fourth place in the German Grand Prix. She won the touring car class and was the first Bugatti home after a fleet of Mercedes-Benzes. That year, she was also scheduled to enter two French races at Montlhèry, but pulled out. No reason is stated for her Grand Prix de l’A.N.C.F., but she decided to enter the Ladies’ event of the Coupe du Salon in October. The result seems to have been lost.

She had unfinished business to attend to in Sicily, so she entered the Targa Florio again in 1928. She caused a sensation by leading for most of the arduous race, until a broken water pump threatened to put her out towards the end. Elisabeth got the problem sorted and fought back to an excellent fifth place. Alberto Divo was the winner.

For a change, Čeněk decided to drive with his wife in the German Grand Prix that year. Unfortunately he was involved in an accident and was killed. Elisabeth retired from motorsport forthwith. It was not until much later that she was coaxed back into a car for some demonstration races. She remained active for most of her life and died, as old as the century, in 1994.

She is credited as being one of the first drivers to recognise the benefits of walking the course before a race, memorising the corners and noting any hazards. This habit served her well on the Targa Florio.

(Image from www.grandprix.com)