Marian (Mopsy) Pagan

Marian Pagan, often known as “Mopsy” was one of the first female drivers to try her hand in NASCAR. 

Residing in California, she was the first woman from outside NASCAR’s Southern heartlands to try her hand at one of its top-level events.

She only made one Cup start in 1954, finishing 18th out of 33 in the Oakland Grand National race in a Plymouth run by her husband Eddie. He also took part in the race. Some of her male rivals protested her entry, but responses from the media and the public were largely positive.

“Mopsy” had relatively little experience in motorsport, but she had been quite successful in horse-drawn buggy races and was a member of the Cheesecake Racing Association, a twelve-woman racing league that competed widely. Their main haunt was Culver City but they also made several appearances at Gardena, at least one of which featured Mopsy.

In a 1955 newspaper interview, Eddie Pagan claimed that Marian had got into motor racing through him and that she first competed in 1951 after seeing her first “powderpuff derby” ladies’ race. Further details of her pre-Oakland career have proved tricky to find; full results for powderpuff derby races were rarely published.

In 1957, she was one of nine women who competed in the Mobilgas Economy Run for the Ford team. This was not a race but a cross-country trial with the aim of covering the greatest distance on the least fuel. She was tenth in the “Low Price” class, driving a Ford Fairlane. This appears to be the last time she entered a large-scale motoring event.

Away from the track, Marian worked in the aircraft industry.

(Image copyright Oakland Tribune)

 

Greta Oakes

Greta Oakes was an Danish-born Bahamian driver who raced in her adopted home country and in the USA in the 1950s.

A noted socialite from a wealthy family of Danish extraction who spent a lot of time in London, she married Sydney Oakes, who was instrumental in bringing motorsport to the Bahamas. In marrying Sydney in 1948, she became Lady Oakes of Nassau and became an integral part of the emerging Bahamas motor racing scene.

She entered a number of American sportscar races between 1950 and 1959, including the Sebring 12 Hours in 1955 and 1959. She usually drove with her husband and their car was normally a 3000cc Austin-Healey 100. They did not finish the 1955 race and the Bahamas Motor Club entry was only a reserve in 1959. The pair were listed as drivers in an Alfa Romeo in 1957, but did not take the start.

Greta also competed in the Nassau Speed Weeks, driving solo. She and Sydney were the chief supporters of the event alongside Sherman “Red” Crise, its American creator. It always ran very late in the season during the Bahamas summer, functioning as an end-of-year party for a mix of East Coast sportscar racers and increasingly, international stars such as Stirling Moss and Phil Hill.

She only started racing at the advent of Speed Week in 1954. Her chief sporting interest before that had been horses. In 1954, she was fourth in the Production race, driving an Austin Healey 100M. Driving the same car, she was tenth in a 402m speed trial held as part of Speed Week. 

The following year, she used the Austin-Healey for the Locals race, unsuccessfully. A Miami Herald article claimed that she called the car “The Great Dane III”.

After that, she entered the 1956 Ladies’ and Local Residents’ races, in a Porsche 356. She took part in both heats for both events but does not seem to have made the final. Her best finish was fourth in a Locals heat. This was the first time that a Ladies’ race had been held in the Bahamas and the field was quite impressive, with Denise McCluggage, Evelyn Mull, Suzy Dietrich and Marion Lowe all making the trip from the States. 

Greta missed the 1957 event but came back in 1958. This year, she drove a motorcycle-engined Berkeley SE328 in the Ladies’ race and in a Berkeley one-make encounter. She was sixth out of eight Berkeleys and seventh in the women’s race, which included four Berkeleys. The best of these was driven by Gladys Cam, who also beat Greta in the one-make event. For the Locals race, she went back to the Healey but did not finish. 

Her preferred mount for the 1959 Ladies’ event was an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider. She was fourth out of six finishers. First and second placed Prudence Baxter and Marion Lowe both used lightweight Lotus Eleven sportscars and Greta got her hands on one for the following year. She was third, behind Smokey Drolet and Heather Bethell. Heather was another Bahamas resident who raced alongside her husband Peter, who in turn had been part of the Bahamas Motor Club team for the 1959 Sebring 12 Hours.

In 1961 she did not race, but she did drive the pace car for the Governor’s Trophy. She was accompanied in her Jaguar XK-E by the Governor himself, Sir Robert Stapledon. The Jaguar was a specially-modified show car with fins, aircraft lights, a TV and a bar for passengers, plus an early radar speed trap detector and a gold-plated tool kit. 

Her racing career ended at the start of the 1960s. The Oakeses divorced suddenly in 1961 and then Sydney was killed in a road traffic accident in 1966. Greta continued to be styled “Lady Oakes” and was a regular fixture on the upper-class US social scene. She also served as an honorary consul to Denmark for the Bahamas and stood for election to the Bahamian legislative assembly in 1963. Among her other exploits was writing and directing a calypso-themed musical in 1961. 

She died in 1977.

(Image copyright Miami Herald)

Regina Sirvent

 

Regina Sirvent races stock cars and trucks in Mexico. She is a racewinner in pickup racing. 

2017 was her first season and she started early. She was 14 when she had her first race in a NASCAR pickup, after seven years of karting in Mexico and the USA. Her best finish in trucks was seventh, at Pachuca, and she was eleventh overall. She also did a part-season in Mexican Super Touring, in the Light class. Her car was a Chevrolet. She was only 30th on the leaderboard due to missing most of the early rounds, but she did manage two top-ten finishes, the best of these being an eighth at Mexico City. 

In 2018, she continued to divide her time between cars and trucks, competing in Mexican Super Touring and the Mikel's Trucks series. Driving a Chevy, she scored two podiums in Super Touring, a second at Amozoc and a third at Mexico City. She was fourteenth overall. In Trucks, she was tenth overall, despite not being as quick. Her best finish was eighth at Queretaro, one of five top-ten positions. 

In 2018, she also made her single-seater debut, racing in the NACAM F4 series at Aguascalientes. She scored one fifth and two seventh places. This was a one-off appearance.

2019 was mostly spent racing in Mikel's Trucks, where she earned a fourth place at Aguascalientes and five further top-ten finishes. She also made guest appearances in TC2000 and Super Touring 1 in Mexico, driving a Ford. TC2000 was not one of her greatest moments; she only finished one of her three races in 26th place, at Mexico City. Super Touring 1 was more fruitful and she came close to a podium at Mexico City, finishing fourth.

When the 2020 season finally got under way, she won her first race in Mikel's Trucks. Her victory at Queretaro followed a start from pole and she also picked up a fastest lap. The second race of the meeting gave her a second place. After a few mechanical problems mid-season, she won again at Queretaro, then finished third in Race 2, on her way to third in the championship.

In June 2020 she was announced as one of four teenaged drivers taking part in a shootout for a place in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity programme. She drove a Legend car against the other candidates. 

Her NASCAR Mexico season in 2021 took in races in the Peak and Challenge series. She did six Challenge races and finished tenth in four of them, earning a 16th place in the championship. Her two Peak races at Tuxtla and Queretaro were not as successful, earning her 21st and 18th places.

A deal to run in the Truck championship again seems to have fallen through and she did not return to Trucks in 2022 either. She remained active in both the NASCAR Mexico and Challenge series, with the Challenge giving her the best results. She finished in the top ten of three of her five races, coming tenth at Tuxtla Gutierrez, eighth at Queretaro and ninth at Puebla.

NASCAR Mexico proved more of a challenge. Queretaro was her best circuit; she finished 16th there.

She was thirteenth in the 2023 NASCAR Mexico series, only four points away from the top ten. Her popularity led to her winning a fan vote to compete in an away race in Los Angeles. This went a little way to making up for the rumours about an ARCA race seat with the Venturini team, which proved to be untrue.

(Image copyright Angel Ferretiz/NASCAR)

Renault 5 Ladies' Monte Carlo Grand Prix support race, 1975

 

1. Marie-Claude Beaumont (France)

2. Christine Beckers (Belgium)

3. Ivana Giustri (Italy)

Gabriel Konig (Ireland)

Yvette Fontaine (Belgium)

Martine de la Grandrive (France)

Judy Witter (South Africa)

“Biche” (Michele Petit) (France)

Susy Raganelli (Italy)

Maggie Anderson (UK)

Eeva Heinonen (Finland)

Paula Murphy (USA)

Twelve of the world’s best female drivers assembled in Monaco in 1975 for a one-make Renault 5 race, supporting the Monaco Grand Prix.

Renault used the event to promote both the Renault 5 Turbo itself and its associated one-make series held across Europe. Ladies’ races had acted as supports for the Monaco event before but this was one of the biggest and most competitive.

All of the invited women were experienced in motorsport and several had at least some involvement with Renault or the series sponsor, Elf. Eventual winner Marie-Claude Beaumont spent most of the season racing for the Ecurie Elf sportscar team and Britain’s Maggie Anderson was one of the first racewinners in the UK Renault 5 series.

Yvette Fontaine and Christine Beckers were highly accomplished touring car racers. Gabriel Konig had many years of experience in sports and saloon racing. Judy Witter had won a Formula Vee championship at home in South Africa.

Some of the others had plenty of motorsport experience but had not done much circuit racing: Ivana Giustri and Eeva Heinonen were ladies’ rally champions in their home countries and both “Biche” and Martine de la Grandrive were in-demand rally co-drivers.

Paula Murphy had been involved mainly in drag racing in the States and had held the women’s Land Speed Record. Susy Raganelli had won the World Kart Championship in 1966 but had raced little since then.

The full results of the race itself have proved hard to track down. It ran for 15 laps and Marie-Claude Beaumont won from pole position, followed by Christine Beckers and Ivana Giustri. Maggie Anderson had a good start from fourth but was passed by Yvette Fontaine and Biche, before outbraking herself at the chicane and having to take the escape road. She was then passed by Gabriel Konig and Eeva Heinonen and finished near the back. Gabriel, Eeva and Yvette continued to jostle for position, with Gabriel and Yvette prevailing. Eeva was tenth, despite setting the fastest lap.

(Image from acmanortheurope.com. For an account of the race in French, see renault-5.net)