Gabi Husar

 

Gabi Husar is a rally-winning driver and co-driver from Austria. In the 1980s, she was one of the leading drivers in Austrian national rallies. She was known for her brave and uncompromising driving style and skill at attracting sponsors.

Her first major rally appears to have been in the co-driver's seat, in Georg Fischer's BMW 2002 for the 1974 Barum Rally in the then-Czechoslovakia. She switched seats for 1975, entering the OASC International Rally in a little Fiat 850. With Inge Mayer as co-driver, she was 47th after a ten-minute penalty. Throughout her career, she preferred female co-drivers, the longest-standing of these being Elisabeth "Sissi" Fekonja. Others, including Silvia Dolezal, could not handle her very physical driving or her style of organisation and didn't stay long.

Early in her career, she was very ambitious and entered rallies across central Europe. In 1976, she drove the 850 in the Janner Rallye and a more powerful Fiat 128 in the Taurus Rally in Hungary. She did not finish either event. The 128 had been given to her by her mother and she wrote it off.

She then spent some time co-driving in international rallies with other Austrian drivers, including Rudi Stohl and Franz Wittmann. Wittmann and Gabi had met whilst skiing, before she switched from winter sport to motorsport, as she didn't enjoy the training involved in being a top-line skier.

In 1979 she returned to the driving seat, in a Lada 1300 this time. She was still focused on the European championship at this time and entered the Costa Smeralda, ARBO, Hessen, Colline Romagna and Barum rallies. Sadly, she only finished the Costa Smeralda event, in 26th place. A shorter season in the Lada in 1980 started to give her results, the best of these being an eleventh place in the Lavanntaler Mitternachts Rallye. This brief campaign was down to her taking time out of competition to have a daughter, Irene.

She started 1981 in a Talbot Sunbeam TI for the Janner Rallye, but then switched to a Porsche 911, which became her car of choice for the next five seasons. In it, she scored her first top-ten finish, a ninth place in the 1981 300 Minuten Rallye. Her first top-ten was followed by her first podium in 1982, a third place in the International Admonter Rallye. She followed this up later in the year with fifth in the 300 Minuten event. She was tenth in that year's Austrian championship.

Third became second in 1983, in the Badener Fruhlingsfahrt. This was one of six top-ten finishes she scored that year, including fifth place in the International Semperit Rally. She moved up one position in the Austrian championship to ninth. Her big breakthrough came in 1984, however, when she won her first rally outright. She won the Bruckneudorf Rallysprint by 27 seconds from Ernst Harrach. By now, she was also a regular top-five finisher in Austrian championship rallies, and was seventh overall at the end of the year.

There were no more wins in 1985, but she came close, and was third in the Austrian championship. She finished on the podium three times, with a best finish of second in the International Steiermark Rallye. Earlier in the year, she had also come sixth in an ERC event, the Janner Rallye. 

Gabi's first win in a full stage rally was in 1986. She won the Kaertner Varta Rallye by almost one and a half minutes from Toyota driver Alois Pfeifer, with Ernst Harrach third. Sadly, the rest of her season, although ambitious, was plagued with problems. She entered the Porsche into two more WRC rounds, the Acropolis and Portugal rallies, but did not finish either, although her Acropolis exit was not helped by spectators refusing to assist her when her car broke down. Her only ERC finish was the Janner Rallye, where she was eleventh.

Group B was cancelled after the 1986 season so her favoured Porsche became ineligible for many competitions. Her career more or less finishes here, apart from one guest appearance in 1998. Gabi came out of retirement to compete in the OMV Rallye, driving a Volkswagen Golf with Petra Prokop. She retired fairly late on after an accident.

She is from a rallying family: her family owned a garage, and both her father Sigmund and brother Jonny competed in Austrian rallies. 

(Image from motorline.cc)

Female Rally Drivers Around the World: the Netherlands

 

Most of the entries in this post were previously part of other posts relating to European rally drivers. Anna van Vredenburch Limburg-Stirum has her own post.

Angelique Aufderhaar (pictured) - usually rallies a Ford Escort RS2000 in the Netherlands, with frequent outings in Germany. She has been active since at least 2008 and for the first couple of seasons, she used a MkI Escort. Her best results have been on different versions of the Hellendoorn Rally, with a twelfth place in the 2019 Hellendoorn Historic event her highest finish. In 2013, she was also thirteenth in the Hellendoorn Short Rally. Other cars she has rallied include a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV, which she used on and off between 2018 and 2021. In 2022, she concentrated on German events, in the RS2000. She did two Dutch rallies and one German event in 2023, finishing the Rallye Ostwestfalen in 38th place. In 2024, she finished one rally in the Escort, finishing 46th in the Legend Boucles a Bastogne event in Belgium. The following year, she finished all three of the rallies she entered, with a best finish of fourteenth, with a class win, in the NED GTC Historic Rally.

Lieke Bouman (Dautzenberg) - driver and co-driver active since at least 2001, when she co-drove for her brother, Bob Dautzenberg. Since then, she has won rallies as a navigator with different drivers. As a driver, she favours small cars, most recently a Renault Clio but also a Renault 5 and a Nissan Sunny. She specialises in shorter sprint rallies, usually in the Netherlands or Belgium, but often in Germany as well. Her best result has been an eighth place in the 2017 Twente Short Rally, driving a Honda Civic. This helped her to the Dutch ladies’ title that year. More recently, she was ninth in the 2019 JUMBO Short Rally, driving a Clio. She returned to competition in 2022 after a break and was 26th in the GTC Rally, in the Clio. After another break, she did a couple of rallies in 2025, using the Clio and a Peugeot 205. She did not finish either.

Louk Heidendahl – Dutch driver who was active in the 1960s. She was a regular on the Tulip Rally, and first entered in 1960, driving a DKW Junior with Ida de Fouw. The same pairing were 29th in 1961, this time driving a Saab 96. In 1962, she was fourth in the Ladies’ standings, and 59th overall, in the Saab, with erstwhile driver, Diana van Strien, on the maps. It was back to the DKW in 1963, but a change to an Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce in 1964 brought her a pleasing 25th place. In 1965, she moved over to the co-driver’s seat, with Joop Heidendahl, in a Mercedes. She seems to have stopped rallying after that.

Marieke van Kamperdijk (Rietveld) - rallied a Peugeot 206 in the Netherlands in 2017. She was runner-up in a Dutch ladies’ championship held that year and got her season off to a strong start with an eighth overall in the Zeebodem Short Rally. She was also thirteenth in the Centraal Nederlands Short Rally. Her only rally outside the Netherlands was the Gronegau event in Germany. Despite her relatively strong debut year, she does not appear to have competed again. 

Diana van Strien – Dutch driver who competed in the Tulip Rally on at least three occasions, between 1960 and 1962. The first two rallies were as a driver, in a Renault Gordini, and she was co-driven by Truus van der Voorst Vader. In 1962, she was the co-driver to Louk Heidendahl, another Dutchwoman, in a Saab 96. Diana was from a motorsport family, and the 1960 Tulip Rally was not her first involvement with the sport. She is recorded in 1957 as taking part in the Vaals hillclimb, a round of the Dutch Touring Car Championship, in a Ford Taunus. She was second in class, and defeated her mother, whose name is not given. Diana may well have co-driven for her mother in rallies at about this time.

Titia Westerhof - Dutch driver active in the 1970s and early 1980s. She almost always drove an Opel Kadett, although she did try out an Opel Ascona and a  Renault 5 towards the end of her career in 1980. She entered the Tulip Rally three times, beginning as a works Opel entry in 1977. Her best year was 1978, when she won the Netherlands National class and finished 23rd overall. Her best outright finish came during the same year: she was eleventh in the AMAC International Rally. Mainly, she competed in the Netherlands, although she also entered some Belgian rallies, including the 1979 Condroz event, and one Swedish rally. The Sjuharadsnatta Opel Rally Jamboree was held on snow, as opposed to her favoured asphalt.

(Image copyright Lars Smook/tubantia.nl)