Female Drivers in Touring Cars: Canada

Stephanie Ruys de Perez

Female drivers have been a regular fixture in the Canadian Touring Car Championship during the past few years. Canada has produced a number of other women racers such as Monique Proulx, but it is the CTCC that seems to be their favoured destination at the moment.

Demi Chalkias - Canadian driver who competes in the Pirelli GT Sprint championship. She won the GT4 class of the series in 2018, driving a BMW E36. She has also competed in the Canadian Touring Car Championship in the same car, winning races at Mosport, Shannonville and Calabogie. In 2020, she won a CASC-run GT3 series in the BMW, as well as racing in the Nissan Micra Cup. The year after, she won some races in the Canadian Touring Car Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. Mercedes-AMG chose her as part of a three-woman team for an endurance race at Buttonwillow in the USA, alongside Cherie Storms and Nicole Havrda. In 2023, she raced a Mercedes with some success in the SCCC GT4 championship. She is from a motorsport background but did not initially try to race herself. She dropped out of a medical degree to work in the automotive world, having been a triathlete earlier in her career.

Crystel Charest - raced in the Canadian Touring Car Championship in 2016 and 2017. Her car was a Mini Cooper run by Octane Racing both times. Her best result came in 2016: a fourth place at Trois-Rivieres. Previously, and alongside her CTCC events, she raced the Mini in the Super Production Challenge in Canada. She was a career-best sixth in the 2017 championship, after an eleventh place in 2016 and twelfth in 2015. She only managed one appearance in the series in 2018, at Trois-Rivieres. She did not finish the first race and could not start the second. In 2022, she reappeared in the Mini for the Canadian Super Production Challenge Series. Crystel has been working as a dentist in Quebec since 1992.

Marie-France Gagné – raced in the Canadian Touring Car Championship in 2014. She drove a Mini Cooper in the Touring class. It was her first season in the series, and she acquitted herself well, with a best finish of sixth, and tenth in the 22-driver Touring class. She was competing with her husband, Éric Lacouture, as a team-mate. They are both dentists.

Nathalie Hénault – raced in the Canadian Touring Car Championship in 2014, after several years of regional and club competition. She was racing in the Super class, and her car was a Subaru WRX. Right from the first round, she was on the pace, finishing eighth. Her best finishes were a pair of third places, both at Calabogie. She was fifth in the championship, and probably would have been higher without a string of DNFs near the end of the season. A second season of the CTCC ended quite similarly in 2015; Nathalie was more consistent, and had a better finishing record, and was fifth again, with a best finish of fifth at Shannonville. Her car was the Impreza. She raced in the Subaru in at least some rounds of the GT Challenge in 2016. In 2017, she was third in the Super Touring class of the CTCC, driving the Impreza. She scored two seconds and two third places.

Marie-Soleil Labelle - races in the Nissan Micra Cup in Canada. 2020 was her first season of competition and she is the championship’s youngest ever entrant, aged 16. Her best result so far has been fifteenth at Calabogie at the end of August. She was 21st in the championship. In 2021, she was 23rd overall in the Nissan championship, eleventh in the Micra class. This improved to third overall in 2022, with three third places. She moved up to the Sentra one-make championship in 2023. Before switching to cars, she raced karts in Canada up to international level. She intended to race single-seaters and was on a development deal to race a Formula Renault in Europe in 2021, taking part in the Ultimate Cup.

Nicole Martin-Favreau - Quebecois driver who raced in Canada in the 1960s and possibly into the early 1970s. She mostly raced in the sedan categories, often against Francois Favreau, whom she married in 1966. Her cars included a Lotus Cortina and a Shelby Mustang which she used in Production Sports races in 1965. The Cortina was probably her most successful car and she raced it from 1966 onwards. Among her results were a fourth and fifth place at Mont-Tremblant in the 1967 Quebec Group B Sedan series. She started an all-female racing team in 1968, in the Quebec Formula B single-seater championship, although details of this are hard to find.

Lindsay Rice - raced in the CTCC in 2017. She scored two fifth places in the GT Sport class at Mosport, but the rest of her part-season was affected by a string of DNFs and a non-start. She had attempted to make her CTCC debut at Trois-Rivieres in 2016, but was unable to start. Her usual car is a Porsche 911, which she also used in club racing in 2016. She was more successful there. As well as racing the Porsche, she did some Nissan Micra Cup races in 2016, at Mosport. In 2018, she drove a different car, an Audi RS3 LMS, but only entered one race at Mosport, finishing sixth. She completed most of the 2019 championship in the Audi, finishing fifth in the TCR class with five top-tens, the best of these being a fifth at Calabogie. Lindsay does not have a motorsport background and did not start competing until she was in her mid-twenties.

Stephanie Ruys de Perez – raced saloons in Canada in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1972, she was fourteenth in the Sanair Trans-Am race, in a Mini Cooper. She is best known for racing for the Comstock team, one of the first commercially sponsored racing teams. She also raced a Sunbeam Imp in 1966. Among her other cars was a Chevrolet Camaro. More detailed information about her career is not forthcoming, although she was quite famous at the time, appearing on TV adverts.

Ashley Sahakian - raced in the Canadian Touring Car Championship in 2017. This was her rookie year in the series. She drove a Ford Mustang and was fourth in the GT Sport class, two places below her team-mate and brother, Chris Sahakian. Ashley’s best finish was third, at Mirabel. She made some more appearances in the Mustang in 2018, earning a best finish of seventh at Mirabel. Prior to the CTCC, she did part-seasons in the Nissan Micra Cup in 2015 and 2016. She was not among the front-runners but did improve in her second year. As well as motor racing, she plays football and is a former model.

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