The Macau Ladies' Races

The Macau Grand Prix and Macau Guia races are still an important part of the international motorsport calendar, although perhaps not as much as in previous years. 

In the 1950s, the early days of the Macau race circuit, the Guia meeting also hosted a ladies' race, usually for saloon cars. The first event was in 1955 and was set to be contested by three women. One dropped out. Jean Lam was leading when her rival's car broke down, giving her the win by default.

The most famous winner of the event was Maria Fernanda de Menezes Ribeiro (pictured), popularly known as "Speedy Ribeiro". She had been born in Macau itself in 1924 and was the daughter of a diplomat. Her Fiat 1100, which took her to one win and one second place, was her daily driver. She had actually taken part in the 1954 version of the Macau Grand Prix, which was then run as a regularity trial. Her car was a Vauxhall Velox belonging to her father and she was second overall. 

The Ladies' Race was never particularly over-subscribed and reports describe the action one year as "a procession". It was discontinued after the 1959 edition, which was won by Carol Ungricht. Carol was an American driver based in Okinawa, Japan. She also entered the Formula Libre race in 1958.

All-female races were later held at Macau, but they were celebrity events contested by actresses and TV personalities. Jackie Chan promoted one for several seasons.

For a list of female drivers who have attempted the Macau Grand Prix, click here. For a profile of Anne Wong, the only woman to win a race on the Guia circuit, click here.

1955

1. Jean Lam (Jaguar XK120)

2. Wen Lenard (Austin Healey)

1956

Maria Fernanda de Menezes Ribeiro (Fiat 1100)

1957

1. Narcee Matchett (Triumph TR3)

2. Maria Fernanda de Menezes Ribeiro (Fiat 1100)

1958

1. Carol Ungricht (MGA)

2. Narcee Matchett (Triumph TR3)

3. Miss S Anderson (Jaguar XK140)

1959

1. Carol Ungricht (MGA)

Maria Fernanda de Menezes Ribeiro (Fiat 1100)

(Image from macaubusiness.com)

Jenny Tudor-Owen

Jenny Tudor-Owen raced and rallied, mostly in Europe, during the 1960s. She normally drove British cars.

Her first car, lent to her in 1962 by John Coombs, was a Mini, which she crashed. Her then-boyfriend Mike Parkes built her another Mini, in which she qualified on pole for her first race at Brands Hatch, only to over-rev on the startline due to valve bounce. 

She quickly moved on to an MGB. This particular car is the one most associated with her, and she raced several different versions. The first of these was run by Barwells in 1963. 

In 1964, she was fourth in the Copenhagen Cup at the Roskildering. Her MGB was the first one to race in Denmark.

Tracking down her race results has proved difficult, but she did enter at least some of the Freddie Dixon Challenge Trophy and other club meetings organised by the BARC and BRSCC. The MGB was often up against much more powerful cars, such as Ferrari 250s and Jaguar E-Types. Among her rivals were Jackie Stewart, Bernard Unett and Alan Minshaw. Her best result in the MG, in the UK at least, was a fifth place at Oulton Park in June. Later in the year, she tried out a Lotus Elan for a couple of races, and she was third at Mallory Park in a 1600cc GT race. 

The Elan was her main focus in 1965, although it looks to have been a much shorter season for her. The biggest event on her calendar was an early-season race at Goodwood for small-engined sportscars, in which she was eleventh. She also tried out single-seaters, in the shape of a Formula Vee. 

After another spell in the MGB, which included an entry in a BWRDC ladies' race at Oulton Park in 1967, she acquired a Jaguar E-Type, which she used in 1967 and 1968, winning the 1968 BWRDC Racing championship following an outright second place at Thruxton. She had been leading the race on a wet track and recovered from a spin to hold on to the runner-up spot.

Racing a Bamford MGB at Oulton Park in October 1968, she managed to crash during practice and write off the car at Cascades. Her accident was overshadowed by James Hunt famously throwing an Alexis Formula Ford in the lake at the same meeting. That year, she also raced an E-Type for Warren Pearce's team. 

On the rallying side, she is best known for her Coupe des Dames in the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon, driving a Volvo 145. She was part of a four-woman team with Elsie Gadd, Anthea Castell and Sheila Kemp. The car belonged to Elsie Gadd, who had no rallying experience, so she hired Jenny and Sheila as her lead drivers. They were 41^st overall, just in front of Jean Denton’s MGB, which had been the favourite for the Ladies’ prize. They had their share of troubles, including a fire in the car's battery in the closing stages in Australia, and large cracks in the car's bodywork, which needed to be welded, after crossing the gravel roads of Turkey and the Middle East.

After the London-Sydney, Jenny disappears from the entry lists. Her marriage ended and she seemed to retire from motorsport completely, although she occasionally popped up in the papers. One such appearance was in the Kent Evening Post in 1970, where the "really expert driver" opined that other women drivers "don't concentrate enough".

She moved to America and then South Africa, where she used her skills at the wheel as a film stunt performer. She also bred Pekinese dogs successfully.

(Image courtesy of Greening Australia)

Sybil Lupp

Sybil Lupp was New Zealand’s first female racing driver. 

Her interest in cars began on the engineering side in the 1930s, and she was one of New Zealand’s first female mechanics, taking a job at JG Ingrams garage in 1938. She started racing after her second marriage, in 1947. She took part in the first hillclimb organised by the Otago Automobile Club.

Initially, she only drove in hillclimbs, scoring several wins in MG cars. She had learned to drive aged eleven and her first car was an MG M-Type, bought for her by her father three years later. The Australian Women’s Weekly reported in November 1948 that Sybil had won her second Otago hillclimb championship in succession, and that she held their circuit’s track record. Her records included the full hillclimb for her class and for the standing quarter-mile sprint.

Circuit racing was quite slow to get going in New Zealand after the Second World War, having been quite sporadic before that anyway. In 1949, she entered the first road race held in the country, the appropriately-named Road Racing Championship. The event was a 105-mile circuit, consisting of 50 laps of an aerodrome. She drove an MG TC and was fifth on scratch, fourth on handicap.

In 1950, she was second in the same race, driving the TC, and first on handicap. She had made considerable progress from twelfth on the grid.

After a year when she does not appear to have raced at all, she returned with an MG TD in 1952. She was seventh in both the Lady Wigram Trophy and the CWF Hamilton Trophy. The RRC’s original organisers had switched their attentions to another track and the Lady Wigram Trophy was its replacement. Her Wigram result was another run from the back of the grid. The CWF Hamilton event was held at the 4km Mairehau circuit, run over 40 laps. Sybil had been given a substantial ten-minute handicap.

In 1953, she changed from an MG to a Jaguar XK-120. In this car, she was seventh in the CWF Hamilton Trophy, driving with “HR Brown”, who was a Dr Bruce Hay driving under a pseudonym. Driving solo, she was seventh in the fifth RRC, now held at Dunedin. 

As well as racing, she was one of the founder members of the Otago Motor Association, and ran a series of garages and car dealerships. Her first marriage ended when Jack Lupp died in 1945; two years later, she married his brother Percival. They divorced in 1961. After 1969, when she married Lionel Archer, she was known as Sybil Archer. They had been partners in a Jaguar garage.

Despite her choice of occupation, Sybil always distanced herself from “women’s lib” and claimed that a woman should be led by her man, although she also bragged about being quicker than her husband early in her career.

She died in 1994, aged 78.

(Image copyright Wellington Evening Post)

Jade Paveley

 

Jade Paveley is a British rally driver and motorsport broadcaster, often seen in a Subaru Impreza.

Although she is probably best known for her rallying, she began her career on the circuits. Her first year of competition was in 2010, aged seventeen. She was racing in Britcar, in a Mazda UK Mazda MX-5 run by Jota Motorsport. Her usual team-mate was David Hooper. The car was lacking in power compared to others in its class, so Jade was unable to challenge for outright or even class wins, but she became the youngest person to finish a 24-hour race at the season-ending Britcar 24 Hours at Silverstone. 

In 2011, her actual racing programme was quite limited, although she did try out some other roles within motor racing. She tested with the Lotus F1 team as a crew member, and also crewed for the Mazda team during the Valencia 6 Hours. In return, she drove for Mazda in the Snetterton 12 Hour race and was second overall, first in class. 

She also entered some MX-5 Cup races as a Mazda guest driver. As well as this, she undertook various pieces of media work, including captaining a driving squad for a TV show. 

This approach continued in 2012: she was based in Ireland for some Formula Ford races with the Murphy Prototypes team, mainly working as a development driver. She also drove a Mazda prototype at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and undertook some other testing. 

In 2013, she was linked with a Mini Challenge drive, which does not seem to have happened. She drove in some club events including the Birkett 6-Hour Relay, but it is here that she takes the rally path. Her first event was the Toyota Harlech Stages, driving a Ford Fiesta. She was 32nd overall. She also tried co-driving for her father Dave and for Steve Hopewell, but chose the driving seat.

In 2014, she switched full-time to rallying. She competed around the UK in a Subaru Impreza and a Mitsubishi Lancer, with a best finish of fifteenth, in the Glyn Memorial Stages. The Lancer belonged to Dave, who had previously competed in it since about 2007.

She continued to rally the Impreza in 2015, and was an impressive ninth in the Toyota Harlech Stages. 

In 2016, she did not enter as many events, but kept competing in her father’s Lancer. Despite another short season in 2017, she was sixth in the SMC Stages, in this car, a career-best result. 

She was back rallying an Impreza in 2018 Welsh Tarmac rallies and earned three top-twenty finishes, on her way to a Welsh junior title. The best of these was a 15th place in the Rali Cwm Gwendraeth. This improved to a twelfth place in the 2019 Gareth Hall Memorial Rally. 

Although she did relatively few competitive rallies in 2019, she was quite active in demonstration events for Jaguar. She was brought in to drive their one-off F Type rally special at events including the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Opportunities for rallying were limited in 2020 due to coronavirus, but she did two events in two different cars, the Impreza and a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III in which she was thirteenth in the Rali Adfer Coedwigoedd Cymru. This was her first gravel rally and her father navigated for her.

The enforced layoff took Jade in a new direction, however. She launched the Motorsport Now podcast and developed her broadcasting career. In 2021 she has reported on the World Rally Championship. She combined this with some outings in the Impreza, including a twelfth-place finish in the Gareth Hall Memorial Rally.

Another new challenge for her was joining the Excite Rally Raid team for the British Cross Country Championship. She and her two co-drivers won their class at the Parkwood rally raid. The team is preparing for a future Dakar entry. 

Her media career continued in 2022, with stage-end reporting at several WRC events. Her off-road adventures were curtailed by the cancellation of hte British Cross Country series, but she still managed some stage rallies in the Impreza. She did two events at the Epynt ranges in Wales, with a best finish of 27th in the Dixies Challenge Rally.

The Impreza was not forgotten in 2023: it came out for the Three Shires and Lee Holland Memorial Stages.

Apart from demonstration events, she did one rally in the Impreza in 2025, the Alan Healy Memorial event at Cadwell. She did not finish. Later in the year, she announced that she was pregnant.

(Image copyright Jade Paveley)

Rhea Sautter

 

Rhea Sautter races historic saloons and sportscars, mainly in Europe.

She has been competing in historics since 2010, having grown up in a historic racing family with several cars at their disposal. Her father Stefan Sautter also races, and they sometimes compete together.

Her main car is a turquoise 1961 Jaguar E-Type, which has been run by Gotcha Racing and also her family team. She raced often in the Historic Touring & GT category, and was seen in action at the Nürburgring’s Oldtimer Grand Prix. 

After a solid start in the car, she paired up with British racer Andy Newall in 2015 and formed a strong team capable of top-three finishes. One of their highlights was a pole position in the 2017 Jaguar Challenge at the Spa 6 Hours, which led to a second place in a field of 33 cars. They repeated this finish in 2018 and perhaps could have won, had Rhea herself not helped to change a condenser on winner Marcus de Oeynhausen’s car. She has said in interviews that the Spa 6 Hours is her favourite event.

Since 2015, the Sautter E-Type has been a regular entrant in the Masters Gentlemen Drivers Pre-’66 GT series, racing at Zandvoort, Brands Hatch, Estoril and Imola.

In 2015, she raced in Australia for the first time, taking part in the Phillip Island Historic Touring Car Championship. Her car was a Ford Mustang and she was eleventh overall. On her next visit to Australia, she took her E-Type to the Phillip Island Classic and finished 25th overall, driving solo. She has continued to make trips Down Under in both the Jaguar and an Austin A30, which she raced in 2017. As well as Phillip Island, she has raced at Winton for the Goldfields Cup, driving the Jaguar in 2019.

She raced the A30 in the UK in 2018, including runs in the Jack Sears Memorial Trophy at Goodwood and the HRDC race at Silverstone. 

Rhea was still racing the E-Type with Andy Newall in 2021. The pair were tenth in the Jaguar Classic Challenge at Thruxton in June. They won their class in the 2022 Le Mans Classic and raced at Goodwood and the Algarve Classic Festival in 2023. In 2024, they won the SuperSixties series in the Netherlands, and Rhea continued to compete in 2025, in the Jaguar and an Austin A30.

Image copyright Balz Schreier

Celia Martin

Celia Martin is a French driver who raced in the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy, competing alongside Formula E.

Prior to her first race in the electric Jaguar at ad-Diriyah in Saudi, her motorsport experience was confined to the Nurburgring, and mostly in a testing role. 

Celia moved to Germany from her home in France in 2017 in order to pursue a career in motor racing, despite not being from a traditional motorsport background. Unusually, she moved from team management to racing herself, having run a Peugeot team in the Creventic 24 Hour Series before her relocation to Adenau. 

The Ring had been her goal since first driving round it in 2014. She did try out a few races in France, but set her mind to racing in Germany and learnt German in preparation for this, as well as studying law and business.

She picked up a role as a test driver and high-speed “Ring Taxi” chauffeur with Jaguar Land-Rover. As well as giving demo rides to visiting VIPs, she worked on the Jaguar XE SUV project in a testing capacity.

Her first race in Germany was not in a Jaguar but it was at the Nurburgring. In 2017, she did one round of the RCN, which is run as a time trial rather than a wheel-to-wheel race. Results for this are elusive but she may have been driving a Peugeot for the RACECOP team.

Her first wheel-to-wheel experience on the Ring was when she entered one round of the 2018 VLN series with the Mathol team, driving a BMW M235i. 

Her Jaguar connections helped to get her a race seat in the I-Pace eTrophy at the end of 2018. She raced for the Viessmann Jaguar Germany team in the Pro-Am class. The first few rounds were something of a trial for her and the team did not attend the Sanya race in China, but she came back an improved driver. She had her best overall result in Paris, sixth, and this was followed by eighth places in Monaco and Berlin. She was fourth in the Pro-Am class.

Celia did not return to the electric series the following season and went back to her first racing love, the Nurburgring, in late 2019. She joined Luxembourgish drivers Max Lamesch and Sebastien Carcone in their Renault Megane for the fifth round, then was drafted into the “Giti Angels” all-female team led by Carrie Schreiner. The “Girls Only” car was a VW Golf and Celia shared it with Carrie and Laura Kraihamer. Celia was eighth in the SP3T class at the end of the season, despite only having raced twice but scoring one class win and one second place.

The 2020 VLN (now renamed NLS) had a delayed start due to the coronavirus epidemic. Celia and Carrie did some of its esports equivalent together before teaming up again in June and finishing second in class. They then secured two further fourth places and one sixth in SP3T, along with Laura Kraihamer.

The team encountered a long series of car troubles during the Nurburgring 24 Hours, which was red-flagged during the night due to extremely heavy rain. Despite several lengthy pitstops, Celia and her team-mates managed to finish the race in 72nd place.

Away from the Girls Only team, Celia also made a guest appearance in one VLN round for the Hanger Zero team, double-driving with Girls Only. She and her team-mates Phil Hill and Kaj Schubert were third in class.

As part of another Girls Only team, this time in an Audi R8, she won her class in the Nurburgring 24 Hours, assisted by Pippa Mann, Carrie Schreiner and Christina Nielsen. They were 45th, despite problems during the race itself. Celia also joined the team for the first round of the NLS, helping Carrie Schreiner to a class win. In a different car, a BMW M4, she helped Christina Nielsen and Phil Hill to two class second places.

She had another run with Girls Only in the Nurburgring 24 Hours, this time driving an M4. The team - Celia, Pippa Mann. Carrie Schreiner and Fabienne Wohlwend - were third in class. This was her only Nurburgring race of the year.

Late in the season, she joined the Speed Demons Delhi team for the Indian Racing League, in which four-driver teams raced motorbike-engined single-seaters on Indian street circuits. The first round was cancelled due to a string of reliability issues and crashes in practice, then Celia herself crashed hard in the second round at Madras. The season didn't really get any better for her and she did not finish any more races.

Most of 2023 was spent in the ADAC GT4 series, driving an Aston Martin Vantage with Fabienne Wohlwend. They were not hugely competitive and finished 34th in the championship. Driving the same car, they had more luck in the NLS, scoring one third place in the SP10 class. This year's Girls Only team - Celia, Fabienne, Pippa Mann and Beitske Visser - finished the Nurburgring 24 Hours, second in their class and 81st overall.

She was part of the Iron Dames second squad for 2024, racing a Lamborghini Huracan in the Michelin Le Mans Cup with Karen Gaillard. Her best race was at Paul Ricard; she and Karen qualified on pole and finished second. They were also fifth at Mugello, and sixth overall in the championship.

With ProSport this time, Celia also shared an Aston Martin Vantage with three other drivers for one round of the VLN.

As Sarah Bovy's FIA classification made her ineligible to rejoin the Iron Dames WEC squad, Celia stepped in to take her place. She joined Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting in the Manthey Racing Porsche 911 for all rounds, including her first time at Le Mans itself. Sadly, it wasn't a vintage season for the team, although Celia's first Le Mans did end in a finish: tenth in class and 48th overall. Her best result was fourth in the LMGT3 class at Sao Paolo and she was 18th in the championship.

As well as the WEC campaign, she also continued to race in the ELMS with Sarah and Michelle. They won their class in the first round of the season at Barcelona, finishing 25th overall. They were also fourth at Spa (31st overall) and third at Portimao, 28th overall. The team was fourth in the championship.

The Iron Dames WEC programme concluded at the end of 2025. Celia's future plans are not clear.

(Image from auto360.de)

Evelyn Mull

Evelyn Mull was one of the fastest of the many women drivers active on the US sportscar scene in the 1950s.

She learned to drive aged eleven but did not start racing until she was forty and married for the third time. Her husband John Mull acquired a sportscar of his own and Evelyn made plans of her own to compete in the ladies’ race held at his first meeting. She was not from a motorsport background and is usually described as a “Pennsylvania socialite”. Her prior sporting interests had been based around horses.

Wealthy and well-travelled, Evelyn had access to the European sports cars popular with the sportscar racing fraternity on both the East and West coast. Her first was a Jaguar XK120 which she debuted in the ladies’ race at Thompson, finishing second behind Carlye Ann Scott’s MG TC.

Although she continued to enter the ladies’ races popular at the time, she was soon taking her chances in the mixed fields at Thompson, as well as competing in hillclimbs alongside John.

She was one of the early members of the SCCA, which was the dominant motor club on the East coast. Within a few years, she became one of their racing instructors and assessors. Despite her love of the sport, she never worked on her own car and nor did John; they travelled with their own mechanics.

Her first win was in a 1954 Ladies’ race at Thompson, ahead of Isabelle Haskell’s OSCA. She was ninth in the CP class race at the same meeting, against a field of other XK120s. A few weeks earlier, she had her first race at Watkins Glen, a Formula Libre race. She returned to the same event in 1955 but did not finish.

By 1955 she was getting more competitive in mixed competition and finished fourth in an SCCA race at Thompson. Her career received another boost with the arrival of a Bristol-engined AC Ace for her and John part-way through 1956. Evelyn won her first race in this car, at her favourite Thompson circuit. Later in the year she was second there, racing in the same class.

She raced a works-supported Ace with John in 1957, entering that year's Sebring 12 Hours but failing to finish. Sharing a similar car with Harry Carter, she was 24th in that year’s Road America 500 Miles. This Ace belonged to Ernest MacNabb, a rare run in a car other than her own. She and John shared ownership of their cars but they preferred not to race together or against one another, according to Todd McCarthy in his book Fast Women. He describes John’s mild unease at his wife’s enthusiasm, expressed in such behaviour as insisting that she always wore skirts when in the paddock.

Evelyn was probably the better driver and she finished sixth in a one-hour race at Thompson that year to his ninth.

Lime Rock was her lucky track that year; she won an SCCA Regional race there in July and was second in a similar event later in the month. 1957 was one of her busiest years on-track and she competed most weekends between March and December, all across the Western part of the States.

She won another SCCA Regional race at Watkins Glen in 1958, from eighteen other drivers. The day before, she had been second in a Ladies’ race behind Suzy Dietrich in an Elva. Two more SCCA thirds at Lime Rock added to her podium tally.

Occasionally she competed outside America. In 1956 and 1957, she made the trip to the Bahamas for Nassau Speed Week. She was third in a Ladies’ race in 1956 and did better in 1957, coming seventh in the GT race and second in a Ladies’ race. The 1958 Speed Week was another rare occasion where she drove someone else’s car, using Don Fong’s Lotus Eleven in the ladies’ races.

The AC was sold during the summer of 1959. A newspaper report of the time joked about it being advertised as a car that had been owned by a grandmother and never been driven on the road. Evelyn did one more major race that year with Pinkie Windridge, finishing 22nd in the eight-hour “Little Le Mans” race at Lime Rock. They were driving an NSU Prinz.

After 1959, Evelyn stepped back from motorsport. The US sportscar scene was becoming professional and amateurs like her, however skilled, were being pushed out. Female drivers in particular were marginalised in favour of male pros and ladies’ races went into decline.

Away from the racetrack, Evelyn wrote a book about her fellow women on the US sportscar scene, Women In Sportscar Competition, published in 1958.


(Image from AC Owners’ Club website)

Reema Juffali

Reema Juffali was the first Saudi woman to race cars competitively, in the modern era at least. Shortly after the Saudi government allowed women to apply for driving licenses in 2018, she entered her first race, albeit in Abu Dhabi. She was 26. 

She took part in the first two rounds of the Toyota TRD GT86 Cup at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina in late 2018, earning a second and third place in class. In the next round, also held at Yas Marina, she scored her first win. She was fourth in the championship.

As well as the one-make Toyota cup, she entered the same car into the UAE Touring Car Championship, driving for Dragon Racing and scoring two class podiums.

Not content with production sportscar action, she entered her first single-seater races at the start of 2019, making an appearance in the final rounds of the MRF Formula 2000 championship at the Madras circuit in India. Her first race in the MRF F4/F3 hybrid car began with a spin and she finished last. During the other four races, she struggled with the car and was penalised for obstructing other drivers.

Some surprise was expressed when Reema signed up for the British Formula 4 championship, given her lack of single-seater experience and advanced age compared to her rivals. She drove for Double R Racing and although she was not among the front-runners, fairly soon, she was close to the pace. Towards the end of the season, she scored eighth places at Thruxton and Knockhill. She took advantage of any opportunity to test and became a competent racer. 

At the end of 2019, she made more history by becoming the first Saudi woman to take part in a circuit race in her home country, against a mixed field. She was invited by Jaguar as one of its guest drivers for the I-Pace eTrophy, a one-make electric saloon series which supports Formula E. Her two races at the Ad-Diriyah street circuit ended in a tenth place and a retirement.

Her second Gulf region appearance of 2019 made history again. She raced for the Dragon team in the Grand Prix-supporting UAE F4 race and took to the track alongside three other female drivers: Amna al-Qubaisi, Hamda al-Qubaisi and Logan Hannah. Her race results were a twelfth and a sixth place.

Her Abu Dhabi outing was a prelude to a run in the UAE F4 championship. Her best finishes in hte series were two fifth places in Dubai, and she was a much more competitive presence, if not yet a frontrunner.

She came back to the UK for a shortened British F4 season with the Argenti team. Her times were more competitive this year and were level with most of the rest of the pack. She was thirteenth in the championship with a best finish of eighth: twice at Silverstone, once at Croft and once at Snetterton.

In 2021 she moved up to the GB3 championship, previously British F3. She was driving for the Douglas Motorsport team. Mid-season, she surprised everyone with a fourth place in a reverse-grid race, but she was very much in the learning phase of her F3 career. She was 18th overall.

Although her family has always been involved in the automotive world, Reema only became seriously interested in motorsport in 2017, after meeting Susie Wolff at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Previously, she had only been involved as a spectator at bigger events. She is from Jeddah, although she was educated in the United States and works in the UK.

Her big news for 2022 was the debut of her own GT team, Theeba Motorsport. The Theeba Mercedes AMG GT3 ran in the International GT Open and drivers Reema and Adam Christodolou were second in the ProAm class, with four class wins. As well as racing for Theeba, Reema also made some appearances for SPS Automotive Performance, driving another Mercedes. She and her three co-drivers were ninth in the GT3 class and second in the GT3-Am class at the Dubai 24 Hours, then a different quartet including Reema won the Bronze class in the Fanatec GT World Challenge at Spa. They were 34th overall in the Intercontinental GT Challenge race the next day.

Theeba continued to compete in 2023, with Reema as a driver. She entered the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe, contesting both the Endurance and Sprint categories. The car was a Mercedes GT3 again. For the Endurance races, it was shared between Reema, Ralf Aron and Alain Valente. They were 30th in the Bronze Cup after finishing all of their races apart from the Spa 24 Hours, when Yannick Mettler joined the team. Their best result was 29th at the Nurburgring. 

In the Sprint races, she partnered Fabian Schiller. Their best result was 21st at Valencia and they were seventh in the Bronze Cup.

In 2024, she made a surprise return to single-seaters, accepting a wildcard entry into her two home races in the all-female F1 Academy championship. She was eleventh in the one race she finished. 

Theeba Motorsport was parked that year, and Reema's sportscar activities were limited to one round of the GT4 European Series. She shared an Aston Martin Vantage with Ahmed Bin Khanen in the Jeddah race, but did not finish.

There was more GT4 Europe action in 2025, this time in a McLaren Artura. Reema shared her car with Ali Juffali, and picked up a second place in the Am class at Barcelona. 

The early part of the year was spent with the Haupt team and their Mercedes-AMG. She and German Salman Owega shared the car for the Creventic Middle East Trophy. They took part in both the Dubai 24 Hours and the 6 Hours of Abu Dhabi. They were 15th overall and fourth in the GT3 Am class in Dubai, then thirteenth (fourth in class again) at Abu Dhabi. 

Her motorsport career goals include racing in the Le Mans 24 Hours.

(Image copyright AFP)

Lorna Snow

Lorna (right) with her co-driver Juliet Slatter in 1952

Lorna Doone Snow rallied in Britain and Europe in the 1950s. She was more known for her flamboyant style and social antics, but she was a very capable driver.

Her name first appears in connection with cars in 1941, when she was caught speeding in Wandsworth and fined 20s. She is reported by the Norwood News to have said “the time when traffic policemen frightened me is past,” suggesting that this was not her first misdemeanour.

Like many of motorsport’s more colourful characters, her background is rather unclear. Born in 1914, by 1942 she was the landlady of Ye Olde Six Bells pub at Billingshurst. While in this post, she fell foul of traffic police again when she was fined for “failing to immobilise her car during a blackout”.

By 1949, she was part of London society, appearing at a prizegiving for the Feathers Association.

Later, she was sometimes referred to as Lady Lorna Doone Snow (she did not have a real title) and she put her pub past behind her, if not her love of driving fast.

Her first big event seems to have been the 1951 Daily Express Rally, a long-distance trial, which she entered in a Jaguar XK120. Daily Express journalist Basil Cardew, who often championed female rally drivers, reported that she filled the washer bottles with brandy to provide “a stimulating odour”. Her car was also equipped with a makeup kit under its jaguar-skin seats.

In July that year, she set the ladies’ Fastest Time of the Day in the Ramsgate Speed Trials, also in the Jaguar. She was second in the Ladies’ class of the Brighton Speed Trials, behind Eleanor Allard.

In 1952, she is recorded as coming second in the Ladies' class of the Daily Express Rally, driving a Jaguar. She did her first overseas events this year, taking the Jaguar to the Tulip Rally with a G Meijer as her co-driver. She returned to this event in the same car the following year, finishing 103rd with “Mrs Tozzi”. Earlier in the year, she had entered the Monte Carlo Rally; her result is not forthcoming but it was reported in Motor Sport that her car’s luggage rack failed to stop when she did.

She took a “fastest lady” award in the speed test section of the 1953 RAC Rally, held at Silverstone, but retired between the circuit and Castle Combe.

The Scottish Rally was the scene of a more dramatic incident, recounted in Sheila van Damm’s autobiography. Lorna managed to collide with another competitor, damaging one side of her Jaguar. Sheila van Damm was soon on the scene and once she had ascertained that Lorna was uninjured and her car still mobile, demanded that she move it so that the rest of the field could continue. Lorna dropped her ladylike image for a moment and told Sheila to go away in rather coarser terms. She restarted and even made the time control in time.

It is not clear in how many Monte Carlo rallies she participated, but she was definitely part of a three-woman team in 1954 with Diana, Duchess of Newcastle and Reina Whittelle, who had partnered her in the 1951 Daily Express event. They were classified 267th in a Sunbeam Talbot. She reappears in the principality in 1958, this time as a driver, in a Morris. She does not appear to have finished.  

In 1962, she hosted a party for lady drivers who had competed on the Monte, including Pat Moss-Carlsson, who had won that year’s Coupe des Dames in a Mini, Tish Ozanne, another 1962 finisher, and Kay Petre. The occasion was covered by the Daily Express and Lorna took great delight in telling the reporter that she had subjected all of her guests to a makeover, including matching curly hairstyles. Sheila van Damm, a good friend, was not spared this treatment.

The Hastings & St Leonards Observer talks of her entry in the Concours d’Elegance of the 1954 MCC Rally, which suggests she took part in the rally itself. In her own typical style, she would co-ordinate her outfits to her cars, particularly for concours events. One of her Jaguars was dark blue and white and she had a special outfit made to match it. Not content with jaguar seats in her rally car, she sometimes accessorised with a jaguar-skin coat or hat.

In 1958, she appears on the entry list of the Scottish Rally, driving a Jaguar Coupe.

Lorna also raced on the circuits occasionally. She was the winner of a 1955 Ladies’ Handicap at Goodwood in the Jaguar, ahead of Hazel Dunham and Jean Bloxam. She raced again at Goodwood in 1957.

As the 1950s gave way to the 1960s, she competed less, although she remained a semi-regular presence in the gossip columns, masterminding the social debuts and subsequent marriages of her two sons. She is still referred to as a rally driver, but she also appears to be working in the fashion industry.

She was involved in the creation of the "Golden Healey" show car, providing its fur seats.

Lorna died in 1998, shortly after marrying George Wheatley. She married several times during her life but chose to use the surname she shared with her first husband, Francis Snow, whom she married in 1934. Her family name was Turpie and Doone was her middle name.

Sheila van Damm sums her up in her autobiography, No Excuses:

“Flamboyant, even theatrical, she added a splash of colour to the rally world, although it was a mistake to underrate her ability as a driver. No-one took her seriously - least of all herself, for she has a wicked sense of humour.”

(Thanks to members of TNF, particularly Bill.)

(Image copyright Shutterstock)

Katarina Kyvalova

Katarina Kyvalova is a German-based Slovakian driver most famous for her exploits in historic racing, at the Goodwood Revival and as part of the Bentley Belles team. She took her first steps in modern motorsport in 2018, in the GT4 European Series.

Katarina has been active in historic motorsport since 2000, starting off in rallies in Germany before switching her focus to circuit racing. She still drives in classic navigational rallies on occasion, usually in a Jaguar E-Type.

On track, her first car was an Austin-Healey 3000 which she raced in the UK and Europe. She has competed at Goodwood, the Silverstone Classic and several VSCC meetings.  

In 2015, she raced the Healey in the Le Mans Legend, and was 37th out of 43 finishers.

She is also part of the “Bentley Belles”, a quartet of female historic racers who drive Bentleys. They teamed up for the first time at the 2014 Benjafields 24 Hour race in Portugal, having only met each other in person the day before. The quartet were twelfth overall, in a Bentley 4 ½, having run as high as fifth. The team is involved in various Bentley-related rallies and races, and were third overall in the 2015 Spa 6 Hours historic race. In their individual cars, they raced in the VSCC Pomeroy Trophy in 2015.

Driving with Nigel Batchelor and others, she entered the 2016 Le Mans Classic in two different cars, the Bentley and a Jaguar XK120. She doubled up in these two cars again in the 2018 Classic, driving solo this time.

In 2017, she raced a Jaguar E-Type, and a Cooper T43 in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy at Goodwood. Goodwood has been one of her happiest hunting grounds; she was ninth in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy at the 2018 Revival in the Cooper. Earlier in the year, she raced this car in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix and was 14th from 26 finishers.

Her modern racing debut was at the wheel of a Mercedes AMG GT4. She raced in the GT4 European Series at Spa with Egidio Perfetti and secured a class third in her first event. She followed this up with a run in the 2019 Dubai 24 Hours, finishing ninth in the GT4 class with Jon Minshaw, Ryan Ratcliffe and Gabriele Piana. Their car was a Mercedes-AMG and they were 33rd overall.

During the 2019 summer season, Katarina got back in her Bentley for the Goodwood Revival, which held a celebratory race for pre-war Bentleys. This was her second Goodwood outing of the year in the car, which she also drove in the Members' Meeting in the spring.

That summer, she spent quite a lot of time racing the E-Type. She was fourth in class in the Spa Six Hours Classic and entered rounds of the Sixties Endurance series at Spa and Dijon. The Cooper came out again for the Greatest and Peter Collins Trophies and she even managed to fit in a couple of events in a Porsche 911.

Her second attempt at the Dubai 24 Hours was cut short by a flooded track, but she had joined up with Ciceley Motorsport in a Mercedes, with Jon Minshaw, Adam Morgan, Jake Giddings and Jack Butel. They were sixth in class when the race was officially stopped at the seven-hour mark.

The 2020 coronavirus crisis limited everyone's opportunity for competition. Katarina's main event was the 10,000 Laps event at Paul Ricard in the Sixties Endurance race. She shared an E-Type with Jon Minshaw and was running seventh overall when the car had to retire with a broken gearbox.

The E-Type came out again for the Spa Six Hours, and she was second in class with Ben Clucas. She was also active in the Cooper T33 at both Goodwood and the Monaco Historic, finishing fifth in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy at Goodwood and fifth in the 1952-1957 sportscar race at Monte Carlo.

It was a similar schedule for 2022, with the Cooper coming out for Monaco and the Goodwood Members' Meeting. She entered the E-Type into the Le Mans Classic but was unable to start.

She raced the Bentley once more at Goodwood in 2023, as well as finishing fifth in class in the E-Type in the Spa Six Hours. It was back to the Cooper again for the 2024 Monaco Historic and Goodwood Members' Meeting, but she also brought out the Bentley for the Goodwood Revival. She was eighth in the 2025 Freddie March Memorial Trophy at Goodwood, driving the Cooper.

(Image copyright Katarina Kyvalova)

Pat Coundley

Pat Coundley raced sports and touring cars in the 1960s, in the UK.

She was always quite sporty and her first love was horses, in common with several other speedqueens, such as Pat Moss and her contemporary, Jean Aley.

She started her motor racing career in 1959, in speed events, driving a Jaguar D-Type belonging to her husband, John, another racer who was a Jaguar specialist. It was he who persuaded her to enter her first event, the North Weald hillclimb, in which she won the ladies’ award. She drove another of John’s cars, a Lister-Jaguar, in 1960, winning the sportscar class in sprints at Castle Combe and Long Marsden Airfield.

After some years in club races and sprints, often using Jaguar sportscars, she made her debut in the British Saloon Car Championship in 1964, driving a Lotus Cortina run by John Coundley Racing Partnership, her husband’s team. She was not overly competitive. Her first race was the second round at Goodwood, where she was seventeenth overall. She is recorded as a finisher at Oulton Park, but her position is not forthcoming. At Aintree, she may have shared the car with John. The Coundley Cortina was 22nd. The team disappears from the BSCC grids after that.

The same year, she drove a single-seater Lotus Climax 19 in the Brighton Speed Trials.

The year before, she used a D-Type, entering the 1600cc+ sportscar class, and the Ladies’ class.

At the Antwerp Speed Trials in 1964, she drove a long-nose Jaguar D-Type, and set a European women's speed record of 161.278 mph. This made the front page of at least one British newspaper. Pat was described as a “housewife”.

The Coundley Racing Partnership Lotus Cortina made some appearances in the 1965 BSCC, but it was not driven by Pat.

At some point in the early 1960s, Pat also raced a Lotus Elite, including a Ladies’ Handicap at Brands Hatch. In Motor Sport in 1962, she likened driving the Elite to “handling a beautiful horse”.

(Image copyright Getty Images)

Women drivers in Formula One tests since 1992

1992 marks the last time that a female driver, Giovanna Amati, drove a contemporary Formula One car in a Grand Prix. Since then, other women racers have been linked with F1 drives, although none has ever materialised.

There have been a few women who have tested F1 machinery, however; in most cases, the tests were well-publicised, but in one case, their status remains unclear. Below are details of these F1 excursions.

Sarah Kavanagh - Irish racer Sarah’s name was linked with more than one active Formula One team in the early and mid-2000s. She may well have undertaken some testing laps for at least one team. Statements made by the teams themselves about her have been ambiguous or lacking, so it is hard to gauge exactly what the nature of the testing was. In 2001, she passed a fitness test organised by McLaren, and confirmed by team director Martin Whitmarsh stating that “there is nothing in the results that suggest that Sarah could not drive a Formula One car right away”. Driving tests at Pembrey followed, but these were done through the Carlin Formula Three team, and did not involve F1 machinery. Again, this was confirmed by a positive statement by team owner Trevor Carlin. The tests did not lead to a racing or development seat.

In 2004, she was linked to a testing and development drive for the Jordan team, following her performances in a Jordan in EuroBOSS. The deal was said to have collapsed at the last minute due to a lack of funding, or due to contractual issues. The Jordan team made no official communications relating to this deal. It is not known whether Sarah ever did test a current Jordan.

At the same time, she was linked to a very similar role at Jaguar, which was confirmed by the team themselves. She was offered a testing and development seat in return for a sufficient sponsorship package to allow her to compete in British F3 with Carlin, as preparation. The package was said to be in the £1 million range. Sarah and her management were unable or unwilling to raise the money, and the testing went no further.

Sarah Fisher - IRL regular Sarah definitely tested a then-current McLaren-Mercedes F1 car in 2002. The test, which was more of a demonstration, was carried out in the very public arena of a support slot for the US Grand Prix at the Indianapolis road circuit.

The test did not lead to any further test laps, and was done more for publicity purposes than as genuine driver assessment. At the time, Sarah was one of the IRL’s most popular drivers, and Formula One wanted to capitalise on her fame, in order to promote itself in the United States.

Katherine Legge - prior to her Champ Car season, Katherine tested for the Minardi F1 team in 2005. The test itself appeared to be a genuine driver assessment, carried out at an official test day at Vallelunga. During the first day, Katherine spun her car after only three laps, damaging the front right suspension. The car was repaired for the second day, and she completed 27 laps, with a fastest time of 1:21:17, only sixteen hundredths of a second slower than official Uruguayan driver, Juan Caceres. She was faster than official Minardi tester, Chanoch Nissany.

Although Minardi boss Paul Stoddart pronounced himself impressed with Katherine, her test did not lead to a race seat. Minardi had already been sold to Red Bull at that point, and the new Toro Rosso squad was selected by them.

Maria de Villota - tested for the Lotus Renault team in August 2011. The tests took place at Paul Ricard as part of official sessions. Maria covered 300km in the 2009-spec R29, which would be enough for her to be awarded a Superlicence, should a race seat be offered to her. Eric Boullier, the Lotus team principal, described her as “not putting a foot wrong all day”. No lap times have been published.

Further to the test, Maria also did some demonstration laps at a World Series by Renault meeting, this time in a 2010-spec car. Negotiations to drive with Lotus were said to be ongoing, but no contract was signed. Maria was instead signed by Marussia, in order to undertake testing duties in 2012. She was seriously injured in an accident at her first test session, at Duxford airfield, and died in 2013.

Susie Wolff - signed as a development driver by Williams in 2012. She mainly concentrated on development work in the simulator, and the wind tunnel, but took to the track for the Friday practice sessions of the British and German Grands Prix in 2014. Her British session ended abruptly after only one lap, when the engine on the Williams failed. The German session threatened to go the same way after an electronic fault stopped her from changing gear, but the problem was rectified. Susie did several practice laps and some practice pitstops, and undertook some aerodynamic testing. She was 15th (out of 22) on the day's time sheets, and her best lap was 2/10 second slower than team-mate, Felipe Massa.

This was the first time since 1992 that a female driver has directly participated in a race weekend. She did some more Friday testing in 2015, but decided to retire mid-season, due to a lack of actual racing opportunities.

Simona de Silvestro - signed as an "affiliate driver" with Sauber, for the 2014 season. This was intended as a year of development and preparation for a possible race seat in 2015. As FIA rules strictly limit testing, her work was done in a 2012 Sauber car. In April, she completed at least 190 laps in a Formula One car, at Fiorano, and now qualifies for a Superlicence. She also tested at Valencia during the summer. No times have been published, although a short video was released of her Valencia test. Sauber managers were very positive about her performances in the media, and engineer Paul Russell stated that she had "drove well, had a good pace and was consistent." Simona herself keeps a relatively low media profile. Unfortunately, Simona's sponsor pulled out, leaving her unable to take up any further Sauber drives.

Carmen Jordá - signed as a development driver by Lotus, in February 2015. Her role in the team was rather vague and her duties appear to have been confined to the simulator. She was quietly dropped from Renault F1's test driver roster in 2016, and was referred to instead as a Renault Sport test driver.

Tatiana Calderon - announced as a development driver for Sauber in March 2017. She initially worked in the simulator, but drove the Alfa Romeo Sauber car on two occasions in 2018, one a demonstration run in a current car and one a test in and older machine..

Rosemary Smith - the veteran rally driver did some practice laps in a recent Renault Formula One car in summer 2017. She was 79 years old at the time. The test was purely a media exercise and was made into an advertising video celebrating 40 years of the Renault marque.

Aseel al-Hamad - drove one lap of the Paul Ricard circuit in a non-current Renault F1 car at the 2018 French Grand Prix. Aseel is from Saudi Arabia and her drive was in recognition of Saudi women being given the right to drive in their homeland. No times were published as this was a promotional exercise. In 2022, she did another demo run in an Alpine (Lotus) E20 from 2012, a similar car to the one she used before. The drive was a PR event ahead of hte Saudi Grand Prix and she was joined by recently-recruited Alpine affiliate driver Abbi Pulling. It was a street run and not timed.

Jamie Chadwick - announced as a Williams F1 development driver in May 2019. She has not yet driven the car in public and has mostly worked on the simulator.

Jessica Hawkins - tested a 2021 Aston Martin F1 car in Hungary in September 2023. No times were published, although the team spoke encouragingly of her performance. Jessica is a "driver ambassador" for the team and is not part of its official line-up.

(Image from http://photos.indystar.com/galleries/11311-starfiles-sarah-fisher-s-racing-career)