Betty Chen

 

Betty Chen (Chen Yinyu) is a Taiwanese driver who races GT cars in Asia and Europe.

In 2019, she competed in the China GT Championship. She drove a BMW M6 in the GT3 class and earned a best finish of fourth at Qingdao, V1 International Circuit and Sepang. Her final championship position was ninth. The V1 track was probably her best circuit; she was fifth in her second race there. Her team-mate for most of the season was Jody Fannin, who acted as her driver coach. She was only 18 years old at the start of the season. 

2019 was only her first year of competition and her first time in a GT3 car. She had only taken part in two previous races before China GT with Fist-Team AAI, driving a GT4-spec car. 

The global coronavirus crisis meant that most motor racing in Asia was suspended in 2020 and part of 2021, so Betty was unable to take up a drive she had planned in the Japanese Super Taikyu championship.

She raced in the 2022 Dubai 24 Hours, driving a Lamborghini Huracan for Leipert Motorsport, finishing 16th. The team was a five-driver multinational effort led by Joel Eriksson of Sweden, who had previously raced with her at AAI. 

At about the same time, she was announced as a driver for Century Motorsport in the British GT championship. The car, shared with Angus Fender, was a BMW M4 GT3. The pair finished thirteenth in the second race of the season at Oulton Park after missing the first. The team did not complete the season due to the departure of one of its other drivers and Betty only did five of the nine rounds.

She is the first Taiwanese driver to race in British GTs. Her father Jun San Chen has also raced in Asia for many years. Betty’s adventures in motorsport started young; she first tested a Formula Master single-seater in 2016, when she was 15.

Image copyright Paul Foster)