Gabi Husar

 

Gabi Husar is a rally-winning driver and co-driver from Austria. In the 1980s, she was one of the leading drivers in Austrian national rallies. She was known for her brave and uncompromising driving style and skill at attracting sponsors.

Her first major rally appears to have been in the co-driver's seat, in Georg Fischer's BMW 2002 for the 1974 Barum Rally in the then-Czechoslovakia. She switched seats for 1975, entering the OASC International Rally in a little Fiat 850. With Inge Mayer as co-driver, she was 47th after a ten-minute penalty. Throughout her career, she preferred female co-drivers, the longest-standing of these being Elisabeth "Sissi" Fekonja. Others, including Silvia Dolezal, could not handle her very physical driving or her style of organisation and didn't stay long.

Early in her career, she was very ambitious and entered rallies across central Europe. In 1976, she drove the 850 in the Janner Rallye and a more powerful Fiat 128 in the Taurus Rally in Hungary. She did not finish either event. The 128 had been given to her by her mother and she wrote it off.

She then spent some time co-driving in international rallies with other Austrian drivers, including Rudi Stohl and Franz Wittmann. Wittmann and Gabi had met whilst skiing, before she switched from winter sport to motorsport, as she didn't enjoy the training involved in being a top-line skier.

In 1979 she returned to the driving seat, in a Lada 1300 this time. She was still focused on the European championship at this time and entered the Costa Smeralda, ARBO, Hessen, Colline Romagna and Barum rallies. Sadly, she only finished the Costa Smeralda event, in 26th place. A shorter season in the Lada in 1980 started to give her results, the best of these being an eleventh place in the Lavanntaler Mitternachts Rallye. This brief campaign was down to her taking time out of competition to have a daughter, Irene.

She started 1981 in a Talbot Sunbeam TI for the Janner Rallye, but then switched to a Porsche 911, which became her car of choice for the next five seasons. In it, she scored her first top-ten finish, a ninth place in the 1981 300 Minuten Rallye. Her first top-ten was followed by her first podium in 1982, a third place in the International Admonter Rallye. She followed this up later in the year with fifth in the 300 Minuten event. She was tenth in that year's Austrian championship.

Third became second in 1983, in the Badener Fruhlingsfahrt. This was one of six top-ten finishes she scored that year, including fifth place in the International Semperit Rally. She moved up one position in the Austrian championship to ninth. Her big breakthrough came in 1984, however, when she won her first rally outright. She won the Bruckneudorf Rallysprint by 27 seconds from Ernst Harrach. By now, she was also a regular top-five finisher in Austrian championship rallies, and was seventh overall at the end of the year.

There were no more wins in 1985, but she came close, and was third in the Austrian championship. She finished on the podium three times, with a best finish of second in the International Steiermark Rallye. Earlier in the year, she had also come sixth in an ERC event, the Janner Rallye. 

Gabi's first win in a full stage rally was in 1986. She won the Kaertner Varta Rallye by almost one and a half minutes from Toyota driver Alois Pfeifer, with Ernst Harrach third. Sadly, the rest of her season, although ambitious, was plagued with problems. She entered the Porsche into two more WRC rounds, the Acropolis and Portugal rallies, but did not finish either, although her Acropolis exit was not helped by spectators refusing to assist her when her car broke down. Her only ERC finish was the Janner Rallye, where she was eleventh.

Group B was cancelled after the 1986 season so her favoured Porsche became ineligible for many competitions. Her career more or less finishes here, apart from one guest appearance in 1998. Gabi came out of retirement to compete in the OMV Rallye, driving a Volkswagen Golf with Petra Prokop. She retired fairly late on after an accident.

She is from a rallying family: her family owned a garage, and both her father Sigmund and brother Jonny competed in Austrian rallies. 

(Image from motorline.cc)