Louise Lamberjack

 

Louise with Marguerite Mareuse during the 1933 Monte

Louise Lamberjack was a French rally driver active in the 1930s. She competed as both driver and navigator. 

Motorsport was something she had grown up with, as the daughter of motorcyclist and racing driver Dominique Lamberjack and the niece of Jean-Emile Lamberjack, another racer who sold cars. Some sources claim that she was Jean-Emile’s daughter. However, she did not begin her own competition career until she was around 30.

Father and daughter competed at the same time, with Dominique opting for an unusual rally car; a Saurer coach.

Like many French women drivers of the time, Louise began by competing in women-only events, sometimes organised by the Automobile Club Feminin. Her choice of cars was more standard and probably more sensible, beginning with a Fiat. She first appears on an entry list for the 1931 Paris-St. Raphael Rally, winning the class for cars over 17hp and finishing 20th overall. She was one of 23 drivers who finished without penalty. Sadly, her second attempt at the event in 1932 ended in mechanical failure.

Over the course of the decade, she would enter six more editions of the Paris-St. Raphael, driving a number of cars. Her best results were two fourth places, in 1936 and 1937, driving a Hotchkiss and a Delahaye respectively.

Her first major win was the Coupe des Dames in Monte Carlo in 1933, navigating for Marguerite Mareuse. She first drove herself in that event in 1935, and was second in the Ladies' standings in 1936, driving a Hotchkiss which she occasionally used on the circuits. 

She was 18th on the 1939 Monte, driving a Matford. On paper, the mighty V8 Ford-engined Mathis was her most successful car, as she recorded a second place in the 1939 International Rally of La Baule. However, only the sections between drivers’ start points and La Baule itself were counted, as the Second World War was beginning and the rally proper never took place. Louise shared second spot with eight other drivers.

Her best year was probably 1936, when she drove the Hotchkiss in both rallies and races. As well as her Paris-St. Raphael fourth, she was third in the Paris-Nice International Criterium de Tourisme, considerably ahead of her father in his coach. In May, she was eighth in the Lyon Rally, leading Claire Descollas in a Lancia and Germaine Rouault in a Delahaye who were ninth and tenth.

The Paris-Nice was one of her best events: she was sixth in 1937 in the Hotchkiss. This year, the rally included a regularity test, a street race in Monaco and the La Turbie hillclimb.

Unlike some of her contemporaries, she did not return to competition after the war.

She died in 1989, aged 90.