Barbara Johansson

Barbara Johansson was a Swedish race and rally driver most active in the 1960s. She usually drove small cars and is most associated with the Mini. She was nicknamed "Bra-Bra" by the Swedish press, with "bra" translating here as "good".

Barbara was born in the USA to Swedish parents, although she lived her entire adult life in Sweden. She had always been interested in cars and enjoyed driving fast in her parent's Ford V8 when going to and from the stables where she kept her horses. After her marriage, she began her motorsport career in speedboats, sharing a vessel with her husband. Her husband worked for a Peugeot dealership and it was at the suggestion of his boss that she tried out motor racing. She won her first event, driving a Peugeot 203.

She was highly successful in the Swedish Touring Car Championship and won a Group 2 race outright, at Knutstorp in 1964. Her car was a Mini Cooper run by the works BMC team. She was also second at Falkenberg and fourth at Skarpnack, and would have been Group 2 champion without a couple of non-finishes. According to a story, DKW driver Sigurd Isaakson said that if she beat him in a race, he would withdraw from the championship. She did defeat him in 1964, albeit in a different class, and he did go home.

Her first STCC appearance was in 1960, at Karlskoga, where she drove a Peugeot 403 and finished tenth, eight laps down. Sharing the same car with Jan Englund and Carl-Erik Linn, she was 21st in the end-of-season enduro at Skarpnack. 

In 1961, she appeared in the same race, driving a Renault Dauphine this time. Her co-drivers were Gunnar Friberg and Lars-Erik Tisell and they were 17th overall. This was as part of a Renault dealer team who were trying to gain attention by employing a female driver.

She then disappears from the STCC entry lists until 1964. She did two rounds of the championship in 1965, finishing one, at Karlskoga, in fifth place. Again, she was driving a Mini.

The 1966 STCC featured Barbara and her Mini racing in its mid-season events. She was tenth at Skarpnack, eighth at Karlskoga and twelfth at Falmarksbanen. After this, BMC began to scale back its motorsport activities and could no longer support her.

After touring cars, she also raced single-seaters. Photos exist of her competing in Formula Vee in 1967, although results are not readily available. Her car was a German-designed Dolling. By this time, she had separated from her husband and was combining her competition career with bringing up two children, helped by a nanny. She went back to racing boats, continuing to compete on and off until the early '70s.

Alongside her racing career, she competed in rallies. When BMC Sweden's representative Bosse Elmhorn saw her competing in local ice races and rallies, it was their rally team she was originally signed up for. Her team-mate was Harry Kallstrom, In a reflection of her track activitiy, she had already entered the Swedish Midnight Sun Rally in 1960, in a Peugeot 403, and the same event in 1961, in a works-supported Renault Gordini. She was also on the entry list for the Malarallyt.

In 1963, she was part of the BMC set-up. She was assigned a Mini Cooper for the Midnight Sun Rally, but then switched to an MG 1100 for three more Swedish events. At the end of the year, she did her first overseas rally, the RAC Rally in the UK, driving the Mini with Sheila Taylor. Sadly, the suspension failed when they were in fifth place.

A regular partnership with Margot Bradhe formed for 1964. Apparently, Margot was a calming influence on Barbara's aggressive driving style; she did not believe in lifting off the throttle. They drove the Mini Cooper almost exclusively and entered the Monte Carlo Rally for the first time, although they do not seem to have finished. Barbara's best finish was a 24th place in the Midnight Sun event, There were 138 finishers that year and many more starters. Later in the year, she won the Ladies' prize in the Jamt Rally.

Her last year as a rally driver was in 1965. BMC were already scaling back by then and she was back in a Renault 8 Gordini. She and Inga-Lill Edenring entered the Midnight Sun Rally, but do not appear to have finished.

She died in 2013, aged 80.

(For reference, Tommy Lyngborn's 2014 article provided a lot of the additional information here.)

Image copyright Upplands Museum, Sweden.

Greta Molander

Greta as a Saab driver, in 1951

Greta is probably best known as a works Saab driver from the 1950s. She competed from the 1930s to the 1970s, but was most successful in the ‘50s, winning many Coupes des Dames.

She was born Greta Ohlson in Ystad, Sweden, in 1908. Her parents ran a hotel. They both died within months of each other in 1927, leaving a considerable amount of money and possessions to their daughter. Sadly, a poor investment meant that she had to sell most of this, keeping only one car.

Unusually for the time, she had learned to drive as a teenager, and entered her first rally in 1929, driving her father’s La Salle car. It was a women’s event, and she was last. Four years later, she won the Swedish Rikspokal for rallying, in a borrowed Plymouth.

In 1934, she started her first major international rally, the Monte Carlo, from Umeå in the north of Sweden. Her car was another Plymouth. She repeated this feat in 1935, and was rewarded with a finish, in 30^th place. On her fourth try, she won her first Monte Carlo Coupe des Dames, finishing 24^th in her Plymouth. In a particularly strong year for female drivers, she was third in the 1938 women’s standings, despite coming 19^th overall. During the 1930s, she was active in Plymouths and other American cars in Norwegian rallies.

In 1938, she married Kaare Barth (Petrus), a Norwegian writer, and settled in Norway. She always competed under the name “Molander”, seemingly the name of a first husband, despite enjoying a long and happy marriage to Petrus.

She switched from American cars to a DKW for 1939, but does not seem to have finished, and rallying then halted for World War II.

Norway was occupied by the Germans for much of the war. Greta is said to have been jailed at one point, for insulting a German officer.

Rallying returned to Monte Carlo in 1949, and Greta came with it. She was 52^nd, in a Dodge.

Her relationship with the Saab marque began in 1950, in the Monte again. She was one of the first works drivers they employed. The Saab 92 had just been launched, and Greta drove one to 55^th place, starting at Stockholm. She was actually the first of the two Saab finishers that year.

1951 saw her compete more widely in Europe, driving the Saab in the Tulip and Midnight Sun rallies. She won the first of six Midnight Sun Coupes des Dames that year, and was again the leading Saab driver

.

In 1952, she was second of four Saab drivers in the Midnight Sun Rally, behind Rolf Mellde. Her co-driver was Helga Lundberg. Their partnership lasted for many years.

Other rallies she entered included the 1953 Lisbon Rally, where she was third in the Ladies’ standings. This, and her performances in the Northern European rallies, were enough to earn her a European Ladies’ Championship title.

The Tulip Rally became one of her regular yearly fixtures. She normally drove the Saab, but she accepted a drive in another car for 1954, a DKW, and was 33^rd. Her arch-rival, Sheila van Damm, driving for the Rootes team, had got into the top ten, so the Coupe des Dames was out of reach this time. The Tulip was not her only DKW outing in 1954: she won another Midnight Sun Rally Ladies’ prize that year.

The Saab team did not enter the 1955 Monte, so Greta drove the DKW again, but does not seem to have finished. She continued to rally the DKW in the Viking Rally, and was thirteenth. In the Tulip Rally, she was back in the 92, and went one better than Sheila van Damm last year, finishing ninth overall.

There seems to have been a hiatus in her Saab involvement in 1956, when she used a Mercedes 220 for the Monte, and a Peugeot 403 for the Midnight Sun Rally, in which she was 56^th.

After that, she drove the new Saab 93, which would become a successful car for the manufacturer, and was the beginning of Saab as a major rallying contender. Her team-mates that year included Ewy Rosqvist and Erik Carlsson.

By 1960, she was winding down her competition career, although she still accepted invitations to drive for Saab in major rallies. She drove the 93 on the Monte between 1960 and 1962.

When she retired from professional rallying in 1962, she was 54 years old. Although she became somewhat of an occasional competitor, she carried on making appearances in rallies until the 1970s, and also rallied historic cars. In 1973, she made one last appearance on the Monte, her nineteenth attempt at the Monaco classic. Her car was a Saab.

Away from rallying, she was an intrepid traveller, who wrote about her experiences, such as crossing Africa and America by car. The American trip, during the 1940s was partly funded by Chrysler, who used it as a promotional opportunity. Whilst in America, Greta worked as a film stunt driver.

As well as writing about her own experiences, she translated English works into Norwegian, including some of PG Wodehouse’s novels. Wodehouse and Greta were friends. She also illustrated books, including two children’s books, which she and Petrus worked on together.

She died in 2002, at the age of 94.

(Image from http://www.saabsunited.com/)