Eveline Gordon-Simpson

Eveline and Joan Richmond in 1934

Eveline Gordon-Simpson, also known as Eva, competed in Europe in the 1930s. The most celebrated of her exploits was when she finished 24th at Le Mans in 1935, driving a works MG Midget with Joan Richmond. She was one of the drivers in a six-woman, three car MG team put together by George Eyston. They were known as The Dancing Daughters, after a radio programme, or George's Young Ladies. Eveline and Joan were the first of the three teams to cross the line.

Although not quite as well-known as some of the other female drivers of her era, like Kay Petre or Elsie Wisdom, she had experience of on-track driving. She raced at Brooklands sometimes and won a Novices’ Handicap there in 1934, driving a Triumph Southern Cross. In 1935, she raced a Vale, in which she entered the Whitsun Senior Short Handicap. 

Unusually, for this time period anyway, her husband was not involved in motor racing. William Gordon-Simpson was a racehorse trainer. He and Eveline married in 1923 and moved to Epsom, a major centre for horse racing close to Brooklands. Born in 1901, she was in her early thirties when she took up motorsport.

Her earliest motorsport interest was rallying. She entered the Monte Carlo Rally in a Singer in 1932, was one of a group of British drivers who chose John O'Groats as their starting point. She was 27th, second in the ladies' standings. This was probably where she met Joan Richmond, who had driven overland in her Riley from Australia, making her official start at Palermo. Later in the year, Eveline made her start on the RAC Rally at Bath, in a Singer Twelve-Six. Her finishing position is not forthcoming, but she received a hefty penalty for passing the last time control at Torquay an hour early. Her watch had apparently been running slow and had lost a whole hour.

In March 1936, Eveline and Joan Richmond, working together this time, entered the RAC Rally again. They had previously competed together on the Scottish rally in 1934, with Joan as the main driver. 

Her marriage to William ended in 1936 and she married Hugh Conway. Although he raced Bugattis himself, her own competition career seems to tail off here. She did continue to enter rallies with Joan Richmond, using her previous married name. They drove in the 1937 RAC Rally in a "baby" Fiat.

She died in London in 1980, aged 78.

Sarah McCune

Sarah McCune is an American single-seater racer. She was one of a group of US women who seemed to be climbing the Indycar ladder, but her career faltered due to finances.

Her background was in sprintcars and midgets, which she had raced from a young age. Her career arc was quite like that of Cheryl Glass twenty years earlier, in that she showed promise on dirt and then tried to make it on asphalt. Her midget career began in 1990, when she was eleven. In 1996, she became the first female driver to win a feature race in the ARCA midget championship. As a senior, she raced in events organised by ARCA. NAMARS and USAC, winning races at Flat Rock and i-55 Speedway in 1999 and 2000. She competed in the USAC Midget Series until 2003.

At the same time as she was competing in midgets, she tested a number of cars on asphalt circuits. Apparently, she drove an Indycar twice in 2000.

She first stepped onto the Indy ladder in 2002, when she tested an Infiniti Pro Series car for Sam Schmidt Motorsport. Two years later, she drove one of Kathryn Nunn's cars for a female drivers' test.

It was three years until she made her actual debut in the car. She took pole position at Chicagoland in the Infiniti Pro Series in 2005, her first race at this level. Her starting pace was great and she led for five laps before an accident dropped her out of contention. Several drivers, including Sarah, retired that lap.

After her Infiniti experience, she set her sights on a NASCAR drive and did several tests, including a Craftsman Truck. Even before her Pro Series race, she was part of a reality TV show following aspiring stock car drivers as they tried to develop their careers. She impressed some onlookers with her speed and personality.

However, problems with funding have kept her out of the major series.

(Image copyright Redline Media)

Chiara Baettig

Chiara Baettig is a Swiss single-seater racer. As petrol-powered circuit racing is illegal in her home country, she has competed abroad exclusively.

After a long and quite successful spell in junior karting in Europe, she began racing cars at the age of 15, at the end of 2025. Her three Swiss karting championships attracted the attention of Red Bull, and she was invited to their driver search event in Portugal. This led to a race seat.

She travelled to Saudi Arabia for the Saudi F4 championship, driving for a Red Bull-affiliated team with Scott Lindblom and Christopher al-Feghali. She was eighth in her first race at Bahrain, but then did not finish the second race. The story was the same for the next round, with one ninth place after another DNF. Her best finish was seventh, at Jeddah. Without the three non-finishes she incurred, she could have been the best of the six regular female drivers in the series. She was twelfth overall.

Prior to a full season in the British F4 Championship, Campos Racing ran her in the Formula Winter Series, held in Spain in the first months of 2026. Campos has been the home of the Red Bull and Racing Bulls entries in F1 Academy since 2025. She was their sole full-championship entry out of the five F1 Academy-associated drivers they ran. It was not a consistent five rounds for her; she earned one second place at Estoril, behind Rocco Coronel, but her next-best finish was tenth at Aragon. She did improve in the second half of the series, becoming a consistent top-twenty finisher who was closer to the top ten. She was 17th overall.

After a slow start at Donington, she began to hit her stride in British F4 at Brands Hatch, where she was sixth in Race 3. A steady Snetterton meeting was then followed by two further top-tens at Silverstone, a ninth and her debut podium of the year, a third place. On the way, she set the fastest lap of the weekend. This was one of two podiums; she was third again at Silverstone later in the year, having finished fifth earlier in the weekend.

Silverstone was also the scene of her eye-catching debut in F1 Academy. She secured the highest grid position of any of the previous wildcard entries, a pole position, and was also the youngest driver to do this. Race 1 was a reverse grid and Chiara couldn't move up from eighth, but she and Alisha Palmowski were the runaway leaders in the second race. Alisha had got a much better start, but Chiara chased her all the way and was less than a second down by the end.

(Image copyright F1 Academy)