Pauline Dalmasso

Pauline Dalmasso is a rally driver and co-driver who has been in the driving seat since 2018, although she has been navigating for slightly longer. Both she and her sister Charlotte have won the French ladies’ rally title.

Her first car was a Ford Fiesta R2T and she competed in National and Regional-level events in France, concentrating on asphalt rallies. 

Her first three rallies ended in crashes but she managed a best finish of 29th in her first year, in the Rallye Terre de Lozere. 

She added gravel rallies to her repertoire in 2019 and it proved a good move. She won the French ladies’ championship in 2019 with three event victories in the Antibes-Cote d’Azur, Criterium de Cevennes and Var rallies. However, a tarmac event was her best overall finish again; she was 25th in the Coeur de France Rally, driving a Peugeot 208 this time. Lucile Cypriano was the top female finisher, a couple of minutes ahead. 

Her two ladies' wins in 2020 were not enough to keep her crown although she would have done better had she finished her third event, the Coeur de France Rally. The season was curtailed by the global coronavirus crisis. Her car was a 208 again.

She did a combination of gravel and tarmac rallies in 2021 and had a best finish of 23rd in the Antibes-Cote d'Azure Rally, from 57 finishers. In February, she did her first rally outside France, the Rally Ronde del Canavese in Italy, although she did not finish. This was one of ten events she did that year.

During the winter season, she competed in the G Series ice-racing championship in Andorra. She was driving a Renault Clio in the Challenge Clio Ice Trophy class and she was eleventh in the championship. She reached one A final in the third round, finishing seventh.

Her first rally of 2022 was in a new car, a Rally5-spec Renault Clio. It gave her a 32nd place in the Rallye Regional des Roches Brunes. For the Le Touquet Rally, she was back in the Peugeot. She announced that this would be her primary car for the season. She was tenth in the French Tarmac championship, with a best finish of fourteenth in the Rallye Coeur de France. This was one of two Rally4 class wins for her and co-driver Marine Delon, the other being a 20th place in the Rallye Regional de la Vesubie.

She carried on with the Rally4 class, using a Peugeot 208 for most of 2024, apart from one outing in an Opel Adam for the Rallye du Var, where she was 72nd, from 112 finishers. Her best result in the 208 was fourteenth in the Rallye National des Roches, with a second in class.

The Roches event was her best in 2025 also. This time, she was driving a Rally4 Opel Corsa and she was sixth overall, with Manon Deliot. She did two other Tarmac rallies in this car, but with nowhere near the results. She also used to 208 for the Rallye Vosges-Grand Est, but its engine expired.

Her sister is French ladies’ champion, Charlotte Dalmasso. The pair competed together in 2016, with Pauline in the co-driver’s seat. Their best finish was a seventh place in the Rallye Regional de la Croisette. 

(Image copyright Pauline Dalmasso)

Lisa Caceres

 

Lisa Caceres raced sportscars and saloons in the USA in the 1980s. She is probably most famous for winning races in the SCCA Endurance Series in 1987, with Desiré Wilson. 

They won the Sears Point race, in a Saleen Mustang. Lyn St. James and Donna Sue Landon were also members of their team, and they raced together throughout 1987 in endurance events, with Molly Elliott filling in with Desire was unavailable.  

She had driven a Saleen before, in 1986, sharing with Steve Saleen himself and Alice Ridpath in the SCCA Endurance championship. She was 21st in the Longest Day of Nelson 24-hour race and 15th in the 6 Hours of Road Atlanta. A slightly different team, including Skeeter McKitterick, was twelfth in the 24 Hours of Mosport, with a class win. The final race of the year, at Mid-Ohio, resulted in a 17th place. 

In June 1985, she entered the IMSA Firestone Firehawk race at St Louis, double-driving in two different Camaros with Les Linley. This was her first appearance in a pro-level race after a few seasons of production car competition.

That year, Lisa drove a Chevrolet Camaro in at least one IMSA race, at Riverside, running in the GTO class. She did not finish, but was classified 41st despite crashing out after a tyre blowout. Her car was struck by two other cars, leaving her with a broken jaw, three cracked ribs and a broken bone in her foot.

In a 1986 interview, she described how she had first started racing in 1982. She had been watching action at Sears Point and was asked by one of the Bob Bondurant racing school instructors whether she wanted a ride in a racing car. The experience inspired her so much that she signed up with the racing school as soon as she could.

Later, in 1996, after some time racing jet skis and karts, she drove a Chevrolet Lumina in the Pro GT-America series. 

As well as competitive motorsport, she works as a driving instructor, particularly in karts, and has done some screen driving stunts. 

(Image copyright The San Francisco Examiner)

Susan Tucker-Peake

 

Susan and Maralyn Tucker-Peake with one of their trophies

Susan Tucker-Peake raced between 1966 and 1989, starting in club saloon races in the UK and progressing as far as the European Touring Car Championship. 

She won two rallycross races in 1972, in a Ford Anglia, and was the winner of the 1975 Ladies’ Shellsport Escort Championship. 

Although she raced a wide variety of cars throughout her sporting career, she was probably most associated with saloon cars, spending some time racing in the no-limits Special Saloon championship in the ‘70s. In 1973, she raced a Ford Escort with Graham Goode, against the likes of Gerry Marshall. She continued to race in this series until at least 1975, driving an Escort.

Trying yet another discipline, she partnered Maggie Anderson in the 1975 Avon Tour of Britain. Their car was a Renault 11TS entered by Renault Elf Racing, who were running Maggie in their one-make Renault 5 series.

This was combined with regular appearances in the Ladies’ Shellsport Escort Championship. Despite not winning a race, she won the first championship in 1975, ahead of Divina Galica. Divina was the 1976 winner, with Susan in second. She was fourth in 1977.

In 1977, she drove a Renault 5 herself in most of the British Touring Car championship, which led to a works drive with Skoda in the 1978 ETCC. She and Petr Samohyl contested four rounds together in a 130 RS, with a best finish of 21st at Brno. The car was not reliable and this was their only finish. 

After her ETCC adventure, Susan bought a Brabham BT21 F3 single-seater and rebuilt it with her husband. 

During the 1980s, she raced in Formula 4, and in a number of relay races for the BWRDC.

Her earliest motorsport experiences were in trials, competing with her sister Maralyn in their father’s self-built Tucker Nipper car.

After retiring from active competition she served as the President of the British Women Racing Drivers’ Club. In 2003, as Susan TP-Jamieson she wrote Women in Motorsport from 1945 with Peter Tutthill, a book chronicling female drivers since the war.

(Image copyright classictrials.co.uk)

Jeanette Lindstrom

 

Jeanette Lindstrom was one of America’s first female racing drivers. She was also the first woman in Chicago to earn her driving license, aged only thirteen.

In September 1900, she took part in the International Automobile Meeting in Chicago, held at the Washington Park speedway. She raced a Lindstrom electric car against Miss MA Ryan over two miles, winning by half a mile. Her time was 5:56s.

Miss Ryan challenged her to a rematch the day afterwards, which was thrown open to any other women drivers in electric cars, but it is unclear whether this happened. Some reports suggest that Miss Ryan won. 

According to some newspaper reports, Jeanette learned to drive when she was eleven. At the end of October 1900, she was certified by the city electrician to drive in public, having passed an exam on the workings of an electric car. There was no practical test. Other sources claim she had only been driving for a few months prior to this.

Jeanette’s motoring fortunes were linked to those of her father, Charles, who was an inventor and engineer who founded the Hewitt-Lindstrom electric car company with John Hewitt. Only one model of car was ever produced and this “high-geared runabout” was the car raced by Jeanette. Production ceased in 1901 and the company folded in 1902.

Jeanette disappeared from public life after this. 

(Image from The Western News)

Ellexandra Best

 

Ellexandra Best is most known for racing in the Australian Production Car Championship, where she is an outright race winner. 

She shot to prominence in 2016, she drove a Toyota Echo in Class E of the APC and was second in the class standings. Her best overall finish was twelfth, at Sydney. She was the youngest driver ever to compete in the series, at seventeen. 

Previously, she raced a Hyundai Excel, first in the 2015 NSW Excel Racing Series, and then in the 2016 Victorian Excel Championship. 

Back in the APC in 2017, she raced a Toyota Corolla and had a best finish of seventh overall, at Winton. She was 24th in the championship as she only did three quarters of the rounds. This was her second year with Lauren Gray Motorsport, founded by racer Lauren Gray. Her team-mate was Michael Gray. 

In 2018, she split her time between the APC and the Toyota 86 Racing Series. Her car for the APC was a Kia Pro Ceed run by Conroy Motorsport. It was not the most successful year; she was unable to start the first two rounds and only managed a thirteenth place at Winton as the best of her three finishes. Her two Toyota 86 races were part of an Aussie Driver Search programme and she was competing against her brother Zak.

She also returned to Lauren Gray's team for the Bathurst 6 Hours, finishing third in the Production class. She and her two team-mates used a Toyota Corolla. 

Her first race win was in 2019. She had missed the first few rounds of the APC but her debut in a Mitsubishi Lancer gave her a win at Phillip Island. She returned for the races at The Bend later in the season but the best result from her four races was a fourteenth place. She was 15th overall. This time, she and Zak were team-mates.

After a break, she entered the 2021 V8 SuperUte Series for four rounds at Sydney Motorsports Park, finishing in the top ten each time. She was twelfth in the championship. She returned to Ute racing for 2022, having acquired and tested a Mitsubishi Triton pickup. She was twelfth in her first race at Symmons Plain on her first visit to the circuit. The top tens began at the next round at Barbagallo, where she was ninth and eighth. These were the first of nine top tens, leading to championship ninth.

She was 13th in SuperUtes in 2023, not having had as good a season as the year before. She was thirteenth in the championship, with two twelfth places at Barbagallo and Mount Panorama as her best finishes. Cars had also not been forgotten: she was part of a three-woman team in a BMW E82 for the Bathurst 6 Hours, with Courtney Prince and Karlie Buccini. They were third in their class and 21st overall.

Another season in SuperUtes beckoned in 2024, this time driving a Mazda pickup. She was 16th in the championship, with a best finish of eleventh  at Mount Panorama.

The same Ute, driver and team combination tackled the 2025 SuperUtes series, and the championship result was also the same: 16th. Her best individual result this time was a fourteenth place at Sandown.

(Image copyright Ellexandra Best)

Sara Price

 

Sara Price races for the Chip Ganassi team in Extreme E. She has won multiple titles in motocross.

Her motocross career began when she was eight, in about 2000. By 2010, she was competing professionally, winning medals at the X Games and a string of women’s titles.

She switched from two wheels to four in about 2012, winning a championship in Terracross in 2015, an extreme rallycross series for SxS (UTV) vehicles and quads. Her vehicle was a Polaris UTV which she worked on herself. She also travelled to Morocco for the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles, a female-only navigational rally raid. She was seventh in the UTV and Quad class and won the First Participation Challenge rookie award.

Her next challenge was Trophy Trucks. She began in the Stadium Supertruck series founded by Robby Gordon and was its first female participant when she took to the track in Ontario. Soon, that was upgraded to the first woman to lead laps. The series is active in the USA, Canada and Australia and Sara travelled to the other side of the world for the final round. She was second. Her best American result was a fourth place at Costa Mesa in California.

This was in addition to another Terracross win, the first of two in 2016 and 2017.

She continued to race Trophy Trucks in 2017, but this year, she branched out into longer Baja events. Her first event was the Laughlin Desert Classic and she was second overall. At the end of the season, she returned to the stadiums at Storm Stadium.

Her other big development in 2017 was winning the female section of the Hoonigans Wanted Driver Search, run by Ken Block’s Hoonigan organisation. She got to compete in both asphalt and off-road hillclimbs, including a run in a Fiat 124 in the Mount Washington Climb to the Clouds.

She took another step in her off-road journey by making her debut in the 2018 SCORE International championship, a series of Baja races held in the desert of Mexico. Her vehicle was her Trophy Truck, which she ran in the Spec TT class. She was eighth in the class championship, with a fifth place in that year’s Baja 500 and a second in the Desert Challenge, the third round of the championship. 

After learning the courses successfully in 2018, she won the 2019 TT class championship.

In 2020, the coronavirus crisis limited some motorsport activity, although Sara managed to do some Baja events in both a UTV and a Trophy Truck. She also competed in Australia again in her Stadium Trophy Truck.

When Extreme E made public its decision to have male-female teams in all cars in 2021, Sara was the first driver to be announced for the championship. Her partner at Chip Ganassi Racing was Kyle LeDuc. They were one of the most stable partnerships, with both drivers completing all five rounds. The Chip Ganassi car was a standard Odyssey electric SUV with custom Hummer bodywork.

The team did not take the easy way through from the start. Kyle LeDuc was docked a point from their first-round total for causing a collision with Claudia Hurtgen’s ABT Cupra car during the Desert X Prix, leaving them eighth and last. Their best event was the Island X Prix in Sardinia, where Sara and Kyle were fourth, having qualified fifth. Sara, the more reliable driver, was seventh in the championship.

The Price/LeDuc pairing was retained by Ganassi for the 2022 season, although LeDuc was replaced for the final round in Uruguay by RJ Anderson. Sara won her first X Prix in Italy, although it was her only podium. She helped her team to fourth in the 2022 championship. This was her final season in Extreme E, as both drivers were replaced. LeDuc died of cancer in 2023.

She returned to baja events in the USA for 2023, winning rallies in California and Mexico as well as the Mint 400. Later, she moved into rally raids in a Can-Am, in preparation for a run in the 2024 Dakar. She won her class in the Sonora Rally in Mexico and was second in the Rallye du Maroc. Her car for the Dakar was a Can-Am run by South Racing. She was fourth in the SSV class with navigator Jeremy Gray, winning one stage.

In a sideways move, she took part in Alejandro Agag's electric powerboat racing series, E1 Grand Prix, in 2025.

(Image courtesy of Extreme E)

Miki Onaga

Miki Onaga races a VITA sportscar in Japan, in both the all-female Kyojo Cup and in the mixed Inter Proto series for which that car is eligible. 

Born in 1997, she comes from Okinawa province, the most southerly island of Japan.

She is one of the Kyojo Cup’s leading drivers, finishing second in the 2019 championship having joined for the second round. On the pace from the start, she won straight away. This was the start of a championship battle with Hinako Muramatsu, which lasted until the final round. Muramatsu won. 

The same year, she used her Vita prototype for the Suzuka Race of Asia, competing in the Vita one-make race. This is the mixed counterpart of the Kyojo Cup.

She entered the Kyojo Cup again in 2020 and was second overall, as well as competing in the Super Taikyu Championship in a Toyota GT86, driving for a Toyota-supported junior team. The Kobe Toyopet Motorsports car made its debut in October at the 3 Hours of Okuyama, where the three-driver team was fourth in class.

She returned to Super Taikyu in 2021, racing a Toyota Yaris, as well as finishing second in the Kyojo Cup again. The Yaris was a GR model run by the Kobe Toyopet team again. Early in the season, Miki and her two team-mates won their class at Motegi, the first of three class victories.

The Kyojo Cup title went back her way in 2022 with three out of four race wins. The fourth resulted in a penalty, otherwise she would have won that too.

In 2023 she was announced as a driver in the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR86/BRZ one-make cup, but no results seem to be forthcoming. Returning to the Kyojo Cup at the end of the summer season, she was second again, with one win.

She raced in the TGR championship in America in 2024, driving a GR86 for Hattori Racing as part of a rotating squad of Japanese guest drivers. Her best finish was 19th, at Barber Motorsports Park. Back home in Japan, she was runner-up in the Kyojo Cup.

The Kyojo Cup became a single-seater championship in 2025 and Miki was still a part of it, winning once at Fuji and finishing second overall. She was somewhat less successful in Japanese F4, which uses a different car. Her best finish was thirteenth, again at Fuji, and she was 26th overall.

Her senior career began in 2019, but she was both active and successful in karting for two years before that, competing in the All Japan Regional Championship and the Dunlop Next Cup. She was the first driver chosen for the Exgel Race Car First Challenge, a programme for karters transitioning to cars. It used the Vita prototype, giving her an advantage for her Suzuka debut.

(Image copyright Exgel Motorsport)