Suzanne Largeot

Suzanne Largeot (born Suzanne Daviet) was a French rally and endurance driver who competed both before and after the Second World War.

Her entry into motorsport came after her marriage to Pol Largeot, a car preparer, when she was in her mid-thirties. She took part in three Le Mans races between 1937 and 1939. With Just-Emile Vernet, she won her class in 1937 and was twelfth overall. The car was a Simca, a make Suzanne used quite a lot during her long career. The same team and marque entered again in 1938, but did not finish. Driving a similar car, Suzanne competed again in 1939, with Anne-Cecile Rose-Itier, but again, did not make the finish. Their car went off during the fourth hour of the race, missing a corner at Arnage.

She and Yvonne Simon were also eighth in the 1938 Paris 12 Hours, held at Montlhery, in a Simca 8.

Most of her motorsport activities centred around rallying. The two strands of her career began at the same time in 1937. Suzanne's first major rally was the Criterium Internationale de Touisme Paris-Nice, which consisted of a regularity trial, a hillclimb at La Turbie and a test at the Monaco Grand Prix circuit. She was 24th overall in her familiar Simca. 

In the same event in 1938, she was 30th, but in the Paris-St. Raphael women's rally, she was fourth, with a class win. Her 1100cc Simca proved more effective than some of the bigger cars, including Germaine Rouault's Delahaye and Amy Johnson's Talbot.

In 1939, she drove a Simca T8 to fourth overall in the Criterium Paris-Nice. In a reversal of fortune, she retired from the Paris-St. Raphael. Her last event, just before the war broke out, was the La Baule Rally, which had to be shortened due to growing forces mobilisation. She was 20th overall. 

That year, she had also navigated Yvonne Simon to eighth position in the Monte Carlo Rally. Their car this time was a Hotchkiss, one of the large cars that Suzanne had beaten in the 1938 Paris-St. Raphael.

After the war, she got back involved in motorsport, almost exclusively in rallies now. Her first event back was the Rallye dess Alpes Francaises in 1946. Her car was a Lancia Aprilia and she did not finish. Her first post-war women's rally was in 1947, when the Rallye International Feminin de Paris took place. She was back in a familiar Simca 8, but again, does not appear to have finished.

Later in her career, she competed almost exclusively in long-distance rallies in North Africa, driving a Renault 4CV. She and Ginette Francois-Sigrande attempted the Atlas Mountains Rally in Morocco in 1951 for the first time, the first of three yearly attempts at the Moroccan national event. Sadly, they do not look to have finished.

Back in France, Suzanne entered the Renault into the 1952 Evian-Megeve Rally, but she does not appear on the list of finishers.

In 1954, a French girls' magazine, La Semaine de Suzette, interviewed her and described her as a "grandmother on wheels". Writer Leah Lourie stressed that Suzanne loved the sound of engines and the smell of tyres, but also that she was an excellent cook and devoted mother.

She also discussed her work as a driving instructor and how male learners would be taken aback when she got in the car with them, having assumed she was an administrator.

She died in 1991.

(Image copyright Le Semaine de Suzette)

Mishael Abbott

Mishael Abbott is an American single-seater racer who rached as high as the IRL Infiniti Pro Series (Indy Lights) in 2005 and 2006.

Her best Pro Series finish was eighth at Miami, in 2005, after qualifying fourth. This was her first race in the championship, driving for Hemelgarn Racing. They ran Mishael in four events that year and she finished all of them: ninth at Phoenix and eleventh and twelfth in two races at Indianapolis. The eleventh place was in the Freedom 100, held on the oval. She was thirteenth in the championship and her results were on a par with her team-mate Jerry Coons Jr's. There was considerable media attention around her as she was the first woman to race in this particular iteration of Indy Lights, and because Danica Patrick was racing in Indycar that year.

In 2006, she did three races, two for Michael Crawford Motorsports and one for the SME team. She was thirteenth in her first race at Miami-Homestead, 17th at Indianapolis and twelfth at Watkins Glen. After that, her sponsorship money ran out.

At the same time, she acted as a spotter for Indycar driver Jacques Lazier on ovals.

Her time in single-seaters began in Formula Star Mazda, the third rung on the Indy ladder, after some years of karting and midget racing. She was particularly successful in 125cc gearbox karts. After growing up watching her father compete in club racing, she had wanted to race herself from the age of about six.

She first competed in cars in 2001, aged 20, racing a Formula Star Mazda car at club level. She took it more seriously in 2002, entering three rounds of Formula Mazda at Sebring, Pikes Peak and Road Atlanta. She finished the first two, with her best result being a 19th place at Pikes Peak. She finished 19th again at Road Atlanta in 2003, one of two races she did in the national series that year. Her programme also included the Eastern regional championship, where she scored her first podium at Watkins Glen.

After her Pro Series sponsorship ran out, she returned to national-level motorsport. Proving herself in a bigger single-seater, she raced a Formula Atlantic car in SCCA events in 2007 and 2008, with good results. Her best finish in 2008 was second, and she was rarely out of the top ten, finishing fourth in her championship. The car was a Ralt RT41, similar to those previously used in the Toyota Atlantic development series.

In 2008, she also substituted for her father in some SCCA Formula Mazda races. 

The previous year, she also raced sportscars in the IMSA Prototype Challenge series, in the L1 class. Her car was a spec Elan-Van Diemen DP-02. She was fifth in her first race at Sebring, although she was unable to start the second. She did four races that year.

At the end of 2008, she had to pull out of motorsport, due to health problems.

(Image copyright Indycar)

Marianne "Pinkie" Windridge (Rollo)

Marianne Windridge, who was nicknamed Pinkie and later known as Marianne Rollo, raced in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s. 

She got into motorsport through her first husband, Fred Windridge. As an accomplished equestrian who competed in dressage, she already had bravery and balance on her side. Her first car was a Jaguar XK140. In 1956, she won one of her first races, the Marlboro 6 Hours, sharing with Fred. They were three laps up on the second-placed car. That year, she also raced a brand-new Alfa Romeo Giulietta in SCCA events. She was third in her first race in it, at Beverly. 

She took the Alfa over to the Bahamas for the 1958 Nassau Speed Week, finishing ninth in the Ladies' race. This was her first race after a long break, probably due to her being pregnant with her daughter.

Her preference for European cars continued in 1959, this time leaning more towards endurance events. Driving a FIAT Abarth Allemano, she entered the Marlboro 6 Hours again, with Toni Cappiello. In August, she teamed up with Evelyn Mull for the 8-Hour Little Le Mans, held at Lime Rock. Their car was an NSU Prinz and they were 22nd, having blown an engine up during the race. Their pit crew took 53 minutes to install a new engine. The biggest race of her season, in terms of prestige, was probably the ladies' event that supported that year's US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Briggs Cunningham entered a Stanguellini single-seater for her and she was third overall, winning the Formula Junior class.

She and Denise McCluggage entered the 1960 Sebring 12 Hours together in an Osca S750, prepared by Briggs Cunningham's team but run under the banner of Camoradi Racing. They failed to finish; Pinkie only got to drive it for two laps before the oil pressure tanked. Denise had driven for two hours beforehand.

For the rest of the year, she raced the Alfa in SCCA events, and also had another run out in the Stanguellini Formula Junior. She was second in a Ladies' race at Cumberland in this car, behind Denise in an Osca Formula Junior.

Eve ready to try out new vehicles, Pinkie and Fred joined the Karts Unlimited team for the President's Cup kart race at Marlboro. Their finishing positions in the multi-heat event are not recorded. Later in the year, she got the best time for a female driver in the SCCA Field Trials at Epping Forest, Annapolis. Her car was the Alfa. 

Her racing in 1962 was also based around Marlboro, in an Alfa. She entered the 6 Hour race again, but had to retire after being forced into a fence by a spinning car. She suffered some cuts to her face which required "35 stitches and plastic work for a cut lip" according to the Evening Star newspaper. Her car was a Veloce belonging to Reed Rollo, another racer and a physicist who would become her second husband the following year.

As Pinkie Rollo, she returned to the track in 1964. She raced a Triumph Spitfire in some SCCA National events, winning her class at least once, but also joined forces with another female driver, Pat Mernone, in a Peugeot 404. They entered the Marlboro 12 Hours together and were tenth overall, fifth in class. In September, a month later, they took on the Four Hour Endurance event at Vineland.

They continued to race the Peugeot together in 1965. Their season started at Marlboro again, with a ninth overall and class third in the Washington Regional SCCA championship race. They followed it up with fifth at Vineland in New Jersey, runners-up in a ten-car class. In comparison, Pinkie driving solo in the Spitfire did not fare quite as well, although she and Reed won two races in the same day at Cumberland in it. Her season was cut short this year as she was involved in a serious road accident and suffered another head injury.

1966 was in some ways a change of direction, although she continued to race European saloons. She and Reed had got hold of a BMW 1800 TiSA and entered the fourth round of the Trans Am championship together. The deal came about as Pinkie was now working for BMW Imported Cars as their safety director. She only seems to have done one Trans Am race at Virginia, but she and Reed were seventh. It was Reed's last major event. He had been injured quite badly in the same car accident as Pinkie the previous year. The couple were both involved in the setting-up of an SCCA Sedan (saloon) championship. Pinkie spoke about her fondness for tin-tops in an interview with the Telegram & Gazette, she said "...I'm a frustrated stock car driver. If I were six feet two..." She was reportedly 5'5", so not even particularly short for a woman.

Despite claiming in a syndicated newspaper article the year before that she was "sick of driving with other women", Pinkie and Denise returned to Sebring in 1967. This time they were driving a Ferrari 275 GTS/4, and were 17th, second in class and the only Ferrari finishers. Their car was prepared by NART and this was the only time this model ever competed. The very same car was later driven by Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair.

Her career tails off after Sebring. Back in the BMW, she entered that year's Watkins Glen 500 with Ed Diehl, but it isn't clear if she actually made the start.

Throughout her time in the spotlight, Pinkie often presented herself as a family-oriented housewife away from the track, but she had a professional career of her own, first working with prisoners leaving jail, then finding work placements for young adults with special needs.

(Image copyright Sussman)

Viviane Elder

Viviane Elder, a French driver, pilot and actress, is most famous for her Le Mans start in 1949. 

She was born in 1904. Her given name was Eugenie Anne Marie Madeleine Hignette, but she always went by the name Viviane Elder. She married very young and the marriage did not last, although she did have one son. After extricating herself from the union, she began acting. Her first film was French crime drama Mephisto in 1931, which became a series of films. 

Her petrol-powered career began with air races, not long after she started making films. Given her interest in aviation, it is possible that she took her stage surname from the American pilot and actress, Ruth Elder. She owned at least two aircraft during the 1930s, a Farman and a Caudron. At first, she entered French flying rallies and races, then she began flying further afield into the Mediterranean and North Africa, then largely French-occupied.

In popular record, the first mention of her in a car was when she and three colleagues got lost during a rally in the Sahara in 1936. However, sources such as "L'Aerophile" magazine suggest that the misfortune happened during an air race or rally. "Le Record" states this unequivocally. It also names Guy Hansez as one of her co-pilots, the same as the reports describing the incident as happening during a motor rally. The four crew members waited for two days to be rescued. Later that year, she was also picked up by a Greek ship after bailing into the Mediterranean on the way to Morocco.

It was not until the end of the 1930s that she became interested in motor racing. There was a crossover between pilots and racing drivers, and Guy Hansez was one who did both. He apparently introduced her to Amedee Gordini and others. The war then intervened. Her flying comes to an end here.

Motorsport took some time to get going again in Europe after the deprivations of World War II, and it was 1948 before Viviane actually got on track. During the war itself, there are suggestions that she was investigated for supposed links to Italian fascists, but she does not appear to have been interned or imprisoned.

She drove solo in her first major race, which was the Grand Prix des Frontieres at Chimay in Belgium. Her car was a Simca-Gordini T8 and she was third in the 1100cc race.

A little later, she joined up with Jean Estager in a Simca-Gordini T8 for the Paris 12 Hours, held at Montlhery. She was 28th overall. The winner was future Formula One driver Luigi Chinetti in a Ferrari.

The following month, she was back at Montlhery for the Coupes du Salon. She was eighth overall, ahead of one of the works Gordini cars.

In 1949, the 45-year-old Viviane and her co-driver Rene Camerano entered the little Simca into the Le Mans 24 Hours. The 1100cc car lasted for 95 laps before it retired. She was the first woman to race in the 24 Hours since before the war. 

This appears to have been her last appearance on track until French sources are consulted. According to L'Equipe, she entered the 1951 Coupes du Salon in a Ford Vedette, finishing 27th. This was a departure from her usual Simca cars, but the Vedette model would soon be rebadged as a Simca in France.

She died in 1960, aged 56.

Adrienn Vogel

Adrienn Vogel is the 2020 European Ladies Rally Champion. She is from Hungary and began her motorsport career on circuits, before switching to rallying.

She first came to prominence in the 2012 Lotus Ladies' Cup, and all-female racing series held in Eastern Europe and based in Hungary. The cars were Elises. She was quite late getting started, turning 30 at the end of the year. The Lotus Cup was not her first experience of motorsport, but it was quite high-profile. During the same season, she also raced in a one-make series for the Suzuki Swift. She was not among the frontrunners and finished 16th in the championship.

In her second attempt at the Lotus championship in 2014, Adrienn was second overall after winning four races, at the Red Bull Ring and the Slovakiaring. Only a disastrous first round at Oschersleben prevented her from winning the title, which went to her fellow Hungarian, Adrienn Bende. The same year, she made a guest appearance in the Hungarian round of the Maserati Super Trofeo, sharing her car with Anita Toth. They were tenth in the first race after Adrienn worked her way up from 20th place.

As well as sportscar activities, she was still active in the Swift Cup, on and off. In 2013, she improved her championship position to thirteenth. She carried on with it after the demise of the Lotus Ladies' Cup, which folded due to disputes with the Hungarian motorsport federation. By 2016, she was one of the leading Swift drivers. She won one race and was second twice, finishing fourth in the championship.

She switched her allegiance from Suzuki to Kia in 2017, joining their Lotos one-make series on track. The Polish arm of the marque was happy to have an all-female two-car team, with Petra Krajnyak taking the second Picanto. Adrienn was ninth in the championnship.

She entered the KIA Platinum Cup in 2018, another one-make series for the Picanto, this time based in Poland. 

Her second season in the Platinum Cup ended with one of the best drives of her career. She had crashed out of the first race, at Monza, due to contact with another driver, and had to start at the back. After a good start, she battled her way up the grid and was only narrowly beaten to the win by Dawid Borek, who overtook her on the final straight. This was her third podium finish of the year and she was fifth in the championship.

At the same time as her circuit racing career developed, rallying was also part of her competition schedule. Her first rally as a driver was back in 2014, driving a Suzuki Ignis. Unfortunately, she got as far as the superspecial on the second day ofthe Szilveszter Rallye before her car's half-shaft broke. She had tried co-driving the year before, sitting beside Egon Burkus in a Lotus Exige.

As a Kia driver, she returned to this Christmas asphalt event in 2017 and finished seventh overall, just ahead of Petra Krajnyak. 

The Kia Picanto proved quite a decent rally car and Adrienn entered quite a lot of rallies in it in 2018, normally sprint events. Her best finish was probably her seventh place in the Magyarboly Kupa, from 23 finishers.

Rallying became her primary focus in 2019. As well as more home events in the Picanto, she did her first rallies outside Hungary, the Perger Muhlstein Rallye in Austria and the Platinum Janusz Kulig and Mariana Bublewicza Memorial Rally in Poland. For both of these events, she drove a Ford Fiesta. She was 35th and 38th respectively. She was also in the Fiesta for her first attempt at Rally Hungary, a European Championship round. This led to a 41st place finish, second in the ERC women's standings.

She began 2020 with a run in the Picanto in Croatia, finishing 24th in the Delta Snow Show. However, most of the year was spent in the Fiesta, taking on the European ERC3 championship. After a second warmup in the Rally Bohemia in Czechia, she and co-driver Anett Notheisz were ready for the first round of the ERC, the Rallye di Roma Capitale. They were fourth overall and the first female crew. Rally Hungary was part of the ERC that year and she was 31st, with another Ladies' award. Her third ERC Rally, the Canary Islands event, ended in electronic failure after the fourteenth stage, when she was lying 50th. In a year affected by the worldwide Covid 19 crisis, this was enough for seventh in the ERC3 championship and first in the Ladies' standings.

Domestic rallying still figured in her plans and her best overall result was an 18th place in the Nyiregyhaza Rally.  

The Hungarian championship was her main home in 2021, although she did find the time and budget for the ERC rounds in Rome and Barum in Czechia, as well as her home ERC event. Rally Hungary was the best of the three: she was 30th overall in the Fiesta. 

At home, she rallied both the Fiesta and a Peugeot 208. The Fiesta was the quicker of the two cars, and she earned a tenth place in the Kazincbarcika Rally in it. This was quickly followed up with 15th in the Nyiregyhaza Rally. Outside Hungary, her best result was an eleventh place in the Kulig and Bublewicza Memorial Rally, in Poland. The Peugeot, in Rally4 spec, came out for some Hungarian rallies early in the season.

She competed more extensively in Czechia in 2022, although the Fiesta wasn't the most reliable this year. Her only major finish was a 39th place in the Kowax Valasska Rally ValMez. Her only other finish in it was a 42nd place in the ADAC 3-Staedte-Rallye in Germany.

The Peugeot was her car for the Hungarian championship. Her top-twenty finish on the Therwoolin Zemplen Rally, a 17th place, helped her to fourth in the 2WD class. She was also fourth in the Hungarian one-make championship for the 208.

2023 was similar, although she was driving the 208 exclusively now. She earned top-twenty finishes in three Hungarian rallies: 19th in the Salgo Rallye and the Mecsek Rallye, and fourteenth in the WHB Gyor Rally. On her way to another fourth in the 2WD class, she picked up three class stage wins. Rally Hungary was more of a challenge, but she was still 33rd from 62 finishers. In the same car, she finished two Czech rallies, including a 40th place in the Barum Rallye Zlin.

After 2023, she stepped back from active competition, although she is still involved in driver training and media, as well as other winter sports. She has been voted Hungary's female driver of the year more than once.

(Image copyright Adrienn Vogel)

Francesca Pardini

Francesca (right) instructing at Yas Marina

Francesca Pardini is most famous for her successes in sports prototype racing in Italy in the early 2000s.

She was the Italian Prototype title-winner in 2001 and has been described as the first woman to win an Italian sportscar championship outright. Her car was a Lucchini-Alfa Romeo, one of the oldest in the field. She won four races that year, starting with the season opener at Vallelunga. Her others were at Misano, Magione and Binetto.

This came after a runner-up spot in the same championship in 2000, following race wins at Mugello and Misano. She repeated this in 2003, having won one race and scored five podium finishes.

At the same time as her winning Protoytpe campaign, she raced in the Italian Ferrari Challenge, doing four events. Her best finish was ninth in a sprint race at Mugello. She also did some rounds of the Clio Cup in Italy.

Her sportscar career developed in tandem with single-seaters. In 2000, when she was 19, she did four rounds of the Light category of Open Telefonica Nissan, at Monza and Ricardo Tormo in Spain. She was driving for the Doors Engineering team. Her best finish was eleventh at Monza.

At the time, her ambitions were high. There was talk of her moving to America at the end of 2003 for either sportscars or the Indy development ladder, but this did not happen.

She came to England to race in Formula Palmer Audi in 2004. This was step down from Formula Nissan, but she had been out of a single-seater for a few seasons. She was a regular fixture in the top ten from the start, coming in seventh and sixth at Brands Hatch in the first round. These were her best finishes in the eight races she did before pulling out, although she was never out of the top ten when she finished. Her season seems to have been ended by an accident at the Nurburgring. 

At some point in 2004, she returned to Italy for some Prototype races. Her low final position suggests she only took part in a few races. She did at least the Vallelunga round and appears to have finished seventh.

Her activities since 2004 are less clear. During 2005, she took part in at least one VW Fun Cup event as part of a Uniroyal-sponsored ladies’ team, driving with Fun Cup regular Sabine Dubois and touring car racer Valentina Albanese. This appears to have been a limited programme. 

In 2015, she moved to Abu Dhabi to take on an instructing job. Remaining in the Gulf region, she became the only female race instructor to work in Saudi Arabia and the only one to take on female pupils. She also works as the Formula 2 paddock manager for the Gulf-based races and is a qualified steward.

She is the daughter of Guido Pardini, who also raced in Prototypes in the early 1990s. At first, she was not encouraged by her parents and her mother tried to interest her in ballet. She describes having begun racing at 16, in 1997, going straight into cars without any karting experience.

(Image copyright Donna Moderna magazine)

Aimee Watts

Aimee Watts races both historic and modern cars in the UK and is particularly known for competing in the Porsche Sprint Challenge UK.

She first raced a Citroen C1 in the UK, in the 2021 Silverlake C1 Challenge. This was a fairly late start compared to many; she was 27. She won her first race at the end of 2021 at Brands Hatch, which is her home track. This was the three-hour finale for the C1 Challenge and she shared the car with her father, former BTCC racer Patrick Watts, and Orlando Lindsay. She triumphed despite carrying a leg injury.

After a positive first full season she planned to race a classic Mini in 2022, having tried out the car in 2021. However, she chose a Mazda MX5 instead. She did three rounds of the BRSCC MX5 championship at Snetterton. This led to a season in the Club class of the Clapham North MOT Mazda MX5 Supercup in 2023. She was sixth, with four class podium finishes at Cadwell, Donington and Silverstone. The best of these was a second place at Silverstone.

She also raced a classic Mini with the HRDC, winning a class championship with her father in the Jack Sears Trophy for historic saloons.

Both the 2023 Mini and also another one owned by Alex Brundle made appearances in 2024, but her main focus was the Mazda Supercup, where she was second in the Club class. She scored six class wins over the season and was frequently up with the Pro class drivers.

In 2025, her career in single-make motorsport took another step forward as she put together a deal to race in the Porsche Sprint Challenge, with the Clean Racing team. As a warm-up, she won one round of the MSVR Miata Trophy at Silverstone in the Mazda. Her Porsche season started badly with a DNF at Donington and two subsequent non-starts, but she ran better for the rest of the season, beginning with her first Am class podium, a third at Brands Hatch. She was sixth in the Am standings at the end of the year.

At the MRL Silverstone meeting in October, she shared an MGB with her father for the Generations Trophy. They were second, having led for quite a lot of the race.

Following on from her 2025 success, she moved up to the RS Clubsport Am class of the Porsche Sprint Challenge. In the first race at Donington, she was third, ninth overall. She continues to combine racing the Porsche and competing in historics.

(Image copyright Porsche Motorsport)