Michelle Gatting

Michelle Gatting is a Danish driver who has won races in single-seaters and saloons. In 2019, she entered Le Mans for the first time.

She began racing in 2011, after winning two Danish karting titles. A Formula Ford was her first senior racing car and she wasted no time in getting on the pace, finishing fourth in her first race. During the second half of the season, she was a constant presence on the podium and won her first race at Sturup. She was third in the championship.

In 2012, she moved to the VW Scirocco-R Cup in Germany, supported by the FIA Women in Motorsport commission. This was the first of two seasons in the series. She was eleventh in her first year, and fourth in the Junior standings after one class win. She also drove a Scirocco in the Merdeka Endurance Race in Malaysia, but did not finish.

Her second season was much more successful and she became one of the championship’s quickest drivers, managing four podium finishes. These were a third and three seconds early in the season. She was fifth overall.

In 2014, she moved into sportscar racing, and raced in the Porsche Carrera Cup in Germany. Her best result was 15th, in Oschersleben. Towards the end of the season, she did two rounds of the International GT Open. She was eleventh in one race at Spa in an Audi R8 LMS Ultra.

She did not race competitively in 2015, but she did test a Thundersports car, with a view to entering the championship in 2016. Her debut Thundersports season in 2016 was a good one; she scored one win, at Bellahoj, as well as two second places, finishing eighth in the championship. Her car was a Dodge Challenger.

2017 was another strong season, with seven podium finishes and seventh in the Thundersports championship.

In 2018, she raced a BMW in Supertourisme in Denmark, continuing her good run of form. She was third in the championship with three wins, at Rudsborg and Padskogen.  

Later in the season, she joined the Kessel team for the Gulf 12 Hours, having proven her mettle in big-engined, powerful cars. Kessel was running an all-female team. They were second in class and sixth overall. This led to an offer of a drive in Europe with Kessel, including the Le Mans 24 Hours. The team, consisting of Michelle, Rahel Frey and Manuela Gostner, is supported by the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission.

The FIA WiM also supported Michelle in joining another all-female team for the Sepang round of the Asian Le Mans Series, in a Ligier LMP3 car. Her team-mates were Margot Laffite and Katherine Legge. They were running as part of Keiko Ihara’s R24 team, which had two female-crewed cars in the race. Michelle’s team was eighth in the LMP3 class.

Michelle was initially named as a candidate for the inaugural W Series women’s Formula 3 championship, but dropped out in favour of joining the Kessel team and racing at Le Mans. She was one of the Kessel "Iron Dames" with Rahel Frey and Manuela Gostner. They scored the first finish for an all-female team at Le Mans itself for about ten years, ahead of the "sister" Iron Lynx car of their male team-mates. Although the Dames were troubled by their share of car-related difficulties in the European Le Mans Series, they still managed second places in class at Silverstone and Paul Ricard, leaving them fourth in the GTE class overall.

The Iron Dames entered the Gulf 12 Hours again in 2019 and were closing on third place with Michelle in the car. A collision with a backmarker who did not let the faster car through in time put them out of the race.

Driving solo, Michelle did some rounds of the Denmark Super GT championship, driving an Oreca-powered prototype. She won twice at Bellahoj and also picked up a fourth at the same track.

The Iron Dames returned in 2020. They entered the ELMS and although it was not an easy season, they were fifth in the GTE class with three third places at Paul Ricard and Monza. Once more they out-scored their Iron Lynx "brothers".

The three Dames were 34th overall when Le Mans finally ran in September and were eleventh in the LMGTE Am class. This was a second straight finish for the team.

By herself but still part of the "Iron" setup, Michelle did part of the European Ferrari Challenge in Italy. She won the Trofeo Pirelli at Misano and was second at Misano and Imola. Despite only doing half of the season, she was sixth overall.

She also tried out touring cars in the Danish TCR series, driving a 309 for the Peugeot team. Unfortunately she did not finish her two races at Jyllandsringen.

2021 was her best year yet. The Iron Dames ran her in WEC, ELMS and the Ferrari Challenge. Driving an Iron Lynx "Scuderia Niki" 488, she won the first round of the Ferrari Challenge at Monza. Two more wins and a long string of pole positions and podiums meant that she won the championship outright.

Her three WEC outings included a class 13th place at Le Mans with Rahel Frey and Sarah Bovy, 36th overall. They also competed in the Portimao and Monza rounds. The Iron Dames team was ninth in the ELMS LMGTE championship after two third places at Portimao and Spa, with Michelle at the wheel.

She also made some appearances in the FIA Endurance Trophy, in the Iron Dames Ferrari.

The Dames stayed together in 2022. Michelle did five of the six rounds of the WEC for the team, with Doriane Pin and Christina Nielsen subbing for her and Sarah Bovy at Spa. Their best finishes in the large GTE class were two seventh places at Monza and Fuji and they were 14th overall. 

The season included Le Mans itself. It was far from an easy race for Michelle, Rahel and Sarah, but they were the leading Iron Lynx Ferrari crew and finished 40th, seventh in the GTE Am class. 

It was in the European Le Mans Series GTE Trophy where they really shone. The season began with a fourth a Paul Ricard that was almost a debut podium. They were second in the fifth round at Spa, then won the final race at Portimao, their first win. The Dames were third in the championship.

They went one better in the Gold Cup section of the Fanatec GT World Challenge, finishing second. This time, they were second at Paul Ricard and won at Spa.

The three main Dames stayed together for 2023, helped out by Doriane Pin. The established team had a pair of new cars: a Porsche 911 for WEC and a Lamborghini Huracan for IMSA and the Fanatec GT World Challenge. WEC and the Porsche proved to be the best combination, winning the LMGTE Am class at Bahrain at the end of the season. A third at Portimao earlier and some solid fourth places helped them to second in the class championship, in the final season of LMGTE competition. They were fourth in class at Le Mans after running much higher for much of the race but losing ground in the last few hours.

The Dames's IMSA season was limited to four rounds. Michelle and Rahel were 18th in the Daytona 24 Hours and eleventh at Sebring. They also raced at Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta, in commons with many other GTD teams who did not run the full season. Sebring remained their best finish. 

Their GT Wold Challenge season was affected by an early retirement from the Spa 24 Hours, which counted for three of the six point-scoring rounds. Their best result was 28th place overall at Monza, the first race of the season.

Michelle is set for another WEC season in 2024.

(Image copyright Kessel Racing)

Natalie Decker

Natalie Decker made history in 2018 by becoming the first woman driver to start the Daytona ARCA race from pole. She was fifth overall.

This was the start of her second season in ARCA with the Venturini team, who ran her in seven races in 2017, driving a Toyota. Her best finish was seventh, at Elkhart Lake, and she also finished in the top ten at Pocono, the race before.

She did almost the full ARCA championship in 2018, nine top-ten finishes from 20 races, including two fifths at Daytona and Elko. She only missed the Michigan round after undergoing surgery for a hernia.

Her first attempt at a major race was in 2016. She tried to qualify for a Camping World Trucks race at Martinsville in 2016, after being supported by the Alan Kulwicki driver development programme. She did not qualify. She was part of a three-woman Decker family team, with her older cousins Claire and Paige. The two sisters just managed to qualify.

She returned to the Trucks series in 2019, driving for David Gilliland. Her first race ended in a crash. By her third, at Las Vegas, she was into the top twenty for the first time with a thirteenth place.

At the end of 2018, she was announced as one of 60 drivers on the longlist for the women-only W Series Formula 3 championship, despite having no single-seater experience. She made the initial cut and went on to test an actual F3 car in Spain, although she was not selected for the races themselves..

It was back to Trucks for the 2019 season proper. 2019 was not a vintage year for Natalie or her N29 team; eight crashes dented her chances somewhat. Her best finish was a thirteenth place at Las Vegas.

She crashed out of her K&N Pro Series East guest appearance, but her first of two ARCA races gave her a sixth. This was at Daytona at the start of the year.

Daytona was her lucky track again in 2020. She entered the Gander Outdoors Truck series and qualified 30th for the first round at the Florida track, but she fought her way to fifth. Unfortunately, the rest of her thirteen-race season did not go to plan. Her next-best finish was a 20th place at the Daytona road course. Having admitted in 2019 that she was affected by juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, her illness kept her away from the track for part of the year and meant she was not racing at 100%.

2021 brought some new challenges. She moved up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series for five rounds, usually in Chris Our's Chevrolet. It was a difficult season and her best finish was in her last race at Martinsville, where she was 25th.

Away from stock cars, she had more success with Trans Am, which she had tried in 2020. She raced an Audi R8 LMS at Watkins Glen and Circuit of the Americas, picking up two second places and a fourth.

Her Trans Am career continued in 2022 with her debut win in the Audi. The Charlotte victory was her only outing in the series. Her stock car activities were limited, sometimes by illness, but she continued to appear in the Xfinity Series. Although she did not qualify at Daytona or Talladega and her car was taken over by Chad Finchum at Dover, she did qualify for three races. These were at Martinsville, Nashville and Atlanta, with the best of these being Atlanta, where she was 27th.

There was limited racing for her in 2023, but two of her events were more outings in the Xfinity Series. She was 34th at Charlotte, driving for Bobby Dotter's team, but did not finish at Daytona after crashing out fairlt early. She was driving for Emerling-Gase Motorsports this time. Dotter gave her another drive at Homestead, but she did not qualify. 

Emerling had already run her once at Daytona. She did the season-opening ARCA race and was fourteenth overall. 

She was part of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity programme in 2015 and has competed in late models and local truck and stock car events since 2013.

(Image from http://speedsport.com)

Hailie Deegan

Hailie Deegan is the first female driver to win a race in the K&N Pro Series.

Hailie, born in 2001, only began racing seriously in 2017. She finished two CARS Super Late Model Tour events and was unspectacular, if reliable. Her career only really got started in 2018, when she signed up for a full season in the K&N Pro Series West, driving Bill McAnally’s Toyota. She was still only 16. In her early teens, she had been a successful off-road racer with junior titles to her name.

Her season began with a promising seventh place at Bakersfield, then it wasn’t long before the “firsts” began to stack up. She earned her first top-five finish two months later, coming in fourth at Orange Show and then fifth at Colorado. Her first pole position was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track; she finished second. However, her next race, at Meridian, yielded her first win, from fourth on the grid. Before the end of the season, she had racked up another pole at Bakersfield and two top-ten finishes.

As well as the Western Pro Series, she did some rounds of the Eastern championship. This was far less successful, beginning with a non-finish at Smyrna due to electrical problems and ending with crashes at Iowa and Gateway. In between, she managed a best finish of thirteenth at Memphis.

Away from championship races, she won a heat of the 2018 Star Nursery series at Las Vegas. A second attempt at the Star Nursery in February 2019 led to a fourth place, from pole.

2019 started with the first race of the Pro Series East championship, at New Smyrna. Again, Hailie had to retire her Toyota with electrical problems. Back in the West series at her favoured Vegas track, she earned another win after a last-lap dash to the front. She had started from eighth on the grid. She won again at Colorado, from fourth, and was second at Roseville from pole. In all, she scored six podiums during the season and was third in the championship.

Her part-season in the Pro Series West was not as stellar, often due to non-finishes. She started with a pole at Smyrna, but could only finish 16th after electrical problems. She was ninth at Bristol and Gateway, her best Western results of the year.

In 2020 she concentrated on the ARCA Menards Series, running in David Gilliland's Ford for the full season. It was a strong season with two second places at Daytona and Springfield, plus two further top-five finishes. The only time she was out of the top ten was when she did not finish, which was a fairly uncommon occurrence. She was third in the championship.

She also did her first race in the NASCAR Truck series in 2020. It was a single-race deal for the Kansas event and she was 16th overall, having started in 34th place.

The Truck series was her main on-track home in 2021 and she did all 22 rounds. Mostly, she ran in the mid-field and managed to stay out of trouble, although she did show some flashes of speed, especially in qualifying. The Gateway oval was her best circuit and she was a season's-best seventh there.

Another full season in Craftsman Trucks beckoned in 2022, with David Gilliland's team. It was another mid-ranking season, but she managed a career-best sixth at the Talladega Superspeedway. This was her second top-ten of the year after a tenth place at Mid-Ohio.

She also made her debut in the Xfinity Series at Las Vegas, in Bobby Dotter's car. She was thirteenth, from 35 finishers.

A full-time move back to Trucks followed. The 2023 season started badly with crashes at Daytona and Las Vegas, but she was twelfth at Atlanta from 32nd on the grid. Her first top ten was two races later, at Fort Worth, followed by thirteenth at Bristol from sixth on the grid. She had a mid-season slump, although she remained a consistant finisher, but did get back on the pace at Talladega, finsihing eighth. She was 19th in the championship.

Hallie’s on-track nickname is “Dirt Princess”. She returned to her dirt-track roots in 2021, racing a SxS vehicle in both the Nitro Rallycross and Camping World SRX Series. She was fourth and fifth in the two finals at the rallycross event, held at The Firm in North Carolina.

Her father is motocross racer Brian Deegan.

(Image from https://hometracks.nascar.com)