Alison Davis

Alison Davis was one of Britain's most successful female club racers and the first woman to win a club championship outright. 

She won the 1979 BRDC Production Sportscar Championship in a Ginetta G15 and also won races in the 1984 MG Metro Challenge. 

The first racing car that she owned was a Diva GT which she and her husband Roger bought from Frank Williams in 1970. Before that, she had done some hillclimbs and sprints in borrowed cars or her roadgoing Austin Healey. The Diva helped her to transition from speed events to wheel-to-wheel racing but it was replaced for the 1971 season by a Ginetta G15.

The Ginetta was her most successful car; it also gave her a string of class wins in the few-holds-barred Modsports championship 1971 and 1972. She was voted Driver of the Day at Brands Hatch in 1972 and won the British Women Racing Drivers’ Club’s Embassy Trophy for the best performance by a club member in circuit racing. This was one of a collection of trophies she earned that year.

Alison’s time in Modsports was supported by an unusual sponsor: feminine hygiene product Femfresh. She even appeared in 19 magazine as part of a promotional competition where a reader could win herself a Ginetta sportscar.

The Femfresh G15 was sold at the end of the 1972 season. Alison experimented with a number of different cars. She was a leading competitor in the BWRDC Shellsport Ladies’ Escort series, finishing second in the 1976 and 1977 championships with several wins. Two further standalone ladies’ races were held in 1978 and Alison won one of them. 

One of the cars she raced was a Fiat 124ST and it was this that she used on the 1973 Avon Tour of Britain. She was partnered by Sheila Scott, a pilot. They competed against eventual winner James Hunt, Graham Hill, Rosemary Smith and others.

Most of her outings during this time were in production saloons. She often competed alone, but sometimes teamed up with other drivers, including future Le Mans starter Juliette Slaughter, with whom she shared a Triumph TR7.

Coming back to a Ginetta brought her back to winning ways in 1979. Her new car was a yellow G15 that she and Roger converted from road spec. It always carried the number 33 and became a common and popular sight in parc ferme. Alison had the most successful year of her career in it, winning the BRDC Prodsports championship with a clean sweep of class wins. This was the first time a woman had won a British racing championship outright and she was awarded the BWRDC Wakefield Trophy, for outstanding contribution to motorsport by a woman. 

The trophy was not just the result of her BRDC Prodsports win. Her BRDC campaign was run in tandem with a strong attempt on the similar BRSCC CAV championship, finishing second ten times and setting three lap records at Silverstone, Castle Combe and Brands Hatch.

Although she did not win the championship again outright, she was joint champion in the DB Prodsports series in 1981, winning five times. In between, she scored two further wins and twelve second places in the 1980 season.

Despite her success in the Ginetta, Alison moved on to an MG Metro for the 1982 MG Metro Challenge. It was a steep learning curve for her and she crashed out of her first race. She made up for this by becoming a permanent fixture in the top six by the end of the season. This continued during the 1983 season while Roger and her team of mechanics got to grips with the Metro.

In 1984, she was offered a seat in Terry Drury’s Alfa Romeo GTV for the Tourist Trophy Six Hours at Silverstone. According to newspaper reports at the time, she had to embark on a funding drive to be able to take up her drive. She managed it, although she and Paul Everett were unable to finish the race itself.

For the Metro series itself, she was sponsored by the Melitta coffee brand.

Away from this disappointment, the team had finally got to grips with the Metro and Alison was flying at last. She won the first three races of the 1984 championship and cemented her reputation as a wet-track specialist with a victory at a rainy Silverstone. After her third win, a protest was lodged and she was accused of having an illegal car. A thorough examination by the scrutineers proved this allegation to be false and probably the result of wounded male pride.

Alison left motorsport on a high, as a leading driver in Metros and in Prodsports. She turned to showing Irish draught horses and entered the Horse of the Year Show on five occasions.

Her husband Roger points out that she would have been eligible for membership of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, but it would be another few years before that august organisation permitted female members.

(Thanks to Roger Davis for the information and picture)

Asja Zupanc

Asja Zupanc is a Slovenian driver with many top-ten finishes in European rallies. She won the Mitropa championship in 2011. 

She began as a navigator in 2002, sitting beside Tine Milic in a Peugeot 106 on the Rally Saturnus. Between 2005 and 2008 she was the regular navigator ro Boris Pozeg, mainly in Slovenia. This followed four years of teenage karting. At this time, Asja was undecided between rallying and circuit racing. She was a leading driver in the Slovenian Fiat Seicento one-make series in 2003 and 2004, winning several races and the 2003 Fiat championship.

Her first events in the rally driving seat were in 2005, when she drove an EZ Racing Nissan Micra in Slovenian rallies. Until 2008, she only competed sporadically as a driver, using cars including a Zastava Yugo and Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI. The best of her early results was probably a 22nd place in the Rally Maribor, driving the Micra. She was still dividing her time between rallying and other motorsport at this point, competing in hillclimbs. 

She began rallying seriously as a driver in 2009, using a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. In events across Europe she managed to get into the top twenty, with a best finish of eleventh in the Slovenian Rally Primorje Ajdovscina. 

In 2010, driving the same car, she improved dramatically, with five top-ten finishes in Germany, Slovenia, and Austria. Her best finish was third in the Rallye Baden-Württemberg in Germany. She was also fourth in the ADAC Drei-Städte-Rallye. Her results left her second in the Mitropa Rally Championship. For her last event of the year, the Rally Porec in Slovenia, she joined up with navigator Blanka Kacin, who would sit beside her for most the rest of her career.

In her next season, 2011, she won the Mitropa championship after being the fastest Mitropa driver in the Baden-Württemburg Rally, the Citta di Bassano Rally in Italy and the Drei-Städte-Rallye. This was also the scene of her best overall result of the year: seventh. 

In 2012, she had a full schedule spread over a smaller area, mainly based in Germany. Her best result was a second third place in Baden-Württemburg, albeit in a different Lancer Evo IX. She picked up another third place in the Stemweder Berg Rally and a fourth in the Voralpen Rally. Mid-season, she entered the Freilassinger Schotter Sprint, a rare rallysprint outing, and was rewarded with second place.

Her only international outing was the Sibiului Rally in Romania, a round of the International Rally Challenge, and she finished tenth.

Her 2013 programme took in a wider selection of rallies, including the Croatia Rally which was then a European championship event. She was eleventh and picked up her first ERC Ladies’ points. Her best results of the year were four fifth places, two in Germany and two in Slovenia. They came from the Saturnus, Idrija, Pegasus Rally Sulinger and Litermont events. She also competed in Austria and Italy. Her cars were both Lancer Evo IXs, although two different chassis.

In 2014, she rallied the Lancer in Central European Zone events, in the European Championship. She scored three top-ten finishes, including a fifth place in the Fuchs Rallye Velenje in Slovenia and sixth in the Rebenland Rally in Austria. She was eleventh in the Mitropa championship.

She retired from competition after this but still works as a precision driver for film and TV, a role she first took up in 2007. She made a one-off guest appearance at the 2022 Rally Show Santa Domenica in Croatia, driving the Lancer with Blanka Kacin. They were twelfth overall.

(Image copyright Martin Trdla)

Robin MccCall

Robin McCall is the youngest female driver to have raced in NASCAR, aged eighteen in 1982. 

She had a brief Winston Cup career in 1982, entering four races and starting two, both at Michigan. She did not qualify for two races at Charlotte, the first of which she entered a couple of days after graduating from high school. Her car was a Buick, owned by Jim Stacy. She did not finish either Michigan race, due to an engine failure at about half-distance in the first race and a crash early on the second. This was the end of her time in NASCAR; she had signed a five-year deal with Jim Stacy Racing but was unable to find the necessary funds to keep her seat. 

Robin had been racing full-sized stock cars for less than two years when she made her Cup debut, although she had been a successful midget racer from the age of eight. Throughout the 1970s she won multiple titles in her home state of Texas and beyond, including a Grand National championship in 1979. She spent 1981 racing in the All Pro Super Series in a Pontiac Firebird. 

Away from the Winston Cup, she raced on short tracks and in Late Models, before switching to sportscars in 1984. She returned to the All Pro Super Series in 1983, driving a Chevrolet Camaro. Her schedule took in tracks as far apart as Pensacola, Florida and Cayuga, Ontario, where she was 21st in the Molson 300. 

That year, her first foray into sportscars was the Lime Rock round of the Kelly American Challenge. She shared a Pontiac Le Mans with Bill Johnson.

She was linked with a 1984 NASCAR drive for TG Sheppard’s team, which was considering offering her a backup driver role, but this did not happen. Robin became something of an irregular racer and made one-off appearances in various championships. In 1985, she competed in SCCA Sports Renault as well as the Kelly American Challenge, where she shared a Camaro with Scott Flatt and finished ninth at East Rutherford.

She raced in the IMSA championship and in the 1985 Daytona 24 Hours. Her car was a Corvette run by Southern Racing, but she and her two co-drivers, Gary Baker and Joe Ruttman, did not finish. They made it to the 21st hour but were well down, having needed a lengthy pitstop for a new rear end.

In November that year, she married racer and crew chief Wally Dallenbach Jr. She was 21 and he was 22. 

She did make another appearance in IMSA in 1987, driving an Oldsmobile Toronado for Irv Hoerr’s team. She was fourteenth, from 28th on the grid. 

Later, she was a member of the PPG Pace Car team that provided safety cars and precision driving displays at CART and Indycar events. 

Her daughter Kate was born in 1996. She raced Late Models between 2014 and 2016.

Ai Miura

Ai Miura has been a stalwart of the Japanese Formula 3 championship since 2014.

She has been racing since 2011, when she was still an Osaka University student. She began in club Formula FJ and scored an eighth place at Suzuka in her first-ever race. This followed several years of both junior and senior karting. 

She spent the next two seasons competing around Japan in Formula Challenge, a Formula Renault series. In her debut season, she did not crack the top ten, managing one eleventh place at Fuji, but in 2013, she achieved three ninths and two tenths, all at Fuji, as her best scores. She also made some guest appearances in an F4 car and finished as high as fifth. 

In 2014, she progressed into the National (N) class of the Japanese Formula 3 Championship and performed well, with one class win at Suzuka and several more podium places. She was fourth in class as well as getting her name in the records as the first female winner in Japanese F3. Her debut win could easily have been in the opening round at Suzuka; she started very rapidly from third but could only hold on for a third spot. She had to wait until the following day for a win.

As well as conventional, petrol-engined cars, Ai also races solar-powered vehicles, and won the Suzuka Solar Car Race six times, between 2009 and 2015. Other years have yielded class wins and a runner-up sport. She was part of the Sangyo Osaka University team. 

In 2015, she raced in Japanese F3 again in the National class and was second at the end of hte year, with three wins and thirteen second places. She was on the class pace from the first race at Suzuka, where she finished eighth and won class N. A battle with Ryo Ogawa followed and his six-race winning streak meant that Ai was not quite able to catch him, in spite of two further wins. 

She moved up to the main class in 2016 and was a consistent top ten finisher. Her best finish was eighth, at Fuji, and she almost got into the points. 

In 2017, she was eighth in the championship, with a best finish of fourth, at Okayama. She picked up an additional top-five with a fifth place at Fuji later in the season. 

She continued in Formula 3 in 2018 and was a regular top-ten finisher, albeit in the lower reaches of the top ten. Her final championship position was eleventh, just behind her team-mate. 

On paper, 2019 panned out in much the same manner, with seven top-ten finishes. However, she had to sit out some of the rounds after incurring an injury, crashing during the fifth race of the season at Fuji. She came back for the final two races at Okayama and finished tenth in both.

During the disrupted 2020 season, she made a surprising move into the all-female Kyojo Cup, which uses small Vita sportscars. She won the three-round series from 2019 vice-champion Miki Onaga and experienced sportscar racer Anna Inotsume. She won one race and came second and third in the other two.

Eventually she did get back to Japanese F3, now running to Formula 3 Regional regulations. She was third in her first race at Motegi and then fourth twice at Okayama, finishing eleventh in the championship. 

2021 started with a change of direction; Ai entered the Japanese TCR series for a part-season in both the Saturday and Sunday series. She was driving for Dome Racing in a Honda Civic. Her best result was a second place at Autopolis in her only Saturday outing. She also managed a third at Sugo in one of the Sunday races.

Away from single-seaters, she did some sportscar racing, making guest appearancs in the Super Taikyu series between 2020 and 2022. Her cars have included a Leuxs and a Toyota Supra. She did the full season in 2022, driving a Nissan Fairlady for FKS Team Fukushima. They were fourth in their class championship with two third places.

She won another Kyojo Cup title in 2023, from Miki Onaga.

She works (or did work) in motorsport, acting as a PR person for Exedy Racing Clutches. Her first two F3 seasons were with their racing team. 

(Image copyright ai-miura.com)

Alline Cipriani

Alline Cipriani is a Brazilian driver who races in both her home country and the USA. She won her class in the 2013 Brazilian Endurance Championship and the 2018 Chase for the Trigon Trophy. 

She began racing in 2011, after a serious injury ended her jetski racing career. She competed in the Audi DTCC (Driver Touring Car Cup) for two rounds, as well as trying out single-seaters in the shape of Formula Vee. 

She entered the whole DTCC Cup in 2012 and had two top-ten finishes, the best of these being an eighth place at Interlagos. She was eleventh in the championship. 

In 2013, she moved away from Audi power and acquired a Ford Focus, in which she competed in the Brazilian Endurance Championship. Partnering Adolpho Rossi Neto, she won the Class V championship outright. Had she had entered all four rounds, she would have helped her team-mates to a Class IV championship as well. As it stood, she was second in that class, with her team-mates as winners. She also raced in some rounds of the single-make Sprint Race series, finishing 19th in the championship.

In 2012, she and Adolpho, who are a couple, had shared a Volvo C30 for the Tarumã 12 Hours, which they managed to finish. Driving together again and with two further co-drivers, they were eighth in the 2013 Parana Endurance race, using a Volkswagen Gol.

Since 2013, Alline has been racing a Ginetta in endurance events in the USA, mostly those in the FARA series. She was a class winner in FARA in 2014 and 2015 and became a FARA Ambassador in the process.

Brazilian motorsport had not been forgotten completely. Alline was seventh in the 2014 Sprint Race championship, having completed two-thirds of the season. In 2015, she raced in the Mercedes-Benz Challenge in a C250. Her best finish in this one-make championship was seventh at Interlagos. 

She raced the Ginetta in the States again in 2016, making a guest appearance at Barber in the Pirelli World Challenge. Her best result was a fifteenth place; the weekend was wet and she had not qualified well. She did better in FARA events and ended the year vice-champion in the series.  

After taking some time out to have her son, she raced again in the States in 2018, winning the Chase For The Trigon Trophy TA3 series. Her car was a Ginetta G55 sponsored by Ginetta USA. Her particular class win was a first for a female driver and the first for a Brazilian in an American series.

She raced once more for Ginetta in her home country in 2020. The Stillux Ginetta team entered a G55 GT4 into the Imperio Endurance Brasil series. Alline competed at Sao Paulo, Goiania and Curitiba, but did not manage to finish a race.

(Image from https://lucmonteiro.wordpress.com/2018/03/03/a-bela-e-as-feras/)