Jade Paveley

 

Jade Paveley is a British rally driver and motorsport broadcaster, often seen in a Subaru Impreza.

Although she is probably best known for her rallying, she began her career on the circuits. Her first year of competition was in 2010, aged seventeen. She was racing in Britcar, in a Mazda UK Mazda MX-5 run by Jota Motorsport. Her usual team-mate was David Hooper. The car was lacking in power compared to others in its class, so Jade was unable to challenge for outright or even class wins, but she became the youngest person to finish a 24-hour race at the season-ending Britcar 24 Hours at Silverstone. 

In 2011, her actual racing programme was quite limited, although she did try out some other roles within motor racing. She tested with the Lotus F1 team as a crew member, and also crewed for the Mazda team during the Valencia 6 Hours. In return, she drove for Mazda in the Snetterton 12 Hour race and was second overall, first in class. 

She also entered some MX-5 Cup races as a Mazda guest driver. As well as this, she undertook various pieces of media work, including captaining a driving squad for a TV show. 

This approach continued in 2012: she was based in Ireland for some Formula Ford races with the Murphy Prototypes team, mainly working as a development driver. She also drove a Mazda prototype at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and undertook some other testing. 

In 2013, she was linked with a Mini Challenge drive, which does not seem to have happened. She drove in some club events including the Birkett 6-Hour Relay, but it is here that she takes the rally path. Her first event was the Toyota Harlech Stages, driving a Ford Fiesta. She was 32nd overall. She also tried co-driving for her father Dave and for Steve Hopewell, but chose the driving seat.

In 2014, she switched full-time to rallying. She competed around the UK in a Subaru Impreza and a Mitsubishi Lancer, with a best finish of fifteenth, in the Glyn Memorial Stages. The Lancer belonged to Dave, who had previously competed in it since about 2007.

She continued to rally the Impreza in 2015, and was an impressive ninth in the Toyota Harlech Stages. 

In 2016, she did not enter as many events, but kept competing in her father’s Lancer. Despite another short season in 2017, she was sixth in the SMC Stages, in this car, a career-best result. 

She was back rallying an Impreza in 2018 Welsh Tarmac rallies and earned three top-twenty finishes, on her way to a Welsh junior title. The best of these was a 15th place in the Rali Cwm Gwendraeth. This improved to a twelfth place in the 2019 Gareth Hall Memorial Rally. 

Although she did relatively few competitive rallies in 2019, she was quite active in demonstration events for Jaguar. She was brought in to drive their one-off F Type rally special at events including the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Opportunities for rallying were limited in 2020 due to coronavirus, but she did two events in two different cars, the Impreza and a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III in which she was thirteenth in the Rali Adfer Coedwigoedd Cymru. This was her first gravel rally and her father navigated for her.

The enforced layoff took Jade in a new direction, however. She launched the Motorsport Now podcast and developed her broadcasting career. In 2021 she has reported on the World Rally Championship. She combined this with some outings in the Impreza, including a twelfth-place finish in the Gareth Hall Memorial Rally.

Another new challenge for her was joining the Excite Rally Raid team for the British Cross Country Championship. She and her two co-drivers won their class at the Parkwood rally raid. The team is preparing for a future Dakar entry. 

Her media career continued in 2022, with stage-end reporting at several WRC events. Her off-road adventures were curtailed by the cancellation of hte British Cross Country series, but she still managed some stage rallies in the Impreza. She did two events at the Epynt ranges in Wales, with a best finish of 27th in the Dixies Challenge Rally.

The Impreza was not forgotten in 2023: it came out for the Three Shires and Lee Holland Memorial Stages.

(Image copyright Jade Paveley)

The Women's Rally in Ena

 

The Women’s Rally in Ena is a women-only stage rally that takes place every year in and around the city of Ena, Japan. It began in 2018 at the Women in Motorsport L1 Rally and assumed its current name in 2020. It takes place towards the end of the year and is a standalone event, rather than a round of a championship.

It runs over a single day and has a compact, although multi-stage format. 

Drivers must be female, although men are allowed to take part as co-drivers. Entry requirements for drivers are fairly basic and correspond to those of Japan’s Monte Carlo Auto Sport Club, the organiser of Japanese championship rallies.

The majority of drivers at Ena are Japanese, although occasional crews from China and Taiwan have taken part, most notably Mingwei Hung of Taiwan who competes regularly in Japan. She was third in the 2019 event.

Drivers have a variety of experience levels, from first-timers to regulars in the Japanese championship. Cars are similarly varied and included Toyota GT86s, Mitsubishi Lancers and small cars such as the Toyota Vitz.

The rally seems to have begun as part of a series of preparations for Rally Japan being held in and around Ena in 2018.

In 2021 it was combined with the MASC Rally, an open event, but it went back to a standalone rally in 2022.

Winners

2018 ?

2019 Hiroko Menjo/Yuta Nakamura (Toyota Vitz)

2020 Saori Ishikawa/Suguru Kawana (Toyota GT86)

2021 Saori Ishikawa/Suguru Kawana (Toyota GT86)

2022 Saori Ishikawa/Suguru Kawana (Toyota GT86)

2023 Saori Ishikawa/Takahiro Yasui (Toyota GT86)

2024 Yuna Kanematsu/Shu Yamashita (Suzuki Swift Sport)

Estelle Hallyday

 

Estelle Hallyday, later known as Estelle Lefébure, is a French driver who competed in cross-country rallies and other events in the 1990s and 2000s.

She drove in rally raids in 1999 and 2000, as part of a Mitsubishi-based private team run by Luc Alphand. Among her events in this debut year was the 1999 Rally Optic 2000, co-driven by Bernadette Sacy. She competed for the team in the 2000 Tunisian Rally, and also in the Dakar, driving a Pajero. She was paired with the experienced Eric Vigouroux for the Tunisia and Dakar rallies. In an interview with Le Parisien, he praised her driving ability. Luc Alphand also admitted to being surprised by her talent in his own autobiography.

Later, she was associated with an Italian team running a Nissan Pathfinder, but she does not appear to have actually competed. 

Rally raids were not her first forays into motorsport. In 1993, she raced a Venturi prototype in the Andros Trophy. This was when she first teamed up with Bernadette Sacy. They both competed alongside Julien Beltoise in 1994. In 1996, Estelle and Bernadette shared an Opel Astra for the Chamonix 24 Hours, another major ice race. They were 29th overall.

Estelle is better known as a model and actress. She modelled throughout the 1980s and 1990s, working for many designers and appearing on the covers of fashion magazines. 

She was married to singer-songwriter David Hallyday at the time she was competing. They separated in 2001.

(Image copyright BestImage)

Female Rally Drivers Around the World: the Caribbean

 

Rallying is popular in the Caribbean nations, with an active local championship. Female drivers appear regularly. Below are short profiles of some of them.

Natasha Chang - Jamaican driver, active since 2007, when she took part in a TV-sponsored driver search. Her first rally was Rally Jamaica. Previously, she had done some drag races, speed events and autotests. She rallied a Mitsubishi Lancer in Jamaica in 2008 and 2009, as well as in Rally Trinidad. Her best finish seems to have been second overall in the Raynor King Memorial Stages Rally, in Jamaica. She was set to make a comeback in 2012, but appears to have switched to circuit racing, at least temporarily. In 2015, she represented Jamaica in the Caribbean circuit racing championship in Guyana, driving a Honda S2000. She suggested that she will be making a comeback in 2018 or after, but has not returned to rallying. She has done some speed record attempts since then.

Marcia Dawes - driver, co-driver and motorsport administrator from Jamaica. She began driving in sprints and gymkhana-type events in 2004. A year later, she did her first Rally Jamaica, finishing 17th overall in a Hyundai Coupe with a class win. She came into co-driving through administration, after designing rally stages and appreciating the skills needed to navigate. Her regular driver is Kyle Gregg and together they have won rallies in Jamaica and Trinidad.

Sarah-Jane Gopaul - rally driver from Trinidad. She began competing in night-time club events in 2008, after getting into motorsport through marshalling. It appears that she entered Rally Trinidad in 2011, and she may well have been thirteenth, according to some results lists. She entered Rally Trinidad again in 2014, in a Mazda 323, but did not finish. She usually drives Mazda cars, and carried on in the 323 for the 2015 and 2016 Rally Trinidad. In 2016, she finished the event in fifteenth place. Away from rallying, she is a teacher, which takes up a lot of her time.

Maeva Mornet - rallies a Renault Twingo in the French-governed Caribbean. She mainly competes in the Martinique championship, but in 2018, she also did the Bourbon National Rally on Reunion. For this event, she also used a different car: a Citroen C2. Maeva’s best result has been eleventh in the 2018 Martinique Rallye Tour, from 28 entries, until 2022. This year, she was eighth in the Rallye National des Champions and seventh in the Ronde Regionale de la Ville du Gros-Morne. Her best 2023 finish was sixth in the Madinina Regional Rally. In 2024, this was an 18th place in the Martinique Rallye Tour. She works as a nurse when not rallying.

Natya Soodeen - driver from Barbados who started competing seriously in 2020. Her car was a BMW 318 Compact E36 and she was entered into the Barbados championship’s BimmaCup. Co-driven by Justin Sisnett all season, her best finish was a 24th place in the BRC Winter Rally. She was third in the BimmaCup. In 2021, she concentrated on rallysprints in Barbados. In 2022, she rallied the BMW quite extensively in Barbados, with a best finish of 21st in the BRC Winter Rally. Another full season in 2023 lead to a top-ten finish in a single-venue stage rally. She continued to compete extensively in 2024, also taking the BMW to Martinique for the Martinique Rallye Tour. Before turning to motorsport, Natya represented Barbados in equestrian events until she was suspended by sporting authorities, for reasons that were never made clear.

Jodie Summerbell – Jamaican driver active in her home country. She drove a Mitsubishi Mirage in the 2005 Rally Jamaica, and was fourteenth overall. The year before, in 2004, she was seventh in the St Bess Tarmac Rally, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer. This was at least her second attempt at the St Bess event, in which she won her class in 2004, with an eighth overall, in the Mirage. She also raced a Mitsubishi Colt on circuits, and won at least one race outright. She is no longer competing.

(Image copyright Top Gear Singapore)

Cristina Gutierrez Herrero

 

Cristina Gutiérrez Herrero is a Spanish off-road specialist who has won stage rallies and recorded stage wins on the Dakar. 

She mostly competes in rally raids, but has proved competitive in rallysprints, driving 4WD vehicles. She won one such event, the Tierra Alfoz de Quintanadueñas Rallysprint in 2012, driving a Toyota Landcruiser against both off-road and stage rally cars. 

She has been rallying since 2010 and previously competed in karting and motocross. Her first off-road rally was the 2010 Historicos Baja Tierras del Cid, with her brother as her co-driver. She was fourth, driving a Toyota Landcruiser. Her first major event was the 2011 Baja Espana, the first of eighth consecutive entries.

At the end of 2016, she embarked on her first Dakar Rally. She finished the event in 44th place and became the first Spanish woman to make it to the end. Her car was a Mitsubishi Montero.

Her second Dakar was a particularly tough one, as her production Mitsubishi was not quite as competitive as she wanted and she got very little sleep. Still, she improved on her finishing position from 2017 with a 38th place. This was in spite of a multiple roll down a sand dune on the opening stage.

She upgraded to a faster Mitsubishi prototype, an Eclipse Cross, in 2019. This proved a sensible move and she recorded her third consecutive finish, in 26th place. She was the first Spanish driver and the first Mitsubishi crew to finish.

Driving a new car for the Red Bull Junior team, she competed in the 2021 Dakar with navigator Francois Cazalet and became the first female driver to win a stage since Jutta Kleinschmidt in 2005. She won three stages overall, driving a Red Bull-sponsored Light Prototype vehicle. Sadly, the car’s gearbox gave up after the seventh stage. 

She has won the Spanish All-Terrain Rally championship: she was T1 champion and overall runner-up in 2015 after a series of second places in Spanish raids, including the Baja Aragon, which is part of the FIA Cross-Country Cup. Previously in 2014, she was seventh in the championship, and fourth in class. She was driving a Mitsubishi. To match her six Dakar outings, she has earned six Spanish women’s off-road titles.

In 2015, she was third in the FIA Women’s Cross Country Selection event in Qatar and won a funded drive in the 2016 Sealine CrossCountry Rally. She was the first female driver home.

She still occasionally competed in stage rallying during this time. In 2017, she drove a different Mitsubishi, a Lancer Evo VIII, in the Isla de los Volcanes Rally. She did not finish. Her only gravel outing in 2018, the Terra de Auga Rally, gave her a thirteenth place in an Evo X. 

After a break, she drove a Ford Fiesta in the 2020 Terra da Auga Rally and finished 18th overall, from 56 finishers. 

At the end of 2020, she was announced as a driver for the X44 Extreme E team, led by Lewis Hamilton. Her team-mate was Sebastien Loeb. They won the final round of the championship, held in Dorset, UK, having consistently qualified well but had problems in finals. Their final position was second.

This was doubly remarkable considering that Cristina suffered two broken vertebrae during the Kazakhstan Rally and had to take two months' rest. It was triply remarkable in that she had just won the Kazakhstan event for the Red Bull Off-Road Junior team, in severe pain after crashing on the final leg.

She was on form for the 2022 Dakar, driving a T3 Lightweight prototype for the Red Bull Junior team. A potential disqualification due to the team using a banned Bluetooth intercom was suspended, meaning she and Francois Cazalet kept their third place in class.

Another Extreme E season with Sebastien Loeb ended in a championship victory. They only won one event outright in Chile, but three further podiums kept them ahead.

She paired up with Jamaican Fraser McConnell for X44 in the 2023 Extreme E championship. They won races in Scotland and Sardinia and were fourth overall in the championship, often performing well in heats. In preparation for another Dakar in January 2024, she entered several cross-country events, finishing fourth in class in the Sonora Rally, third in Morocco and second in the Desafio Ruta 40. Her car is a T3 Taurus light prototype.

The Taurus gave her one of the biggest prizes in her career at the beginning of 2024: a class win in the Dakar after five stage wins. She was victorious in the Challenger class, co-driven by Pablo Moreno Huete.

She also signed for the Dacia team but only did preparation and development for them, in readiness for the 2025 Dakar. Her team-mate will be Sebastien Loeb once more.

During the main 2024 motorsport season, she took part in the last Extreme E championship, sharing a McLaren Odyssey with Mattias Ekstrom. They were fifth in the shortened championship, with a best finish of second in Saudi Arabia.

Away from rallying, Cristina is a dentist.

(Image copyright Red Bull)

Monique Delannoy

 

Monique Delannoy became the first female driver to compete on the Dakar in the Car class, in 1980. She drove a Peugeot 504 with Catherine Bonnier, but they did not finish. 

Prominent among the car’s sponsors was the famous Moulin Rouge of Paris. 

This was the first of five runs in the desert classic. In 1981, she used a Mercedes 240 jeep and was 25th, with Bernadette Sacy. The following year, she drove a Volkswagen Iltis with Alain Bodard, but again did not finish. 

Another run in an Iltis in 1983, this time as a navigator to her husband, Jean, gave her a 38th place. Co-driving again, she assisted Nicole Maitrot, a former motorcycle competitor, to 16th place in the 1984 Dakar in a Mitsubishi Pajero run by two Ligier F1 team personnel. The two women formed the lightest team on the entry list at 90kg between them. They won the Ladies’ Cup and the diesel class. 

Jean Delannoy also competed that year in a separate Pajero.

The Delannoys may well have met through motorsport. They raced together in the first season of the Coupe de l’Avenir for Simca-derived small sportscars in 1976 and had been involved in sportscar racing since at least 1973.

Monique later raced in the Leyland Trophy in France, with Bernadette Sacy. This was a one-make series for British Leyland cars, in 1978.  

Monique made a brief return to the circuits in 1984, racing a Crossle in a non-championship French Formula Ford race. She was 19th in one race at Ledenon. 

(Image copyright motor-lifestyle.com)

Asja Zupanc

Asja Zupanc is a Slovenian driver with many top-ten finishes in European rallies. She won the Mitropa championship in 2011. 

She began as a navigator in 2002, sitting beside Tine Milic in a Peugeot 106 on the Rally Saturnus. Between 2005 and 2008 she was the regular navigator ro Boris Pozeg, mainly in Slovenia. This followed four years of teenage karting. At this time, Asja was undecided between rallying and circuit racing. She was a leading driver in the Slovenian Fiat Seicento one-make series in 2003 and 2004, winning several races and the 2003 Fiat championship.

Her first events in the rally driving seat were in 2005, when she drove an EZ Racing Nissan Micra in Slovenian rallies. Until 2008, she only competed sporadically as a driver, using cars including a Zastava Yugo and Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI. The best of her early results was probably a 22nd place in the Rally Maribor, driving the Micra. She was still dividing her time between rallying and other motorsport at this point, competing in hillclimbs. 

She began rallying seriously as a driver in 2009, using a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. In events across Europe she managed to get into the top twenty, with a best finish of eleventh in the Slovenian Rally Primorje Ajdovscina. 

In 2010, driving the same car, she improved dramatically, with five top-ten finishes in Germany, Slovenia, and Austria. Her best finish was third in the Rallye Baden-Württemberg in Germany. She was also fourth in the ADAC Drei-Städte-Rallye. Her results left her second in the Mitropa Rally Championship. For her last event of the year, the Rally Porec in Slovenia, she joined up with navigator Blanka Kacin, who would sit beside her for most the rest of her career.

In her next season, 2011, she won the Mitropa championship after being the fastest Mitropa driver in the Baden-Württemburg Rally, the Citta di Bassano Rally in Italy and the Drei-Städte-Rallye. This was also the scene of her best overall result of the year: seventh. 

In 2012, she had a full schedule spread over a smaller area, mainly based in Germany. Her best result was a second third place in Baden-Württemburg, albeit in a different Lancer Evo IX. She picked up another third place in the Stemweder Berg Rally and a fourth in the Voralpen Rally. Mid-season, she entered the Freilassinger Schotter Sprint, a rare rallysprint outing, and was rewarded with second place.

Her only international outing was the Sibiului Rally in Romania, a round of the International Rally Challenge, and she finished tenth.

Her 2013 programme took in a wider selection of rallies, including the Croatia Rally which was then a European championship event. She was eleventh and picked up her first ERC Ladies’ points. Her best results of the year were four fifth places, two in Germany and two in Slovenia. They came from the Saturnus, Idrija, Pegasus Rally Sulinger and Litermont events. She also competed in Austria and Italy. Her cars were both Lancer Evo IXs, although two different chassis.

In 2014, she rallied the Lancer in Central European Zone events, in the European Championship. She scored three top-ten finishes, including a fifth place in the Fuchs Rallye Velenje in Slovenia and sixth in the Rebenland Rally in Austria. She was eleventh in the Mitropa championship.

She retired from competition after this but still works as a precision driver for film and TV, a role she first took up in 2007. She made a one-off guest appearance at the 2022 Rally Show Santa Domenica in Croatia, driving the Lancer with Blanka Kacin. They were twelfth overall.

(Image copyright Martin Trdla)

Daria Bakai

Daria Bakai, also known as Dasha, is a Ukrainian driver who rallies Mitsubishi Lancers in her home championship, regularly finishing in the top ten.

Dasha was keen on rally cars from a very early age. Her first road car was a Mitsubishi Lancer which she had saved up for between the ages of 18 and 20, although in a Red Bull interview, she confessed to having several minor accidents in it. Despite the roadgoing Lancer not being best-suited to high-speed sprints, she began her competition career in drag racing. She decided on rallying as her preferred career after spectating at the Yalta Rally. 

She began rallying seriously in 2014 and competed extensively in both the Ukrainian championship and the regional Kherson Cup. Her car was a very old Group N Subaru Impreza, as it was the only decent rally car she could afford. Her best result was a sixth place in the Kozatske Rally, but her most prestigious result was probably her tenth place in the Galicia Rally. This was her second top-ten of the year, after another tenth in the Skhydnytsia Rally. She was fourth in class in the Ukrainian championship. 

In 2015, she was still rallying the Impreza. Her best result was a sixteenth place in the Yedyna Krayina One Country Rally. 

In 2016, she performed well in Ukrainian championship rallies. She was seventh in the Golden Fall Rally in the Impreza and eighth in the Khersonske Rally in a Peugeot 206. This was despite having to commute home from Belgium, where she was working. She also found time to compete in Belgium for the 6 Hours of Kortrijk, driving a Ford Fiesta. 

In the end, rallying won out over her work and she moved back to Ukraine. A short break followed while she sold the Impreza and searched for a quicker car. 

Half-way through the 2017 season she finally got to drive her favourite car in anger, rallying a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X in a limited programme. She was third in the XADO DRC rally and fourth in the Rally Kuyainik. 

She repeated her third place in the XADO event in 2018, alongside two other top-ten finishes in Ukrainian rallies. One of these was a ninth place in the Rallye Uman, a Ukrainian championship round where she ran as high as fifth.

Her 2019 season in the Lancer was affected by a couple of bad accidents but when she finished, she was strong. She was third in the Rally Severyn, having won the first stage, and fourth in the Rallye Shchuroftsi. 

Her final championship position was sixth in the regional Liman Cup and would probably have been much higher without the mishaps, which included a fire in the XADO event and radiator trouble in the preceding Rallye Kuyalnik. 

Daria was unable to start her season in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but she was more than ready when the Ukrainian championship did get under way. Driving the same Lancer, she was fourth in her national championship with four top-five positions. The best of these was a fourth place in the Rally Stolytsia. She was fifth in the Galicia and Trembita rallies.

She was fifth in both the Ukrainian and Liman championships in 2021, driving the Evo X. Her best result was another podium, a third in the Rally Kuyalnik, but she was not far off in the Rally Trembita, finishing fourth and less than 2s off third.

Jayne Auden-Row

Jayne Auden-Row is a regular on the UK club rallying scene and Britain’s only hearing-impaired rally driver.

She has been competing in the UK since 2001, initially as a co-driver. She was soon winning class titles in the BTRDA rally series. She started off competing in the North of England, co-driven by her father, but was soon driving all round the UK. An early career highlight was a fourteenth place in the 2003 Roskirk Stages.

Her first couple of rallies were single-stage events on asphalt, but she gravitated towards gravel and began competing almost exclusively on loose surfaces in 2005.

She kept using a Peugeot 106 until 2007, when she changed to a Super 1600-spec green MG ZR part-way through the season. Jayne was a member of the “Babes in the Wood” rally team in 2007 alongside Amanda Cornforth and Shelly Taunt. They were tenth in the BTRDA team standings. Jayne’s best finish was third in class in the Cambrian Rally, 66th overall. She rolled the ZR during her final event, the Grizedale Stages, but was unhurt. She did, however, rally a different ZR for her first 2009 outing, the Malcolm Wilson Rally. 

She continued to drive the rejuvenated ZR through 2008 and 2009, usually in BTRDA rallies, picking up class and club championships including the ANWMC ladies’ award. The car remained reliable, getting to the finish of eleven out fourteen rallies.

Co-driven by her father Dave Auden once more, she rallied the ZR in BTRDA rallies in 2010 and 2011. It was still going strong for the 2012 season; she competed in all eight BTRDA rounds, and was ninth in the 1400cc championship. She was also third in the MGZR class, and won the ladies' prize. 

Continuing with the ZR, Jayne carried on rallying in 2013, mainly in BTRDA events. Her best finish was fourteenth on the Wales Rally GB National event. This was the first of four Rally GBs for Jayne and her best overall finish, although she managed class seconds in 2014 and 2016. 

Wales Rally GB was her strongest finish of 2014. She did an extensive programme of BTRDA rallies and finished every one, netting herself eighth in the 1400S class.  

Her 2015 schedule was very similar, including a run in the National event of the Wales Rally GB. Her best result came from a one-off drive in a Mitsubishi Lancer, with former team-mate, Amanda Cornforth, co-driving. She was 22nd overall in the Phoenix Stages. She was reunited with the Lancer for the Cambrian Rally in October, although she and Dave Auden did not do as well.

In 2016, she contested the Welsh Forest championship, switching between the Lancer and the ZR. Her second Phoenix Stages in the Lancer gave her a strong 17th place, co-driven by Chris Row. The pair were married by now, having been in a relationship for the past few years.

Her best result in the MG was when she was 46th in the Wales Rally GB National event and second in her class. 

A break ensued while Jayne had her first child then she returned to rallying in 2018, first as a co-driver. She returned to the driver's seat in 2019 and did three BTRDA events in her trusty MG ZR. Her father Dave was sharing her now-famous “Green Machine” as his own car was not ready. She rallied the MG in one event in 2021, the Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally, but did not finish. It came out for another single appearance in 2022, the Neil Howard Stages at Oulton Park. Jane and David were 63rd overall.

(Image copyright Manchester Evening News)

Janina Depping

Janina (left) with Ina Schaarschmidt

Janina Depping was one of Germany’s foremost female rally drivers of the early 2000s. She is most associated with the Mitusbishi Lancer.

She took part in seven World Championship rallies during her seventeen-year career: three of them were the 2004, 2007 and 2011 editions of the Rallye Deutschland. The best of these for her was the 2011 Rallye, when she finished 38th overall but ninth in class, driving a Lancer Evo IX. Her earliest WRC experience was in 1997, when she was just nineteen. She competed in the Rallye Sanremo and the Tour de Corse in a Ford Escort and Skoda Felicia respectively. She would revisit these two rallies once more, finishing the 1998 Sanremo event in a Mitsubishi Carisma.

Earlier, she had been eighth in a pre-WRC Rallye Deutschland, in 1999. Her car was a Ford Escort RS Cosworth; she would have one of the best seasons of her career in it. That year, she was also fifth in the International ADMV-Pneumant-Rallye and seventh in the Van Staveren-Zuiderzeerally, as well as recording top-ten finishes in five other rallies. She was eighth in that year’s German championship.

The early success she experienced in her career came from having started young. Janina grew up around rallies: her father Bernd Depping competed in the 1980s when she was a child and her uncle Dieter Depping was a multiple German champion in the 1990s, sometimes with Janina’s aunt, also called Janina, as co-driver. She began rallying herself in 1996, at 18. Her first event was the Baumholder Hunsruck National Rally, held on the same military range as Rallye Deutschland. She drove the Escort, although she quickly switched to a Suzuki Swift for the rest of the year and some of 1997. 

Her only outright win came in 1999. She was the victor in the Hunsruck Junior Rallye, driving a Proton Wira.  

In 2008, she was runner-up in the Group N class of the European Rally Challenge, after a string of strong finishes. She competed in the Netherlands and Belgium that year as well as Germany, driving a Lancer Evo VII, a car she used for five seasons, including a second one in the ERC in 2009. Her best finish that year was a tenth place in the Lausitz Rallye. Sadly, her events in the Netherlands and Italy led to retirement. 

After a year off in 2010, she returned to the stages in 2011, and was 38th in the Rallye Deutschland in a new Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. Later in the year, she was seventh in the ADAC Rallyesprint.eu, against 59 other drivers.

In 2012, she used the same car in a mixture of German championship rallies. She was second and fourth in the two ADMV Wedemerk Rallye events, ninth in the Sachsen Rallye and eighth in the Rallye Erzgebirge. This represented a return to form after a couple of years spent more on the sidelines.

In 2013, she continued to compete in German events, recording an eighth place in the Sachsen Rallye and a class win on the Grabfeld Rallye, twelfth overall.

Sadly, she died following an accident on the Wartburg Rallye, in which her co-driver Ina Schaarschmidt also perished. Janina’s Lancer Evo IX had hit a tree at high speed and caught fire. Ina died at the scene and Janina succumbed to her injuries four days later. The pair had been working together since 2011.

(Image copyright Sascha Dorrenbacher)

Simin Bıçakcıoĝlu

Simin in 2015

Simin Bıçakcıoĝlu is Turkey’s leading female driver in its domestic rally championship. She has won the Turkish ladies’ award four times.

She began by racing a Honda Civic and a Fiat Palio in rallycross and autocross, in 2008. Her first championship was the Safari Cup.

She tried out hillclimbs and more autocross before entering her first stage rallies in 2010, when she was 21. Her first rallies were in the three-round Istanbul Championship, and she was sixth, second in the ladies’ standings.

Driving a Ford Fiesta run by the Go Race team, she took part in the Turkish championship in 2011, and finished four of the seven rounds. Her best result was twelfth in the Yeşil Bursa Rallisi, and second in class. The Hittite Rally gave her 19th, a second top twenty position. She picked up another class runner-up spot in the Istanbul Via/Port Rally, and was 21st overall. At this time, Burcu Cetinkaya was Turkey’s leading female driver, and she picked up the Coupe des Dames. Throughout her career, Simin has always had a rival for the Ladies’ award.

In 2012, she switched to an S1600 Fiat Punto, which proved more reliable. It was run by Pegasus Racing. She was twelfth in the Hittite Rally, and scored her first class win. This was one of two, as she picked up another in the Ford Otosan Kocaeli Rally. She was also fifteenth in the Yeşil Bursa Rallisi. At the end of the year, she was 27th in the championship and the ladies’ champion. Burcu Cetinkaya was rallying in the Middle Eastern championship this year, but Simin still had competition in the shape of Burcu Burkut Erenkul, who was the same age as her, and appeared at the same time. As well as Turkish rallies, Simin drove in the Mabanol Rally Sliven, in Bulgaria, and was 21st. The Pegasus team had her carrying out some testing for their IRC car at some point, too.

She concentrated on the Turkish championship in 2013, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII. In this car, she achieved a class win in the Kocaeli Rally, and 18th overall, and her first top ten, a tenth place in the Bosphorus Rally. After that, she switched between the Lancer and the Fiesta, scoring one more fifteenth, in the Hittite Rally, in the Lancer. The Fiesta was less reliable for her, and she only finished one rally in it. She defended her ladies’ title and was fourteenth in the Turkish championship, and eleventh in the Balkan Cup.

In 2014, she upgraded the Lancer to an Evo IX. She took part in the Turkish championship, and finished in the top twenty of every rally she entered. Her best result was a thirteenth, in the Ford Otosan Kocaeli Rally. Although she did not manage any top tens this year, she was very consistent. Her navigator this year was a new one for her, Gurkal Menderes. No official ladies’ prize seems to have been awarded this year; Burcu Burkut Erenkul was out on the stages again, but did not record as many good finishes as Simin.

Another season in the Turkish championship in the Lancer in 2015 gave her a Turkish Ladies' title. Burcu Cetinkaya had returned to the Turkish series, but was not quite as fast. Simin’s best overall finish was eleventh, in the Istanbul Rally. she was fifteenth in the Turkish championship, third in Group N.

She defended her Turkish ladies’ title again in 2016, and was a consistent presence in the top twenty of Turkish rallies, driving the Lancer. She was thirteenth in the Marmaris Rally Turkey, and tenth in the Ipekyolu Rally. This was enough for second in Group N.

She did not compete in the Turkish championship in 2017.

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

The Rallye des Femmes

Winners Bethany Cullen and Cath Donohue in 2016

Despite its French name, the Rallye des Femmes is an Australian event, run in the Australian Capital Territory and organised by the Brindabella Motor Sport Club.

It was first run in 1977, and has been held most years since then. It is intended as an event for novices, although some more experienced drivers usually enter, and are there to offer support and encouragement. Some of its regulars only compete in that one event, but some also appear in club and national championships.

Men may participate as co-drivers, and in recent years, male junior drivers may enter to make up numbers.

The Rallye has sometimes been cancelled or rescheduled due to extreme weather, and in 2013, the local police withdrew permission. However, it usually runs without problems.

Below is a partial list of winners of the Rallye des Femmes. This information comes from the Brindabella Motor Sport Club’s own website, and published results. Makes of car and the names of co-drivers are not always recorded. Cath Donohue is the most successful Rallye des Femmes competitor, and has dominated the event in recent years.

1977

Judy Scorpecci/Terry Bain (Datsun 1600)

1978

Jenny Whitting

1979

Barbara Beveridge/John Taylor (Datsun 1600)

1980-1981

No data

1982

Jenny Bellfield/Mike Taylor

1983

Linda Stevens/Dennis Stevens

1984

Jenny Bellfield/Col TRinder

1985

Jenny Bellfield/Col Trinder

1986-1987

No data

1988

Shirley Clark/Peter Clark (Subaru 4WD)

1989

No data

1990

Jayne Annabel/Peter Vincent

1991-1992

No data

1993

No rally held

1994

Jo Cadman/Kim Martin (Holden Gemini)

1995

Lindsay Atkinson/Judy Jesse (Mazda Familia)

1996

No rally held

1997

Lindsay Atkinson/Shaun Atkinson (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III)

1998-1999

No rally held

2000

Cath Donohue/Fiona Crimmins (Toyota Sprinter)

2001

Terrie Hornby/Jody Newiit

2002

No rally held

2003

Lizzy Ferme/JP de Sousa (Toyota Celica)

2004

Jo Cadman/Colin Hill (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III)

2005

Molly Taylor/Mick Ryan (Toyota Celica)

2006

No rally held

2007

Kelly Caruana/Rob Moran (Holden Commodore)

Kate Bowler/Rodger Pedersen (Honda Civic)

Cath Donohue/David Stevens (Nissan S14 Silvia)

2008

Cath Donohue/Kate Bowler (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII)

2009

Cath Donohue/Renee Jeffery (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII)

2010

No rally held

2011

Cath Donohue/Michael Barrett (BMW E30 M3)

2012

Cath Donohue/Kate Bowler (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X)

2013

No rally held

2014

No data

2015 (postponed to January 2016)

Cath Donohue/Kate Heydon (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X)

2016 (joint winners)

Cath Donohue/Kate Heydon (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X)

Bethany Cullen/Mel McMinn (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI)

2017
Rally postponed until early 2018
Bethany Cullen/Mel McMinn (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI)

2018
Rally not held?

2019
Event cancelled due to bushfires.

(Image copyright Wishart Drawings & Photography)