Faye Kusairi

 

Faye Kusairi, birth name Dayangku Faratiwan Adnil Binti Awang Kusairi, is a Malaysian driver who is best known for her win in the 2016 Sepang 1000km, as part of a four-driver team in a Proton Suprima.

She has been active in motorsport since 2012 and circuit racing since 2016. Her career began in gymkhana-style events.

Her first races were in the Malaysian Speed Festival and was fourth in the 1600 Race Car series, driving a Honda Jazz. Her best finish was third. Her Sepang win came as part of the Mayhem-FX Tuning team. 

The following year, she formed a female team with Sharina Ramlle for the MSF series, although they did not do the full season. 

She came back to racing in the MSF Super Production series in 2019 after a one-year hiatus, sharing a Honda Civic with Syahmi Mahzan. Her campaign only lasted for the first two races and she did not finish either.

At the end of the year, she returned to the Sepang 1000km in a Proton Saga, finishing sixth overall alongside Leona Chin and Nurul Husna Nasharuddin. All four team members were recruited through the MSF R3 Ladies Racers Search, which was both a mentoring programme for existing women racing in MSF series and a talent search for unaffiliated drivers. The race was the first time that the three drivers had competed together and they had started from 26th and last due to a problem in qualifying.

Away from the track, she is a TV and film actress. Acting as a professional came after she first became involved with cars; her first TV appearances were in 2013.

She was pregnant for a good chunk of 2020 and has spoken since about developing the facial nerve disorder Bell’s Palsy since then.

In 2025, she was back out on track, in the Merdeka Endurance race at Sepang. Her Chevrolet Matiz developed problems on Lap 31 and she and her team-mates did not finish. She also took part in some MSF Super Turismo races.

(Image copyright Faye Kusairi) 

Nabila Tejpar

 

Nabila Tejpar is a British rally driver who mainly competes in Europe. She has won several women’s awards in the European Rally Championship.

She began rallying in 2015 in a 1600cc Proton Satria, after she had finished university. She did four single-stage rallies and had a best finish of 22nd, on the Wethersfield Stages. Even at this early stage, she looked beyond her home country and drove a DAF 55 in the Eifel Rally Festival, held near the Nurburgring. At this event, she drove alongside her father Aziz, who was in a Ford Escort. Both Nabila’s father and grandfather are or were rally drivers, with her grandfather Aziz Sr active in his adopted homeland of Kenya. The DAF was among the cars he used in the early ‘70s.

At the start of 2016, she took a big leap forward in her career and entered the British Rally Championship, competing in the Junior championship. Her car was a Ford Fiesta R2. Although it was not her best overall finish, the Circuit of Ireland was probably her best rally; she was fourth in the Junior rankings, and won a European Ladies award for her 43rd place finish. She was eighth in the British Junior championship at the end of the season. 

Driving the Fiesta, she was British Ladies' Champion in 2017, and fifth in the Cadet class. She entered her first Wales Rally GB and finished in 65th place. Her best overall finish was a 15th place in the Nicky Grist Stages. She carried on with her forays into Europe, entering the Ypres Rally and finishing 88th.

For 2018, her focus switched to the Iberian Peugeot Rally Cup, which offered prize money, although her best result of the year, a 15th place, came from the Ulster Rally. Her Iberian campaign included WRC rallies in Spain and Portugal. She was the leading female driver in the Catalunya Rally, finishing 41st from 53 in her 208. Her Portugal entry was only for the National event. Back at home, she was 43rd in the Wales Rally GB.

A pan-European campaign in the 208 followed in 2019, which left her second in the ERC ladies' standings. Again, she tackled the Iberian WRC rounds, earning a 31st place in Portugal this time. She was 40th in Catalunya but had to pull out of the GB event as her co-driver Richard Bliss was unwell. As well as Spain and Portugal, she travelled further east into Europe this year, entering the Polish and Barum Czech rallies.

Her 2020 programme was based in Portugal, where she used the Peugeot in three events, the best of which for Nabila was the Alto Tamega Rally, in which she was 31st. The season was curtailed by the coronavirus crisis. Later in the year, she also tried out a Proton Iriz R5 car at the Goodwood Speed Week. 

In June 2021, she made her ERC debut in the Iriz. Her first event was the Rally of Poland. The first three stages went well and she was running in 37th place, but she rolled the car and had to retire. Although she was not seriously injured, she had to pull out of the Rally Liepaja and Rome Rally to allow time for the car to be repaired and for her and her co-driver Matt Edwards to be fit.

Nabila first competed in the Proton as co-driver to her father in 2019, when he drove it as the course car for the Eifel Rally Festival.

(Image from essex-tv.co.uk)

Women drivers in the Sepang 1000km

 

Faye Kusairi, Nurul Husna Nasharuddin and Leona Chin in 2019

The Sepang 1000km is an annual race for touring cars, normally lasting somewhere between eight and nine hours. It evolved from the Merdeka Millennium Endurance race, held at the same circuit, which included both saloons and sportscars and ran over twelve hours. It was originally run to celebrate the festival of Merdeka (Malaysian independence day).

Cars are limited to 1900cc and are mostly models from Asian manufacturers, including Malaysia’s own Proton.

Women have started every single edition of the race. For several seasons, the Red Bull Rookies team fielded an all-female crew. The 1000km’s first female winner was Faye Kusairi in 2016, driving a Proton as part of a four-person team.

All known women entrants are listed below, although there may be others I have not identified due to language barriers. In the case of a mixed team, the woman’s name always comes first and male drivers’ names are in italics.

2009 

Leona Chin/Puteri Ayu Jasmin/Diana Chin/Nur Hayati Omar (Honda DC2) - 21st

Carmen Lim/Akina Teo/Amir - (Proton Satria) - DNF

2010

Philippa Yoong/Hiroko Nakamura/Frank Yee (Proton Satria Neo) - 15th

Puteri Ayu Jasmin/Noradzlianayati Abdul Radzak/Carmen Lim/Melline Jaini (Honda DC2) - 28th

2011

Puteri Ayu Jasmin/Emmiline Ang/Fauziah Haziz (Honda DC2) - 15th

Hiroko Nakamura/Eric Yeo/Melvin Choo (Proton Satria) - DNF

Amirah Mokhtar/Siti Shahkirah Shaharul/Mark Darwin (Proton Satria) - DNF

2012

Melissa Huang/Siti Zirwatul (Proton Satria) - 13th

2013

Siti Shahkirah Shaharul/Siti Zirwatul Irdah (Proton Satria Neo) - 11th

2014

Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/KJ Yee/YC Foo - (Proton Satria Neo) 9th

Siti Shahkirah Shaharul/Illy Aquila/Geraldine Read (Proton Satria Neo) - 12th

2015

Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/YC Foo/KJ Yee/Nasharuddin (Suzuki Swift) - 8th

Geraldine Read/Wong Yat Fan (Suzuki Swift) - DNF

2016

Faye Kusairi/Kefili Othman/Djan Ley/Zizan Razak (Proton Suprima S) - winners

2017

Leona Chin/Kenneth Shak/Woo Siew Chong/Chong Yee Hing (Suzuki Swift) - 9th

Rina Ito/Tomokazu Sato/Ken Foo Kwok Hsing (Toyota Vios) - 16th

2018

Leona Chin/Dato Nasri Said/Kefili Othman/Alifa Hamdan (Toyota Vios) - 7th

Joan Lee/Steven Wan/Goh Eng Peng (Toyota Vios) - 18th

Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/Shasha Shafie/Boey Chai (Suzuki Swift) - 31st

2019

Leona Chin/Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/Faye Kusairi (Proton Saga) - 6th

Angeline Lee/Siti Shahkirah Shaharul (Toyota Vios) - 28th

2020

No race held

2021

Leona Chin/Mohd Nasri Bin Md Said/Yik Choon/Akina Teo (Suzuki Swift) - winners

Natasha Seatter/Nurul Husna Nasharuddin/Muizuddin Musyaffa (Honda City) - 29th

Dilys Lee/Alfred Chong Seong Huat/Choo Chia Chin (Proton Satria Neo) - 30th

Shasha Shafie/Fikri Rahmin/Syafiq Samsudin (Toyota Vios) - 31st

2022

Rina Ito/Takahisa Ohno/Karurosu Honda/Ng Kim Ngee (Suzuki Swift) - 13th

Nurul Auni Nasharuddin/Mohd Yuszaidi/Nasharuddin Abd Aziz (Toyota Vios) - 33rd

Siti Shahkirah Shaharul/Monica Picca/Zulaikha Ahmad (Suzuki Swift) - 42nd

Leona Chin/Adele Lew (Toyota Vios) - 44th

Akina Teo Chai Yong/Eddie Lew Karwai (Toyota Vios) - DNF

2023

Gladys Lam/Roni Risman/Azmeer Yusri Yusof (Suzuki Swift) - 32nd

Nurul Auni Nasharduddin/Loke Yin Yi (Toyota Vios) - 37th

Leona Chin/Mark Chew Shin Wong/Danny Chin Hwa Lip (Suzuki Swift) - 58th

2024

Sophia Zara/Mohd Shafiq Samsudin/Kelvin Yap Su Deng (Toyota Vios) - 39th

Genevieve Ooi/Charlie Hine/Alex Hine (Suzuki Swift Sport) - 48th

2025

Leona Chin/Mark Chew Shin Wong/Kenny Chan Wai Ying (Suzuki Swift)- 18th

Genevieve Ooi/Alister Yoong/Aman Nagdev (Toyota Vios) - 22nd

Audrey Leong Qi/Keiko Wong/Sitatun Pikulkajorn (Toyota Vios) - 27th

Nurul Auni Nasharuddin/Rafim Gaith Daniel (Toyota Vios) - 29th

Sofia Zara/Mohd Shafiq Samsudin/Amerul Arieff Wahid/Kelvin Yap Su Deng (Toyota Vios) - 35th

(Image copyright Proton)

Siti Shahkirah Shaharul

 

Siti Shakirah Shaharul, often known as Siti Shahkirah, is a Malaysian driver who mainly competes in endurance racing.

She began her senior career as one of the winners of the Red Bull Rookies driver search in 2011, aged just seventeen. Red Bull Rookies had been a female-only competition previously, but that year it had both male and female winners. Although she got her break through a competition, she was not new to motorsport as a whole and had been karting since the age of nine. At the end of 2010 she trained at the Petronas Formula Xperience Racing Academy.

Her prize drive was a seat in a Red Bull Proton Satria for the Sepang 1000km. She also took part in a Malaysian Grand Prix support race in the same car, which counted as a round of the Malaysian Super Series. 

After 2011, she was retained as a driver by the Red Bull Rookies team and did at least two more Sepang 1000km races in 2013 and 2014. Her co-driver in 2013 was a Bruneian driver named Siti Zirwatul Iradah Awang Adninin. They were eleventh. The following year she was twelfth overall, with fellow Rookies Geraldine Read and Illy Aquila. 

In 2018, she made her single-seater debut in the Southeast Asia Formula 4 championship, taking part in the last six races at Sepang. Her best results were three eighth places.

She was one of the 60 drivers chosen to try out for the all-female W Series, but she was eliminated after the first round of assessments.

She returned to her favourite haunt, Sepang in 2019 for the 1000km race, partnering Angeline Lee in a Toyota Vios for the Hi-Rev SIC Dream Chaser team. They were 29th overall and won the Vios Enduro class. The same pair tackled the race again in 2020, in a similar car. 

Leading an all-female team, she had another go at the Sepang 1000km in 2022. She drove a Suzuki Swift with celebrity racers Monica Picca and Zulaikha Ahmad and finished 42nd overall.

(Image copyright Siti Shahkirah)

Laleh Seddigh

Laleh Seddigh is Iran’s top woman driver. She has won several races against men, as well as her country’s Ladies’ Championship.

Laleh was born in 1977. Her family was wealthy; her father owned several factories, including a car spares firm. She was a car enthusiast from a very early age and learned to drive at home, in the family’s yard. Some articles claim this was when she was eight, or eleven. A 2008 interview with Laleh for the German magazine Spiegel says she was thirteen.

By the time she was fourteen, she was being stopped by police and returned home, having “borrowed” her father’s car for a nocturnal excursion. Again, some sources claim this happened when she was much younger. She got her license later. As a teenager and young adult, she was very sporty and competed in athletics, equestrianism and volleyball.

Her first motorsport experience came through rallying. Her website says that she first competed in 2000, when she was 23, but details are hazy, partly due to language and information barriers. She took part in the Iranian championship between 2001 and 2005 and won the 2004 Ladies’ Championship. Part of the problem was that her activities were deemed un-Islamic by Iran’s religious authorities, and a media blackout was imposed on reporting her successes. She eventually petitioned for legitimate participation, which was granted. One fact in motorsport’s favour was that it was easy for Laleh to adhere to strict Muslim dress codes while clad head-to-foot in Nomex. In 2005, she was pictured at the start of the Arjan Rally close to Tehran, getting into her car. Her schedule involved both stage rallies and longer cross-country raids. She drove a Proton for an official team, and apparently won three rallies before 2004, from 28 starts.

In 2004, she started circuit racing as well as rallying. She used two different Protons and a Peugeot 206 over the course of five races. One of her first, at the Asadi Park stadium track, gave her a third place.

She won the Iranian 1600cc GT championship outright in 2005. Her car for the eight-race series was a works Proton.

From 2006, she was barred from competing in her own country after accusations of cheating. She was prohibited from entering the Open class of the Iranian touring car championship after her 2005 win, so she disguised her new 2400cc car as her last season’s 1600 model in order to compete. She was found out and banned.

After that, she did some training for Formula BMW Bahrain after receiving a licence there. It is not clear whether she actually raced. She is also reported to have raced a Formula 3 car in Italy. Some reports say this happened at Monza, but no results are forthcoming.

For a while, things went fairly quiet for Laleh. Her website states that she won a “ladies’ rally” organised by Tehran motor club in 2009, but further details are not available.

A film was made about her in 2012, supported by none other than Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It caused huge controversy in Iran. For one, its depiction of a Muslim woman was deemed un-Islamic and supportive of Western stereotypes. The film received a huge amount of state sponsorship, which was also criticised.

In 2014 and 2015, she entered Iran's Shiraz Rally, driving a Peugeot 206 and a Mitsubishi Lancer, respectively. She finished in 2014, in thirteenth place.

In 2015, she did some testing for the Indian Mahindra team, in their XUV500 4WD. Once more, it is not clear whether this was during or in preparation for competition.

Since then, her profile, outside Iran at least, has been lower. She has undertaken a PhD and teaches at a university, as well as speaking publicly about her motorsport experiences. In 2016, she talked of setting up a women’s racing school.

She was nicknamed “Little Schumacher” in Iran during her first brush with stardom.

(Image from http://arhiva.dalje.com)

Female Rally Drivers After 1950: Malaysia

Gina Finanza Daud in 2014

For most of its history, Malaysian rallying has been a largely male-only enclave, apart from a few overseas drivers. In recent years, home-grown female drivers have started to compete, and their numbers can only increase.

Rohani Ahmad - Malaysian driver who competes in the Malaysian championship. She did her first rally in 2012, in a Proton Satria, and was eleventh in the fourth round of the Malaysian championship. Still in the Satria, which is the car of choice for many Malaysian drivers, she entered three rallies in 2013. She finished eleventh in the Rally of Perlis, and eighteenth in the Malaysian Rally and the International Rally of Perak. In 2014, she drove in the International Rally of Perak, but did not finish. 

Gina Finanza Daud - has been competing regularly in Malaysian rallies since 2011. Her car is always a Proton Satria. Her first attempt at the Rally of Malaysia in 2011 gave her a class win, and 18th overall. She did not rally much in 2012, but came back in 2013, and scored her first top ten, a tenth place in the Perak Rally, as well as eleventh in her third Malaysian Rally. In 2014, she achieved another two top tens, a ninth in the International Rally of Perak, and an eighth in the Rally Negeri Sembilan. She did her first rally as a driver in 2008, the Jaya One Rally, and then continued to compete as a co-driver for at least a season. As well as rallying, she competes in circuit races in Malaysia, driving a Honda DC2. She originally got into motorsport through her management of Malaysian driver, Sutan Mustaffa Salihin. In 2016, she was part of the stewarding team for the Rally of Malaysia. She made a driving comeback in 2017 and won the Malaysian Classic Car rally championship. Her car was a Proton Saga. In 2018, it was back to current machinery. She rallied a Proton Satria and had a best finish of twelfth in the Rally of Terengganu. 

Fadzilah Mamat – began her competition career in Malaysia in 2015. Her first rally was the Rally Negeri Sembilan, the second round of the championship, on gravel. She drove a Proton Satria, and was fourteenth overall, third in class. In August, she took part in her first Malaysian Rally, and was 21^st, with another class third, in the same car. This was in spite of ending up in a ditch on the first day. She did some co-driving for Ahmad Amir in 2016. 

(Image from http://origin.hmetro.com.my/)