Susann Bergvall (Hansen)

Susann Bergvall is a Swedish rallycross driver who is still the only woman to win an FIA-sanctioned rallycross title.

She is mainly known for her successes in the 1400cc class of the European Championship in the 1990s, after several years of running on a very low budget. She had begun her career in folkrace at the age of 18, driving a Volvo, before switching to rallycross in a Volvo 240. 

A couple of years in Swedish championships followed, including a run in a women-only category in 1988. She was not even able to afford wet tyres for some events and mostly competed for fun. This changed when she joined forces with Kenneth Hansen in 1990. They ran their team together, with both of them competing, and gained significant support. In 1993, they were approached by Citroen to run their works cars and Susann found herself with a really competitive car for the first time.

Her title win came in 1994, driving a Citroen AX Sport. She won three rounds outright at Lousada (Portugal), Lyngas in Norway and Estering in Germany. Her nearest rival, Manfred Beck, only finished fifth at Estering, which secured her the championship.

In 1995, she was fifth in the European 1400 Cup, driving two different AX models for the Hansen team. This was her last season of racing. 

After that, she left active competition, but stayed involved in rallycross through management within the Hansen team. She introduced them to working with data logging, a role she still carries out, but which was quite a new concept in 1995.

She and Hansen married and rallycross drivers Timmy and Kevin Hansen are their sons. Timmy was nearly two when Susann won her European title.

(Image copyright Hansen World RX Team)

Camilla Antonsen

Camilla Antonsen is a rallycross driver who was the  winner of the North European Zone 4WD Championship in 2010. Her car was a Ford Fiesta ST. This was the first of two rallycross championships she has won.

Rallycross is the discipline for which she is best known, but she began with a mixture of autocross and rallying in the 1990s. Her first car was an Opel Corsa which she used in 1992 and 1993. 

Her first season as a rallycross driver appears to have been in 1998, when she entered the Norwegian series.

She continued to try out different motorsport opportunities in Norway. Between 2002 and 2004, she also made various starts in the Norwegian Touring Car championship, driving a Vauxhall Vectra. Her best results were two podiums in 2003, leading to a seventh place in the series. 

Her name first appears in the NEZ Rallycross entry lists in 2007, driving a Skoda Fabia. She was fourth overall in the Open class at Nysum in Denmark. At the same meeting the following year, she was third in the Open class but also raced a Vauxhall Astra in the Super 2000 class, finishing fourteenth. She later appeared at her home round in Norway and was fifth in Open, driving the Fabia. 

A switch to a Ford Focus brought her a debut NEZ Open class win in 2009, at her lucky Nysum circuit in Denmark. This was followed up in 2010 by another win at Vilkycial in Lithuania, driving a Ford Fiesta in the 4WD class. This was her first of two wins as she also came out on top at Riga, as well as a second place at Nysum.

In 2011, she was second in the NEZ 4WD championship, as well as taking part in the Scandinavian rounds of the European Championship and the top-level Norwegian series. She scored one NEZ win in Lithuania.

She won the renamed Supercar division of the 2012 Norwegian championship, in the Fiesta. This was a clean sweep of wins. She was also seventh in the NEZ 4WD championship after winning the Norwegian round. 

She switched to rallying in 2013, in a BMW M3. Rallying had been part of her motorsport schedule on and off since 2011, when she drove a Volvo in Norway and occasionally, Sweden. The Volvo had been in her possession since about 1999.

The BMW was another car that she returned to over and over again between 2013 and 2019. In 2014, she scored her first top twenty finish, coming 19th in the Numedalsrally. Later, the M3 proved very suited to rallysprint events. The Gardemosprinten in Norway was her best event; she was eleventh in 2017 and runner-up in 2019. This came in the same year as a fifth place in the Mjavannsprinten and sixth in the Kongsvinger Rallysprint.

She rallied a couple of other cars during this time, including a Renault Twingo in 2014 and a Subaru Impreza in 2017, although she was not as successful as she was in her BMW.

Rallycross had not been forgotten either. In 2014, she raced a Ford Fiesta in the European championship for part of the year, in the Touring Car class. She won one round at Buxtehude in Germany. This was the first win for a woman driver in the Touring class and only the second-ever female European rallycross win ever, after Susann Bergvall in 1994.

She was back in the European rallycross championship for 2015, in the Fiesta. Her best finish was sixth in Belgium and she was eleventh in the championship. 

Her 2016 season in the ERC Touring class was an indifferent one and her Fiesta looks to have been sold at the end of the year. She switched to a newer Citroen DS3 for 2017 but was only able to enter the Norwegian round of the ERC. Another new car in 2018, an Audi A1 this time, was a more successful substitution. She was fifth in the ERC Touring championship , with a best finish of fourth in Sweden.

She did not compete in the 2019 ERC and concentrated on rallying the BMW. Her 2020 plans were sent into disarray, thanks to the worldwide disruption of motorsport in 2020 by the coronavirus epidemic, but she did manage the Grimstad Rally in Norway in her BMW. She and co-driver Anniken Storsveen were 22nd overall.

In 2021 she did two rallies in the BMW, including a sixth place in the Kongsvinger Rallysprint, and one in a Volvo 940, the Rally Finnskog. Her first rally of 2022 was also in the Volvo. Apart from the Rally Larvik, she used the Volvo all year, earning a best finish of 16th in the Rally Trogstad. Her co-driver was Anniken Storsveen.

The same car, co-driver and driver combination came ninth in the 2023 Trogstad Rally.

She rallied both the Volvo and the BMW in 2024. The BMW gave her her best result, seventh in the Rally Grimstad Sydsprinten.