Gilly Handley

Gilly Handley rallied in Britain in the 1990s, usually in a Vauxhall Corsa. 

She was National Ladies' Rally Champion in 1997 and 1998 and took part in one WRC round, the 1999 Rally GB, coming 52nd. 

Gilly, from the Midlands, grew up around motorsport. Her father, John Handley, raced Minis in the ETCC in the late 1960s. Although she didn't particularly dream of competing herself as a child, she spent most of her childhood in the paddock

Her career began in 1992, first in historic rallying with her father. Their car was an Austin Healey 3000 and they won their first rally together, the Mitchell Fox Historic.

Her own driving adventures started in a one-make championship for Rover Metro GTis. Earlier, there had been a competition for novice women drivers with a Metro season as a prize drive, which Gilly entered but did not win. Men were allowed as co-drivers and she teamed up with the skilled Iain Freestone. At the end of the year, she was tenth in the overall standings, and scored more points than her chief female rival, Joanna Plumbe, who had won the women's shootout.

She did one more season in the Metro in 1994, which included a second visit to Belgium for the Ypres 24 Hours. Sadly, she and co-driver Sue Mee retired. Her best result of the year was a 26th place in the Stena Sealink Ulster Rally. She was the second Metro finisher, behind Malcolm Oxborrow and ahead of Scotswoman Anna Tait, who had also come through the 1993 women's competition.

The first of her Corsas arrived in 1995. She tackled the British championship this year, but was plagued with problems and only finished two events, the Plains Rally and the Rallye du Condroz in Belgium. The Crosa's suspension went on the Welsh Rally, the starter motor broke on the Pirelli Rally and the engine failed in Scotland. This series of expensive issues probably explains why she did not compete in 1996.

Back with a Corsa in 1997, she had the services of Richard Pashley as co-driver. They mostly competed in the BTRDA championship, although Gilly's best results came outside it. She was sixth overall in the Pirelli Trophy, the club event that ran alongside the Pirelli Rally, and 16th in the Grizedale Stages in December.

A very busy year followed in 1998, taking in a mixture of BTRDA and UK National rallies, in a Corsa. Her best result was 22nd in the Quinton Stages, from 118 finishers, the majority of which were in much more powerful cars. She also scored class wins in three British National rounds, the Bulldog, Granite City and Kerridge National rallies.

Her 1999 season was based around her RAC Rally entry. She was working with Roger Clark's son Matt on improving the car and they took a chance on a new, untested engine. Her warm-up throughout the year was the BTRDA series, where she was consistent, if not as dominant in class as in 1998. Her best finish was 27th in the Quinton Stages, from 89. 

The RAC Rally involved a trip through the Kielder forests, where Gilly had never managed to finish, and also spectator stages, which she admitted in the Wolverhampton Express made her quite nervous. However, she managed all of them.

The biggest event of her career also turned out to be her last. In the same Wolverhampton Express interview, she admitted that sponsorship now a problem, and that to "do the British round of the world championship - that's everybody in rallying's dream. Whether I do it again, well you never know, it all depends on finance. But in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy every minute of it."

As well as her competitive activities, she had a successful career in motorsport administration, first working for Malcolm Wilson, the Eddie Jordan and the Benetton Formula One team.

(Image copyright Mike Hayward, Wolverhampton Express & Star)

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)

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)

Jackie Astbury

Jackie Astbury was a British driver who rallied from 1933, in the UK and France. She is normally credited as "Miss J Astbury".

She drove a Wolseley Hornet in the 1933 RAC Rally, which was then held in March, and finished 70th in class 2, having started at Bath. In the summer, she used an MG Magna in the Scottish Rally, having started at the opposite end of England in Harrogate. Her first outing in the Singer Nine which became her regular car was the Ulster Rally in August. In December, she tried a lower-paced event, entering the London to Gloucester Trial in the MG. She won a silver medal for keeping 90% of her starting score.

There was more trial action in 1934, when she took part in the Colmore event in a Singer. Again, she was among the second-class award winners. Driving the Magna this time, she won a first-class award in the trial section of the Women's Automobile and Sports Association's Day in the Hills. 

The biggest brush with fame she had in 1934 was not completely related to her performance on the rally stage. She had protested the result of the Ulster Rally, claiming that she had waited for a signal to leave one stage and not received one, making her late for the Bangor time control. Her protest was upheld and she was promoted to third place, winning herself £20 and the Visitors' Cup in the Singer.

In 1934, she finished the RAC Rally in a Singer. Using the same car, she won the Thistle Cup for best Scottish-starting driver in the 1935 Monte Carlo Rally. Her final finishing position was 50th. She also won her class in the RAC Rally. In between, she competed in the JCC's Brooklands Rally, winning a second-class award. She also travelled back to France for the Criterium International de Tourisme Paris-Nice, finishing 13th behind Grand Prix driver Raymond Sommer. She was second in the Coupe des Dames standings and third in the Light Car class.

In 1936, she repeated her Monte Carlo achievements, still in the Singer, improving her final position to 40th. This was in spite of a double spin on a sharp corner, before she even left Scotland. The Coventry Evening Telegraph acknowledged that she "did well",  taking time to praise her "fair curls in immaculate order" and her "smart khaki driving suit adorned with a Scotch thistle". She took the same car to the Brooklands Rally and won another second-class award, and finished another RAC Rally. Back in France again, she entered the all-female Paris-St. Raphael Rally for the first time, and was sixth overall, behind Betty Haig and Enid Riddell.

Jackie occasionally raced on track, including a run in a ladies' race at Donington in 1935. She was second in a Frazer Nash, behind Fay Taylour in a similar car.

Her motorsport career ends in 1936, although she did present a "Perseverence Prize" at the 1937 Scottish Rally. John M Archer was the winner; this award went to a driver who had entered the rally three or more times and had never previously won a prize. A Sketch report from September 1937 says that she had been "very ill indeed", and that "motoring friends crowded round congratulating her on her recovery" at Shelsley Walsh. This would explain her abrupt disappearance.

She may also have played badminton competitively before she began her motoring career.

(Image from the Brian Goodman Collection)

Angela Palfrey

Angela Palfrey rallied in the 1950s, and for a couple of seasons was Britain's leading new female driver.

She is chiefly known for winning the Ladies’ Prize on the 1956 RAC Rally. Her car was an Austin A40, and she was navigated by Aileen Jervis, with Pauline Pither as a third team member. The rally ran between Blackpool and Hastings and had 2100 miles of navigation. The car itself belonged to her and was an older model no longer in production. She defeated Pat Moss and Mary Handley-Page, with Pat Moss taking a wrong turn around a pylon during a driving test.

The following month, she won the ladies' award in the Birmingham Post Rally. 

Previously, she had competed in a Morgan 4/4, and is recorded as the winner of the Worcester Motor Club’s Autocross event in 1955. She was only 20 at the time. Her first major rally award came in this car, the ladies' prize in the 1955 MCC Rally. The Morgan was borrowed from her boss at the fruit and vegetable canning factory where she worked, Barrie Phipps. Aileen Jervis had been her navigator again and they won £50 from the Daily Mirror. It was her first rally as a driver.

She drove another borrowed Morgan later in 1956, entering the Morecambe Rally, also sponsored by the Mirror. She also entered the MCC National Rally for a second time, starting from Kenilworth as she did before.

As well as rallies, she also competed on track occasionally. In summer 1956, she took to the circuits at Oulton Park, taking part in the Lancashire & Cheshire MC's high-speed trials. There were two trials lasting half an hour each, and Angela used the A40 she had driven in the RAC Rally. 

Angela was from Pershore in Worcestershire. Her competition career was very short and she does not appear to have rallied after 1957. During her brief time as a rally driver, she enjoyed the spotlight. The newspapers liked reporting on this very young, pretty and talented new star.

Her married name was Phipps; she married Barrie Phipps in 1958. She died in 2018, aged 83.

(Image copyright Daily Mirror)

Sheleagh Aldersmith

Sheleagh before the 1963 Monte

Sheleagh Aldersmith was a British driver and navigator in the 1960s. She competed in the Monte Carlo Rally many times between 1960 and 1970.

The first success she had at the wheel seems to have been a win in the Cowley & Wilson Trophy in 1957, a navigational event with driving tests and a quiz element organised by the Buckingham and District Motor Club. This had followed a second place in their "Spring Sprints" navigational rally. Her car is not recorded.

Some time between then and 1960, she started competing in stage rallies. A 1962 Worthing Herald news article from 1962 has her as "rally driving for the past two years".

Her first international event was in 1960. She teamed up with the multiple French champion, Claudine Trautmann (then Vanson) for the RAC Rally, driving a Citroen ID19. This was despite There was some confusion over whether they had actually started, but they made progress in Scotland until rolled, having stopped to help Claudine's future husband, Rene Trautmann. Sheleagh continued as a driver of the team's chase car. At the time, some said this was her second RAC Rally. 

As co-driver to Rosemary Seers in 1961, she entered an Triumph Herald in the Tulip Rally, held in the Netherlands. They were 73d overall, seventh in class, from 113 finishers.  Rosemary then switched to an MG Midget for the car-destroying Liege-Sofia-Liege Rally, which had eight finishers. The Seers/Aldersmith car was not among them. It had lost its exhaust system on the Resia Pass going into Italy, then gradually lost power until it expired at Sofia. The lack of an exhaust meant the the car's floor pan got very hot, particularly under the co-driver's feet. Both Sheleagh and Rosemary burnt through the soles of their shoes and had to jump out of the car at time controls. To add insult to injury, they received a speeding ticket in Yugoslavia.

They also drove an MG together on the 1961 RAC Rally and the 1962 Monte, although they did not finish either event. The Midget's gearbox broke on the RAC Rally.

In April, she came to the rescue of Irish driver Pat Barr, who found herself without a navigator for the Circuit of Ireland. Sheleagh answered an advert in the motoring press and cancelled another rally in England the help Pat out. They drove a Mini, but finished over the time limit and were not classified.

She did her first international rally as a driver in 1962, taking on the Tulip Rally, driving an Austin Seven wiht David Howick. She seemed equally happy working with male and female team-mates and was aiming for the mixed team award this time. On the way, she took her friend, Mrs Stromwall, as an additional, unofficial navigator; Mrs Stromwall wanted to visit her daughter in Bruges. Sheleagh was 88th overall.

Teaming up with Pat Barr again, but switching seats, she tackled the Tulip Rally again in 1963. This followed an ignominious exit from that year's Monte, when her road car broke down as she tried to get to the airport on her way to Ostend, the radiator bursting on co-driver Jean Aley's driveway. Later, she tried the Spa-Sofia-Liege event again, driving a Mini for the first time. She and co-driver Michael Nesbitt, a racing mechanic who owned the car, did not finish. The Mini's suspension, brakes and clutch were defeated by poor Yugoslavian roads near Titograd, now Podgorica in modern Montenegro.

Another Monte in 1964 began in Minsk, where she spent some time visiting local hospitals to compare conditions with the UK. She used the a Mini from the same garage as the one she shared with Michael Nesbitt, but had Elizabeth Jones as her co-driver this time. They got as far as the Alps without too much trouble, despite snow and bad Czech fuel, but the Mini was ailing and they went over the time limit trying to finish a special stage on an icy road.

Switching seats with Nesbitt again, she entered the Spa-Sofia-Liege again, but it continued to beat the, the car's radiator giving out this time. 

Another navigating job that year was helping Bill West on his first international rally, that year's RAC Rally. His Mini was a production model, as opposed to the Nerus-engined Hares Garage car Sheleagh was used to. They finished, in spite of changeable weather, including blizzards and fog in Scotland and northern England. The car's suspension had problems and the fan belt came off twice.

1965 was a quieter year. Sheleagh and Pat Walton had another go at the Tulip Rally in a Mini, but did not finish. This was a new car for her; she had elected not to enter the Monte to allow time for it to be prepared.

1966 was also relatively quiet. Sheleagh had been down to co-drive for a garage owner, John Barnes, but a bout of sciatica meant she had to drop out. It was also suggested that the Mini they were hoping to use had too many spotlights to be legal as well.

Another co-driving job came in in May, when she sat beside ED Jenkins for the Austrian Alpine Rally in a Mini. Their finishing position is unknown. 

The Mini was her chosen car in 1967 as well: she and Carolyn Tyler entered the Monte Carlo Rally, described as Sheleagh's sixth attempt. The car was hers, and she and Carolyn had tried it out on the Isle of Wight in October 1966, in a local rally. They won the Coupe des Dames. Unfortunately, they were non-finishers in the Monte itself.

She was set to drive in the RAC Rally with Susan Porch, until it was cancelled due to foot and mouth disease. Susan just wanted to get to the finish, in order to be eligible for the 1968 Monte. 

As a navigator, she entered two more rallies in 1967, in two separate Minis. She partnered Australian Lyndon McLeod for the Tulip Rally and Christopher Coburn for the Alpine Rally, although neither team finished.

Her partnership with Christopher Coburn continued for another two seasons, always with her in the navigator's seat. In 1968, they drove a Mini on the Monte, her seventh edition and his first. Their rally ended stuck in a bramble bush, going over the time limit in order to free themselves.

Their final event together was Sheleagh's last international rally. It was the 1969 Monte, driving a Vauxhall Viva. The alternator became faulty shortly after the start and they did not finish.

A hospital doctor and consultant in physical medicine, she was usually referred to as “Dr. S Aldersmith”, and has been described as "formidable". That said, she told the Worthing Herald in 1962 that her parents would not allow her to learn to drive, and she had to wait until she had qualified until she began "eight years ago". She had been practising medicine since at least 1954, when she worked in Nottingham. This was after she contracted polio in 1952, which must have necessitated time off work and sporting activity. She later lived in the south of England, at Rustington. She was sometimes a member of the circuit medical team at Goodwood, Silverstone and Brands Hatch, and the first woman to serve as a medical officer at the British Grand Prix.

As well as motorsport, she took an interest in flying and gliding and was one of the donors towards the 1954 World Championship Appeal Fund.

She died in 2002, aged 78. Her given name appears to have been "Sheila" on her birth certificate, but she used the spelling "Sheleagh" to refer to herself.

(Image copyright Worthing Herald)

Janie Eaton

Janie with Ari Vatanen in 1997

Janie Eaton rallied in the UK in the 1990s and 2000s and gained attention at the time as one of Britain's youngest female drivers. She was from Essex and apparently had her first experience of driving at the wheel of the family tractor.

She began her career in 1994, when she was 17, driving a Vauxhall Nova like many young drivers of the time. Having passed her driving test in January that year, she quickly earned her rally license and entered her first major event in June, the Dukeries Rally. Assisted by Tina Powell, she finished the rally in 113th place, from 119 finishers. After two more finishes in BTRDA Gold Star rounds, she found enough sponsorship for an RAC Rally entry, which garnered her some press attention due to her young age. A portion of this came from Maldon district council and she had their logo on her car. Sadly, the clutch on the Nova went on Stage 22. 

The Nova, with a new clutch fitted, came out again for the first half of 1995. The year began with the Wyedean Rally in the Forest of Dean, a traditional season-opener in the UK. Janie was 100th from 118 finishers. It was then onwards and upwards for her first-ever rally abroad, the RTS Rally in Belgium. Janie and navigator Liz Jordan were 61st overall and second in class. Her second European rally was the Van Staveren Zuidersee Rallysprint in the Netherlands, and she was 60th.

After another finish in the Plains Rally, she got herself a new car, a Ford Escort RS Cosworth. Her first event in it was the Charlemagne International Rally in Luxembourg, part of the French championship. She and Clive Taylor were 55th overall. This was the first of four finishes in the car, which also got to the end of the ADAC Welfen Rally in Germany, the London International Rally and the RAC Rally. This was a particularly strong performance, although Janie and Liz Jordan only finished 89th. On the first day, they had hit a tree trunk in Tatton Park near Knutsford, and had to limp through the next stage at Chatsworth, picking up a time penalty in the process.  

At the time, she the youngest ever female finisher in the 1995 RAC rally, aged 18.

After this, she kept the Escort but competed much less. She did one rally in 1996, the Bournemouth Winter Rally, but did not finish. She did two more events in it in 1997, an early running of the Goodwood Rallysprint, which ended in a DNF, and the Welfen Rally. This was one of the best rallies of her career and she was 21st overall, fourth in class.

Her final attempt at the RAC Rally was in 1997, and she drove a Ford Ka with Pauline Taylor. The South Wales Evening Post mentioned her in a story about Ari Vatanen, as she had taken a passenger ride with the 1981 WRC champion in his Escort. She also described having seen him competing on the 1991 event, which caused her "Formula 1 ambitions to go straight out of the window." 

Since 1997, she has competed on and off at club level in stage rallies and rallysprints, often for Chelmsford Motor Club. In 2004, she drove a MkII Escort in the Rally of Kent, but did not finish.

(Image copyright Brentwood Gazette)

Annie Neil

Annie Neil, alongside her navigating sister Chrissie, rallied in the 1950s. Their first international event seems to have been the 1953 RAC Rally, driving a Morgan Plus 4, which was given to Annie by Peter Morgan, in recognition of her performance in a trial. 

Annie’s given name appears to have been Ines or Innes and she was sometimes known as Andy as well. Chrissie was also known as Kiki. She was awarded a Silver Garter in recognition of her being the “best woman driver in Britain” in 1953, following her Coupe des Dames in the Hastings Rally.

Having been interested in motorsport for a while, Annie entered her first rally and named her sister as her navigator, even though Chrissie could not drive. Her niece Candy says that she had to take a week-long crash course in order to be allowed to compete. They initially rallied mostly in Scotland and in the north of England, including the Morecambe Rally.

Quickly they became popular local media figures and even donned Edwardian outfits for a Glasgow-Largs-Kilmarnock veteran car race in 1957. They were driving a 1912 Vulcan.

As well as the RAC Rally in 1953, the Neil Morgan made an appearance in the Daily Express Rally in November. It had been successfully repaired after a roll on the RAC event.

The sisters competed abroad for the first time in January 1954, driving the Standard Vanguard they would become associated with in the Monte Carlo Rally. The Scotsman described them as being welcomed with flowers by spectators. The Morgan came out again for the MCC National Rally later in the year. 

In 1955, they entered the Monte Carlo Rally again, but retired after a lighting failure on their Standard Vanguard in Belgium. They drove the same car in the 1956 Monte, but appear to have retired again, possibly after missing a time control at Besancon. As ever, the reports of their Monte adventures mentioned their matching tartan-lined ski suits and tartan berets.

They are on the list of finishers for the 1955 Scottish Rally but their final position is not noted.

The Neil sisters were regulars in Scottish rallies until 1957, when Annie retired from major competition to start a family. Her daughter Candy was born in early 1957. Chrissie carried on for a short while, co-driving for her brother-in-law, Annie’s husband Frank Dundas.

Both were involved in motorsport administration as well as competition and were committee members for the Lanarkshire Motor Club. Chrissie even ran a local rally with an all-woman organising team in 1954, calling it “La Flop Des Dames”.

Annie had learned to drive during the War, and after her rallying days were over, ran the family pig farm in Tollcross. She died in 2004 aged 80. Chrissie became a fashion designer. She died in 1991, aged 64.

Listen to a podcast featuring Candy and Donald Dundas here. Photos from the same page.

Frankie Bogg (Francine Duncan)

Francine Bogg, known as Frankie, was one of the youngest-ever participants (at the time) in the RAC Rally. She first entered aged 19, in 1991. 

Her final position was 68th, from 82 finishers. This was her only World Championship rally, but she enjoyed quite a long career in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The RAC Rally drive came about after she won the Radio Times “Rally Quest” competition, held in conjunction with Top Gear. There were 36,000 competitors for the £80,000 prize drive in a works-supported Vauxhall Nova, which included the RAC entry and a programme of British rallies beforehand as training. The latter part of the competition was televised and Frankie became popular with Top Gear viewers.

Although Frankie had already done a couple of rallies before Rally Quest, she had thought her career was over as the car she bought herself suffered a blown engine. She found herself in a similar situation at the end of 1991, when the prize drive concluded.

The RAC Rally was one of six events she did in 1991, including the Audi Sport Rally, which was a round of the British championship. She was 34th, sixth in class. In real terms, the RAC Rally was her best event, followed by the Dukeries Rally, where she was 99th out of 116 drivers.

She did manage to drive her Vauxhall Nova in the second round of the British Championship in 1992. Unfortunately, she only got to the third stage of the Pirelli Rally before retiring with steering problems. Her only other outing that year was the Rally Cars Forest Stages in September. She was 57th overall. Despite sponsorship drives in local newspapers and something of a media profile, Frankie then disappeared from the stages for five years.

In 1997, she reappeared as Francine Duncan, now married and running a skid training facility with her husband, Ecosse Skid Control. She had picked up some sponsorship and a new SEAT Ibiza, which she took to the Scottish islands for the Tour of Mull, finishing 82nd. 

The following year, she competed more extensively in the Ibiza, concentrating on asphalt events. Her seasons started badly with a fire on the Apex Cheviot Rally in February, then another retirement from the Tour of Epynt. However, three class wins followed in the Tour of Cornwall, Mewla National and Wexford rallies. The Wexford event, her first rally in Ireland, was her best: she was 42nd from 72 finishers. At the end of the year, she was awarded the Motorsport UK Asphalt championship’s junior award.

1999 began with another class win in the Cheviot Rally, again running on asphalt. Frankie was 29th overall. She also finished the Tour of Epynt this year, finishing 28th from 71 cars still running at the end. The Jim Clark Rally gave her another 28th place to finish her season. 

After this, her career goes into hibernation again. Apart from one rally in 2004, the RalliTrak Premier Rally, she did not compete again.

As well as rallying, Frankie competed in mountain biking. She is from Hull.

(Image copyright Hull Daily Mail)

"Mrs AC Lace"

 

“Mrs AC Lace” is the name used by Phoebe Elizabeth McQueen, born Mylchreest in 1910, when she raced between the two wars. AC (Alfred Clucas) Lace was a driver himself and was in a relationship with her, but the two never married. She often used the forename Betty.

Her first event under this name seems to have been a hillclimb at Shelsley Walsh in September 1934, driving a Hispano-Suiza. In March 1935, she appears at Brooklands for the first time, racing a Singer in the New Haw Long Handicap. It appears to be the same car that she used at Donington in May for a women’s handicap. She was not placed in either race. 

The Singer was still her car of choice for the 1936 First Mountain Handicap, held at the March Handicap meeting at Brooklands. Again, she was not placed, nor in the Second Mountain Handicap at the same event. 

A run in a Fiat followed, as part of a three-car, three-woman Fiat team for the 1936 Light Car Club Relay race at Brooklands. She and her team-mates Elsie Wisdom and Dinah Chaff, the team leader, were fourth, from eight finishers.

A gap then follows before she reappears driving a works-supported Alta in 1938. She won the Ladies’ Cup race held at Crystal Palace as part of the London Grand Prix. 

She did enter two Brooklands races in Talbot-Lago: the JCC International Trophy and the BRDC Road Race. It was possibly the Road Race she was practising for in September when she was hit on the head by a passing seagull “at over 100mph”. She “swerved violently” but was unhurt and able to continue. 

Both times, she was co-driver to AC Lace, but did not get to drive. AC himself seems to have pulled out of the latter event and their relationship may well have broken down by then. Both were declared bankrupt at different times in 1939.

Her first forays into rallying appear in 1936, when she drove a Marendaz in the RAC Rally. The only other Marendaz entries were driven by DMK Marendaz, the car’s creator, and Aileen Moss, mother of Stirling and Pat Moss. 

By the time the RAC Rally came round again in 1937, she was driving a Railton, but she was disqualified from that year’s event. This was her only time out in that car. Driving a French Delahaye 135, she also entered the Scottish and Welsh rallies, plus an MCC rally in Torquay. That car also disappears at the end of the summer.

Making up for this somewhat, she managed to out-drive AC Lace on the 1938 Monte Carlo Rally, finishing 27th to his 47th, navigated by Elsie Wisdom. They were both driving Talbot-Darracq cars. It was a successful year on the stages for her; a month later, she and the Talbot were second in the Paris-St.Raphael women’s rally, behind Betty Haig’s MG. 

She returned to Monaco in the Talbot in 1939, and was 25th. Her co-driver was the famous pilot Amy Johnson, in what was her last rally. They had previously competed against each other in the Paris-St. Raphael. Betty’s bankruptcy later in the year was almost certainly a factor in the end of her own career.

After leaving motorsport and AC Lace behind, Betty married Brian Carbury and had two sons. The fact that she was still married to Gerald McQueen did not deter her; she possibly remained married to him until her death in 1971. It did not deter her either from marrying twice more, in 1944 and 1958. Multiple bigamous marriages were only one aspect of a dishonest and criminal side to her character, which becomes obvious after she left AC Lace. Throughout her life, she was convicted many times of theft and financial fraud, usually in the form of passing bad cheques from accounts that were either closed or non-existent. Brian Carbury was also convicted of cheque fraud in 1941 and both were accused of stealing savings from their children’s nanny in 1943. A pattern emerges of her being caught, then changing her name and carrying on as before. As she got older, she tended to move her date of birth forward by a few years with each name change.

Later, she spent a long period of time living in South Africa, where her father had previously had business interests. She married a waiter called Antonio Giocondi and began calling herself Babette Giocondi. Under this identity, she embarked on a high-profile career as a boxing promoter in 1961, alongside her husband who managed the fighters. They made very little money and attempts to bring South African boxers to the UK failed. There may have been an element of fraud involved in this. “Babette Giocondi” gave interviews to the South African press and claimed to have raced at Le Mans.

Betty died in a car crash in Worthing in 1971. She was a passenger in a Daimler Sovereign driven by pub landlord Brian Samain, who also died in the accident. At the time, she was calling herself “Babette Dale-Lace” and it took the police some time to discover anything close to her real identity.

(Thanks to Adam Ferrington for sharing his research on Betty/Phoebe/Babette.)

Jayne Auden-Row

Jayne Auden-Row is a regular on the UK club rallying scene and Britain’s only hearing-impaired rally driver.

She has been competing in the UK since 2001, initially as a co-driver. She was soon winning class titles in the BTRDA rally series. She started off competing in the North of England, co-driven by her father, but was soon driving all round the UK. An early career highlight was a fourteenth place in the 2003 Roskirk Stages.

Her first couple of rallies were single-stage events on asphalt, but she gravitated towards gravel and began competing almost exclusively on loose surfaces in 2005.

She kept using a Peugeot 106 until 2007, when she changed to a Super 1600-spec green MG ZR part-way through the season. Jayne was a member of the “Babes in the Wood” rally team in 2007 alongside Amanda Cornforth and Shelly Taunt. They were tenth in the BTRDA team standings. Jayne’s best finish was third in class in the Cambrian Rally, 66th overall. She rolled the ZR during her final event, the Grizedale Stages, but was unhurt. She did, however, rally a different ZR for her first 2009 outing, the Malcolm Wilson Rally. 

She continued to drive the rejuvenated ZR through 2008 and 2009, usually in BTRDA rallies, picking up class and club championships including the ANWMC ladies’ award. The car remained reliable, getting to the finish of eleven out fourteen rallies.

Co-driven by her father Dave Auden once more, she rallied the ZR in BTRDA rallies in 2010 and 2011. It was still going strong for the 2012 season; she competed in all eight BTRDA rounds, and was ninth in the 1400cc championship. She was also third in the MGZR class, and won the ladies' prize. 

Continuing with the ZR, Jayne carried on rallying in 2013, mainly in BTRDA events. Her best finish was fourteenth on the Wales Rally GB National event. This was the first of four Rally GBs for Jayne and her best overall finish, although she managed class seconds in 2014 and 2016. 

Wales Rally GB was her strongest finish of 2014. She did an extensive programme of BTRDA rallies and finished every one, netting herself eighth in the 1400S class.  

Her 2015 schedule was very similar, including a run in the National event of the Wales Rally GB. Her best result came from a one-off drive in a Mitsubishi Lancer, with former team-mate, Amanda Cornforth, co-driving. She was 22nd overall in the Phoenix Stages. She was reunited with the Lancer for the Cambrian Rally in October, although she and Dave Auden did not do as well.

In 2016, she contested the Welsh Forest championship, switching between the Lancer and the ZR. Her second Phoenix Stages in the Lancer gave her a strong 17th place, co-driven by Chris Row. The pair were married by now, having been in a relationship for the past few years.

Her best result in the MG was when she was 46th in the Wales Rally GB National event and second in her class. 

A break ensued while Jayne had her first child then she returned to rallying in 2018, first as a co-driver. She returned to the driver's seat in 2019 and did three BTRDA events in her trusty MG ZR. Her father Dave was sharing her now-famous “Green Machine” as his own car was not ready. She rallied the MG in one event in 2021, the Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally, but did not finish. It came out for another single appearance in 2022, the Neil Howard Stages at Oulton Park. Jane and David were 63rd overall.

(Image copyright Manchester Evening News)

Sabrina Shaw

Sabrina Shaw found fame as the youngest-ever competitor on the RAC Rally, aged seventeen years and two months, in 1998. 

She was briefly British rallying’s “next big thing”, following on from Janie Eaton and Francine Bogg who had been the youngest women drivers before her earlier in the decade.

Her 1998 RAC Rally car was a SEAT Ibiza and she was 79th. This was not her first rally car; she had used a Daihatsu Charade to do her first events in order to get the appropriate signatures on her license. Her first rally came just four days after gaining her driving license and she ended up rolling the Daihatsu down a cliff after a suspension component failed. She was not seriously hurt, although the car was a write-off. It had been borrowed and incredibly, she was loaned another car for the five more rallies she needed to complete to get her international license. 

Her father Lindsay was a rally driver himself and acted as Sabrina’s co-driver for her early events. Experienced navigator Mike Panes sat with her for the RAC Rally.

The SEAT drive was a one-off and Sabrina’s car for her next outing was a Ford Ka. She drove it in the 1999 Vauxhall Astra Stages Rally. She and Julia Rabbett were 54th overall and second in class. This was replaced by a Peugeot 106 which she used for the rest of the year. Most of this was spent in the UK, with outings in the British Rally Championship and the National Rally Championship. She entered the Ulster Rally but did not finish, and was 59th overall on the Bulldog Rally.

She also drove a Peugeot 106 Rallye in the China Rally in 1999, finishing in 25th place, alongside Chinese navigator Shouli Xu. The drive came about through the Chinese magazine Champion Racers, for which Shouli Xu was the editor, and Sabrina’s manager Andy Moss, who was instrumental in bringing rallying to China. Sabrina’s second World Championship rally ended in a 25th place. She had taken part in one of the earliest rallies in mainland China open to international drivers, as part of a female crew.

Later, she acquired an Impreza for the 2000 RAC Rally, but failed to finish, going out on the fourth stage with a mechanical problem. 

She continued to drive the 106 in 2000, in rallies including the BTRDA North Humberside Forest Rally. 

Early on, Sabrina expressed a wish to become a professional driver and she took time out from catering college in 1998 to commit herself. She was instructed and mentored by Gwyndaf Evans and SEAT UK provided her with her car for the 1998 RAC Rally but her family was still having to find large sums of money for each event. The 2000 RAC was her last international rally.

(Image copyright Getty Images)

Chrissie Ashford

Chrissie Ashford's Vauxhall Magnum

Chrissie Ashford was Britain’s leading female rally driver in the mid to late 1970s, picking up two ladies’ championships in the later part of her career.

She rallied in the UK in the 1970s, starting as a navigator to her first husband, Paul, in around 1973. They competed together in road rallies. By 1974, she was driving a Vauxhall Magnum herself in Yorkshire club events. 

Throughout her career, she favoured Vauxhall cars, including the Magnum, Chevette and possibly a Firenza. She enjoyed the long-term support of Tyreservices garages, a business which had a major depot in her home area of North Yorkshire. At some point, she worked as a fashion model and apparently appeared in Vogue magazine, which helped her from a promotional point of view.

She entered her first RAC Rally, in 1976, driving a Magnum with Tony Gilhome. They do not appear to have finished. Her second attempt in 1977, driving the same car but with Mary Fullerton on the maps, also ended in retirement.

Chrissie also raced on the circuits occasionally. She was invited to take part in the Shellsport Ladies’ Escort Race at Brands Hatch in August 1978, by the BWRDC and promoter John Webb. Against strong opposition including former ETCC racer Susan Tucker-Peake, she was fifth overall. She also took part in sprints occasionally, including the 1977 Graham Hill Trophy at Curborough. 

In 1978 and 1979, she was the BRTDA British Ladies' Champion. The second championship came after a break while she had the first of her four daughters.

1979 was probably her most successful year of competition. She drove a 2300 Chevette around the UK in rounds of the BTRDA and British National championships. Her best overall result was 25th on the Hadrian Centurion Rally, out of 94 finishers. She was also 31st out of the 84 recorded finishers on the Esso South West Stages.

Shortly after, she left rallying for family life and business interests, although she did make a brief comeback in 1983 when she entered the Lindisfarne Rally. She was 52nd overall in a Chevette. 

After rallying, she concentrated on her business interests in the catering world, heading Danby’s Foods, a frozen-food manufacturer. She later worked with the Food Standards Agency. Her marriage to Paul Ashford did not last and she remarried; in the business world, she was known as Christine Dunn.

She died in 2009, aged 60.

(Image copyright Neil Robins)

Susanne Kottulinsky

Susanne Kottulinsky was Sweden’s leading woman rally driver in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Her best WRC finish was thirteenth, in the 1986 Swedish Rally. She was driving a Volvo 240. This was one of ten World Championship rallies she entered, five of them in Sweden and five in the UK. Her best year for the RAC Rally was 1985, when she was 17th and first in Class A8, also in the Volvo. The RAC was also her first WRC event in 1982, before she even entered her home rally. She was 47th overall in an Opel Ascona.

She sampled a number of cars during her long career (over 20 years), but was most competitive in the Volvo, her regular car between 1984 and 1986, and the Audi 200 Quattro she used in 1987 and 1988. She picked up multiple top-ten finishes in both of these cars. 

From the beginning of her international career in 1982, Susanne always seemed to run best in Germany and Austria, better even than on the Swedish snow rallies in which she would be expected to excel. Her first international top ten was a tenth place in the Eisenwurzen Pyhrn Rally, held in Austria in 1983. She was driving the Ascona. The same event in 1984 gave her a sixth place in the Volvo and she followed this up with her first big German finish, an eighth place in the ADAC 3-Städte Rally. After a year spent competing all around northern Europe in the Volvo in 1986, she began to concentrate almost exclusively on the German championship.

Her first season proper in Germany coincided with her move to Audi as a works-supported driver for VAG Sweden. She was following in the wheeltracks of 1986 champion Michele Mouton and part of a strong cohort of female talent that was finally being taken seriously again. The season started well, with a fifth place in the Sachs Winter Rally. This was five places better than her future husband, Jerry Ahlin managed and the best of the group N finishers. Two more top-tens and a class win in the Rallye Hessen were enough to secure championship fifth.

Although Susanne became a more consistent top-ten finisher in 1988, the podium places were locked out by fellow Audi driver Armin Schwarz and Ronald Holzer’s Lancia Delta Integrale. She was fifth again, with another fifth place at Baden-Wurttemberg as her best rally finish. 

After this, she appears much more infrequently on the entry lists. She married Jerry Ahlin and the pair teamed up as “Team Ahlinsky” for a few rallies in Sweden and Germany between 1990 and 1991, using an Audi. Susanne earned a sixth place in the 1991 Berglagsrallyt in Sweden.

After a long lay-off, she proved that she still had it in 2002. She was eighth in the ADAC 3-Städte Rally, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer, despite not having driven in a major rally since 1995. Since then, she has occasionally come out of retirement for German rally show events, driving the Audi.

Her daughter is touring car racer, Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky. Mikaela is the third generation of Kottulinskys in motorsport, alongside her brother Fredrik Ahlin who competes in rallying. Susanne’s father was Freddy Kottulinsky, who mostly rallied in Sweden, and even her mother Barbel had a go at navigating.

She died in March 2025, aged 64.

(Image copyright Audi/VAG Sweden/rallymemory.blogspot.com)

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)