Sheleagh Aldersmith

Sheleagh before the 1963 Monte

Sheleagh Aldersmith was a British driver and navigator in the 1960s. She competed in the Monte Carlo Rally many times between 1960 and 1970.

The first success she had at the wheel seems to have been a win in the Cowley & Wilson Trophy in 1957, a navigational event with driving tests and a quiz element organised by the Buckingham and District Motor Club. This had followed a second place in their "Spring Sprints" navigational rally. Her car is not recorded.

Some time between then and 1960, she started competing in stage rallies. A 1962 Worthing Herald news article from 1962 has her as "rally driving for the past two years".

Her first international event was in 1960. She teamed up with the multiple French champion, Claudine Trautmann (then Vanson) for the RAC Rally, driving a Citroen ID19. This was despite There was some confusion over whether they had actually started, but they made progress in Scotland until rolled, having stopped to help Claudine's future husband, Rene Trautmann. Sheleagh continued as a driver of the team's chase car. At the time, some said this was her second RAC Rally. 

As co-driver to Rosemary Seers in 1961, she entered an Triumph Herald in the Tulip Rally, held in the Netherlands. They were 73d overall, seventh in class, from 113 finishers.  Rosemary then switched to an MG Midget for the car-destroying Liege-Sofia-Liege Rally, which had eight finishers. The Seers/Aldersmith car was not among them. It had lost its exhaust system on the Resia Pass going into Italy, then gradually lost power until it expired at Sofia. The lack of an exhaust meant the the car's floor pan got very hot, particularly under the co-driver's feet. Both Sheleagh and Rosemary burnt through the soles of their shoes and had to jump out of the car at time controls. To add insult to injury, they received a speeding ticket in Yugoslavia.

They also drove an MG together on the 1961 RAC Rally and the 1962 Monte, although they did not finish either event. The Midget's gearbox broke on the RAC Rally.

In April, she came to the rescue of Irish driver Pat Barr, who found herself without a navigator for the Circuit of Ireland. Sheleagh answered an advert in the motoring press and cancelled another rally in England the help Pat out. They drove a Mini, but finished over the time limit and were not classified.

She did her first international rally as a driver in 1962, taking on the Tulip Rally, driving an Austin Seven wiht David Howick. She seemed equally happy working with male and female team-mates and was aiming for the mixed team award this time. On the way, she took her friend, Mrs Stromwall, as an additional, unofficial navigator; Mrs Stromwall wanted to visit her daughter in Bruges. Sheleagh was 88th overall.

Teaming up with Pat Barr again, but switching seats, she tackled the Tulip Rally again in 1963. This followed an ignominious exit from that year's Monte, when her road car broke down as she tried to get to the airport on her way to Ostend, the radiator bursting on co-driver Jean Aley's driveway. Later, she tried the Spa-Sofia-Liege event again, driving a Mini for the first time. She and co-driver Michael Nesbitt, a racing mechanic who owned the car, did not finish. The Mini's suspension, brakes and clutch were defeated by poor Yugoslavian roads near Titograd, now Podgorica in modern Montenegro.

Another Monte in 1964 began in Minsk, where she spent some time visiting local hospitals to compare conditions with the UK. She used the a Mini from the same garage as the one she shared with Michael Nesbitt, but had Elizabeth Jones as her co-driver this time. They got as far as the Alps without too much trouble, despite snow and bad Czech fuel, but the Mini was ailing and they went over the time limit trying to finish a special stage on an icy road.

Switching seats with Nesbitt again, she entered the Spa-Sofia-Liege again, but it continued to beat the, the car's radiator giving out this time. 

Another navigating job that year was helping Bill West on his first international rally, that year's RAC Rally. His Mini was a production model, as opposed to the Nerus-engined Hares Garage car Sheleagh was used to. They finished, in spite of changeable weather, including blizzards and fog in Scotland and northern England. The car's suspension had problems and the fan belt came off twice.

1965 was a quieter year. Sheleagh and Pat Walton had another go at the Tulip Rally in a Mini, but did not finish. This was a new car for her; she had elected not to enter the Monte to allow time for it to be prepared.

1966 was also relatively quiet. Sheleagh had been down to co-drive for a garage owner, John Barnes, but a bout of sciatica meant she had to drop out. It was also suggested that the Mini they were hoping to use had too many spotlights to be legal as well.

Another co-driving job came in in May, when she sat beside ED Jenkins for the Austrian Alpine Rally in a Mini. Their finishing position is unknown. 

The Mini was her chosen car in 1967 as well: she and Carolyn Tyler entered the Monte Carlo Rally, described as Sheleagh's sixth attempt. The car was hers, and she and Carolyn had tried it out on the Isle of Wight in October 1966, in a local rally. They won the Coupe des Dames. Unfortunately, they were non-finishers in the Monte itself.

She was set to drive in the RAC Rally with Susan Porch, until it was cancelled due to foot and mouth disease. Susan just wanted to get to the finish, in order to be eligible for the 1968 Monte. 

As a navigator, she entered two more rallies in 1967, in two separate Minis. She partnered Australian Lyndon McLeod for the Tulip Rally and Christopher Coburn for the Alpine Rally, although neither team finished.

Her partnership with Christopher Coburn continued for another two seasons, always with her in the navigator's seat. In 1968, they drove a Mini on the Monte, her seventh edition and his first. Their rally ended stuck in a bramble bush, going over the time limit in order to free themselves.

Their final event together was Sheleagh's last international rally. It was the 1969 Monte, driving a Vauxhall Viva. The alternator became faulty shortly after the start and they did not finish.

A hospital doctor and consultant in physical medicine, she was usually referred to as “Dr. S Aldersmith”, and has been described as "formidable". That said, she told the Worthing Herald in 1962 that her parents would not allow her to learn to drive, and she had to wait until she had qualified until she began "eight years ago". She had been practising medicine since at least 1954, when she worked in Nottingham. This was after she contracted polio in 1952, which must have necessitated time off work and sporting activity. She later lived in the south of England, at Rustington. She was sometimes a member of the circuit medical team at Goodwood, Silverstone and Brands Hatch, and the first woman to serve as a medical officer at the British Grand Prix.

As well as motorsport, she took an interest in flying and gliding and was one of the donors towards the 1954 World Championship Appeal Fund.

She died in 2002, aged 78. Her given name appears to have been "Sheila" on her birth certificate, but she used the spelling "Sheleagh" to refer to herself.

(Image copyright Worthing Herald)

Stephanie Ruys de Perez

 

Stephanie Ruys de Perez raced saloons in Canada in the 1960s and 1970s. Although born in the USA, she lived in Canada for most of her adult life.

She first comes to the attention of the media in 1966, when she was interviewed for McLeans magazine for a feature about women in motorsport. She was racing a Sunbeam Imp at the Players 200 meeting and it broke down on the third lap. The writer, Alan Edmonds, was very taken with her blond hair and slim figure, and wrote a lot about how she enjoyed racing as a "sensual" thing. Her husband had taken up the sport that year and it is likely that this was her first season too, although a 1969 newspaper article says that she had been racing for five years by then, "the last two in a full-sized sedan". She is quoted as saying that she would be "very depressed" if she thought she was better than men, and hoped her husband was better than her.

In 1970, she had moved on to a more powerful car and entered the Can-Am Challenge Race for the Labatts Blue Trophy, driving a Chevrolet Camaro. It is unclear whether she qualified. She later raced this car at the Harewood Grand Finale meeting at Harewood Acres, finishing ninth in her race. In July, she did at least one round of the Canadian Touring Car Championship at Mosport, finishing fourth. The first mention of this car was in a June 1969 Ottawa Journal report, where she raced in a support event to the Can-Am Challenge Cup. The car itself is sometimes described as being purple.

In 1972, she was fourteenth in the Sanair Trans-Am race, in a Mini Cooper, driving for the Fossman racing tem. Her name is sometimes associated with works Ford team Comstock, who helped start the careers of many Canadian drivers of the time, but it isn't clear whether she raced for them.

One of her more famous exploits was a Battle of the Sexes match race she undertook against Bob Tullius in November 1973. Tullius had previously said that her Mini could be driven faster by a man, encouraging her to challenge him to the race. The event was a support for the American Road Race of Champions at Road Atlanta, with both drivers in identical Triumph Spitfires prepared to Showroom Sports Car spec.

Stephanie, who had never competed at Road Atlanta before, led for three of the five laps, but was caught on the back straight by her rival, who won by 1.8 seconds. A group of women apparently mobbed officials and tried to claim that there were five more minutes left on the clock. Tullius won a silver pig trophy for his victory in the "Chauvinist Match Race".

Not long before, in October, she had wrecked her Mini in a spectcular accident at Mosport, flipping it over during qualifying.

More detailed information about her career is not forthcoming, although she was quite famous at the time, appearing in TV and print adverts. One of these was for Shell unleaded petrol in 1971. In 1974, she appeared in a TV series called Food for Thought, presenting a fitness segment.

She died "at an early age" from cancer.

(Image copyright McLeans magazine)

Ashley Taws

Ashley Taws made her name as a successful young Canadian Formula Ford driver between 2000 and 2002, recognisable for her pink, "Barbie"-sponsored car. 

She was a race-winner at 1200cc level and scored seconds and thirds in her one season of 1600cc competition. 

She first raced a car in 2000, driving a 1200cc Formula Ford. This followed a karting career which had begun when she was nine. She was 16 at the time. In only her first season, she won two races, and she was second in the championship in 2001. By this time, she had brokered a sponsorship deal with Mattel and Wal-Mart, tying in with a co-promotion for "Be Anything With Barbie". Ashley drove a pink car with Barbie decals and made personal appearances at Canadian Wal-Mart stores close to tracks where she was racing. This was one of the most high-profile and successful female-oriented brand sponsorships in motorsport.

She moved up to the more competitive 1600cc class in 2002. Immediately, she was on the pace, finishing third in Round 1 at Mosport. This was one of two podium finishes she scored that year, on her way to championship fourth. She had tied with third-placed Chris Guerrieri on points, but he got third due to a win.

Her career was almost ended by a serious road traffic accident at the end of 2002, when she suffered injuries to her spine, left leg and internal organs. She had been a passenger in a friend's car. Seven months later, she was back out in the Formula Ford, at Toronto Molson Indy. Despite a cautious drive, she was fourth in her first race back. A third place at Trois-Rivieres helped her to championship seventh, but she dropped out after the fifth round as she was not feeling as comfortable in the car as she would like.

For a while, she stopped competing, bar a single guest appearance in the Honda Michelin Challenge in 2004. She was thirteenth at Mosport, driving a Civic.

She only returned to motorsport in 2007, in a BMW in the Canadian Touring Car Championship, and later, in 2008, a CASCAR stock car. Both cars carried Barbie sponsorship again. Although she showed promise, finishing second in only her third CASCAR race, she did not take to oval racing and quit in 2009. She is now pursuing a business career, working as an insurance broker.

(Image copyright AIM Autosport)

Jenny Tudor-Owen

Jenny Tudor-Owen raced and rallied, mostly in Europe, during the 1960s. She normally drove British cars.

Her first car, lent to her in 1962 by John Coombs, was a Mini, which she crashed. Her then-boyfriend Mike Parkes built her another Mini, in which she qualified on pole for her first race at Brands Hatch, only to over-rev on the startline due to valve bounce. 

She quickly moved on to an MGB. This particular car is the one most associated with her, and she raced several different versions. The first of these was run by Barwells in 1963. 

In 1964, she was fourth in the Copenhagen Cup at the Roskildering. Her MGB was the first one to race in Denmark.

Tracking down her race results has proved difficult, but she did enter at least some of the Freddie Dixon Challenge Trophy and other club meetings organised by the BARC and BRSCC. The MGB was often up against much more powerful cars, such as Ferrari 250s and Jaguar E-Types. Among her rivals were Jackie Stewart, Bernard Unett and Alan Minshaw. Her best result in the MG, in the UK at least, was a fifth place at Oulton Park in June. Later in the year, she tried out a Lotus Elan for a couple of races, and she was third at Mallory Park in a 1600cc GT race. 

The Elan was her main focus in 1965, although it looks to have been a much shorter season for her. The biggest event on her calendar was an early-season race at Goodwood for small-engined sportscars, in which she was eleventh. She also tried out single-seaters, in the shape of a Formula Vee. 

After another spell in the MGB, which included an entry in a BWRDC ladies' race at Oulton Park in 1967, she acquired a Jaguar E-Type, which she used in 1967 and 1968, winning the 1968 BWRDC Racing championship following an outright second place at Thruxton. She had been leading the race on a wet track and recovered from a spin to hold on to the runner-up spot.

Racing a Bamford MGB at Oulton Park in October 1968, she managed to crash during practice and write off the car at Cascades. Her accident was overshadowed by James Hunt famously throwing an Alexis Formula Ford in the lake at the same meeting. That year, she also raced an E-Type for Warren Pearce's team. 

On the rallying side, she is best known for her Coupe des Dames in the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon, driving a Volvo 145. She was part of a four-woman team with Elsie Gadd, Anthea Castell and Sheila Kemp. The car belonged to Elsie Gadd, who had no rallying experience, so she hired Jenny and Sheila as her lead drivers. They were 41^st overall, just in front of Jean Denton’s MGB, which had been the favourite for the Ladies’ prize. They had their share of troubles, including a fire in the car's battery in the closing stages in Australia, and large cracks in the car's bodywork, which needed to be welded, after crossing the gravel roads of Turkey and the Middle East.

After the London-Sydney, Jenny disappears from the entry lists. Her marriage ended and she seemed to retire from motorsport completely, although she occasionally popped up in the papers. One such appearance was in the Kent Evening Post in 1970, where the "really expert driver" opined that other women drivers "don't concentrate enough".

She moved to America and then South Africa, where she used her skills at the wheel as a film stunt performer. She also bred Pekinese dogs successfully.

(Image courtesy of Greening Australia)

Cindy Gudet

Cindy Gudet is a championship-winning French hillclimber who has made the jump from speed events to sportscar racing.

Her background is predominantly hillclimbs, although not exclusively. She made guest appearances in rallies and in ice racing for several seasons before making the switch to sportscars on circuits in 2024.

She has been successful in hillclimbing since 2017, winning six national titles in production sportscars, most notably a Revolt 2P0 prototype. In 2023, she signed up for the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup, a single-make rally championship based in Germany, running as an official FFSA Academy entry with Cecile Marie as co-driver. Sarah Rumeau, a future French champion and Iron Dames driver, was also selected. After a guest appearance in the Rallye Regional de Quercy, driving a Peugeot 106, she was tenth in the Opel class in her first event in the car, the Rally Sulingen. Her best result of the year was a sixth place in her home Opel event, the Rallye Vosges Grand-Est. Her final position on the e-Rally Cup leaderboard was eighth, after six to-ten finishes.

As well as the ADAC series, she did another French regional rally in a Peugeot 208 R2, finishing the Savoie-Chautagne National Rallye in 29th place, from 58 finishers.

Her circuit career began in 2022, although on ice rather than on asphalt. She was invited to contest the Andros Stars ice racing series, which used electric cars and was open to selected guest drivers only, from the worlds of motorsport, other sport and celebrity. This seems to have been her first experience of driving on a track with other cars around her. She must have impressed Yvan Muller's team, which took her on for the 2023-2024 season as a driver in the Elite class. This was the last running of the Andros Trophy.

In 2024, she raced on the circuits, entering the GT4 European Series in a Toyota GR Supra, sharing with Gabriela Jilkova. Their car was run by Matmut Evolution, Jerome Policand's team, which had been taking steps to support female talent in the past season or so.

They were seventh in their class, with two podium finishes, a third place in Round 1 at Paul Ricard and another third at the season finale in Jeddah.

Driving solo, Cindy was fifth in the Ligier European Series, with her best finish being second at Portimao. She did almost the full season, only missing the Spa races, driving for the M Racing team. She was their highest-placed finisher in the squad.

She and Gabriela were signed again to race in the Supra in the 2025 GT4 European Series. She will also do another season in the Ligier. 

(Image copyright Cindy Gudet)

Arianna Casoli

Arianna Casoli races in the Whelen Euro NASCAR series. The Italian is the most prolific female driver in the championship and is one of its longest-standing competitors.

It was in 2016 that she first strapped herself into a stock car, aged 42. She raced in the Elite 2 development class and her car was a Ford, one of the championship's stock bodies. Her best finish was 15th, at Adria, and she was 19th in the championship, although she was that year’s top lady driver. Prior to her first races, she had only done a little testing in a car that was the most powerful and heaviest thing she had ever driven.

She fared better at the wheel of a CAAL Racing Chevrolet in 2017, almost getting into the top ten at Venray. She was 15th overall that year.

Another season in Elite 2 in 2018 gave her a championship 17th. She improved this to 15th in 2019, with a best finish of twelfth at Zolder.

An accident in 2020 threatened to end her Euro NASCAR adventure, but she completed the four-round championship, finishing tenth with a best finish of fifth at Zolder.

A full championship ran in 2021, with Arianna in the EuroNASCAR2 class. She was 18th in the championship, with one top-ten finish, a tenth place at Most.

She did a part-season in the same class in 2022, with a best finish of 17th at Brands Hatch. This was repeated in 2023.

Another EuroNASCAR season in 2024 ended with a trip to Brazil for the final rounds of the NASCAR Brazil series.

Prior to 2016, she raced in a number of one-make series in Italy, including the Saxo and MGF Cups, beginning in 1996, when she was 22. Her first car was a Renault Clio. This stopped in 2002 so she could finish her education and have children. She began racing seriously again in 2015 in the SEAT Ibiza Cup in Italy, having made a guest appearance in 2013 with her friend Valentina Albanese.

(Image copyright @suomi1985)

The TC2000 Carrera de la Mujer

The Carrera de la Mujer ("Race of Women") is a recurring event held at the end of the TC 2000 season in Colombia. It is a female-only race run in aid of breast cancer charities. The 2024 edition was the seventh running; it is not an annual event.

It is for saloon cars of the type found racing in Colombian TC 2000, and cars of a variety of ages can take part. Grids are normally fairly large and consist of female TC 2000 regulars, celebrities, media and other guest drivers who are competing for charity. The race is a sprint, usually lasting 20 minutes. Drivers can compete solo or with a co-driver, who does not have to be female.

Details of the race are sketchy, although each edition is numbered, which helps a little. It isn't clear when the first race was held, although it was not before 2013. Entry lists, results and winners are similarly difficult to find.

Below is the beginning of a timeline for the Carrera de la Mujer, with winners where they are known.

I

II (2014)

III (2015)

IV

V

VI (2022) 

Angelica Jaimes (Renault)

VII (2024)

Teresa Penuela (Renault)

 

(Image copyright TC 2000)