Lady Margaret Oldham

Margaret on the 1936 RAC Rally

Lady Margaret Oldham was a British rally driver in the 1930s. Having been born in 1878, she was fairly mature when she took up rallying and had been a widow since 1926. 

She favoured larger cars and her first competition car was a Vauxhall Coupe. 

In 1932, she took part in the RAC and Scottish rallies. This was the first year she appears on major entry lists. The 1932 RAC began in Torquay and was one thousand miles long. A newspaper report mentions lady drivers going on special diets to manage it, although it is unclear whether Margaret was one of them. A number of the female entrants were titled ladies; Mary Grosvenor and Iris Capell were peeresses in their own right, but others including Kathleen Countess of Drogheda and Aubretia, Countess Ouvaroff, had married into their titles. Margaret herself was the widow of a life peer.

Margaret's finishing position is not known, although she did reach the end of the rally. She admitted to a Torquay Times reporter that she had found the directions rather badly-marked in the Lancashire towns and had lost her way briefly somewhere near Rochdale. She and her co-driver had an alarm clock set to tell them when to switch seats, and to "ring in the lonely hours of the night to keep them cheerful".

The Scottish event was one of her favourites and she entered in 1933, 1936, 1937 and 1938. She was also fond of the RAC Rally, competing again in 1934 and 1935. By this time, she had acquired an American Hudson 8, which she used again in the 1936 RAC Rally. The Hudson was heavy and more suited to straightforward touring, but its four-litre engine gave it power: 29hp. It was described as one of the largest cars in the rally. One of its first events, the 1935 RAC, was another thousand-mile trial, which 44 women entered as drivers, Margaret among them. The London Daily News gave brief profiles of some of the female drivers, with Margaret summed up as "looks stern. Is loved by all who know her for her great charm."

The Scottish Rally of 1936 was 900 miles long and the car managed it, although it was not one of the quicker ones in the opening hillclimb. The next edition was the Coronation Rally and Margaret won the ladies' award for drivers of closed cars. In 1938, the Scottish Rally was held in conjunction with the British Empire Exhibition and had a ceremonial finish at the exhibition itself, perhaps a more fitting backdrop for a somewhat grand car.

Her rallying exploits were limited to her home country, although she took part in all the big events in England and Scotland. It is occasionally mentioned that she did some Alpine trial driving, but no results are forthcoming.

After her retirement from competition, continued to drive her own car on the road. In 1953, she had an accident in Marylebone and hit some railings, damaging the windows of the house behind. The year before, she got in trouble with the police in London for stopping outside shops on double yellow lines, and complained in the Evening Standard. She died in 1956.

(Image copyright Daily Mirror)

Nerea Marti

Nerea Marti is a Spanish driver who graduated from karts to cars at the beginning of 2019. She has raced in both F1 Academy and W Series and gone on to compete in endurance.

Her first steps in cars were in the 2019 Spanish Formula 4 championship, with the Praga Espana Formula de Campeones team. In her second-ever race at Navarra, she was classified second overall due to ten drivers being penalised for not reacting quickly enough to a red flag. The rest of the year was inconsistent and led to championship 16th, with top tens at most of the tracks the series visited, but often followed by more disappointing results. She previously competed for the same team in karting from 2015 to 2018.

After the first season of the all-female W Series concluded in 2019, she was selected for a race seat in the next edition. However, the season was cancelled due to coronavirus and Nerea returned to karting for a time once motorsport began again.

She did get to race in W Series in 2021, and was named as one of the series' Academy drivers, who were exempt from elimination for a season. She impressed with a third place at the Hungaroring and was a regular top-ten finisher, coming fourth in the championship. She also tested an FIA F3 car with a group of female drivers, although no further drives came out of it.

In 2022, she was invited back to race with W Series, joining the Quantfury team alongside Belen Garcia, who had been a rival in the Spanish F4 championship. She was seventh in the championship, despite podium finishes in Miami and Paul Ricard.

After the collapse of W Series in early 2023, she signed for Campos Racing in the all-female F1 Academy, following two races in the Formula Winter Series at Valencia. Despite a first-round disqualification, she was fourth in F1A, winning once at Paul Ricard. She combined F1A with a run in the Spanish GT Championship, winning the GT4 class in a BMW Spain-supported M4 shared with Jose Manuel de los Milagros, who had also won a Catalan Endurance title with her in 2022. She had fit her CER races around her W Series commitments, and picked up six wins from eight races, finishing second in class. In 2023, they were ninth overall, with one outright podium finish.

In 2024, she was fourth in F1 Academy again, with third places at Jeddah and Abu Dhabi. She also had a few guest races in Spanish and NACAM F4. Even though she won a NACAM race at Mexico City (alongside two second places), her career began to move again towards sportscars, probably because she would not be allowed another year in F1A. More BMW Spain support helped her to fourth place in the GT4 class of the Supercars Endurance Championship. She also tested an Andretti Formula E car in the series' Women's Test at Estoril.

Sportscars were her focus for 2025, and she did almost a full season of the Supercars Endurance Series in a BMW M4, sponsored by BMW Promotion. Nerea and her team-mate Juan Maria de los Milagros won one race at Valencia, but they were only 15th in the championship as their other results were not as stellar.

(Image copyright Jason Vian/Vogue)

Karen Gaillard

Karen Gaillard is a Swiss driver who races sportscars internationally, having begun in touring cars.

2019 was her first season in cars. Her first steps up from karting were to enter the Cupra Young Driver Challenge in her home country, finishing third. Not long after, she made her TCR debut at the Nurburgring with Topcar Sport. Unfortunately, she spun on the first lap and picked up two penalties. She did better in the second race, finishing ninth. Her car was a Cupra TCR.

She returned to the circuits in 2020 for the Monza 12 Hour race, again driving for the Topcar team as part of her Cupra prize. She and her two team-mates were thirteenth in the first section of the race and twelfth in the second. The team was then third in class, fifth overall in the 16 Hours of Hockenheim. This was the year of the pandemic, so her season was curtailed

Her first taste of prototype power also came in 2020. She took part in the first round of the Spanish Endurance Championship, driving a Vortex V8 in the GT class for Lionel Amrouche's team. Her two races were at Navarra and she was seventh and fourteenth in her class.

She continued to race in the 2021 24H series, but was now driving the Vortex in the GTX class. Paired with Lionel Amrouche himself, she was second in class at Dubai and third in both Mugello races. She was fifth in her class championship.

The MitJet Trophy in France was her next destination. This is a silhouette formula, combining aspects of prototypes and touring cars. Karen's best finish was sixth in an away round at Catalunya and she was eighteenth overall. She also did some rounds of the Benelux MitJet Trophy.

2023 was better and she was second in the Endurance Prototype section of the Ultimate Cup in Europe, driving a Nova Proto with Gregory de Sybourg. They were seventh in the overall championship, with a best finsh of fourth at Estoril. A bad finish at Estoril dropped them down slightly.

For 2024, she was signed by the Iron Dames team for the Le Mans Cup, alongside Celia Martin. Driving a Lamborghini Huracan, they were sixth in the GT3 class, with one podium finish at Paul Ricard. They were seventh and 16th at the Le Mans rounds themselves.

With a different team, but the same car, she also tackled the Ultimate Cup again, this time with Iko Segret and Marc Faggionato. Again, Paul Ricard was her best circuit and she was fifth there. She and her two team-mates were eleventh in their class and 16th in the overall Prototype championship, not helped by a non-finish at Magny-Cours.

Her time as an Iron Dame continued in 2025, as a member of their IMSA squad and driving solo in the Carrera Cup France. The latter came after winning a young driver shootout. The IMSA season was cut short to a single run in the Daytona 24 Hours, where she and her team-mates were eighth in the GTD class and 33rd overall. The French Carrera Cup was a challenge and her best result by far was a seventh place at Valencia. She also did some rounds in the Swiss Porsche Cup and the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe.

(Image copyright Charly Lopez/DPPI)

Geraldine Hedges

Geraldine Hedges raced in and around Brooklands in the 1930s, normally as "Miss G Hedges".

She first appears in the entry lists in the JCC’s High Speed Trial, in 1932, driving a Riley, but she was most associated with Talbot cars, one of which she owned jointly with Patricia McOstrich. Her motor racing career did not begin until she was in her early forties. A report on her garage business from 1931 states that she entered a ladies' race at Brooklands that year, although the result is not forthcoming.

In 1932, she scored her first Brooklands win, in a Talbot 90, the Sports Long Handicap at the Inter-Club Meeting. This would appear to be the shared car, as Patricia McOstrich drove it in the Five Lap Handicap at the same meeting. That summer, they had a similar arrangement at the Guys Gala meeting; Grace drove in the Duchess of York's Race for Lady Drivers, finishing eighth, while Patricia took on the Women's Automobile and Sports Association's all-female handicap. 

The Hedges/McOstrich/Talbot partnership seems to end after 1933, although Geraldine and Patricia remained close and continued to drive the same cars. They also ran a garage in London together, from at least 1931. Newspapers of the time make pointed references to the pair being "good friends", which may have been a euphemism for "romantic partners". They did live together in London from at least 1927. They sometimes competed with both in the car, like when they entered the Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb in June 1932. Their "took a corner too fast and crashed their car" but were unhurt.

They were joined in the Talbot by Lady Iris Capell for the 1932 RAC Rally, which ran for 1000 miles and started from Torquay. Ther are pictures of two dogs called Tippy and Dingo who accompanied the three drivers, but their finishing position is not forthcoming. They were part of a three-car WASA team, with Margaret Allan's Lagonda and Paddie Naismith in a Standard.

The pair's next car was a Singer, which Geraldine first drove in a speed trial at the 1935 JCC Members' Day, held at Brooklands. Although Patricia also competed in it from 1934 , they didn't keep the car for very long and it was traded in for a Frazer Nash-BMW for the 1936 season. As part of a three-car team she led herself, Geraldine was eighth in that year's Light Car Club Relay, also at Brooklands. The other two cars were driven by Kay Petre and Lady Dorothy Makins. The following month, she was back at Brooklands for the JCC Members' Day.

Patricia McOstrich carried on racing the Frazer Nash until the outbreak of World War II, but Geraldine's name disappears from the entry lists after 1936. The 1939 England and Wales Register has them living separately by then, Geraldine with the widowed Dorothy Makins.

She had been an ambulance driver during WWI and served with the Scottish Women's Hospital under Elsie Inglis, rising to the rank of Chief Transport Officer. She worked in London, Russia, Romania and finally Serbia, where she contracted malaria and was invalided home in 1918. 

Later, she worked as a "motor consultant", advising her customers on car purchases, modifications and repairs. She opened her London garage in 1935 by holding a well-publicised party in it, with guests "resting their cocktail glasses on car wings" and the space especially decorated. Her guests included Kay Petre, Brooklands scrutineer Hugh McConnell and Baron Wolfgang Putlitz, a British-based German diplomat who spied on behalf of the British government.

After 1936, she appears to retire from public life. She died in 1968.

(Image copyright The Sketch)

Iris Capell

Lady Iris Capell rallied and trialled cars in the British Isles in the early 1930s. 

Born in 1895, she was the first daughter of George Capell, the fifth Earl of Essex. She grew up in a privileged environment and was presented as a debutante in 1913. As a teenager, she was known for her love of roller-skating and golf. She learned to drive shortly before or during the First World War, when she served as a driver for the National Food Fund. Before that, she had worked as a nurse at Lady Murray's hospital in France.

Before taking to motor competition, Lady Iris saw cars as a business opportunity. At the age of 25, she opened her own garage in London, which hired out cars. She used the name "Miss K Adams" professionally and drove for the firm occasionally. The company motto, according to the Daily Record, as "Punctuality and Reliability". In 1922, she enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, studying Classics. For a while, she concentrated on study and work.

It may have been a string of increasingly expensive motoring convictions in 1928 that pushed her towards rallies as an outlet for her enthusiasm. In 1929, she entered the first-ever overnight trial for women drivers only, running between London and Exeter. Iris drove an Alvis and won a first-class award for her non-stop performance.

The London-Exeter event was the first organised by the Women's Automobile and Sports Association (WASA), of which she was a leading member. The club was formed in 1927 and a committee was first elected in 1929, with Iris as a vice-president. She was a regular in their trials, competing in the London-Land's End event again in 1930. Its big trial in 1931 was from London to Westward Ho! in Devon, and Iris once again took part.

The 1932 RAC Rally was the first major rally she entered. Starting from London, she drove a Talbot, co-driven by Patricia McOstrich and Geraldine Hedges and their dogs. "They are as enthusiastic about motoring as I am," Iris told the Western Morning News. The timed sections made up 1000 miles and ran between London, Edinburgh and Torquay, where the event ended with a Concours d'Elegance. She was part of a three car WASA team with Margaret Allan in a Lagonda and Paddie Naismith in her Standard. Iris and her companions finished on time and she described the rally as "a pleasant journey."

Later in the year, she was on organisational duty at Brooklands for WASA, on the committee for the Guys Gala hospital benefit. She did not race, although WASA did hold their own handicap. Her duties included hosting the Duke and Duchess of York (later George VI and the Queen Mother) in the Royal Enclosure.

She is listed as a finisher in the 1933 Ulster Rally, again starting from London and travelling to Ireland by ferry from Liverpool. Her car was another Talbot, which she bought new in late 1932 and had painted beige. 

As well as stage rallies, she was a regular entrant in trials in the 1930s, particularly those organised by the Women's Automobile and Sports Association (WASA), of which she was a leading member. She competed in several of their Cotswold-based trials, as well as donating a trophy to the club. In 1934, she was one of the 67 women out on the Aston Clinton hillclimb for the club's first high-speed trial, which followed a regularity test. The hillclimb was 350 yards long, from a standing start. During the regularity section, Iris's car got stuck in mud and had to be pulled out by a team of horses.

She did compete at Brooklands at least once, although not in a head-to-head race. The 1934 British Empire Trophy featured Iris and her Talbot taking on the steep Test Hill, winning the trophy for touring cars.

WASA held a Welsh Trial in 1935. Iris did not compete this time, but acted as a steward. In the summer, she entered her car into the club's Silver Jubilee Motor Gala at the Hurlingham Club, in honour of George V. The following year, she represented the club as a judge in the Bexhill Concours d'Elegance.

A "Lady Iris Capell Trophy" was awarded in 1937, to Miss EV Watson, who participated in the club's Cotswold Trial in a Frazer Nash-BMW.

Although her competition career wound down, she remained an active and senior part of the WASA motoring committee, as well as playing golf occasionally at its tournaments. As an officer of WASA, she was invited to speak at many functions, from gala dinners to road safety conferences. She was still a figure in the automotive business world and was a director of at least one engineering company.

Her other major interest, which she maintained throughout her life, was the theatre. She wrote plays herself, translated them from French, acted as a young woman and produced many amateur shows, as well as opening her own theatrical bookshop, serving amateur dramatic societies, and even owning (or co-owning) a couple of theatres.

When the Second World War looked like it was about to break out, she became a leading member of the Women's Voluntary Services for Civil Defence, managing the transport department. In the papers, she was keen to stress that the women of the WVS were "not just a set of well-meaning amateurs who would only end by fussing around and getting in the way of responsible people." Although her advocacy was largely successful, she did embarrass herself in 1941 by getting pulled over for speeding in uniform, on her way to a meeting at Erith.

She and fellow rally driver Morna Vaughan led a group of twelve drivers in a night-time, no-headlights trial at a private road in Croydon. A report in Queen magazine, which covered official WASA stories, suggested that they were all racing drivers.

Later, she campaigned for the Liberal party, sitting on the executive committee between 1957 and 1962. In 1960, she got herself into another automotive scrape when her car collided with a bus near Thame. She suffered a head injury but recovered.

At one point, she was rumoured to be a potential bride for Prince Edward, later the Duke of Windsor, but the union never happened. 

She died in 1977.

(Image from The Genealogist Image Archive)

Vivian Siu

Vivian Siu (Siu Wing Man) is a Hong Kong driver who races single-seaters. 

As a teenager, she became interested in motorsport after becoming "addicted" to arcade racing games, something she did while she was mourning the sudden death of her mother when she was 16. She didn't get to race for real until she was in her 20s, after she had finished her studies at Columbia University and started working in the financial industry.

She competed in Formula 4 in 2023, beginning with the first two meetings of the Chinese championship. This was a first for a female driver to begin with, but she also managed to score points at Ningbo, finishing tenth.

During the winter season, she entered the first round of the Southeast Asia (SEA) F4 series at Zhuzhou Circuit in China, finishing sixth twice and tenth once for the BlackArts team. She switched to Champ Motorsport for the non-championship Macau support race, finishing 17th and 14th. This was a first for a female driver as well, although others had finished the Macau Grand Prix itself.

Trying something different, she entered the 2023 Asian Motorsport Championships, a tournament-based event similar to the FIA Motorsport Games. She and Li Ho Sing won the mixed pairs gold medal in Auto Gymkhana.

Since 2023, she has not raced much, although she has been the subject of a a film, "Zero to Macao".

Away from motorsport, she works in financial services in New York. Although born in Hong Kong, she spent most of her childhood in the States, returning to her home country after the early death of her mother and returning as a student.

(Image from Macao News)

Isabella Robusto

Isabella Robusto is an American driver who mainly races stock cars.

She was a member of the NASCAR Drive For Diversity scheme from the age of 12, being selected in 2016. After a long career in the junior stock car formulae, she signed a deal to race in ARCA in 2023 with Venturini Motorsports, but this was delayed due to her receiving a concussion during the last lap of a Late Model race.

In fact, she did not compete in any more stock car races in 2023, but made her debut in GT cars instead, racing a Toyota Supra in the Sonoma round of the GT4 America series. She was 16th and 20th in her two races, finishing well in the Am class. In addition to this, she did two rounds of the Toyota GR Cup North America.

She did some ARCA races in 2024, driving for Billy Venturini, and impressed during her four outings. She was second at Springfield, having started from 19th on the grid. This followed a sixth and a fourth at Phoenix and Elko. She started on pole at Kansas, but crashed on the first lap. In the Eastern series, she scored another second place at Nashville, and in the Western series, another second at Irwindale and a third at Portland. Out of six races, she finished four, always in the top ten.

In 2025, she did her first full ARCA season, beginning the year in the Venturini setup. The year didn't start very well, with mechanical DNFs at Daytona and Phoenix, but she made up for that with her first podium of the year, a third place at Talladega. Another couple of crashes followed, but she was back in the top ten at Michigan and Berlin, and the top five at Elko. Her second podium of the year, another third, came at Elko. She was third in the championship and took the Rookie of the Year award.

As well as the main championship, she did half of the East series. From three finishes, she achieved a third and two fourth places. A single outing in the Venturini car in the West championship, at Phoenix, led to another DNF.

Although her time with Venturini was very positive, during 2025 she took the decision to leave the team and join up with Rafa Racing, who were taking their first steps in to stock car competition. Returning to Phoenix at the end of the year, she was eleventh in her first race in the Rafa Camry.

Sportscars had not been forgottent in 2025. She entered the July rounds of the GR Cup at Virginia, on the same weekend as she raced in ARCA at Dover, flying interstate between the two tracks. She was ninth and seventh in the Toyota GR races and third at Dover.

She is an official Toyota development driver and also a mechanical engineering student.

(Image copyright arcaracing.com)