Robyn Kruger (Kriel)

 

Robyn Kruger (now known as Robyn Kriel) is a South African driver who usually races a Volkswagen Polo, often in one-make series.

She began karting at five, and moved into circuit racing at fifteen in the Super Hatch series, driving a Ford Fiesta. She won her class championship in the category in 2006 and 2007. 

The following year, she moved into the Engen Volkswagen Cup, a South African one-make championship. In her first year she was fifteenth overall. 

In 2009, driving a Polo, she improved her finishing position to tenth, then ninth in 2011. 

She achieved her first VW Cup podium position in 2012, at Zwartkops. Her final championship position was eleventh. 

In 2013, her career went international. She travelled to Buddh in India for a guest appearance in the VW Polo R Cup, in which she was second, behind her brother Jeffrey Kruger. She was also selected for the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission’s VW Scirocco-R Shootout, and got to the final stage, finishing fourth overall. This made up for crashing out of the first SA VW Cup round earlier in the year.

She raced less than previously in 2014, taking part in club Superhatch racing in the Polo. She scored at least one second place at Kyalami. As well as the Polo, she used a Ford Ka in Superhatch races in 2016.

Apart from occasionally racing a Lotus 7 in historic events, she only took part in the bigger 2018 endurance races in the Polo, which continued in 2019. She and Stiaan won their class in the Phakisa 200 in 2018. Robyn and Stiaan, who later married, raced together for the first time in 2017. They used his VW Polo for endurance races, starting with the Phakisa 200. It was about six months before the team raced again.

In 2020, Robyn raced in the VW Challenge again, finishing seventh in the final standings. This was combined with endurance racing, including a fourteenth place in the Phakisa 200 with Robbie Da Silva.

She switched to sportscars in 2021, racing a Lexus-engined Backdraft Cobra Roadster with Stiaan and Kosie Weyers.

In 2025, she reappeared in Australia, racing a Mazda RX-8 in a one-make Cup series there. Her team-mate was Maisie Place. Both together and driving solo, Robyn was a regular top-five finisher, despite this being her first season in Australia. She also competed in a Hyundai Excel in the New South Wales one-make series.

Away from the track, Robyn works as a teacher.

(Image from motorsport.co.za)

Micki Vandervell (Chittenden)

 

Micki Vandervell, also known as Micki Chittenden, raced at national level in the UK in the 1970s. 

She was a member of the Vandervell racing family, the niece of legendary car designer Tony Vandervell and the cousin of racer Colin Vandervell. “Micki” was short for Michaela.

Her earliest adventures in motorsport were in autocross, driving a Mini in 1967. She gained some attention early on, not due to her family connections, but to finishing third in one of her first races in 1968 with a wrist in plaster. The event was at Sherwood Farm in Drayton and she won the ladies’ trophy.

By 1969, she was racing a Mini on track as well as on the dirt circuits of autocross, mainly in the south of England. At the end of the year, she took the Mini to Lydden Hill for the Grandstand Trophy, which was broadcast on BBC television. 

She continued to race the Mini in 1970, including at least one run in the Triplex Saloon Championship at Silverstone and an appearance at Brands Hatch. According to newspaper reports, she combined her racing with a job as a lab technician.

In 1971, she was part of "The Carmen Curls", an all-female racing team who competed in Formula F100. She raced a Royale sportscar alongside Gabriel Konig. The team was sponsored by Carmen hair products (“The House of Carmen”), and managed by Tina Lanfranchi. Among the four team officials was Roz Hanby, who later found fame as the face of British Airways. Neither of the team’s drivers completed the whole 20-round season and Micki was not as quick as Gabriel. She was thirteenth in the championship, which folded at the end of 1971.

She was an enthusiastic early member of the BWRDC, and competed in their women-only events. Her best result in one of these was a third place in the “Fast Girls Consul Challenge”, held at Brands Hatch in 1972 as a support to the Rothmans Formula 5000 championship. Gillian Fortescue-Thomas was the winner, ahead of Jenny Birrell and Micki, who finished ahead of her Carmen Curls team-mate Gabriel Konig. 

Much later, she took part in the Brands Hatch rounds of the 1976 Shellsport Ladies’ Escort series, scoring two seventh and one eleventh place.

For at least part of 1973, she raced an MG Midget in the STP Production Sports Car Championship.

She raced less often after her marriage to Mike Chittenden. Tiffany Chittenden and karter Tamsin Germain are her daughters.

(Image copyright Reading Evening Post)

Yana Pelenichenko

 

Yana Pelenichenko is one of Kazakhstan’s leading rally drivers. 

The Kazakh rally scene is quite small, and Yana is part of a team aiming to raise its profile. 

She started young, co-driving for her father Mark from the age of fourteen in 2012. Mark Pelenichenko only ever competed at club level due to health problems. Yana then started learning to drive and preparing herself for a career behind the wheel.

Her first rally as a driver, the Rally Stepniye Volki in 2012, resulted in an eighth place. Her car was a Citroen C2, which she has continued to drive since then. The car was bought in Moscow.

In 2013, she managed two fifth places, in the Sapsan and Vostochnyy Marafon rallies, and also travelled to Italy for her first European event, which was the Rally Ronde Prealpi Mastershow. She drove a Subaru Impreza and was 94th. 

She continued to be very competitive in her home country in 2014, still in the C2. She was sixth in the Sapsan and Saryagash Rallies. Unfortunately, she also had quite a few retirements, and was one of three drivers excluded from the Stepniye Volki event.

She does not appear to have competed in 2015, but she came back in 2016, again in a C2. She was eighth in the Rally Sapsan. A repeat of this car and rally pairing in 2017 resulted in a fourth place. 

In 2018, she earned two further fourth places in rallysprints in Kazakhstan. She did some rallysprint events in 2019, still in the C2. The first of these gave her a runner-up spot. 

She does not appear to have competed for the following three years, but she returned to the stages in 2023, driving a Lada. She entered at least two rounds of the Kazakh national championship.

(Image from ticketon.kz)

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)

Natalia Kowalska

 

Natalia Kowalska is a Polish driver best known for racing in the revived Formula Two championship in 2010. 

Her F2 campaign came after sitting out the 2009 season due to lack of funds. Her best finishes were a ninth and tenth at Algarve and she was 19th overall. 

Prior to this, she did a part-season in the 2008 Formula Star Mazda championship in the USA, managing one tenth place at Mosport out of four finishes. She was driving for John Walko Racing, having taken over from Filipina driver Michele Bumgarner.

Her American sojourn was only her second year of circuit racing. Her first was in 2007, when she had a part-season in Northern European Formula Renault and two races in the Formula Renault Eurocup. She managed to score a few points in the former. 

In 2011, she drove in Formula Two again, but only took part in four races due to injuries sustained in the previous season. She had crashed three times in 2010. Further neck injuries from a road traffic accident meant that she did not compete in 2012, although a prospective GP3 drive was mentioned in Polish media.

She was involved in karting in 2016, mentoring and instructing younger drivers. Her own karting record is quite impressive, with a Polish ICA title in 2005 and two Junior ICA runner-up spots in Polish championships in 2002. She followed a fairly normal single-seater path, switching from karts to cars at 17.

In 2019, she attempted to qualify for the W Series and reached the second round of assessments, but was not chosen to race. Shortly after, she said on social media that she had only entered to see if she was still competitive and did not think she would get through.

She has since returned to working with young karters.

Rhea Sautter

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image copyright Balz Schreier