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)

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)

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)

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)

Gabriel Konig

Gabriel with her Modsports MG

Gabriel Konig (not Gabrielle) was a much-travelled Irish driver who competed off and on from 1962. She was most successful in MG Midgets and a Chevrolet Camaro, winning 18 races in different series, at club and National level mostly.

Living at her mother’s Beaulieu House near Drogheda, she learned to drive very young; at ten, she was able to drive a tractor. She was a regular spectator at motor races with her mother, attending events at Dundrod and Curragh. She earned her driving license at seventeen, then four years later, began racing. By this time, she was married to Mark Konig, another racing driver and car builder, and living in London. Her first racing car was a Lotus Elite. A Lotus Elan soon followed. She rarely raced in her home country, but was a regular face on the scene in England, and also in continental Europe. In 1964, she was twelfth in the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood, in the Elan. The following year, she shared the Elan with Mark for the Nürburgring 1000km, driving for the WJ Moss team. They did not finish due to gearbox problems. That year, 1965, she entered the Autosport Championship in the Elan. Later in the year, she raced a much more powerful Ferrari 250 GTO at Silverstone, but crashed out.

In 1966, she took her first race win, driving a Hillman Imp. This was a National-level race at Mallory Park. This year, she returned to smaller cars, and was rewarded with results that went with her level of experience.

After a quiet 1967, during which she may have raced an Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite, she was taken on by John Brittan’s team in 1968. The car she was given was an MG Midget, and she raced in the Modsports series. This style of competition suited her well, and she ended the year with fifteen class wins. One of her best overall results was fourth at Mallory Park, with a win in the 1150cc class. The year before, she had been a member of the Ring Free Oil “Motor Maids” team in the USA, and had travelled to America for the Daytona and Sebring sportscar races. However, she seems to have been a reserve driver, and did not get to race. Her winning year in 1968 must have gone some way to making up for that.

Her first international win came in 1969. She was first at Fassberg in Germany, driving an Austin-Healey Sprite. The Brittan MG was still competitive, and she travelled to Italy to race in the Mugello Grand Prix, with Garo Nigogosian. They were 31^st, fifth in class, from 65 finishers. Also in Italy, Gabriel and Mark did the Targa Florio together, in the Nomad MkII. This car had been designed and built by Mark, and was powered by a BRM F1 engine. Sadly, an accident caused by a puncture put them out of the event on their third lap.

1970 was another year affected by accidents. Gabriel did not do much racing at all this year, as she suffered broken vertebrae in an accident in Brazil. She had been driving in a Formula Ford race at Sao Paulo, and crashed when the steering on her car failed. She was not permanently injured, but had to take almost a year out to recover.

Early in the following year, she returned to UK club racing as part of the “Carmen Curls”, an all-female team who raced a Royale in Formula F100. They were sponsored by Carmen hairstyling products, and Tina Lanfranchi was the team manager. Formula F100 was a poorly-supported series which folded at the end of the year and the Carmen Curls disappeared with it.

In 1972 her career went international again, with her first attempt at the Spa 24 Hours. She drove a Chevrolet Camaro with Marie-Claude Beaumont, a driver with considerable experience of both Chevrolet power and endurance racing. Sadly, they did not finish, due to a loss of oil pressure.

Despite her experience, Gabriel liked the car, and bought it to race for the 1972 season. She competed in the Irish Group 2 championship, now that motor racing had grown in her home country. At the end of 1972, she had it shipped to Guyana, where she would live and race for the next twenty years.

One of her first sporting appointments was joining the BOAC Speedbird team, which took British-based racers to the Caribbean, in partnership with the Guyana Motor Racing Club. Gordon Spice was one of her team-mates. She won at least two races in the Camaro at the South Dakota track in Guyana, and was second at Bushy Park in Barbados.

Among the cars that she raced during her Caribbean years was a Byldenstein Vauxhall Viva, built as a sister car to Gerry Marshall’s famous “Old Nail”. In this car, she won at least one race at Waller Field in Trinidad, in 1976.

During her time in Guyana, she raced again in Barbados. She was part of the group of enthusiasts initially responsible for bringing UK-based drivers to Barbados for its annual rally, something which continues to this day.

Gabriel was one of the founder members of the British Women Racing Drivers’ Club, one of the first group of drivers to be invited to join. In 1968 and 1972, she received awards from the BWRDC for being the highest-achieving female driver in the British Isles.

She also rallied in the UK more recently, doing some classic events in a Ford Escort, among other cars, including a Hillman Imp and an Austin A40. In 1997, she entered the Tour Auto in France, driving a Vauxhall GT. Latterly, she owned her own motor museum at Beaulieu, based around a collection of her own racing cars.

She died in January 2013.

(Image from http://www.backroads.ie/forums)

Louise Aitken-Walker

Louise and Tina in Monte Carlo, 1990

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Louise Aitken-Walker was one of Britain's best-known rally drivers. She was a popular figure on television - an appearance on Blue Peter led to this Scotswoman becoming a personal hero of mine from childhood.

She got a surprise start in motorsport, courtesy of her brothers. They entered her into a Ford "Find A Lady Rally Driver" contest they had seen in the Radio Times and as a result, she was selected for the Fabergé Fiesta Challenge in 1979, a race and rally competition for women. Nineteen-year-old Louise was fourth overall and won two of the rally events, Scarborough and Halewood. She also drove in the RAC Rally as a result, although she did not finish.

Preferring the rally side of four-wheeled competition, she continued to drive her Fiesta in British club and regional rallies, gaining more experience all the time. By 1981 she had progressed to a Ford Escort RS2000 and finished her first RAC Rally, after another retirement in 1980. She was nineteenth and fourth in Class Three. She also drove in the Scottish Rally, and was 41st in a Fiesta. Her best result was a class win and fourteenth place in the Manx Rally. Her co-driver was Ellen Morgan, another Fabergé graduate. They were to be a team for the next eight years.

The pair won their class in the 1982 RAC, despite not beating their previous finish with a 20th spot. Their first taste of international competition came courtesy of the Rali Vino Madeira, in which they were ninth, and second in class. Away from the dizzy heights of the World Championship stage, and the European top ten, they also won Class One in the British National Championship.

1983 was the year that Louise's career really took off. Her shining achievement that season was winning a British national event outright, the Peter Russek Rally (now the Swansea Bay Rally). This was the first time in the modern era that a national rally had a female winner; an achievement that would not be repeated for almost  thirty years. Louise was awarded a Pirelli Diamond in recognition of her feat, and her fame led to offers of more drives. She drove an Alfa Romeo Alfasud TI in the Monte Carlo Rally, and finished ahead of a group of eight female teams in similar cars, securing the Coupe des Dames. In her first attempt at the snowy Swedish Rally she won class N2 in an Escort XR3, and the British Junior Team offered her an Escort RS1600i for the RAC event. Sadly, she did not finish. In National competition, she was seventh on the Circuit of Ireland in the Escort, and tenth in the Ulster Rally, also in the Escort.

Louise and Ellen were members of the Junior team again for 1984. Their second visit to Sweden gave them another class win, and a more competitive 23rd place overall. They did not finish the RAC Rally again, but were effective elsewhere in Britain, finishing third in the National Championship, in a Ford Sierra. A seventh in the Mewla Rally was their standout result. Elsewhere in Europe, Louise was enjoying relative success. With Ellen, she was twelfth in Italy’s Costa Smeralda Rally, and 19th in the Rallye d’Antibes. With German co-driver, Monika Eckardt, she was fifth in the Skoda Rally in the Czech Republic.

The pair signed for Peugeot the following year. They stuck to British rallies this time out, and proved that they could handle the Peugeot 205 GTI as well as the Ford Escort, finishing third in the British Open Championship, the highest level of national competition. Their best result was a near-repeat of their 1983 Peter Russek win, where they were second behind Mark Lovell. In the Ford, they were fifth in the Gwynedd Rally and sixth in the Granite City Rally in Scotland, as well as seventh in the Mewla event again. Louise also scooped the Coupe de Dames on the RAC Rally, and won class A6, with a sixteenth place, in the Peugeot.

After a good year with Peugeot, the former shepherdess from Duns was in demand. Nissan Europe took her on as a works driver for the 1986 season, for the British Open series and the RAC Rally. She maintained her speed across the UK, and moved a little further up the RAC leaderboard with a fifteenth spot. Her best British Championship result was fifth again, in the Welsh Rally, and she had further top tens, a sixth and seventh, in the Scottish and Ulster Rallies. The Nissan 240RS she was driving was a fully-fledged Group B car, capable of taking on the big guns. It was also relatively reliable, with only one gearbox failure in Ireland.

It was back to Peugeot for Louise and Ellen in 1987. Reunited with the Peugeot 205 GTI, they continued their UK rally adventures, starting well with sixth and a class win in the National Breakdown Rally. Louise managed another class win in the Manx Rally, and was eleventh overall. In between, she was seventh in the Circuit of Ireland. They looked set for a top ten finish on the RAC Rally until fate intervened. An oil filter split while the duo were in seventh position, right in front of the TV cameras. Until this misfortune, Louise had been a British fan favourite with spectators and TV viewers.

It was an unfitting end to a generally excellent season though. The 205 took its crew to five class wins from five British Open events completed, and Louise was rewarded with number one driver status for 1988. Her heroics on the snowbound RAC Rally netted her an Autosport National Driver of the Year Award. Life as number one at Peugeot treated her well. She came close to another win in the Cartel International Rally, but settled for second. On the Isle of Man, she was seventh, and second in class A7. She was also seventh in the Fram Welsh Rally, and eighth in the Circuit of Ireland. This was in spite of non-finishes in the Scottish and Ulster Rallies. She was fifth in the British Championship. Her only really big disappointment was another non-finish in the RAC Rally.

It was now time for a hike in power. For 1989, Louise was invited to join the GM Vauxhall team, driving their Astra GTE. This was to be a joint attack on the British Rally Championship and the British Touring Car Championship. She rose to the occasion admirably, winning the 2-Litre class of the rally series, and coming fifth in the BTCC, despite not having raced since 1979. She beat her team-mate John Cleland to class wins at Thruxton and Silverstone. Back on the WRC stage, she and Ellen won their last Coupe de Dames together on the RAC Rally. The Vauxhall was 18th overall, third in class A7. In the British Championship, they were fifth on the Isle of Man, their best result there. Louise’s other top ten finishes were a ninth in the Cartel Rally, and seventh in the Circuit of Ireland. Her other events, the Scottish and Audi Sport rallies, gave her top-twenty finishes. She was seventh in the British Championship.

It was a new decade and a new focus for Louise in 1990. the GM team, now GM Eurosport, had entered the World Rally Championship and were taking her with them. Her new co-driver was Swedish expert Tina Thörner. The season started quite well in Monte Carlo. Louise steered the Astra to eleventh overall, second in class A7. However, the team's second outing, the Rally of Portugal, ended in disaster. Louise and Tina had a serious off on stage three, rolling the car down a bank and deep into a lake. The Vauxhall was fully submerged and it was lucky that Tina had trained as a pool lifeguard and was able to react quickly. Thankfully, both crew members swam to the shore and escaped unharmed.

Two months later, Louise was back in action on the Tour de Corse. She avoided trouble this time, but went out on the last day with cambelt trouble. The following month in New Zealand, she was much more fortunate, coming in eleventh and winning class A7. This was her best World Championship finish to date. She was thirteenth in Australia, eighteenth in Sanremo and seventeenth on the RAC Rally, with a class win each time. After the season-ending RAC, she and Tina were awarded the FIA Ladies' World Rally Championship trophy, a first World Rally title for a British driver. In recognition of this, Louise was named Driver of the Year by the Guild of Motoring Writers.

1990 was her only WRC season. She moved to the UK Ford team in 1991, still with Tina Thörner. They campaigned a Ford Sierra Cosworth around Britain, in the Open Championship and the RAC Rally. Paradoxically, Louise achieved her best-ever WRC finish that year, a tenth place in the RAC. This gave her a single point in the WRC Drivers' standings. Her best Open finish was a second in the Plains Rally, although she was driving strongly, and was third in the Fram Welsh Rally, and fourth in Scotland. She was still the highest-achieving Briton in motorsport, and won the Jim Clark and Seagrave trophies: the first is for the highest-placed Scot in a motorsport series and the second for the most meritorious performance by a British person. To round things off, she was awarded the MBE in the Queen's New Year Honours list in 1992.

1992 was Louise's last full year of competition before retiring into family life. Still with Ford, she drove an experimental environmentally-friendly Sapphire Cosworth in the British Championship. Their season was a good one, beginning with seventh in the Vauxhall Sport International Rally, and fifth in the Pirelli Rally. A halfshaft went part-way through the Manx National Rally, which was not really one of Louise’s best events. The Scottish and Ulster Rallies gave her fifth and sixth, with a class win in Scotland. The Manx International Rally went no better than its National counterpart: the clutch went on the Sierra. Louise was sixth on the Elonex International Rally in Telford, behind Colin and Alister McRae, Tommi Mäkinen and Mark Higgins, but in front of Richard Burns. She was fourth in the British champioonship

After having two children and devoting time to family and business interests, she did come out of retirement in 1996, for another stab at the British Championship and the RAC Rally. She was driving a 1600cc Honda Civic for Honda UK, which was not the quickest or most reliable, but the development work she did with it proved valuable. Her only finish came on the Scottish Rally, where she and Claire Mole were 29th. They also drove in the 24 Hours of Ypres.

She has never really left motorsport entirely, and continues to test and help develop rally cars, as well as driving the course car on the Duns-based Jim Clark Memorial Rally. More recently, she and her husband Graham have started their own rally school and Louise has helped her children's former nanny, Jane Nicol, get started in the sport. In 2005 she was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.

In 2008, she came out of retirement once more to compete in the Colin McRae Stages, as a tribute to her countryman. She was driving a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus in Andrews Heat For Hire livery. She was one of a number of international and British champions out in the forests.

Louise in 2008

Her latest outing was at the Rallylegend show in San Marino, in October 2017. She drove a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus in the Star class, co-driven by her daughter Gina Walker. 

(Picture from aitken-walkerdriving.co.uk and fia.com)