Betty Chen

 

Betty Chen (Chen Yinyu) is a Taiwanese driver who races GT cars in Asia and Europe.

In 2019, she competed in the China GT Championship. She drove a BMW M6 in the GT3 class and earned a best finish of fourth at Qingdao, V1 International Circuit and Sepang. Her final championship position was ninth. The V1 track was probably her best circuit; she was fifth in her second race there. Her team-mate for most of the season was Jody Fannin, who acted as her driver coach. She was only 18 years old at the start of the season. 

2019 was only her first year of competition and her first time in a GT3 car. She had only taken part in two previous races before China GT with Fist-Team AAI, driving a GT4-spec car. 

The global coronavirus crisis meant that most motor racing in Asia was suspended in 2020 and part of 2021, so Betty was unable to take up a drive she had planned in the Japanese Super Taikyu championship.

She raced in the 2022 Dubai 24 Hours, driving a Lamborghini Huracan for Leipert Motorsport, finishing 16th. The team was a five-driver multinational effort led by Joel Eriksson of Sweden, who had previously raced with her at AAI. 

At about the same time, she was announced as a driver for Century Motorsport in the British GT championship. The car, shared with Angus Fender, was a BMW M4 GT3. The pair finished thirteenth in the second race of the season at Oulton Park after missing the first. The team did not complete the season due to the departure of one of its other drivers and Betty only did five of the nine rounds.

She is the first Taiwanese driver to race in British GTs. Her father Jun San Chen has also raced in Asia for many years. Betty’s adventures in motorsport started young; she first tested a Formula Master single-seater in 2016, when she was 15.

Image copyright Paul Foster)

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)

Female Rally Drivers After 1950: the Rest of the World

Natasha Chang (pictured) can be found with Caribbean Rally Drivers

This post rounds up a few drivers from countries not quite covered by the other posts. I am hoping to add to it soon. Kozue Oi can now be found in the Japanese drivers post. Malaysian drivers now have their own post. Yana Pelenichenko now has her own profile.

Caroline Brunet - the only woman competing in the Vanuatu rally championship. Her car is a Subaru Impreza and she has been active since at least 2016. She was fourth in the Vanuatu championship in 2021, with a best finish of fourth in the Rally Bellevue. In 2017, she was also fourth in the Takara Rally. Opportunities for major events in this Pacific republic are limited, but she did enter the Vanuatu International Rally in 2019. In 2022, she switched from an Impreza to a Mitusbishi Lancer Evo X. Her best finish was fifth in the Tanna Rally. She was a career-best second in the 2024 Eton Stages Rally. Caroline is of French origin.

Mingwei Hung - Taiwanese driver who competes in Japan. She first appears on the Japanese entry lists in 2018, driving a Toyota Vitz. In 2019, she was registered for the Toyota Gazoo Challenge in 2019, finishing seventh in class. Her best result was 29th in the TGR Challenge in Toyota, driving another Vitz. She was also third in the Ena women-only rally. 2020 started with a run in a Toyota Aqua in the Nissin Rally Tango, but she retired and went back to the Vitz. Her best result was 35th in the AND Technical Tour. She used a Vitz and a Yaris in 2021 and her best result was probably a 31st place in the Tango Hanto Rally, driving the Vitz. Her best rally in 2022 was the Yamashironokuni event in Ujitawara. Driving a Yaris, she was 20th and won her class. Most of 2023 was spent in a Yaris, competing in Japan again. She was sixth in the Women's Rally and 18th was her best finish in a mixed event, in the Yamashironokuni Rally in Ujitawara. In 2024, she updated her car to a GT86, competing in three Japanese rallies.

Maria Pavli-Korre - rallied in Greece in the 1970s and 1980s. She is better-known for her long-standing career as a co-driver, but she was quite successful in Greek rallies in a series of small cars. The Rally Achaios was her best event and she was tenth in the 1987 edition, driving a Talbot Samba. In 1990, she was ninth in the same event, driving a Renault 5 GT Turbo. She was still driving in 1995, when she entered a Fiat Cinquecento in the Paladio Rally. Her older sister Tonia Pavli was also a rally driver.

Tonia Pavli - driver and co-driver from Greece who had a long career between 1976 and 2004. She started as a driver in 1976, driving a Renault 10. Her best finish seems to be a 16th place in the Paladio Rally, in a Fiat 128. She enjoyed long co-driving partnerships with several drivers, including “Stratissino” and “Leonidas”, both of whom won with her on the maps between 1983 and 1993. Tonia is the elder sister of Maria Pavli-Korre.

Hui Lan Shen – Taiwanese driver competing internationally. She started as a navigator, and co-drove for Lin Yuan-Hu in the Mabanol Rally Sliven in Bulgaria, in 2012. Their car was a Renault Clio. The same pairing drove a Ford Fiesta in the 2014 Guizhou Jinsha Rally in China, but did not finish. In 2014, Hui Lan took the wheel herself, and made a guest appearance in the Dacia Logan Cup in Romania. She was 33^rd in the Raliul Perla Harghitei. In November, she drove a Fiat Abarth 500 in the Rally China Longyou, but did not finish, after locking up the brakes and almost going over a cliff.  

Pantelitsa Yiangou – Cypriot driver who mostly competes in rallysprints, in Cyprus. She began in 2011, in a Subaru Impreza, and drove in a number of rallysprints in 2012, with a best finish of thirteenth, at Achna Speedway. Part-way through the 2013 season, she changed cars, and started rallying a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI instead. Using this car, she was 18^th in the OFA Rallysprint in 2014. In 2015, she went back to an Impreza, an STi N12 model this time. Her best finish was fifteenth, in the Palm Trees Rally. She rallied the Impreza in 2016, but was excluded from two rallies for receiving outside help, and then did not start the Palm Trees Rally, or finish the Cyprus Rally. In 2017, she drove a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI. This time, she finished the Cyprus Rally, in 43rd place. As well as the Lancer, she rallied a Subaru Impreza in 2019. She got to the end of the Cyprus Rally again in 31st place, in the Lancer. She drives for a family team. 

(Image copyright Ryan Lue-Clarke)