Female drivers were banned from competition by the USA’s main motorsport authority, in 1909, but between then and the 1950s, a number of women found ways to race. Many of them competed in speed trials, which were still allowed, and these were often part of fairground “daredevil” exhibitions. The International Motor Competition Association (IMCA) presided over many of these fairground meets, usually run on dirt tracks, and they allowed men and women to race together, as well as putting on women’s races, particularly match races between female drivers. IMCA also promoted motorsport in Canada. Below are profiles of some of these racers. See also The Speederettes for details of an early group of dirt-track racers. Zenita Neville now has her own profile, as does Elfrieda Mais.
Marion Martins - French driver who raced in the 1920s in Canada, usually in IMCA events and driving a Frontenac Ford. In 1925, she competed in Edmonton, Calgary and Regina, on the half-mile dirt oval tracks there. At the Edmonton Exhibition, she won a match race against a driver called Al Cotey. At Regina, shortly before, she defeated Elfrieda Mais in a ladies’ match race. As well as various races, usually of very short distance, she took part in speed trials. For at least one of these, at Ottawa, she used a Bugatti. After 1925, she seems to disappear. Marriage records suggest that she and Joan LaCosta could have been the same person, racing under different names. However, they will remain as separate entries until this is more certain.
Simmone Soudan - raced at dirt tracks in Illinois in the mid-1920s. She was active in the series of women’s races that took place at the North Shore Polo Club in Chicago, competing there in 1923 and 1924. The results of these races are not fully forthcoming, although she appears to have been unplaced in 1924. Later, in 1925, she hit the news when her husband of one month, Clyde Beetley, was accused of bigamy by a former wife.
Bunny Thornton - racer and daredevil who was a star of the dirt track scene in the 1910s. She was an early rival to Elfrieda Mais. 1915 was her biggest year in a car and she took on Elfrieda Mais several times in states as far apart as Minnesota and Missouri. She earned more media attention when she used her “dainty” Scripps-Booth car to tow Louis Disbrow’s burning car to safety at Michigan State Fair. She acquired a Sunbeam for 2016, but it is unclear whether she ever actually raced it. She later worked as a car sales demonstrator and flew with Katharine Stinson. Bunny was usually referred to as being English and in her early twenties, but a newspaper report of a divorce case involving her gave her real name as Frances Goate, who had first married in 1904. She had previously been an actress.
Arline Mazy - American stunt driver and occasional racer who was active in the 1910s and is sometimes mixed up with Elfrieda Mais, against whom she competed. In 1918, she claimed in the Muncie Evening Press, and Indiana paper, that she had never been beaten by another woman driver. The same year, in July, she won a race on the Lima Driving Park dirt oval, driving a Hudson and defeating seven other competitors. Two months later, she won another race outright at the track and her car was described as “easily the snappiest car entered.”
May Smylie - raced a Lyons Motor Special at half-mile dirt tracks in the US in 1923 and 1924. She first appears at the North Shore Polo Club in Chicago in July, competing in two races against five other women. She entered the same event in 1924 and despite a dramatic spin in qualifying that nearly ended in a roll, she was second in the first race. In September, she returned to the polo club for a ten-mile challenge race against eight female drivers, including Elfrieda Mais. The winner of this event was set to take on the winner of a men’s race, but the result is not forthcoming.
Simmone Soudan - raced at dirt tracks in Illinois in the mid-1920s. She was active in the series of women’s races that took place at the North Shore Polo Club in Chicago, competing there in 1923 and 1924. The results of these races are not fully forthcoming, although she appears to have been unplaced in 1924. Later, in 1925, she hit the news when her husband of one month, Clyde Beetley, was accused of bigamy by a former wife.
Helen Temme (Pyott) - raced in Chicago and Indiana in the 1910s and 1920s, usually under the name “Mrs. Oliver Temme”. She raced on fairground dirt tracks in a single-seater, and may well have raced in mixed events at least once. A press clipping from 1923 describes a meeting at the North Shore track, where the winner of the ladies’ race would take on the men. She may also have raced at North Shore in 1924. She may have begun racing as a teenager, in 1916, although details of this race have been lost.
Bunny Thornton - racer and daredevil who was a star of the dirt track scene in the 1910s. She was an early rival to Elfrieda Mais. 1915 was her biggest year in a car and she took on Elfrieda Mais several times in states as far apart as Minnesota and Missouri. She earned more media attention when she used her “dainty” Scripps-Booth car to tow Louis Disbrow’s burning car to safety at Michigan State Fair. She acquired a Sunbeam for 2016, but it is unclear whether she ever actually raced it. She later worked as a car sales demonstrator and flew with Katharine Stinson. Bunny was usually referred to as being English and in her early twenties, but a newspaper report of a divorce case involving her gave her real name as Frances Goate, who had first married in 1904. She had previously been an actress.
(Image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/shushmuckle/7002149122/. Originally from the Danville, Virginia newspaper, The Bee.)
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