Faye Kusairi

 

Faye Kusairi, birth name Dayangku Faratiwan Adnil Binti Awang Kusairi, is a Malaysian driver who is best known for her win in the 2016 Sepang 1000km, as part of a four-driver team in a Proton Suprima.

She has been active in motorsport since 2012 and circuit racing since 2016. Her career began in gymkhana-style events.

Her first races were in the Malaysian Speed Festival and was fourth in the 1600 Race Car series, driving a Honda Jazz. Her best finish was third. Her Sepang win came as part of the Mayhem-FX Tuning team. 

The following year, she formed a female team with Sharina Ramlle for the MSF series, although they did not do the full season. 

She came back to racing in the MSF Super Production series in 2019 after a one-year hiatus, sharing a Honda Civic with Syahmi Mahzan. Her campaign only lasted for the first two races and she did not finish either.

At the end of the year, she returned to the Sepang 1000km in a Proton Saga, finishing sixth overall alongside Leona Chin and Nurul Husna Nasharuddin. All four team members were recruited through the MSF R3 Ladies Racers Search, which was both a mentoring programme for existing women racing in MSF series and a talent search for unaffiliated drivers. The race was the first time that the three drivers had competed together and they had started from 26th and last due to a problem in qualifying.

Away from the track, she is a TV and film actress. Acting as a professional came after she first became involved with cars; her first TV appearances were in 2013.

She was pregnant for a good chunk of 2020 and has spoken since about developing the facial nerve disorder Bell’s Palsy since then.

In 2025, she was back out on track, in the Merdeka Endurance race at Sepang. Her Chevrolet Matiz developed problems on Lap 31 and she and her team-mates did not finish. She also took part in some MSF Super Turismo races.

(Image copyright Faye Kusairi) 

Red Bull Rookies

 

The 2009 Rookies

The Red Bull Rookies became a familiar sight in Malaysian endurance racing between 2008 and 2014. The first Female Driver Search was held in 2007 and the chosen drivers raced a Honda DC2 in the Merdeka Millennium Endurance race. The first official Rookies team was assembled in 2008 and consisted of Malaysian women selected at special events.

The driver search expanded to Singapore and Brunei in 2010. A few male drivers were assessed in 2011.

Each year, a couple of Rookies were retained as “Senior Rookies” to mentor the newcomers alongside non-driving manager Kenvin Low. 

Proton cars were used by later Rookies teams, who usually took part in the Sepang 1000km as well as the Merdeka race.

Like many driver search schemes, it had limited success in launching long-term careers for many of its entrants, although Leona Chin is still racing in 2021 and Siti Shahkirah Shaharul has competed quite extensively away from the team.

Some initial selection events were held in 2014, but no 2015 team was assembled and the project was quietly retired. 

Below is a list of Rookies recruits between 2007 and 2013. Each team competed the season following their selection. Male drivers’ names are in italics.

2007 (Red Bull Female Driver Search)

Philippa Yoong

Deanna Yusoff

Hiroko Nakamura

2008

Puteri Ayu Jasmin

Leona Chin

Baizura Ruslan

Norlina Johor

2009

Diana Chin

Nur Hayati Omar

2010

Malaysia

Carmen Lim

Lee Hui Jing

Brunei

Melline Jaini

Liana Radzak

2011

Malaysia

Siti Shahkirah Shaharul

Mark Darwin

Singapore

Amirah Mokhtar

Emmiline Ang

Brunei

Fauziah Haziz

2012

Singapore

Melissa Huang

Brunei

Siti Zirwatul

2013

Malaysia

Geraldine Read

Brunei

Illy Aquila Fateen Ismail

(Image from http://malaysianracedriver.blogspot.com/)

Women drivers in the Sepang 1000km

 

Faye Kusairi, Nurul Husna Nasharuddin and Leona Chin in 2019

The Sepang 1000km is an annual race for touring cars, normally lasting somewhere between eight and nine hours. It evolved from the Merdeka Millennium Endurance race, held at the same circuit, which included both saloons and sportscars and ran over twelve hours. It was originally run to celebrate the festival of Merdeka (Malaysian independence day).

Cars are limited to 1900cc and are mostly models from Asian manufacturers, including Malaysia’s own Proton.

Women have started every single edition of the race. For several seasons, the Red Bull Rookies team fielded an all-female crew. The 1000km’s first female winner was Faye Kusairi in 2016, driving a Proton as part of a four-person team.

All known women entrants are listed below, although there may be others I have not identified due to language barriers. In the case of a mixed team, the woman’s name always comes first and male drivers’ names are in italics.

2009 

Leona Chin/Puteri Ayu Jasmin/Diana Chin/Nur Hayati Omar (Honda DC2) - 21st

Carmen Lim/Akina Teo/Amir - (Proton Satria) - DNF

2010

Philippa Yoong/Hiroko Nakamura/Frank Yee (Proton Satria Neo) - 15th

Puteri Ayu Jasmin/Noradzlianayati Abdul Radzak/Carmen Lim/Melline Jaini (Honda DC2) - 28th

2011

Puteri Ayu Jasmin/Emmiline Ang/Fauziah Haziz (Honda DC2) - 15th

Hiroko Nakamura/Eric Yeo/Melvin Choo (Proton Satria) - DNF

Amirah Mokhtar/Siti Shahkirah Shaharul/Mark Darwin (Proton Satria) - DNF

2012

Melissa Huang/Siti Zirwatul (Proton Satria) - 13th

2013

Siti Shahkirah Shaharul/Siti Zirwatul Irdah (Proton Satria Neo) - 11th

2014

Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/KJ Yee/YC Foo - (Proton Satria Neo) 9th

Siti Shahkirah Shaharul/Illy Aquila/Geraldine Read (Proton Satria Neo) - 12th

2015

Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/YC Foo/KJ Yee/Nasharuddin (Suzuki Swift) - 8th

Geraldine Read/Wong Yat Fan (Suzuki Swift) - DNF

2016

Faye Kusairi/Kefili Othman/Djan Ley/Zizan Razak (Proton Suprima S) - winners

2017

Leona Chin/Kenneth Shak/Woo Siew Chong/Chong Yee Hing (Suzuki Swift) - 9th

Rina Ito/Tomokazu Sato/Ken Foo Kwok Hsing (Toyota Vios) - 16th

2018

Leona Chin/Dato Nasri Said/Kefili Othman/Alifa Hamdan (Toyota Vios) - 7th

Joan Lee/Steven Wan/Goh Eng Peng (Toyota Vios) - 18th

Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/Shasha Shafie/Boey Chai (Suzuki Swift) - 31st

2019

Leona Chin/Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/Faye Kusairi (Proton Saga) - 6th

Angeline Lee/Siti Shahkirah Shaharul (Toyota Vios) - 28th

2020

No race held

2021

Leona Chin/Mohd Nasri Bin Md Said/Yik Choon/Akina Teo (Suzuki Swift) - winners

Natasha Seatter/Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/Muizuddin Musyaffa (Honda City) - 29th

Dilys Lee/Alfred Chong Seong Huat/Choo Chia Chin (Proton Satria Neo) - 30th

Shasha Shafie/Fikri Rahmin/Syafiq Samsudin (Toyota Vios) - 31st

2022

Rina Ito/Takahisa Ohno/Karurosu Honda/Ng Kim Ngee (Suzuki Swift) - 13th

Nurul Auni Nasharuddin/Mohd Yuszaidi/Nasharuddin Abd Aziz (Toyota Vios) - 33rd

Siti Shahkirah Shaharul/Monica Picca/Zulaikha Ahmad (Suzuki Swift) - 42nd

Leona Chin/Adele Lew (Toyota Vios) - 44th

Akina Teo Chai Yong/Eddie Lew Karwai (Toyota Vios) - DNF

2023

Gladys Lam/Roni Risman/Azmeer Yusri Yusof (Suzuki Swift) - 32nd

Nurul Auni Nasharduddin/Loke Yin Yi (Toyota Vios) - 37th

Leona Chin/Mark Chew Shin Wong/Danny Chin Hwa Lip (Suzuki Swift) - 58th

2024

Sophia Zara/Mohd Shafiq Samsudin/Kelvin Yap Su Deng (Toyota Vios) - 39th

Genevieve Ooi/Charlie Hine/Alex Hine (Suzuki Swift Sport) - 48th

2025

Leona Chin/Mark Chew Shin Wong/Kenny Chan Wai Ying (Suzuki Swift)- 18th

Genevieve Ooi/Alister Yoong/Aman Nagdev (Toyota Vios) - 22nd

Audrey Leong Qi/Keiko Wong/Sitatun Pikulkajorn (Toyota Vios) - 27th

Nurul Auni Nasharuddin/Rafim Gaith Daniel (Toyota Vios) - 29th

Sofia Zara/Mohd Shafiq Samsudin/Amerul Arieff Wahid/Kelvin Yap Su Deng (Toyota Vios) - 35th

(Image copyright Proton)

Siti Shahkirah Shaharul

 

Siti Shakirah Shaharul, often known as Siti Shahkirah, is a Malaysian driver who mainly competes in endurance racing.

She began her senior career as one of the winners of the Red Bull Rookies driver search in 2011, aged just seventeen. Red Bull Rookies had been a female-only competition previously, but that year it had both male and female winners. Although she got her break through a competition, she was not new to motorsport as a whole and had been karting since the age of nine. At the end of 2010 she trained at the Petronas Formula Xperience Racing Academy.

Her prize drive was a seat in a Red Bull Proton Satria for the Sepang 1000km. She also took part in a Malaysian Grand Prix support race in the same car, which counted as a round of the Malaysian Super Series. 

After 2011, she was retained as a driver by the Red Bull Rookies team and did at least two more Sepang 1000km races in 2013 and 2014. Her co-driver in 2013 was a Bruneian driver named Siti Zirwatul Iradah Awang Adninin. They were eleventh. The following year she was twelfth overall, with fellow Rookies Geraldine Read and Illy Aquila. 

In 2018, she made her single-seater debut in the Southeast Asia Formula 4 championship, taking part in the last six races at Sepang. Her best results were three eighth places.

She was one of the 60 drivers chosen to try out for the all-female W Series, but she was eliminated after the first round of assessments.

She returned to her favourite haunt, Sepang in 2019 for the 1000km race, partnering Angeline Lee in a Toyota Vios for the Hi-Rev SIC Dream Chaser team. They were 29th overall and won the Vios Enduro class. The same pair tackled the race again in 2020, in a similar car. 

Leading an all-female team, she had another go at the Sepang 1000km in 2022. She drove a Suzuki Swift with celebrity racers Monica Picca and Zulaikha Ahmad and finished 42nd overall.

(Image copyright Siti Shahkirah)

Diana Poon

 

The 1976 Macau Grand Prix

Diana Poon is a Hong Kong driver who was the first woman to race a single-seater and the Macau Grand Prix.

She entered several of the big Formula Pacific races held in southeast Asia in the 1970s. 

In 1976, she became the first female driver to race in the Macau Guia, in a single-seater. She was also part of the only couple to race against each other there, with her husband, Albert Poon. They always raced together, or to be more accurate, against one another.

Her car was a Formula 3-spec machine, almost certainly a Brabham BT40 with a 1600cc Hart engine, formerly raced by her husband and Australian Kevin Bartlett. Her finishing position is unclear. 

Later, in 1979, she drove the Brabham with some small successes. She was apparently based in Malaysia that year. Her best finish was fifth in the Penang Grand Prix, and she was also ninth in the Malaysian Grand Prix, held at Batu Tiga. She did not finish the Selangor Grand Prix. 

After that, she seems to vanish from the starting lists. The Poons separated at some point and this may be the reason. A future owner of the Brabham found that it had been badly damaged at some point, which could be another explanation.

Very little information about Diana is easily obtainable. It is unclear what her background was, whether she remarried or whether she is still alive. 

(Image copyright Motor Sport Magazine)

Sneha Sharma

 

Sneha Sharma is a single-seater racer from India.

She has done most of her racing in Formula 4 in India, as part of the JK Tyres Racing Championship. This is not the same as FIA F4 and race results are therefore harder to find. 

She began her single-seater career in 2013, after several years of karting, which gave her several notable wins. She also did a part-season in the 2010 Volkswagen Polo one-make cup. Her early attempts to get a foothold in the Indian motorsport scene were manufacturer-sponsored one-make series where she tried to win sponsored drives. She tried to get onto the Toyota Etios programme and did at least an exhibition race in the car in 2012. At around the same time, she got into the final five of a Mercedes young driver programme, setting a speed record. 

In 2016, she continued in the JK Tyres series, and was tenth in the championship. It was based around the Kari circuit at Coimbatore and she had one of her more successful years, picking up fifth and sixth places. 

Sneha has also raced in the VW Polo Cup and the Toyota Etios one-make championship, and got into the final twelve of a Mercedes driver development challenge in India. 

In 2019, she attempted to qualify for the women-only W Series, but did not get past the first round. She intended to spend the season moving between the Formula RGB India championship and Southeast Asian Formula 4, although she does not appear to have entered the Indian series. She was tenth in the F4 series for Meritus GP, with a best finish of fifth at Sepang. Of the four female drivers entered that year, she was the best by quite a long way.

Her F4 top ten was not her only race in Malaysia; she entered the first rounds of the Proton Saga Cup for DV Motorsports. 

Her activities in 2020 were limited by the worldwide coronavirus crisis, although she did keep her hand in with some karting.

She has worked as an airline pilot since 2012, when she was 22. Her training was undertaken in Malaysia and the USA. She started at age 17 and took a break from karting to do so.  

(Image from Makers India)

Anne Wong

Anne Wong is a Singaporean driver best known as the winner of the 1970 Macau Grand Prix race, in a Mini.

Born in 1949, she was quite well-travelled as a teenager, moving between Singapore and Malaysia. Both her father and uncle were involved in the local motorsport scene and Anne picked up an enthusiasm for cars. She had learned to drive at the age of twelve and passed her test at sixteen.

In the late 1960s she was living in the UK and attending college. She enrolled in the Motor Racing Stables driving school at Brands Hatch, but did not finish the course. It was only when she returned to Singapore and watched a friend racing a car that her father had prepared that she made her real start in motorsport. The car was a Hillman Imp; she planned to try racing it herself but did not make any starts in it.

Her first big race was in 1970, although she may have taken part in some club rallies or autotests earlier. She entered the Singapore Grand Prix, then held on a 4.8km street circuit. Her car was a Mini Cooper, which unfortunately did not last the distance.

A few weeks later, she raced in Malaysia for the first time. She took the Mini to the Batu Tiga track at Shah Alam and finished third in a race there. In April, she won the under-1000cc class at the Selangor Grand Prix.

At the end of the year, she entered the same car into the Macau Grand Prix, in the touring car race. She started from last on the 30-car grid, having only just qualified. There was an additional worry about an attack of german measles that almost kept her from the track.

Anne steadily progressed up the grid and took the lead after Johnny Leffler’s Ford Escort suffered a broken differential and Dieter Quester’s works BMW lost its gears.

Her Macau win led to offers of drives all over the Asia-Pacific region. In June 1971, she raced at Wanneroo Park in Australia, sharing a Mini with Australian driver Ric Lisle in a six-hour enduro. They were leading their class when a piston cracked after an hour and a half.

Shortly after that, she was set to travel to Manila for the Philippines Grand Prix. She did not make the start for reasons unknown, but she did predict that the race would be won by a Mini Cooper S in the Straits Times newspaper. She had already declined an entry in the BP Rally in order to concentrate on the Philippines race.

The invitation to race in Australia came while she was driving in another rally, the Rothmans event, in Hong Kong. For a change, she was driving a Simca 1200 offered by National Motors of Hong Kong. She did not finish after an off into some water.

Her second attempt at the Singapore Grand Prix was more fruitful. She was seventh overall in the Mini from 26 starters, and her top ten was in spite a lengthy pitstop to deal with a loose exhaust.

She tried again in at Macau too, and was seventh, in the Mini. This was one of her first events with her new sponsorship from Malaysia Singapore Airlines (MSA). By now, she was a popular media figure; this was helped by her sideline as a motoring journalist for the Straits Times and other papers.

Announcements at the start of 1972 proclaimed that Anne would be taking part in fifteen events, including some of the saloon rounds of the Tasman Series in Australia. Her first event was the Manila Grand Prix. She was billed as racing against 173 men, but the results are proving hard to find. She may also have taken part in another Singapore Grand Prix.

In April, she did her first race in Indonesia, when she entered the Penang Grand Prix. Later in the year, she won the saloon race at the Indonesian Grand Prix, held at Antjol. She started from third and defeated eleven other drivers.

Her third Macau Grand Prix ended in disaster. She had qualified fifth on the grid but had to retire on the first lap due to a fire in her Mini. It turned out to be an electrical short-circuit.

By this time, she was having trouble with sponsorship. MSA had become Singapore International Airways and they dragged their feet providing the funding for the Macau race. In early 1973, she pulled out of the Singapore Grand Prix, having sold her Mini. She said in the Straits Times that it was “not economical for a private entry to try and compete against factory teams.”

She did race at the Malaysian Grand Prix in a V8 Ford Fairmont, but she found it too wide for the narrow circuit. Her own write-up of the event suggested that she had won, but in fact she had been black-flagged. She later apologised in print.

In May, she was entered in to the Penang Grand Prix in an Alfa Romeo Berlina, but it is not clear whether she actually started the race.

She retired from the circuits in 1974 and continued to work as a journalist, as well as an advertising executive. In June, she made her debut as a jockey, winning a pro-am ladies’ race at Bukit Timah.

In 1979 she was the official starter for the Malaysian Grand Prix. She was not quite able to get her need for speed out of her system and reappeared in the Singapore press in 1984, this time racing powerboats. Six years later, in 1990, she entered the Rally of Singapore for the first time in almost twenty years.

She continued to work in advertising. Later, she married.

(Image copyright Straits Times)

Leona Chin

Leona Chin came to prominence as a member of Malaysia’s Red Bull Rookies all-female driving squad in 2008. She beat many other young Malaysian women to the coveted team spot.

She was sixth in Class B in the Merdeka Millennium Challenge in 2008, driving a Honda DC2 with Puteri Ayu Jasmin, Norlina Johor and Norbaizura Ruslan. They had qualified first in their class.

Prior to her first year as a Rookie, she had not done any circuit racing, but she had done some drifting, which is very popular in Southeast Asia, competing since 2006. She got into drifting and the modified car scene as a teenager. As soon as she was old enough to own a car, she got involved herself.

In 2009, she tackled the Sepang 1000km in a Honda DC2, with Puteri, Diana Chin and Nur Hayati Omar. They were 21st and fourteenth in class. Her calendar also took in rallysprint events in the MAM Championship, winning a Ladies’ and Junior title. Her car was a two-litre Proton Satria.

She raced a Honda in the Ultimate Challenge in 2010. The Challenge is a Honda-sponsored amateur motorsport competition, involving karting and circuit racing.

2011 was mostly spent drifting, although she did take part in the HPC 4-hour endurance race in Malaysia, and was fourth in class, driving a Mazda Miata. She also did some Autocross grass racing. Although she did not do much wheel to wheel racing, her profile remained high, due to promotional work and TV appearances.

In 2012, she continued with drifting, time attack, gymkhana and grass racing, and did some speed events in 2013, using a Radical, among other cars. For the next three seasons, she competed around Southeast Asia, winning several ladies’ prizes and becoming something of a name in the modified car scene.

She returned to the circuits in 2015. This was a new challenge, as she was racing a Caterham, and she had not really driven an open sportscar before. She was competitive from the beginning. In only her second race, at Sepang, she won the Supersport class. Out of the eight races she did, all ended in podium finishes.

At the end of the year, she also drove a Subaru Impreza in the 6-Hour Endurance race at Guangdong Raceway, as part of a four-driver team with Sam Lau, Xi Xu Ping and Sun Qiang. They were fourth in class. Her promotional activities this year were also more circuit-focused, and included autocrossing against Jari-Matti Latvala for the launch of the VW Polo Trophy model in Malaysia.

For 2016, she stuck with one-make series and travelled to China to compete in the Renault Clio Cup. This was a move that paid off; she was immediately on the pace, and on the podium. In her second race, at Zhuhai, she was third, and then scored two seconds in Korea. She was second in the championship, with seven top-three finishes in total. Throughout the season, she was never lower than fifth.

She entered a round of the 2018 Mini Challenge Asia at Zhuhai and finished third overall.

In 2019, she raced in the Malaysian Championship series, driving a Suzuki Swift. She was second in the MTC class for saloon cars, with three wins from nine races plus three further podiums.

Driving for a different team in a different car (a Proton Saga), she entered the Sepang 1000km as part of an all-female team with Faye Kusairi and Nurul Husna Nasaruddin. They were seventh.

2020 wa meant to be spent in the Asian GT World Challenge, driving a Mercedes GT3 for Malaysian Legacy Racing. As motorsport was seriously affected by the worldwide coronavirus crisis, she had to make do with the Esports version.

She raced in the Malaysian Championship Series in 2021, held at Sepang the end of the year. Driving a Suzuki Swift, she won the M-Production class outright, with two race wins. The first was a dominant peformance ending in a lead of over a minute. She had to wait two more races to even finish, but a win in the final round was enough. This was impressive in a different way as she had started at the back. 

A switch of car to a Honda Fit Gk5 was on the cards for 2022, still in the Malaysian Championship series. She initially joined the Bhp Racing team, but the car was not really competitive and she only did the first two rounds. Later in the year, she drove a Toyota Vios in the Sepang 1000km, sharing with Adele Lew. They were 44th overall.

Another run in the Sepang 1000km in 2023, was not a success either. As part of a four-driver team in a Suzuki Swift, she could only manage 58th place. She entered the Macau Guia 70th anniversary race in a Honda, having scrambled to get sponsorship together, but it was not enough and she could not race.

She did finally get to race at Macau in 2024, taking part in the Greater Bay Area GT Cup in a Porsche 718 Cayman. She qualified in 20th and finished 15th. The race itself had more than one safety car period to clear up after crashes and she was the only Cayman finisher. 

Her Malaysian Championship Series in 2024 had ended before it began, when her Suzuki Swift was written off after being hit by another driver during the first round. Later in the year, she geared up for her Macau debut with a run in the Shanghai 8 Hours, driving the Cayman with two team-mates. They were third overall on a wet track.

She returned to the MTCC in 2025. The four-round championship was based at Sepang. Her car was a Suzuki Swift and she became one of the quicker drivers in the TP2 class, despite some early problems which prevented her from chasing outright wins. She also raced in the Lotus Cup China for its Sepang visit, finishing third overall on second-hand tyres. Late in the season, she returned for the Sepang 1000km and was 18th overall with two team-mates.

Leona has many sponsors, for whom she makes appearances in the Asian media. As well as racing herself, she runs her own car accessories firm, Kuraz Motorsports, and works as a stunt driver for TV.

(Image from http://leona.kurazmotorsports.com/)  

Female Rally Drivers After 1950: Malaysia

Gina Finanza Daud in 2014

For most of its history, Malaysian rallying has been a largely male-only enclave, apart from a few overseas drivers. In recent years, home-grown female drivers have started to compete, and their numbers can only increase.

Rohani Ahmad - Malaysian driver who competes in the Malaysian championship. She did her first rally in 2012, in a Proton Satria, and was eleventh in the fourth round of the Malaysian championship. Still in the Satria, which is the car of choice for many Malaysian drivers, she entered three rallies in 2013. She finished eleventh in the Rally of Perlis, and eighteenth in the Malaysian Rally and the International Rally of Perak. In 2014, she drove in the International Rally of Perak, but did not finish. 

Gina Finanza Daud - has been competing regularly in Malaysian rallies since 2011. Her car is always a Proton Satria. Her first attempt at the Rally of Malaysia in 2011 gave her a class win, and 18th overall. She did not rally much in 2012, but came back in 2013, and scored her first top ten, a tenth place in the Perak Rally, as well as eleventh in her third Malaysian Rally. In 2014, she achieved another two top tens, a ninth in the International Rally of Perak, and an eighth in the Rally Negeri Sembilan. She did her first rally as a driver in 2008, the Jaya One Rally, and then continued to compete as a co-driver for at least a season. As well as rallying, she competes in circuit races in Malaysia, driving a Honda DC2. She originally got into motorsport through her management of Malaysian driver, Sutan Mustaffa Salihin. In 2016, she was part of the stewarding team for the Rally of Malaysia. She made a driving comeback in 2017 and won the Malaysian Classic Car rally championship. Her car was a Proton Saga. In 2018, it was back to current machinery. She rallied a Proton Satria and had a best finish of twelfth in the Rally of Terengganu. 

Fadzilah Mamat – began her competition career in Malaysia in 2015. Her first rally was the Rally Negeri Sembilan, the second round of the championship, on gravel. She drove a Proton Satria, and was fourteenth overall, third in class. In August, she took part in her first Malaysian Rally, and was 21^st, with another class third, in the same car. This was in spite of ending up in a ditch on the first day. She did some co-driving for Ahmad Amir in 2016. 

(Image from http://origin.hmetro.com.my/)

Natasha Seatter

Natasha wins in 2011

Natasha is a well-travelled Malaysian driver, active since 2009, with race wins in different series, in different countries, to her name. She is half-American and was born in Malaysia.

Following four years of karting, she began her senior career by winning all four races of the Petronas Formula Xperience rookie driver competition, in a Formula BMW. This series was one of the supports for the Merdeka Millennium Endurance race, and therefore a big stage on which to perform.

This was followed by a year in Asian Formula BMW in 2010. Now, Natasha was competing against drivers from all over Asia and beyond, including future Formula One drivers, Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jr, many of which were far more experienced than her. She managed a best finish of tenth, at Guangdong, and was 20^th in the championship.

In 2011, she continued in Formula BMW in Asia, now rebranded as the JK Racing Asia Series. She improved her best finish to fifth, in Singapore, and was a regular fixture in the top ten. Her final position was tenth.

During the winter season between 2011 and 2012, she travelled to the United Arab Emirates to contest the Formula Gulf 1000 series, held in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Natasha was on the pace straight away, and was second in her first race, at Dubai. Later in the season, in February, she won her first race, again at the Dubai circuit. She also achieved another second place, and three thirds. Unfortunately, she missed the first two rounds, and as a result, does not seem to have been classified.

In between, she managed two rounds of Formula Pilota China, in Mongolia, gaining two third places, plus another third in a ladies’ VW Polo Cup race in India, and seventh in a mixed VW Cup race. Back at home, she drove a VW Scirocco in the Merdeka Millennium endurance race, and was 19^th, driving as part of the Scirocco team with Angus Kirkwood and Noel Edward Becker.

During the 2012-13 winter season, she competed in fourteen rounds of Formula Gulf, and walked away with seven wins, plus two second places. She was the runaway winner of the championship.

She drove in two rounds of the 2013 Asian Porsche Carrera Cup, a first for a female driver. These races yielded a thirteenth and 17^th place, at Shanghai.

For most of 2013, she raced in the Malaysian Super Series, in a Radical SR8. For the endurance part of the championship, she was joined by her father, Stewart Seatter, who also races in the Asia Pacific region. They were second in the second round, at Sepang. Natasha was second in the championship, after a battle with Angus Kirkwood, her former team-mate. She scored four podium finishes.

Late in the season, she rejoined Formula Gulf for its two Dubai races, and won both of them.

In 2014, she entered the South Korean rounds of the GT Asia championship, in an Aston Martin Vantage. She was eighth and ninth at the Jeollanamdo circuit, driving for the Craft Bamboo team with Tacksung Kim. Her first race earned her a “Best Performing Driver” award, for climbing to seventh from eleventh place, then fighting back to eighth, following a safety car period and a drive-through penalty.

Unfortunately, Natasha did not race for the rest of the year. Her plans for 2015 were unclear, but she did express an interest in contesting the Australian V8 Supercar series in the future. Continuing recovery from an injury kept her out of competition in 2015 and she retired for seven years.

She was persuaded back by the BHP Petrol Racing Team, who initially got her to race for them in a six-hour kart enduro. This led to a drive in the first two rounds of the Malaysian Touring Car championship, in which she finished second and third. She also partnered Nurul Husna Nasharuddin and Muizuddin Musyaffa for the Sepang 1000km, driving a Honda City. They were 29th overall.

Natasha and Nurul planned to race together in 2022, although this does not seem to have happened. As of 2025, Natasha manages the Janes Racing Team in Malaysia, and has been urging Malaysia's drivers and engineers to return and support their domestic motorsport scene.

(Image copyright CircuitProDigital) 

Female Single-Seater Drivers Around the World: Southeast Asia

Alexandra Asmasoebrata

Most of the entries in this post have been split off from Circuit Racers in Southeast Asia. Diana Poon, Juju Noda, Michele Bumgarner, Miki Koyama, Ai Miura, Bianca Bustamante, Gaby dela Merced, Vivian Siu, Diana Rosario and Natasha Seatter now have their own posts.

Kotoka Goibuchi - raced in Japanese Formula 4 in 2017. She did most of the season with CSI - Reon Kids Racing and had a best finish of fourteenth, at Sugo. This was her third season of F3, following two shorter part-seasons in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, she raced for the Silver Star team and scored a surprise podium at Motegi, finishing third. She does not appear to have raced in 2018.

Grace Gui (Gui Meng) - Chinese racer who was second in the “B” class of the Asian Formula Renault championship in 2017. Her car was an older-spec Formula Renault 2.0. She scored her best outright finish at Sepang in Malaysia, a tenth place with a class win. She does not appear to have raced in 2018 but was involved with the all-female W Series in 2019. She made it through two rounds of selections but was let go. According to some, this was due to crashing a car during testing.

Ayaka Imahashi – races for the miNami aoYama Project team in Japanese Formula 4. She was born in 1995. In 2015, she did two rounds of the series, driving for the same team, and managed 25^th and 28^th at Fuji. She sometimes competed alongside Miki Koyama. In 2016, she did another part-season in Japanese F4, but only finished one of her races. This was at Okayama, where she was 22nd. She also tried rallying in a Toyota GT86, entering the Montre in Tsumagoi Rally. In 2021, she raced in the Japanese Inter Proto one-make series, winning at least one race. 

Kareen Kaur - driver from Singapore who began her career in cars in 2025, aged 15. She first raced in the Indian F4 series, driving for the Chennai Turbo Riders team. In the first race at Kari Motor Speedway, she was thirteenth and tenth, but this improved to one seventh place at Chennai in Round 2. At the start of September, she also made a guest appearance in the F4 SEA championship at Sepang, finishing eleventh and tenth. Previously, she was a karter from the age of nine, and her country's highest-ranked female competitor.

Akiko Kobayashi - raced in Asian Formula BMW in 2003. She was not one of the front-runners, but finished most rounds, and managed to score a few top-ten positions. Her best finish seems to have been eighth, at Goldenport.

Vernice Lao - Macanese driver who began racing cars in 2025, aged 15. She entered the fourth round of the Chinese F4 championship, for the Asia Racing Team, at Chengdu. All four races ended in finishes, the best of these being a thirteenth place. She combined her single-seater debut with karting and qualified for that year's IAME Asia final.

Selina Li - Chinese driver who raced in the Formula Renault Super Challenge in 2022. She did a part-season with the FRD Racing team and was thirteenth in the championship, scoring a sixth and fifth at Zhouzhou. The season was disrupted by China’s Covid measures and she missed out on another couple of rounds. Little other information is available about her, other than that she may have been active in karting before tackling Formula Renault.

Cherie Schloemer – ex-pat racer in Southeast Asia in the late 1970s. She and her husband, Del, both raced a Chevron B20 during the 1977 and 1978 seasons, in their adopted home country of Thailand and Malaysia. In 1979, Cherie, driving solo, entered the biggest race of her career, the Selangor Grand Prix in Malaysia. Her car was a Chevron B34, but the engine blew and she did not finish. She does not appear to have raced after that.

Shi Wei - competed in the Shanghai round of F1 Academy in 2025, as a wildcard entry. She crashed out of the first race, then finished fourteenth in the second. She has been racing in F4 since 2023, when she did a part-season in the Chinese F4 series. She raced at Ningbo and Zhuhai, earning a best finish of sixth at Ningbo. This was enough for second in the rookie championship. In 2024, she did another part-season, racing only at Shanghai, and managed another sixth place in the first round. That year, she also raced a Hongqi H5 and a Toyota Supra in the China Endurance Championship. She scored two class wins in the Toyota at Zhuhai and two second places in the Hongqi.

(Image from http://www.talkmen.com/articles/read/378/women-we-love-12-alexandra-asmasoebrata/)