The Toyota Vios Lady Cup

The Toyota Vios Lady Cup is a one-make championship for the Toyota Vios in Thailand.

Toyota has been using one-make racing series to promote the 1500cc, compact Vios throughout southeast Asia and actively encourages female drivers, including celebrities, but Toyota Thailand has the only dedicated women’s championship.

In 2019, the Lady Cup ran as part of the Thai Super GT package and shared a grid with the Toyota Altis one-make series, which is open to men and women. This has varied a little by year; some seasons it has been part of the Division 2 Vios Cup.

The championship began in 2008 and has been held every year since then. It currently consists of five rounds, held at Saphan Hin Park, Bangsaen, Korat, Chang (Buriram) and the 700th Anniversary Stadium. Races are 20 laps long. Grid sizes fluctuate between about eight and twenty cars.

Tanchanok Charoensukhawatana has been the series’ most successful driver in recent years, winning at least two titles. In 2019, she moved onto the main Vios Cup grid. The championship has several long-term competitors, including Bamisa Busitarnuntakul and Danielle Char, who is from Hong Kong. Most of the drivers hail from Thailand, although a few like Danielle Char and Japanese champion Rina Ito come from abroad to race. Other Japanese entrants have included drifter Michie Mimoto and former grid girl Miyu Kitabayashi. Although there is no celebrity class as in the Philippines, celebrity drivers seem to be welcome and have included Anglo-Thai model Nathalie Davis in the past.

The 2023 championship used Ativ and Yaris cars instead of the Vios, although the format remained the same. In 2024, it seems to have been merged with the mixed Ativ grid.

Below is a highly incomplete list of Vios Lady Cup (and successors) champions, which will be added to when more information is found.

2024 

2023 Siriphakon Yabyon

2022 Minnie Sitarvee?

2021 

2020 Ratchakarn Vajarasthira

2019 Thammalapa Praewphan
2018 Tanchanok Charoensukhawatana

2017 Rina Ito (Japan)

2016 Tanchanok Charoensukhawatana

2015 Praewphan Thammalapa

(Image copyright Boxza Racing)

Susanne Kottulinsky

Susanne Kottulinsky was Sweden’s leading woman rally driver in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Her best WRC finish was thirteenth, in the 1986 Swedish Rally. She was driving a Volvo 240. This was one of ten World Championship rallies she entered, five of them in Sweden and five in the UK. Her best year for the RAC Rally was 1985, when she was 17th and first in Class A8, also in the Volvo. The RAC was also her first WRC event in 1982, before she even entered her home rally. She was 47th overall in an Opel Ascona.

She sampled a number of cars during her long career (over 20 years), but was most competitive in the Volvo, her regular car between 1984 and 1986, and the Audi 200 Quattro she used in 1987 and 1988. She picked up multiple top-ten finishes in both of these cars. 

From the beginning of her international career in 1982, Susanne always seemed to run best in Germany and Austria, better even than on the Swedish snow rallies in which she would be expected to excel. Her first international top ten was a tenth place in the Eisenwurzen Pyhrn Rally, held in Austria in 1983. She was driving the Ascona. The same event in 1984 gave her a sixth place in the Volvo and she followed this up with her first big German finish, an eighth place in the ADAC 3-Städte Rally. After a year spent competing all around northern Europe in the Volvo in 1986, she began to concentrate almost exclusively on the German championship.

Her first season proper in Germany coincided with her move to Audi as a works-supported driver for VAG Sweden. She was following in the wheeltracks of 1986 champion Michele Mouton and part of a strong cohort of female talent that was finally being taken seriously again. The season started well, with a fifth place in the Sachs Winter Rally. This was five places better than her future husband, Jerry Ahlin managed and the best of the group N finishers. Two more top-tens and a class win in the Rallye Hessen were enough to secure championship fifth.

Although Susanne became a more consistent top-ten finisher in 1988, the podium places were locked out by fellow Audi driver Armin Schwarz and Ronald Holzer’s Lancia Delta Integrale. She was fifth again, with another fifth place at Baden-Wurttemberg as her best rally finish. 

After this, she appears much more infrequently on the entry lists. She married Jerry Ahlin and the pair teamed up as “Team Ahlinsky” for a few rallies in Sweden and Germany between 1990 and 1991, using an Audi. Susanne earned a sixth place in the 1991 Berglagsrallyt in Sweden.

After a long lay-off, she proved that she still had it in 2002. She was eighth in the ADAC 3-Städte Rally, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer, despite not having driven in a major rally since 1995. Since then, she has occasionally come out of retirement for German rally show events, driving the Audi.

Her daughter is touring car racer, Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky. Mikaela is the third generation of Kottulinskys in motorsport, alongside her brother Fredrik Ahlin who competes in rallying. Susanne’s father was Freddy Kottulinsky, who mostly rallied in Sweden, and even her mother Barbel had a go at navigating.

(Image copyright Audi/VAG Sweden/rallymemory.blogspot.com)

Mia Flewitt

Mia Flewitt is the 2018 and 2019 Pure McLaren GT4 champion.

She completely dominated the first season of the one-make series, winning five races outright and only finishing off the podium once out of twelve races. 

In 2019, she retook her place at the head of the Pure McLaren leaderboard. She won the first two races at Spa, then made up for a DNF in the first Hungaroring race by winning the other two.

In June that year, Mia joined up with Balfe Motorsport for the Silverstone 600 rounds of the British GT championship. Her car was a McLaren 570S, shared with Stewart Proctor. The pair were 29th overall after experiencing car problems. She returned to the team for the Donington and Spa rounds, finishing 15th and 18th.

Mia is from Sweden and got a late start to her competition career, which only really began when she married McLaren Automotive CEO Mike Flewitt. Her background is in engineering; she worked for Volvo initially and ended up at Tom Walkinshaw Racing in the 1990s. The last major project she worked on for them was the V6 Renault Clio.

She and Mike raced a Lotus Elan together in historic events for several years before Mia tried her hand at modern motorsport in the 2018 Mini Challenge, making a guest appearance at Donington. She still races the Elan, one of three owned by Mike.

Wanting more international experience, Mia entered the Gulf 12 Hours at the end of 2019, with the Balfe team. She and her team-mates were second in the GT4 class, 19th overall.

She shared the McLaren with her erstwhile driver coach Euan Hankey for the 2020 British GT championship, with Balfe again. They won the GT4 class in the second round at Oulton Park and were second in the fourth round, also at Oulton, helping them to seventh in the GT4 championship. They also won the GT4 Pro-Am title, which was only contested by one other team.

Mia raced again in British GTs for the Rocket RJN team, driving a GT3-spec McLaren 720S this time. It was a part-season, with a best result of seventh at Donington. She shared the car with Euan Hankey again. A corresponding part-season in the Pure McLaren championship gave her two wins and a fourth place at Portimao. Her level of performance could have led to another win, had she chosen to contest the whole season.

Mia and Euan Hankey were twelfth in the 2022 British GT championship, driving for the 7TSIX team. Their best finish was a fourth place in the GT3 class at Donington and they were also fifth at Brands Hatch.

(Image copyright racecar.com)

Ronja Assmann

Ronja Assmann is a Swiss driver who mainly races saloons in Germany and has competed in the Nurburgring 24 Hours as part of the all-female “Girls Only” team.

She often races a Renault Clio in Germany, driving for her family team, usually with her father, Winfried.

She began her motorsport career in 2012, at the age of 17, in a KTM X-Bow, driving in the rookie championship of the X-Bow Battle series. She was 18th overall after four races. These were her first legitimate races, although she had been learning and training in a Volkswagen Polo for a year beforehand, until she was old enough for a senior license. Unusually, she did not come through karting and jumped straight into cars. 

In 2013, she acquired the Clio, and used it in the Bohemia Clio Cup, with a best finish of eleventh, at Most. She was 20th overall and fourth in the Junior rankings, as well as becoming the championship’s youngest ever female driver.

Back in Germany, she competed in some rounds of the German Touring Car Cup, in the 2000cc and under class. She normally ran well compared to the other Clios in her races, and her best finish was eleventh overall, at Lausitz. 

In 2014, she continued to race in the same series, and used the Clio to begin with. Later, she changed it for a Porsche GT3 Cup, which gave her better results, averaging about tenth. She did not complete the season. The Porsche was run by Flying Horse Racing, her family’s team. She sampled several different championships in it, including the Porsche Sports Cup and the P9 Endurance series.

Elsewhere, she was part of the dmsj–youngster-Team for the Rundstrecken Challenge (RCN), at the Nürburgring. In a Vauxhall Astra, she achieved one win in the Junior class. During the season, she also drove the Clio and a Honda Civic in the RCN.

The dmsj team retained her services in 2015, and she competed in the VLN, in the Astra. She was twelfth in the OPC Astra Cup class of the VLN, as part of a team of three. She finished the Nürburgring 24 Hours on her first attempt, and was fourth in the Cup1 class, with Winfried and two Flying Horse team-mates. They were 61st overall. 

It was back to the RCN for the 2016 season, in the Flying Horse Porsche. She did two races in the series, as well as a decent run in the Porsche Super Sports Cup, finishing eighth in the main championship and fourth in the Endurance class. During the winter season, she travelled to the Netherlands for the Winter Endurance Championship, and was second overall in a race at Zandvoort. 

In 2017, she did her first races in the Porsche Carrera Cup, making two guest appearances at the Lausitzring. She was driving for the Cito Pretiosa team in its debut year. 

She was also fourth in the Cup 3 class of the Nürburgring 24 Hours, driving a Porsche Cayman. This was run by Arkenau team and shared with her father, Kai Riemer and Peter Scharmach. 

She did not race much in 2018, but did some training and planned to return in 2019, which she did. Ronja became part of the “Girls Only” WS team for the VLN and the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Girls Only was led by Carrie Schreiner and driving duties were shared between her, Ronja and Jasmin Preisig. The car was a Volkswagen Golf GTi, run by an all-female engineering and management team.

The Nürburgring 24 Hours was meant to be their showcase event and in a way, it was. The Golf suffered problems and had to retreat to its garage for a full engine replacement, but the team got it back on track. The car took the finish but was not classified.

The VLN was a mixed bag of outcomes. They were second in the SP3T class in the first race, although they were only 79th overall. The second race in April was abandoned due to snow, then they did not enter the third. Ronja joined another team for the ninth round, driving a Porsche Cayman alongside her father. They were eighth in the Cup 3 class.

As well as the VLN, she raced a Porsche 911 in the Porsche Super Sports Cup in Germany.

The 911 came out for the 2020 VLN, competing in the SP7 class for cars up to 4000cc. Her regular team-mate was Karl Pflanz and they were twelfth in their class championship after a part-season, missing the first round. Their best class finish was third in Round 5, held in August.

(Image copyright Ronja Assmann)

Josefina Vigo

Josefina Vigo races touring cars, mainly competing in Argentina’s Top Race series where she is one of its most prolific female drivers. 

Although she is known for racing saloons, her first senior events and the first few years of her career were spent in sportscars. Between 2012 and 2015, she raced in GT2000 in Argentina straight out of karting, driving an ADA prototype for Jonas Lodeiro’s team. She was on the pace, or very near to it, straight away, finishing fourth in her first race at La Plata.

From eighth overall in 2012 to fifth in 2013, Josefina made rapid progress in the ADA, powered by either a Ford or Honda production engine. She scored her first podium, a second place at La Plata, and only finished outside the top ten once. The following year, she drove a Honda-engined car for Jotam Racing and doubled her podium tally with thirds at La Plata and her home track of Olavarria. 

Her first Top Race car in 2015 was a Chevrolet Cruze, and she was 21st in the championship after completing the second half of the season. Her best finish was seventh at Rio Hondo. Switching from a prototype to a touring car was a steep learning curve. 

Josefina described 2015 as a learning year, and hoped to be more competitive in 2016. 2016 turned out to be an up and down season in the Cruze; she was disqualified from the first round, then managed a sixth place a few weeks later at her lucky circuit of Rio Hondo. She was 20th in the championship. 

In 2017, she drove a Mercedes for ABH Sport, having moved from the SDE Competitcion team that had run her for two seasons. She had a similar midfield year and her best finish came at San Juan, where she was ninth. She was also tenth twice, but this was countered by four non-finishes, including one that put her out of the next race. Budget was also a problem.

She switched back to a Chevrolet for the 2018 Top Race season, with another new team in the shape of Olivieri Racing.  She did not manage a top-ten finish. This was another inconsistent season not helped by missing some races. The last event of the season ended in an ankle injury that had still not healed by the time the 2019 season came around, forcing her out of the first round.

For 2019, she continued to race a Chevrolet in Top Race, returning for the second round where she was eleventh. It was not one of her best seasons, with too many DNFs and disqualifications for her to make an impact on the leaderboard, although she did earn a fourth place late in the season at Concordia. She was also seventh at Buenos Aires.

Prior to her senior debut in 2012, she raced karts, and was Sudam Atlantic champion in 2011.

(Image copyright Prensa Pro)

Naomi Ran Zhang

Naomi Ran Zhang is a Chinese driver who has been active since at least 2009 and is currently racing GTs in Asia.

Her Chinese name is Ran Zhang, but she uses the Western name Naomi.

She has been showing her versatility since her first year, when she raced in the Clio Cup and Asian GT Masters. Driving a Ferrari 360 Modena in the GT Masters, she won Class B, with one victory.

The following year, she tried single-seaters, in the form of Asian Formula Renault, but was not as fast, and only finished 17th at the end of the season. Her best finishes were two eighth places, at Zhuhai.

In 2011, she kept her options open, with guest appearances in the China GT Challenge, in the Ferrari, and the Volkswagen Scirocco-R Cup. However, her main focus was Formula Pilota in China. She was 24th overall after a part-season, one of four women who entered that year.

From 2012, she concentrated on the Audi R8 LMS Cup in China. In 2013, she got into the top ten once - a ninth place at Ordos. She was 20th overall, after finishing 25th in 2012.

A break from motorsport followed.

More recently, she has been active in the Blancpain Endurance Series. Her first race in the Blancpain championship was in a Mercedes AMG GT4 run by Craft-Bamboo Racing, shared with Diana Rosario. They were fourth and sixth at Ningbo in 2018.

She raced in Europe for the first time that year, taking the wheel of a familiar Audi R8 LMS Cup car at the Nurburgring. A large number of Asian LMS Cup drivers came over for the two races, in which Naomi was twelfth and thirteenth.

In 2019, she joined up with the iRace team, sharing a similar Mercedes with Alan Yeo at Sepang and finishing fifth in the GT4 class twice.

At the age of 35, she also returned to single-seater racing in 2019, driving for KRC in the Asian Formula Renault series. She was tenth and ninth in the Pro class in her two races at Zhuhai in March.

(Image from www.gt-world-challenge-asia.com)

Irina Sidorkova

Irina Sidorkova is a title-winning junior touring car driver from Russia who has recently moved into single-seater competition.

She first raced at a Moscow rally show in 2015, when she was just eleven. This was the beginning of her involvement with the Volkswagen Academy which supported the saloon part of her career. Prior to this, she raced karts in Russia, Estonia and Finland. She won a championship in Estonia in 2012.

Her early interest seemed to be in rallying; she was a junior in the Rally section of the VW Academy and drove a Polo in a Finnish rally, where she was 22nd overall. This was before she even hit her teens.

She then gravitated towards the circuits and raced a Volkswagen Polo in the Russian national junior touring car championship. In 2017, she won two of her eight races, at Fort Grozny and Nizhny Novgorod. She also scored two second places at Smolensk. This took her to second place in the National Junior class of the Russian Circuit Racing series. On ice, she won in St Petersburg, taking home the Ice Circuit Racing Cup.

In 2018, she updated her second place to a championship with three wins in the early part of the season, at Fort Grozny and Smolensk. Three further podium positions kept her ahead of her Polo team-mate, Pavel Kuzminov.

Late in the season, she was entered into the Assen rounds of the SMP Formula 4 championship. This was her first experience of single-seaters and she finished all three races in thirteenth place.

At the beginning of 2019, she was announced as one of SMP’s drivers in the Spanish Formula 4 championship, in a car run by the DriveX team. She was still not yet sixteen. Her first meeting with the series at Navarra resulted in her first top ten, an eighth place. She later finished sixth at Motorland in Spain. Overall, it was a tough learning year and she waas 19th overall. She did slightly better in the SMP F4 series, finishing sixth.

Her management expressed hopes that she will represent Russia in the W Series in 2020, a wish that was granted during the second round of driver selections. The 2020 W Series was cancelled due to coronavirus but Irina took her place in 2021. As preparation, she entered the F3 Asian Championship, driving a Formula Regional car for the first time. She was not among the front-runners and had a best finish of twelfth at Yas Marina.

Her W Series season was very inconsistent and she had to miss three races due to issues with her visa. She impressed many with a second place in the second round at the Red Bull Ring, but could not build up any momentum. She did manage a fourth at the Hungaroring, but was then thirteenth at Zandvoort and was unable to travel for the US rounds. She was ninth in the championship. As a "W Series Academy" team driver, her place in the series is protected. Alongside Nerea Marti, she also undertook an FIA F3 test at the end of the season, but no times were published.

Russian drivers were barred from participation in most major motorsport championships in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. Irina was quietly dropped by W Series, although she is still listed as one of their drivers. She announced that she was taking up body-building, but did return to the Russian Circuit Racing Series. She drove a Subaru BRZ in the Super Production class and was sixth in the championship, with two wins.

She raced a BR03 in the Russian national endurance series in 2023, after making her sportscar debut at the end of 2022 in an Audi RS3 TCR. A deal to run a Ferrari 458 fell through. She did not do a full season but she was fourth in the season-ending Sochi 6 Hours, sharing with Kirill Ladygin.

Driving a Mercedes AMG GT4 solo, she was fourth in the GT4 section of the Russian Circuit Racing Championship. Her best finishes were four third places.

(Image copyright SMP Racing)