Barbara Johansson

Barbara Johansson was a Swedish race and rally driver most active in the 1960s. She usually drove small cars and is most associated with the Mini. She was nicknamed "Bra-Bra" by the Swedish press, with "bra" translating here as "good".

Barbara was born in the USA to Swedish parents, although she lived her entire adult life in Sweden. She had always been interested in cars and enjoyed driving fast in her parent's Ford V8 when going to and from the stables where she kept her horses. After her marriage, she began her motorsport career in speedboats, sharing a vessel with her husband. Her husband worked for a Peugeot dealership and it was at the suggestion of his boss that she tried out motor racing. She won her first event, driving a Peugeot 203.

She was highly successful in the Swedish Touring Car Championship and won a Group 2 race outright, at Knutstorp in 1964. Her car was a Mini Cooper run by the works BMC team. She was also second at Falkenberg and fourth at Skarpnack, and would have been Group 2 champion without a couple of non-finishes. According to a story, DKW driver Sigurd Isaakson said that if she beat him in a race, he would withdraw from the championship. She did defeat him in 1964, albeit in a different class, and he did go home.

Her first STCC appearance was in 1960, at Karlskoga, where she drove a Peugeot 403 and finished tenth, eight laps down. Sharing the same car with Jan Englund and Carl-Erik Linn, she was 21st in the end-of-season enduro at Skarpnack. 

In 1961, she appeared in the same race, driving a Renault Dauphine this time. Her co-drivers were Gunnar Friberg and Lars-Erik Tisell and they were 17th overall. This was as part of a Renault dealer team who were trying to gain attention by employing a female driver.

She then disappears from the STCC entry lists until 1964. She did two rounds of the championship in 1965, finishing one, at Karlskoga, in fifth place. Again, she was driving a Mini.

The 1966 STCC featured Barbara and her Mini racing in its mid-season events. She was tenth at Skarpnack, eighth at Karlskoga and twelfth at Falmarksbanen. After this, BMC began to scale back its motorsport activities and could no longer support her.

After touring cars, she also raced single-seaters. Photos exist of her competing in Formula Vee in 1967, although results are not readily available. Her car was a German-designed Dolling. By this time, she had separated from her husband and was combining her competition career with bringing up two children, helped by a nanny. She went back to racing boats, continuing to compete on and off until the early '70s.

Alongside her racing career, she competed in rallies. When BMC Sweden's representative Bosse Elmhorn saw her competing in local ice races and rallies, it was their rally team she was originally signed up for. Her team-mate was Harry Kallstrom, In a reflection of her track activitiy, she had already entered the Swedish Midnight Sun Rally in 1960, in a Peugeot 403, and the same event in 1961, in a works-supported Renault Gordini. She was also on the entry list for the Malarallyt.

In 1963, she was part of the BMC set-up. She was assigned a Mini Cooper for the Midnight Sun Rally, but then switched to an MG 1100 for three more Swedish events. At the end of the year, she did her first overseas rally, the RAC Rally in the UK, driving the Mini with Sheila Taylor. Sadly, the suspension failed when they were in fifth place.

A regular partnership with Margot Bradhe formed for 1964. Apparently, Margot was a calming influence on Barbara's aggressive driving style; she did not believe in lifting off the throttle. They drove the Mini Cooper almost exclusively and entered the Monte Carlo Rally for the first time, although they do not seem to have finished. Barbara's best finish was a 24th place in the Midnight Sun event, There were 138 finishers that year and many more starters. Later in the year, she won the Ladies' prize in the Jamt Rally.

Her last year as a rally driver was in 1965. BMC were already scaling back by then and she was back in a Renault 8 Gordini. She and Inga-Lill Edenring entered the Midnight Sun Rally, but do not appear to have finished.

She died in 2013, aged 80.

(For reference, Tommy Lyngborn's 2014 article provided a lot of the additional information here.)

Image copyright Upplands Museum, Sweden.