Sybil Lupp

Sybil Lupp was New Zealand’s first female racing driver. 

Her interest in cars began on the engineering side in the 1930s, and she was one of New Zealand’s first female mechanics, taking a job at JG Ingrams garage in 1938. She started racing after her second marriage, in 1947. She took part in the first hillclimb organised by the Otago Automobile Club.

Initially, she only drove in hillclimbs, scoring several wins in MG cars. She had learned to drive aged eleven and her first car was an MG M-Type, bought for her by her father three years later. The Australian Women’s Weekly reported in November 1948 that Sybil had won her second Otago hillclimb championship in succession, and that she held their circuit’s track record. Her records included the full hillclimb for her class and for the standing quarter-mile sprint.

Circuit racing was quite slow to get going in New Zealand after the Second World War, having been quite sporadic before that anyway. In 1949, she entered the first road race held in the country, the appropriately-named Road Racing Championship. The event was a 105-mile circuit, consisting of 50 laps of an aerodrome. She drove an MG TC and was fifth on scratch, fourth on handicap.

In 1950, she was second in the same race, driving the TC, and first on handicap. She had made considerable progress from twelfth on the grid.

After a year when she does not appear to have raced at all, she returned with an MG TD in 1952. She was seventh in both the Lady Wigram Trophy and the CWF Hamilton Trophy. The RRC’s original organisers had switched their attentions to another track and the Lady Wigram Trophy was its replacement. Her Wigram result was another run from the back of the grid. The CWF Hamilton event was held at the 4km Mairehau circuit, run over 40 laps. Sybil had been given a substantial ten-minute handicap.

In 1953, she changed from an MG to a Jaguar XK-120. In this car, she was seventh in the CWF Hamilton Trophy, driving with “HR Brown”, who was a Dr Bruce Hay driving under a pseudonym. Driving solo, she was seventh in the fifth RRC, now held at Dunedin. 

As well as racing, she was one of the founder members of the Otago Motor Association, and ran a series of garages and car dealerships. Her first marriage ended when Jack Lupp died in 1945; two years later, she married his brother Percival. They divorced in 1961. After 1969, when she married Lionel Archer, she was known as Sybil Archer. They had been partners in a Jaguar garage.

Despite her choice of occupation, Sybil always distanced herself from “women’s lib” and claimed that a woman should be led by her man, although she also bragged about being quicker than her husband early in her career.

She died in 1994, aged 78.

(Image copyright Wellington Evening Post)

Ruth Urquhart Dykes

 

Ruth at the 1927 Alvis meeting, on the right and in the car below

Ruth Urquhart-Dykes was a very able racer and speed record setter in the late 1920s, usually at the wheel of an Alvis. She tends to slip under the radar, partly due to her short career and partly because she appeared to be very sporting and uncontroversial.

She was born Pauline Ruth Hegarty in 1894, in the Irish town of Oughterard. She married William (Bill) Urquhart-Dykes in 1921 in Dublin. They later settled in Surrey, England.

She competed between 1924 and 1929, almost always driving an Alvis and often with her husband, Bill. Their cars were variations on a 12/50 model which they kept at home. The second, bought at the start of 1927, was named “William” after its serial number, WM 47, and may have started life as a works car. 

The first big event she appears in is the 1925 Auto Cycle Union London-Gloucester Trial, held just before Christmas. She was recorded as a finisher, alongside another woman, Miss A Dupre. The following June, she was third in her class at the Brooklands high-speed trial. 

After two years of occasional trials competition, she started entering races at Brooklands. At this time, the main organising club at the circuit was not keen on women drivers and only allowed them to run in ladies-only races. Other clubs, however, had allowed mixed competition almost from the start.  In June 1927, she took part in an all-Alvis meeting, winning a scratch race for Alvises “capable of 75mph” and finishing second in a ladies’ scratch race, behind Mrs Maddison Brown. She continued to trial the Alvis too.

Her first international race was the 1928 Coupe Georges Boillot in France, part of Boulogne Motor Week. She was ninth in the Coupe, driving the 12/50. The winner was Ivanowsky in his Alfa Romeo. Her fellow Brit and the only other woman in the competition, Margaret Maconochie, did not finish.

Back at home, she entered the Surbiton Motor Club’s August open race meeting at Brooklands. The Surbiton MC was one of the clubs which encouraged female entries and there was a ladies’ race as part of the weekend’s card, in which Ruth was second, behind Jill Scott. Ruth, Jill and Henrietta Lister then contested the 50 Mile handicap race against the men, with Ruth taking the lead at almost half distance and holding on to win by about a mile. WB Scott was second.

Ruth and Jill renewed their rivalry the following year in May, meeting in the prestigious Double Twelve race and in a two-lap ladies’ handicap at the Gold Vase meeting.

In 1929, she and Bill made their names by setting a new Twelve Hour speed record at Brooklands, driving William. The weather during the run became increasingly wet and treacherous, not letting up into the darkness. Ruth had been worried that she had fallen below the average speed she needed to maintain, but when she handed over to Bill, she had been exceeding the average comfortably, lapping at 87 or 88mph. The existing record was just over 80mph and the Urquhart-Dykes exceeded it with 81.3mph, despite William being considerably less powerful than the previous record holder. That year, Winifred Pink, another racer, wrote a rather waspish piece in The Woman Engineer in which she expressed doubt that women were really capable of handling bigger cars, with the exception of Jill Scott, Ivy Cummings and Ruth.

They were less fortunate in that year’s Double Twelve race and did not finish. Bill and Ruth completed the first twelve hours with few problems and were managing the rain on the second day when a rear spring was found to be broken during a pit stop. Ruth would have carried on, but the mechanics put a stop to that.

Both Bill and Ruth stopped competing shortly afterwards. Bill had decided to concentrate his energies on his growing patent agency, while Ruth also retired as she felt it was unfair to carry on without him. It cannot have helped that they were witnesses to a rather nasty road accident that September, in which a sidecar passenger was killed. Ruth did make one appearance in a Lagonda later that year, but it was in a concours d’elegance.

Ruth was a cheerful and generally non-combative character, but she wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself or other women on occasion. As a member of the Auto Cycle Union, she argued for full female inclusion in the club’s major trials in 1929. She was also not above showing a more frivolous side, talking to the Daily Mirror about her distinctive “egg blue” overalls and helmet, although she stressed that her racing attire was functional. “My overall is only designed for safety, but of course, I try to make it as attractive as possible.”

William was sold in 1934 after “surviving” a road collision, replaced by a Railton Fairmile.

When the war broke out, both Urquhart-Dykes joined up, with Ruth serving as a driver in the FANY.

She died in 1981.

For a more thorough discussion of William by a friend of the Urquhart-Dykes family, Peter Lord’s article can be found here. It was very helpful in writing this biography.

Image copyright Daily Mirror

Daisy Hampson

 

Daisy in her 120hp Fiat, 1906

Daisy Hampson was known for driving extremely powerful cars in Edwardian beachfront speed trials.

She was a rather enigmatic driver, active in a variety of cars from about 1904. She was from Southport near Liverpool, very wealthy, and could drive from at least 1903. Her first car appears to have been a Lanchester, which she did not race. When she presented trophies at the 1903 Southport Speed Trials, she was described as an “experienced motorist”.

In 1904, she entered the Bexhill Speed Trial, possibly her first big seaside meeting. She drove a 60hp Mercedes in the Touring class and was defeated in her heat by Sidney Girling. It was claimed afterwards in The Motor that she had borrowed the car and was not as familiar with it as she might have liked. It is unclear whether she was driving the same car for the event’s opening “Parade of Motor Vehicles”, although the Bexhill Observer described her car as a “powerful-looking Mercedes.”

The Dublin Daily Express was similarly impressed by the Mercedes when she entered it into the Portmarnock Motor Races shortly afterwards, calling it “the largest car ever driven in a race by a lady.” The results of the Portmarnock races themselves are not forthcoming.

At the end of 1904, she is documented as breaking a women’s endurance record, with a 317-mile journey made in one day in a 60hp Mercedes, although perhaps not the same one she used at Bexhill. She was driving through Wales as part of a 1035-mile tour.

After familiarising herself with racing on asphalt and sampling an actual beach race in Ireland, she set her sights on mastering promenades. Her next British event was the 1905 Blackpool speed trials, in the Mercedes. She is described as an entrant in “Class 4”, but she does not appear to have been among the leaders.

From 1906, she owned an even more powerful car, a 120hp Fiat. A report on the Manchester Motor Show from February 1906 claims that the Fiat was the Gordon Bennett runner-up driven by Felice Nazzaro, which was exhibited by coachwork builders Cockshoot. Further articles suggest that Daisy won some prizes in this car, perhaps in speed trials, but no results are forthcoming. A 1915 article about female motorists in The Gentlewoman mentions an Itala “of large horsepower”, although this may have been a road car, like the Rolls Royce that Daisy enthuses about in the same article. Talking about the Fiat in a 1906 edition of The Car, she does say it is “too speedy” for British roads, which suggests its intended use was touring. In the same interview, she expresses sadness that the Blackpool and Brighton events have been stopped, and states that “I mean to enter any races, however, which may suit my cars and try my luck.”

She is mentioned again in The Gentlewoman in 1917, with the Rolls referenced once more.

Her motoring career also hit a low point during 1906, on the open road rather than the circuit. She was sued for damages by a motorcyclist who was involved in a crash with her car in Southam, Warwickshire. The accident itself happened in October 1905, when a Mr GH Field was knocked off his motorbike, over a bridge and into a field by Daisy’s car, causing serious injuries. She was sanctioned as the owner of the car, but it may well have been her chauffeur driving.

Like Dorothy Levitt who was active at the same time, Daisy’s origins are mysterious and her disappearance from public life abrupt. One clue as to who she was comes from a 1996 edition of the Liverpool Echo, in which a 1963 interview with a “veteran motorist” called John Dickinson was quoted. Dickinson describes the first lady motorist he ever saw, in Ormskirk in 1904. “Her name was Daisy Hampson, and she too hailed from Southport, as did her car, a Vulcan”.

The Vulcan car company was run by brothers Thomas and Joseph Hampson between 1902 and 1916. Research by Nina Baker shows that there was a large Catholic family in the Southport area called Hampson, although she was unable to place Daisy within it. Her given name was probably not Daisy; no records for a “Daisy Hampson” exist.

After around 1917, she stops appearing in the press, save an article in the Sunday Dispatch from 1935, in which Sir Harry Preston describes being driven around Brighton in a “mighty Mercedes” by Daisy in 1905, in preparation for that year’s Speed Trials. Their trip occurred early in the morning, before daytime traffic built up. “She had to go out in her monster at dawn,” he recounts. “I could not appear timid before a good-looking young woman, so I said I would be charmed.”

Daisy had made some modifications to her car, removing the windscreen for greater streamlining. This proved prescient, as a flying detached mudguard whizzed harmlessly over their heads instead of shattering the glass. That said, Sir Harry asks to finish their ride at this point. Sadly, he offers no further information on what she was doing at the point the article was written.

It is possible that Daisy married and started using a different name, but public records provide no supporting information for this.

You can read more of Nina Baker’s research here.

(Image from The Car, 1906, via prewarcar.com)

Louise Lamberjack

 

Louise with Marguerite Mareuse during the 1933 Monte

Louise Lamberjack was a French rally driver active in the 1930s. She competed as both driver and navigator. 

Motorsport was something she had grown up with, as the daughter of motorcyclist and racing driver Dominique Lamberjack and the niece of Jean-Emile Lamberjack, another racer who sold cars. Some sources claim that she was Jean-Emile’s daughter. However, she did not begin her own competition career until she was around 30.

Father and daughter competed at the same time, with Dominique opting for an unusual rally car; a Saurer coach.

Like many French women drivers of the time, Louise began by competing in women-only events, sometimes organised by the Automobile Club Feminin. Her choice of cars was more standard and probably more sensible, beginning with a Fiat. She first appears on an entry list for the 1931 Paris-St. Raphael Rally, winning the class for cars over 17hp and finishing 20th overall. She was one of 23 drivers who finished without penalty. Sadly, her second attempt at the event in 1932 ended in mechanical failure.

Over the course of the decade, she would enter six more editions of the Paris-St. Raphael, driving a number of cars. Her best results were two fourth places, in 1936 and 1937, driving a Hotchkiss and a Delahaye respectively.

Her first major win was the Coupe des Dames in Monte Carlo in 1933, navigating for Marguerite Mareuse. She first drove herself in that event in 1935, and was second in the Ladies' standings in 1936, driving a Hotchkiss which she occasionally used on the circuits. 

She was 18th on the 1939 Monte, driving a Matford. On paper, the mighty V8 Ford-engined Mathis was her most successful car, as she recorded a second place in the 1939 International Rally of La Baule. However, only the sections between drivers’ start points and La Baule itself were counted, as the Second World War was beginning and the rally proper never took place. Louise shared second spot with eight other drivers.

Her best year was probably 1936, when she drove the Hotchkiss in both rallies and races. As well as her Paris-St. Raphael fourth, she was third in the Paris-Nice International Criterium de Tourisme, considerably ahead of her father in his coach. In May, she was eighth in the Lyon Rally, leading Claire Descollas in a Lancia and Germaine Rouault in a Delahaye who were ninth and tenth.

The Paris-Nice was one of her best events: she was sixth in 1937 in the Hotchkiss. This year, the rally included a regularity test, a street race in Monaco and the La Turbie hillclimb.

Unlike some of her contemporaries, she did not return to competition after the war.

She died in 1989, aged 90.

Lady Mary Grosvenor

 

Lady Mary Grosvenor was a British driver in the mid-20th century who could have been the first woman to race in Formula One.

Blessed with a huge family fortune as the youngest daughter of the Duke of Westminster, she was able to afford a series of increasingly powerful cars. Her father was, at the time, one of the richest men in the world.

She most often competed in hillclimbs and sprints, but did both circuit racing and rallying before and after World War II. 

It was in rallies that she first came to prominence. She entered the 1936 RAC Rally in a Riley, starting from Buxton. She is recorded as having finished 156th in the 1938 event. She also rallied in Scotland early in her career.

She first appears on the circuit racing entry lists in 1937, as a member of the Lancs & Cheshire Car Club’s relay team for a race at Donington. Her team-mates were AC Molyneux (Lea Francis) and Hugh Cocker, who drove a Riley like Mary. They were fourth.

Her second major race was a Short Handicap at Crystal Palace in 1939, and she was second, in a Riley Sprite. This was the first of her racing cars; she favoured the Sprite in the early part of her career and owned several. 

The same year, and in the same car, she was second in a two-lap Scratch Race at Donington, held by the Cambridge University Auto Club. She also entered a three-lap relay with Midge Wilby (Atalanta) and a T Winstanley in a Bentley, finishing second. 

After the war, she raced a Riley and an Allard, which she used for hillclimbs and sprints, sometimes driving both cars in a single meeting. 

She was third in a sportscar race at Gransden Lodge in 1946, in the Riley, and continued to compete strongly in hillclimbs until 1949, using a 1929 Bugatti T37A and an Alta as well as the Allard. The Bugatti was a particularly strong car for her and she set a ladies’ record at Prescott in 1947 that stood for more than 30 years.

The Alta, once it had been fitted with a 1500cc engine, would have been eligible for Formula One, but despite having the means, Lady Mary declined to pursue this. She preferred to use the car in speed events. Throughout her motorsport career, Lady Mary was always very independent, choosing her own path. She does not appear to have competed outside the UK, although she travelled extensively in Europe and Africa, and was never part of any of the women-only rallies that took place on the continent.

She had bought her first Alta, a 69IS in 1939 but never got the chance to race it and sold it after the war. Later, she ran a different Alta in both 1500cc and 2000cc guises. As a 1500cc Grand Prix car, it took her to sixth place in class in a hillclimb at Prescott in 1949. That summer, she used the Alta at another Prescott climb, at Shelsley Walsh and the Chester Motor Club’s sprint, where she was second in class.

Later, she raced a Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica at Silverstone and Goodwood, finishing third in a handicap at Goodwood in 1951. 

She retired from motorsport in 1953, after the death of her father, the Duke of Westminster, and devoted her time to running the family estates. Only once did she come out of retirement, in 1955, when she entered a Bentley Drivers’ Club event at Oulton Park driving a Triumph TR2.

The Westminster title could only pass to a male heir, so neither Mary nor her sister Ursula could inherit. It passed to Mary’s second cousin William. Mary herself never married, although she was suggested as a potential bride for The Prince of Wales, later briefly Edward VIII, as a young woman.

She died in 2000, aged 89.

(Image copyright Tips Editorial)

Katherine (Kate) Martin

 

Katherine (Kate) Martin was best-known as the wife of Lionel Martin, and one of the early directors of the Aston Martin company. Katherine had raced a number of cars from the early 1920s onwards, including a Riley and an early Aston Martin, which she used in hillclimbs and trials.

Katherine was born Katherine King in 1888. She married Lionel Martin in 1917. 

She is credited with designing the first Aston Martin logo, and with persuading Lionel to put the “Aston” in the firm’s name first, so it would appear at the top of alphabetic lists. She was also involved with the design for the early cars’ radiator grilles.

Kate was an astute businesswoman, whose interests included a lime quarry, which is still part-owned by a trust in her name. Its profits go to the RSPCA, Barnardos and NSPCC. She was an early director of Aston Martin, taking over from Robert Bamford and holding the position until 1925.

The BARC began organising ladies’ races at Brooklands in 1920. Katherine appears to have won one of the earlier ones in 1921, driving an Aston. This may well have been “Coal Scuttle”, the first-ever Aston Martin built. In 1921, there were perhaps three Astons in existence and there are photos of Kate in Coal Scuttle at Brooklands.

Lionel Martin was forced to sell the Aston Martin company in 1925. He reputedly never owned another Aston and it appears that Kate followed suit. This was not the end of her involvement in motorsport, however; both she and Lionel continued to compete in rallies for some years.

She drove a Wolseley Hornet in the 1932 Alpine Rally, but her first trophy seems to have been a third in the Coupe des Dames of the 1933 Monte Carlo Rally, accompanied by Agnes Gripper. Her car was a Hillman. In that year’s Alpine Rally, she co-drove for her husband, in his Humber.

Marie-Luise Kozmian (Kozmianowa)

Marie-Luise Kozmian is the anglicised name of Maria-Ludwika Kozmianowa, who raced a Bugatti T37 and other cars in central and eastern Europe in the 1930s. She is occasionally also called Maria von Kozmian.

She was born in 1892 as Maria Komorowska and married Andrzej Kozmian, an engineer. She was a wealthy landowner in what is now Poland.

Her first racing car seems to have been an Austro-Daimler.

The first major outing for this car may have been the Rajd Pan (Women’s Rally) in 1930. She was the winner of the fourth edition of this event, held that year, as well as one other running of the rally. This was a city-to-city road rally; the 1930 route passed through Warsaw, Zakopane and Wisla then back to Warsaw, some 1150km.

Many sources describe her as winning the 1930 Lwow (Lemburg) Grand Prix, but contemporary results do not support this. Other sources call it a race for touring cars. Motor Sport magazine reports that she won the class for “dominant type cars”, run over 15 laps (45km). “dominant type” cars were “the models on which the manufacturer was concentrating”, which suggests it was a production car class. There were additional races for Sports and Racing cars.  

The next big event for her was the 1931 Baltic Cup, in which she won the Touring class. The event was held in Poland and was a 7km time trial.  

Some time after this she acquired a new car, a Bugatti T37. This car could run in Voiturette races and she used it in two editions of her home Grand Prix, at Lwow. She was sixth in the voiturette race at the 1933 event and was an entrant for the 1934 race, which did not go ahead.

During her career, Marie-Luise travelled around central Europe to compete. In 1933, she travelled to Hradec Kralove in what is now the Czech Republic for a street race. She was second in the 1500cc class.

In 1934, she took the Bugatti to Switzerland for the Berne Grand Prix, run to Voiturette regulations. This race supported the Swiss Grand Prix. She was tenth overall, behind the French driver Anne Itier.

The same year, she took part in the Klausen hillclimb, also in Switzerland. She was second in the 1500cc class, behind “Johnny” Lurani’s Maserati.

Hillclimbs were said to be her best events, although results are not often forthcoming. A series of pictures show her racing the Bugatti up the Semmering pass in Austria, but it is not known which year she entered. She did set a new ladies’ record on that course in 1933 and was third in the 1500cc Sports class, but she may have driven there more than once. She is meant to have raced until 1937.

She died in 1955.

Morna Vaughan

Morna with her Standard in 1933

Morna Vaughan was a British rally driver from the 1930s onward. She is mostly remembered for her drives in the Monte Carlo Rally between 1931 and 1952, which were often eventful rather than strictly successful.

Morna was born Morna Lloyd Rawlins in India, in 1882. Rallying was very much a second career for her; she was one of the first wave of women to qualify as medical doctors, and worked as an Army surgeon during the First World War. This made her one of the first female surgeons in the UK. After the war, and her 1917 marriage to Francis Vaughan, she continued to practise. She was the head of the “Female VD” department (genito-urinary medicine) of Guy’s Hospital in London from 1917, until at least 1935. In addition to this, she was a consultant surgeon to several London hospitals, specialising in women’s GU medicine.

She began driving in 1924, when she was forty-two. Her first major competition experience seems to have been in 1930, when she entered the JCC Half-Day Trial, in a Standard. She was one of the “First Class” award winners. Trials were something to which she would return throughout her career, with some success. That year, she drove a Wolseley Hornet at Shelsley Walsh, making the climb in 80.8 seconds.

Her first Monte Carlo Rally was in 1931, and she drove a Riley. She does not appear on the lists of finishers, but there are no reports of her getting involved in any particular accidents or other drama.

In 1932, she was sixth in the Light Car class of the Monte Carlo Rally, driving a Triumph Nine. This year, she also won her only Monte Coupe des Dames. This was in spite of a lengthy stop close to the end of the rally, when Morna and her co-driver, Charlotte Nash, a medical student, stopped to help another crew. They set several broken legs and gave extensive medical assistance, giving up any chance of a good final time, but still hanging on to the Ladies’ prize.

The following year, she drove a Standard on the Monte, with Elsie Wisdom as her navigator. They started from Tallinn in Estonia. Later in the year, Morna did the RAC Rally in a Wolseley Hornet. Her co-driver’s name is not recorded, and she may not have finished.

After 1933, she took a break from international competition. That year, she entered the Colmore Trial for at least the second time, winning a third class award in the Standard. Between then and 1937, she was an active and enthusiastic member of the Women’s Automobile and Sports Association (WASA), the British women’s motorsport association. She took part in their trials, which often seemed to be held in the Cotswolds, in the Standard.

Her fourth Monte was in 1937. Driving the Standard, she did not make the finish this time, due to accident damage. Her last pre-war event was the 1939 Monte, still driving the Standard. She finished in 48^th place, trailing Yvonne Simon and Louise Lamberjack for the Coupe des Dames.

Unusually, she resumed her motorsport activities after World War II. By this time, she had retired from medical practice and was well into her sixties. In 1951, she returned to the Monte Carlo Rally, in an AC Ace, but did not finish.

Her last major rally was the 1952 Monte. In classic style, this was an eventful test for Morna, now 69. In an interview at the start, she professed not to remember how many rallies she had taken part in. She completed the greater part of the event in a decent time, but unfortunately ran out of petrol near Paris. Despite terrible winter weather, she managed to refuel, with the help of a passerby, and get on her way again. However, somewhere near Clermont-Ferrand, another car ran into the back of her Jowett Javelin, which burst into flames. She was not seriously hurt.

After her retirement from medicine, she lived on a smallholding. She died in 1969.

Morna’s collection of trophies and newspaper cuttings is now held at the National Motor Museum. Their online summary of its contents was a great help in writing this article.

(Image copyright http://www.motoringpicturelibrary.com/)

Charlotte Versigny

Charlotte (left) in a Bugatti T35, 1928

Charlotte Versigny competed in races and rallies in France, in the late 1920s. She often drove a Talbot or a Bugatti.

Her beginnings in motorsport are not very clear, like most of her private life and biography. She was involved in motoring generally, and ran a large driving school in Paris.

Her first major motorsport event seems to have been the Monte Carlo Rally in 1927. She drove a 1460cc Fiat, and was 26^th overall, second in the Coupe des Dames rankings, behind Mildred Bruce. This was not her first event, however; she is listed in an article in L’Aérophile as having won the Ladies’ Automobile section of a “Rallye-Ballon”, combining motor races and a hot air balloon race. Her car was a 15hp Oakland. This American vehicle was her first competition car, which she initially entered into Concours, from 1926 onwards.

By 1927, she was racing her Talbot 70 in France. Her first big race was the Grand Prix de la Baule, in which she was fourteenth, just behind Lucy O’Reilly Schell in her Bugatti. She was sixth in class.

That August, she was one of twelve drivers, including the eventual winner Elisabeth Junek, who took part in a “Championnat Féminin” held at Montlhéry (not the Journée Féminine del’Automobile). The race was over 60km, and Charlotte was second. Another women-only event, the Paris-La Baule Rally, saw Charlotte and her Talbot in action again in September. In mixed competition, she was fifth in the Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, having started at Pau, the same start point she used for the Boulogne-Le Touquet Rally.

The Talbot came good at the start of 1928. Charlotte won the Coupe des Dames in the Monte Carlo Rally, and was third overall, one of the best-ever results for a female driver, to this day. This was followed by a run in the Paris-Nice Trial, in the 2000cc class. Her car was a Bugatti, and she won the Dauphinois Automobile Club trophy, plus another award for being the only woman driver to finish without penalties, and a fastest time in a speed trial at Grenoble.

The Bugatti was her chosen car for that year’s  Journée Féminine de l’Automobile. She qualified for the final race, and won the speed trial for open cars. This was her second entry into this particular event, although she had to pull out in 1927.

She had first driven the Bugatti towards the end of 1927, in hillclimbs. Another all-female event was held at Saint-Germain in July, as part of the Bol d’Or, and Charlotte was on hand for the Formula Libre race.

She also drove the car in the Coupe de Bourgogne that year, against Jannine Jennky.

The Oakland had not been forgotten this year, either. Charlotte drove it in Concours d’Elegance events, and in the hillclimb attached to the “Rallye-Ballon”.

Charlotte was an enthusiastic and skilled addition to the already-vibrant, Paris-based ladies’ motor racing scene. Some sources have her down as entering the Paris-St. Raphaël Rally, and while this is certainly possible, I have been unable to find any results. She disappears from the entry lists after 1928, and the Paris-St. Raphaël began in 1929.

She is credited as the one of the inspirations behind Hellé-Nice’s decision to become a professional racing driver.

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

Irene Schwedler (Charlotte Sadler)

Charlotte Schwedler's pilot's license photo

Irene Schwedler was part of the Brooklands ladies’ racing “set”, and an occasional rally driver. Her later, post-war career was in rallying, and under a new name, Charlotte Sadler.

She was born in Germany in 1906, and was originally named Ilse Charlotte. Racing-related records tend to refer to her as Irene, but she did not use this name personally, going by Charlotte or Carlotta, Lotta for short. It is not clear where "Irene" came from - possibly an administrative error somewhere.

Charlotte was a German national. She had come to live in England in 1923, in order to work as a nanny. She had several different jobs as an adult. At some point, she apparently owned a shop in Luton. Her pilot's license gives her occupation as “private secretary”. Other records have her as a “garage proprietress”.

During her early time in England, Charlotte took up motorcycling and toured the country. Back in Germany, her father and two sisters were also keen adventurers, with a preference for motorcycles. She seems to have been the first racing driver in the family; according to her nephew, she first raced at Brooklands in 1928, practising for a Ladies' race in an Alvis. She did not make the start due to a piston failure. A year later, she lapped Brooklands as a passenger in an MG Midget, before finally getting to compete in earnest herself.

The earliest media mention of her seems to be as a competitor in the Women’s Sport and Automobile Association (WASA)’s Lands End Trial in 1930, driving an MG. In a similar car, she entered a Ladies' race at Brooklands in March. 

She began racing an Alvis Speed 20 at Brooklands at the start of the 1930s, when she was in her mid-twenties. The car was a new model in 1931. A few years later, in 1934, Charlotte’s Alvis was described as belonging to a C.G.H. Dunham, although this may not be the same car. A small article in the Triple-M Register Bulletin from November 2015 states that Gerald Dunham was a personal friend of Charlotte’s, and that she raced more than one Alvis from his own showroom. Both Dunham and Charlotte lived in Luton.

Her first major Brooklands appearance was a Ladies' Handicap in 1931, in which she was third, in a 1645cc Alvis. There were eight entrants in the race, and she was behind Fay Taylour in a Talbot, and Elsie Wisdom in an Invicta.

In June 1932, she took part in the BARC Inter-Club Meeting at Brooklands. She was representing the Women’s Sport and Automobile Association. Her third place in a nine-mile handicap helped the club to second in the Stanley Cup, for the best club team of the day. Her team-mates were Geraldine Hedges and Margaret Allan.

At the same meeting in 1933, her individual performance was better; she won the Lightning Short Handicap, her first major Brooklands victory. The WASA team was second. This time, she was driving the Speed 20 that probably belonged to Gerald Dunham. At the Whit Monday meeting, she was one of the first female drivers to enter a mixed race organised by the BARC at Brooklands, when she drove in the Cobham Senior Short Handicap.

During her racing career, she often drove alongside other female drivers in the team relays and match races which happened at Brooklands. Her best performance in a relay was third, in the 1934 Light Car Club event, driving an MG Magnette alongside Margaret Allan and Doreen Evans. Despite their superior performance, they were denied a Le Mans place in favour of Kay Petre's Singer team, who had exploited a loophole in the rules that the Ladies' Cup, and the Le Mans entry that went with it, was not awarded to anyone finishing in the top three. The Singer crew had found a copy of the MG pit notes, and successfully intercepted their pit signals, allowing them to maintain position behind their rivals, and claim the Le Mans spot. Charlotte, although a capable driver, never seems to have competed internationally.

In 1934, she took part in the Brighton Speed Trials, driving Gerald Dunham’s Alvis. She was second in the Ladies’ class, behind her regular rival, Kay Petre, in her Bugatti.

As well as circuit racing, she occasionally drove in rallies in the UK in the 1930s. In 1935, she entered a Rover Speed Pilot into the RAC Rally, starting at London. She used the same car and start point the following year. For the 1938 RAC, she used a Hillman Minx, and began at Leamington. This year, she is recorded as finishing in 154^th place. She drove the Hillman again in the 1939 RAC Rally, before rallying ceased for World War II.

Her last Brooklands appearance was in 1938, the year before the circuit closed. She drove a Talbot 10 in a one-make Talbot race, during the August Bank Holiday meeting, but she was not among the leaders. Her friend Gerald Dunham also entered.

After the war, she reappeared in the entry list for the 1947 JCC Eastbourne Rally, driving an Alvis, presumably one of her earlier cars.

Some time later, in December 1947, she formally changed her name from Ilse Schwedler to Charlotte Sadler, adopting her erstwhile middle name. This followed her naturalisation as a British citizen in November. She seems to have competed a little in sprints and hillclimbs in 1948, driving an Alvis Speed 20 in the Brighton Speed Trials. This was the start of the second part of her career, as the rally driver, Miss Charlotte Sadler.

After 1950, she was something of a regular on the Tulip Rally. In 1950, she drove a Hillman Minx, with Hazel Dunham and a Mrs. Plummer. Hazel was the daughter of Gerald Dunham, Charlotte’s earlier supporter. They were 37^th overall.

The Sadler/Dunham pairing tackled the Tulip again in 1951, assisted by Mrs. DM Alcock. Driving solo in the Minx, Charlotte also tackled the Scottish Rally. The following year, Charlotte and Hazel in their Rover won the Closed Car Ladies’ Cup in the RAC Rally, as well as finishing 31^st in the Tulip. Another appearance in the Tulip in 1953 seems to have been their last major event together. She retired from motorsport completely in 1959.

Away from the race track, she was quite an experienced pilot, flying from Brooklands and being awarded her license by the Royal Aero Club in 1937.

As a German national, Charlotte was interned during the War, as a “hostile alien”. She was held on the Isle of Man, after her classification was changed to a higher one. This was practice at the time, and does not reflect any personal misdemeanours or beliefs. She was a private person; other than her closeness to the Dunham family, little is common knowledge about her. One of her sisters emigrated to England later, having survived a prison camp. The two women lived together. She did not have children of her own, but was regarded as a family member by the younger Dunhams, joining her nephews on shoots. Late in life, she took up water skiing.

She died in Luton in the late 1970s.

This post was created with help from the TNF Nostalgia Forum, particularly the users "alvista", “Vitesse2” and “ReWind”.

Dorothy Stanley-Turner

Dorothy at Shelsley Walsh in 1939

Dorothy was one of the later female racing stars at Brooklands, and was particularly associated with the MG marque.

She started racing at quite a young age, and she was guided from the beginning by other female motorsport enthusiasts. Joan Chetwynd taught her to drive, and her earliest competition experiences were alongside Mrs Kimber in an MG, in trials. Her father, a Forces officer, was a friend of Mrs Kimber’s husband, Cecil, who was a director of the MG Group.

She began circuit racing in 1937, and her first major race was the First Easter Mountain Handicap at Brooklands. Her car was an MG special. In the same car, she also raced in the Fourth Easter Mountain Handicap, at the same meeting. She finished both races, but was not among the leaders.

Not that long afterwards, with only some hillclimbs, and one race, in between in which to hone her skills, Dorothy raced at Le Mans for the first time. She shared George Eyston’s MG PB with Enid Riddell, and they were 16^th overall, a respectable finish for a debutante, and notwithstanding a problem with the fuel filler cap, which was solved by Dorothy, using an orange as a plug. She used her powers of persuasion, and her charm, to convince the track official that this was not in contravention of any rules.

She was lucky to get to the start at Le Mans at all, as the previous week, she suffered an eye injury during the Nuffield Trophy at Donington Park, driving her own MG. A stone from the track flew up and hit her in the eye. After receiving first aid and an eye patch, she attempted to rejoin the race, but was wisely prevented from doing so.

As well as high-speed action, Dorothy also tried rallying. She drove her MG in the RAC Rally early in the year, with Kathleen Taylor as her navigator. She also travelled to France for the Paris-St. Raphaël Rally.

Her racing season in 1938 was curtailed by a bout of diphtheria, which she fortunately survived without ongoing problems. Her MG PB, which had been accepted for Le Mans, was driven by Charles Dobson and Elsie Wisdom, who did not finish.

Before her unfortunate illness, which occurred on the way to Le Mans itself, Dorothy’s performances at Brooklands were really improving. She scored her first outright win in the Second Easter Road Handicap, driving her new Q-Type MG. Even diphtheria could not keep her out of action for long, and she was back in the driving seat at Brooklands in August, finishing third in the First August Road Handicap. This, along with her attempts at one-eyed driving at Donington, was typical of her determination and spirit, which were often praised in contemporary accounts. Her strong personality, with a tendency towards cheekiness and humour, and a crafty willingness to play dumb in order to get the advice or physical help she needed, really seems to have endeared to the likes of SCH Davis, who writes very fondly of her in Atalanta.

Earlier in the year, she raced in Ireland, taking part in one of the support races for the Cork Grand Prix in her MG. Few of the Brooklands “set”, particularly the ladies, ventured over there, although Fay Taylour (an Irishwoman herself) had some success there.

In 1939, she entered the RAC Rally in an Alvis, and took the Shelsley Walsh Ladies' record in an Alta. Her first appearance at Brooklands was for the JCC Members’ Day, in her MG, in March. At the August meeting, she unwittingly became the last lady driver to win a Brooklands race, when she took the First August Mountain Handicap, again in the Q-Type.

When the war broke out, Dorothy followed the tradition of her family and enlisted in the WAAF. She rose through the officer ranks, initially in a barrage balloon unit, then later as a Flying Officer. She stayed in the Forces after the war ended, only returning to civilian life in 1959. 

After the war, she competed a little in hillclimbs, under the name Dryden, having married Peter Dryden in 1946. Her car was an Alta. In the 1950s, she took up rallying again, driving an Alvis in the 1951 Monte Carlo Rally. Opportunities for motor racing had decreased due to the war, and those of the Brooklands ladies who returned to motorsport, gravitated towards rallies.

She died in 1995, aged 78.

(Image from http://motorsporthistory.ru/)

Female Drivers in North American Circuit Racing, 1910-1950

Joan LaCosta

Female drivers were banned from competition by the USA’s main motorsport authority, in 1909, but between then and the 1950s, a number of women found ways to race. Many of them competed in speed trials, which were still allowed, and these were often part of fairground “daredevil” exhibitions. The International Motor Competition Association (IMCA) presided over many of these fairground meets, usually run on dirt tracks, and they allowed men and women to race together, as well as putting on women’s races, particularly match races between female drivers. IMCA also promoted motorsport in Canada. Below are profiles of some of these racers. See also The Speederettes for details of an early group of dirt-track racers. Zenita Neville now has her own profile, as does Elfrieda Mais.

Marion Martins - French driver who raced in the 1920s in Canada, usually in IMCA events and driving a Frontenac Ford. In 1925, she competed in Edmonton, Calgary and Regina, on the half-mile dirt oval tracks there. At the Edmonton Exhibition, she won a match race against a driver called Al Cotey. At Regina, shortly before, she defeated Elfrieda Mais in a ladies’ match race. As well as various races, usually of very short distance, she took part in speed trials. For at least one of these, at Ottawa, she used a Bugatti. After 1925, she seems to disappear. Marriage records suggest that she and Joan LaCosta could have been the same person, racing under different names. However, they will remain as separate entries until this is more certain.

Arline Mazy - American stunt driver and occasional racer who was active in the 1910s and is sometimes mixed up with Elfrieda Mais, against whom she competed. In 1918, she claimed in the Muncie Evening Press, and Indiana paper, that she had never been beaten by another woman driver. The same year, in July, she won a race on the Lima Driving Park dirt oval, driving a Hudson and defeating seven other competitors. Two months later, she won another race outright at the track and her car was described as “easily the snappiest car entered.”

May Smylie - raced a Lyons Motor Special at half-mile dirt tracks in the US in 1923 and 1924. She first appears at the North Shore Polo Club in Chicago in July, competing in two races against five other women. She entered the same event in 1924 and despite a dramatic spin in qualifying that nearly ended in a roll, she was second in the first race. In September, she returned to the polo club for a ten-mile challenge race against eight female drivers, including Elfrieda Mais. The winner of this event was set to take on the winner of a men’s race, but the result is not forthcoming.

Simmone Soudan - raced at dirt tracks in Illinois in the mid-1920s. She was active in the series of women’s races that took place at the North Shore Polo Club in Chicago, competing there in 1923 and 1924. The results of these races are not fully forthcoming, although she appears to have been unplaced in 1924. Later, in 1925, she hit the news when her husband of one month, Clyde Beetley, was accused of bigamy by a former wife.

Helen Temme (Pyott) - raced in Chicago and Indiana in the 1910s and 1920s, usually under the name “Mrs. Oliver Temme”. She raced on fairground dirt tracks in a single-seater, and may well have raced in mixed events at least once. A press clipping from 1923 describes a meeting at the North Shore track, where the winner of the ladies’ race would take on the men. She may also have raced at North Shore in 1924. She may have begun racing as a teenager, in 1916, although details of this race have been lost.

Bunny Thornton - racer and daredevil who was a star of the dirt track scene in the 1910s. She was an early rival to Elfrieda Mais. 1915 was her biggest year in a car and she took on Elfrieda Mais several times in states as far apart as Minnesota and Missouri. She earned more media attention when she used her “dainty” Scripps-Booth car to tow Louis Disbrow’s burning car to safety at Michigan State Fair. She acquired a Sunbeam for 2016, but it is unclear whether she ever actually raced it. She later worked as a car sales demonstrator and flew with Katharine Stinson. Bunny was usually referred to as being English and in her early twenties, but a newspaper report of a divorce case involving her gave her real name as Frances Goate, who had first married in 1904. She had previously been an actress.

(Image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/shushmuckle/7002149122/. Originally from the Danville, Virginia newspaper, The Bee.)

The Speederettes

Helen Summersby at Ascot Park

The Speederettes was the name given to a group of women who took part in a high-profile all-female dirt-track event in California in 2918

During the First World War, motorsports ceased almost entirely in Europe. This was not the case in the USA. Although racing was quite limited, the dirt speedways and board tracks, many of them in fairgrounds, continued to operate.

Women had been banned from official, wheel-to-wheel motorsport competition since 1909. They were allowed to run in speed trials, during which they were the only car on the track, but not in actual races. However, in 1918, promoters had the idea of putting on women-only races, which circumvented the prospective scandal of women racing against men. The group of drivers hired to take part in these events became known as “The Speederettes”.

“Speederettes” itself sounds like the title of a B-movie, and the story of these drivers would go some way to creating a plot for a film.

The first all-female race of this period took place in February, 1918, at Ascot Park, a dirt track in California. It was not a single event, but a series of speed trials and qualification sessions on Saturday, in support of a “big race” on Sunday, itself part of a four-race schedule. 

It was promoted as an exciting spectacle, and billed as a “Carnival of Femininity”. Newspaper reports claim that all the race officials and marshals were female as well as the drivers, with only a few male mechanics and spectators permitted to join in. Ruth Weightman ran without a riding mechanic, claiming she was saving weight. The starter for the meeting was Mrs Barney Oldfield.

Following official practice sessions the previous week, the first race was a match race for cyclecars held over five miles, between Ruth Weightman, Rose Harmon (possibly Marmon) and Nina Vitagliano. Ruth Weightman was the winner, having led from the start. Nina Vitagliano was second and Mrs Harmon did not finish, skidding off during the fourth lap and crashing through a fence. She was not seriously injured but did not figure in any of the other races.

Two heats were held for the five-mile feature race, of two miles each. Mrs CH Wolfelt, in a Stutz, defeated Nina Vitaglioni's Roamer in the first. Bertie (or Birdie) Priest was the winner of the second, from Mrs Cecil George in another Stutz.

The “big race” was won by Mrs. Wolfeld, from Mrs George and Bertie Priest. She was awarded the Katharine Stinson Trophy, named after the pioneering young aviatrix. Katharine herself provided extra excitement by landing her plane at the racetrack. As well as these races, there was a handicap billed as a “Women’s International Championship”, which was won by Mrs Wolfeld again. All five women raced, including Ruth Weightman who had been barred from her heat due to her Mercer being a racing model rather than a touring car. 

Helen Summersby apparently won a time trial during the weekend, driving a Roamer. Other women who attempted to qualify included the actresses Bebe Daniels and Anita King, both famous for their driving stunts, and Mrs Willie Hoppe, who was married to a billiards champion and had also taken up shooting recently. Her car was a Simplex. Mrs Frank Chance, Mrs William Watts Jones, Ora Carew and Margaret Allen (not the Brooklands racer) apparently practised, with Mrs Chance taking tuition from Barney Oldfield. Ora Carew was another actress and singer who was famous for doing her own stunts, including a parachute jump.

 

Not much is known about most of the first batch of Speederettes. Ruth Weightman, as mentioned previously, was a pilot. She was only 18 years old at the time, but had connections in the racing world through her cousin, Bill Weightman. Pictures show them together with his cars. Bertie Priest was apparently a pilot too. Nina Vitagliano was an Italian-American, married to a shipping company boss, with ambitions of more racing, becoming a pilot and driving an ambulance in Europe. If the “Marmon” spelling of her name is correct, it is conceivable that Mrs. Harmon/Marmon was part of the Marmon family, which owned the car manufacturer of the same name, but she may well have been someone completely different. The others are more obscure: Mrs. Wolfeld was married to a shoe shop owner.

The first Speederettes event was a great success, bringing in 10,000 or more spectators. Omar Toft, a sometime racer himself, quickly set about organising a second meeting. It was held in March, at Stockton Park, a mile-long dirt track. The meeting was billed as a “World Championship” for women drivers. At least four women took part. Among them were Ruth Weightman and Nina Vitagliano, who were building up something of a rivalry between them. There was talk of Joan Newton Cuneo coming out of retirement to take on the winner in a "women's world championship", but this did not happen.

The Ascot Park race had utilised lightly-tuned stock cars and some very small cyclecars, but this next instalment of Speederette action was set to involve far more horsepower. Nina and Ruth had the use of what appeared to be some genuine racing cars: Nina had a well-known Stutz (“No. 8”) belonging to Earl Cooper, and Ruth was to drive a Mercer owned by Eddie Pullen. There is now some debate as to whether one or both of these cars were the genuine article, and it is fair to say that a fair amount of downtuning had happened before the event, to allow amateur drivers to get these temperamental machines around the track. Promoter Omar Toft himself is said to have told the Speederettes to be careful, especially when overtaking on turns.

Nina Vitagliano

The first race on the programme was a single-lap sprint, which was won by Nina Vitagliano in the Stutz. The second race was run over five laps, and Ruth Weightman took the lead. Nina tried to overtake her on a bend, lost control of the car, and crashed through a fence and over the bank and ditch surrounding that part of the circuit. It was quite a similar crash to the one she experienced at Ascot Park, but far more serious. She was killed instantly. Her riding mechanic, Bob Currie, and three spectators also died as a result of the accident. The cause of the crash was never fully established, but a tyre blowout may have been the catalyst.

The meeting was not halted, although according to the Oregon Daily Journal, which reported the event quite thoroughly, most of the spectators left. Ruth Weightman won an Australian pursuit race from another driver called Eleanor Baumbauer and was also the victor in the final two-lap "free for all for the woman's championship."

This ended the Speederettes. Newspapers report that the promoters of the Stockton event placed a ban on women drivers in their competitions, but this may have been short-lived. Ruth Weightman went back to aviation, and the other women who had participated seem to disappear back into their own lives. The events of March 1918 did not help the cause of female drivers with the AAA, the motorsport sanctioning body in the USA, as there was considerable media reporting of the accident, and the accompanying disapproval.

Nevertheless, the Speederettes did manage to inspire some other women to race; in the 1920s, there were other events for female drivers organised, and even some international drivers attended them. However, women would remain prohibited from major competitions in the States for many years, and barred from top-line open-wheel racing until the 1970s.

Nina Vitagliano was apparently much mourned by the California Italian-American community. Interest in her, and the Speederettes, has increased since the publication of some articles about them by Patricia Yongue, Harold Osmer and others. These articles have formed the basis of the research for this post.

Patricia Yongue in Veloce Today: http://www.velocetoday.com/people/people_39.php

(Images from www.coastal181.com and www.velocetoday.com/Stockton Library)