Sabrina Shaw

Sabrina Shaw found fame as the youngest-ever competitor on the RAC Rally, aged seventeen years and two months, in 1998. 

She was briefly British rallying’s “next big thing”, following on from Janie Eaton and Francine Bogg who had been the youngest women drivers before her earlier in the decade.

Her 1998 RAC Rally car was a SEAT Ibiza and she was 79th. This was not her first rally car; she had used a Daihatsu Charade to do her first events in order to get the appropriate signatures on her license. Her first rally came just four days after gaining her driving license and she ended up rolling the Daihatsu down a cliff after a suspension component failed. She was not seriously hurt, although the car was a write-off. It had been borrowed and incredibly, she was loaned another car for the five more rallies she needed to complete to get her international license. 

Her father Lindsay was a rally driver himself and acted as Sabrina’s co-driver for her early events. Experienced navigator Mike Panes sat with her for the RAC Rally.

The SEAT drive was a one-off and Sabrina’s car for her next outing was a Ford Ka. She drove it in the 1999 Vauxhall Astra Stages Rally. She and Julia Rabbett were 54th overall and second in class. This was replaced by a Peugeot 106 which she used for the rest of the year. Most of this was spent in the UK, with outings in the British Rally Championship and the National Rally Championship. She entered the Ulster Rally but did not finish, and was 59th overall on the Bulldog Rally.

She also drove a Peugeot 106 Rallye in the China Rally in 1999, finishing in 25th place, alongside Chinese navigator Shouli Xu. The drive came about through the Chinese magazine Champion Racers, for which Shouli Xu was the editor, and Sabrina’s manager Andy Moss, who was instrumental in bringing rallying to China. Sabrina’s second World Championship rally ended in a 25th place. She had taken part in one of the earliest rallies in mainland China open to international drivers, as part of a female crew.

Later, she acquired an Impreza for the 2000 RAC Rally, but failed to finish, going out on the fourth stage with a mechanical problem. 

She continued to drive the 106 in 2000, in rallies including the BTRDA North Humberside Forest Rally. 

Early on, Sabrina expressed a wish to become a professional driver and she took time out from catering college in 1998 to commit herself. She was instructed and mentored by Gwyndaf Evans and SEAT UK provided her with her car for the 1998 RAC Rally but her family was still having to find large sums of money for each event. The 2000 RAC was her last international rally.

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