Junko Mihara

Junko Mihara is Japanese actress and media personality who had quite a successful racing career in the 1990s, both in Japan and further afield. 

She started in touring cars in 1990 and drove in some races of the Japanese championship then and in 1991 in a TOMS Toyota Corolla. Both times, she shared a car with Masahiro Matsunaga, who was her husband. He taught her to drive a racing car earlier in their relationship. Her achievements in her first seasons were mostly finishing rather than scoring points; in 1990 her finishing record was patchy, but this improved in 1991. 

In 1992, she changed teams, driving for the Kawasho set-up, but her car was the same. Although she scored a few points, she did not enter enough races to make an impact on the championship. Her best finish was 17th at Tsukuba. 

Between 1992 and 1995, she also raced a little in Europe, entering the Spa 24 Hours each year. She was always in a Toyota, either an MR2 or a Corolla, and usually with Matsunaga. She was 16th in 1994 and 19th in 1995, and did not finish the other races. For the latter race, she was part of an all-female team with Michiko Okuyama and Kumi Sato. 

In 1996 and 1997, she raced sportscars in Japan alongside Matsunaga, in an MR2. She was not among the front-runners, although the Japanese Super GT championship at the time was very competitive. Her best finish was 20th at the Fuji Special GT Cup in 1996. Again, her finishing record was good in 1997, although she was never in contention for wins.

In 1998, she made one appearance at the Fuji GT round in a Toyota Cavalier, but was unclassified. The car was a rebadged Vauxhall and was unusual, if not particularly fast. That year, she also raced in the USA, taking part in the Toyota Long Beach Pro-Celebrity race as a pro with Kumi Sato. She was 16th.

She does not appear to have raced since then. Her 1999 divorce from Matsunaga was probably a contributing factor.

After leaving both motorsport and showbusiness behind and also recovering from cervical cancer, Junko entered politics. She stood for election for Japan’s ruling Liberal party.

(Image from /www.jiaponline.org/)

Celia Martin

Celia Martin is a French driver who raced in the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy, competing alongside Formula E.

Prior to her first race in the electric Jaguar at ad-Diriyah in Saudi, her motorsport experience was confined to the Nurburgring, and mostly in a testing role. 

Celia moved to Germany from her home in France in 2017 in order to pursue a career in motor racing, despite not being from a traditional motorsport background. Unusually, she moved from team management to racing herself, having run a Peugeot team in the Creventic 24 Hour Series before her relocation to Adenau. 

The Ring had been her goal since first driving round it in 2014. She did try out a few races in France, but set her mind to racing in Germany and learnt German in preparation for this, as well as studying law and business.

She picked up a role as a test driver and high-speed “Ring Taxi” chauffeur with Jaguar Land-Rover. As well as giving demo rides to visiting VIPs, she worked on the Jaguar XE SUV project in a testing capacity.

Her first race in Germany was not in a Jaguar but it was at the Nurburgring. In 2017, she did one round of the RCN, which is run as a time trial rather than a wheel-to-wheel race. Results for this are elusive but she may have been driving a Peugeot for the RACECOP team.

Her first wheel-to-wheel experience on the Ring was when she entered one round of the 2018 VLN series with the Mathol team, driving a BMW M235i. 

Her Jaguar connections helped to get her a race seat in the I-Pace eTrophy at the end of 2018. She raced for the Viessmann Jaguar Germany team in the Pro-Am class. The first few rounds were something of a trial for her and the team did not attend the Sanya race in China, but she came back an improved driver. She had her best overall result in Paris, sixth, and this was followed by eighth places in Monaco and Berlin. She was fourth in the Pro-Am class.

Celia did not return to the electric series the following season and went back to her first racing love, the Nurburgring, in late 2019. She joined Luxembourgish drivers Max Lamesch and Sebastien Carcone in their Renault Megane for the fifth round, then was drafted into the “Giti Angels” all-female team led by Carrie Schreiner. The “Girls Only” car was a VW Golf and Celia shared it with Carrie and Laura Kraihamer. Celia was eighth in the SP3T class at the end of the season, despite only having raced twice but scoring one class win and one second place.

The 2020 VLN (now renamed NLS) had a delayed start due to the coronavirus epidemic. Celia and Carrie did some of its esports equivalent together before teaming up again in June and finishing second in class. They then secured two further fourth places and one sixth in SP3T, along with Laura Kraihamer.

The team encountered a long series of car troubles during the Nurburgring 24 Hours, which was red-flagged during the night due to extremely heavy rain. Despite several lengthy pitstops, Celia and her team-mates managed to finish the race in 72nd place.

Away from the Girls Only team, Celia also made a guest appearance in one VLN round for the Hanger Zero team, double-driving with Girls Only. She and her team-mates Phil Hill and Kaj Schubert were third in class.

As part of another Girls Only team, this time in an Audi R8, she won her class in the Nurburgring 24 Hours, assisted by Pippa Mann, Carrie Schreiner and Christina Nielsen. They were 45th, despite problems during the race itself. Celia also joined the team for the first round of the NLS, helping Carrie Schreiner to a class win. In a different car, a BMW M4, she helped Christina Nielsen and Phil Hill to two class second places.

She had another run with Girls Only in the Nurburgring 24 Hours, this time driving an M4. The team - Celia, Pippa Mann. Carrie Schreiner and Fabienne Wohlwend - were third in class. This was her only Nurburgring race of the year.

Late in the season, she joined the Speed Demons Delhi team for the Indian Racing League, in which four-driver teams raced motorbike-engined single-seaters on Indian street circuits. The first round was cancelled due to a string of reliability issues and crashes in practice, then Celia herself crashed hard in the second round at Madras. The season didn't really get any better for her and she did not finish any more races.

Most of 2023 was spent in the ADAC GT4 series, driving an Aston Martin Vantage with Fabienne Wohlwend. They were not hugely competitive and finished 34th in the championship. Driving the same car, they had more luck in the NLS, scoring one third place in the SP10 class. This year's Girls Only team - Celia, Fabienne, Pippa Mann and Beitske Visser - finished the Nurburgring 24 Hours, second in their class and 81st overall.

She was part of the Iron Dames second squad for 2024, racing a Lamborghini Huracan in the Michelin Le Mans Cup with Karen Gaillard. Her best race was at Paul Ricard; she and Karen qualified on pole and finished second. They were also fifth at Mugello, and sixth overall in the championship.

With ProSport this time, Celia also shared an Aston Martin Vantage with three other drivers for one round of the VLN.

As Sarah Bovy's FIA classification made her ineligible to rejoin the Iron Dames WEC squad, Celia stepped in to take her place. She joined Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting in the Manthey Racing Porsche 911 for all rounds, including her first time at Le Mans itself. Sadly, it wasn't a vintage season for the team, although Celia's first Le Mans did end in a finish: tenth in class and 48th overall. Her best result was fourth in the LMGT3 class at Sao Paolo and she was 18th in the championship.

As well as the WEC campaign, she also continued to race in the ELMS with Sarah and Michelle. They won their class in the first round of the season at Barcelona, finishing 25th overall. They were also fourth at Spa (31st overall) and third at Portimao, 28th overall. The team was fourth in the championship.

The Iron Dames WEC programme concluded at the end of 2025. Celia's future plans are not clear.

(Image from auto360.de)

Evelyn Mull

Evelyn Mull was one of the fastest of the many women drivers active on the US sportscar scene in the 1950s.

She learned to drive aged eleven but did not start racing until she was forty and married for the third time. Her husband John Mull acquired a sportscar of his own and Evelyn made plans of her own to compete in the ladies’ race held at his first meeting. She was not from a motorsport background and is usually described as a “Pennsylvania socialite”. Her prior sporting interests had been based around horses.

Wealthy and well-travelled, Evelyn had access to the European sports cars popular with the sportscar racing fraternity on both the East and West coast. Her first was a Jaguar XK120 which she debuted in the ladies’ race at Thompson, finishing second behind Carlye Ann Scott’s MG TC.

Although she continued to enter the ladies’ races popular at the time, she was soon taking her chances in the mixed fields at Thompson, as well as competing in hillclimbs alongside John.

She was one of the early members of the SCCA, which was the dominant motor club on the East coast. Within a few years, she became one of their racing instructors and assessors. Despite her love of the sport, she never worked on her own car and nor did John; they travelled with their own mechanics.

Her first win was in a 1954 Ladies’ race at Thompson, ahead of Isabelle Haskell’s OSCA. She was ninth in the CP class race at the same meeting, against a field of other XK120s. A few weeks earlier, she had her first race at Watkins Glen, a Formula Libre race. She returned to the same event in 1955 but did not finish.

By 1955 she was getting more competitive in mixed competition and finished fourth in an SCCA race at Thompson. Her career received another boost with the arrival of a Bristol-engined AC Ace for her and John part-way through 1956. Evelyn won her first race in this car, at her favourite Thompson circuit. Later in the year she was second there, racing in the same class.

She raced a works-supported Ace with John in 1957, entering that year's Sebring 12 Hours but failing to finish. Sharing a similar car with Harry Carter, she was 24th in that year’s Road America 500 Miles. This Ace belonged to Ernest MacNabb, a rare run in a car other than her own. She and John shared ownership of their cars but they preferred not to race together or against one another, according to Todd McCarthy in his book Fast Women. He describes John’s mild unease at his wife’s enthusiasm, expressed in such behaviour as insisting that she always wore skirts when in the paddock.

Evelyn was probably the better driver and she finished sixth in a one-hour race at Thompson that year to his ninth.

Lime Rock was her lucky track that year; she won an SCCA Regional race there in July and was second in a similar event later in the month. 1957 was one of her busiest years on-track and she competed most weekends between March and December, all across the Western part of the States.

She won another SCCA Regional race at Watkins Glen in 1958, from eighteen other drivers. The day before, she had been second in a Ladies’ race behind Suzy Dietrich in an Elva. Two more SCCA thirds at Lime Rock added to her podium tally.

Occasionally she competed outside America. In 1956 and 1957, she made the trip to the Bahamas for Nassau Speed Week. She was third in a Ladies’ race in 1956 and did better in 1957, coming seventh in the GT race and second in a Ladies’ race. The 1958 Speed Week was another rare occasion where she drove someone else’s car, using Don Fong’s Lotus Eleven in the ladies’ races.

The AC was sold during the summer of 1959. A newspaper report of the time joked about it being advertised as a car that had been owned by a grandmother and never been driven on the road. Evelyn did one more major race that year with Pinkie Windridge, finishing 22nd in the eight-hour “Little Le Mans” race at Lime Rock. They were driving an NSU Prinz.

After 1959, Evelyn stepped back from motorsport. The US sportscar scene was becoming professional and amateurs like her, however skilled, were being pushed out. Female drivers in particular were marginalised in favour of male pros and ladies’ races went into decline.

Away from the racetrack, Evelyn wrote a book about her fellow women on the US sportscar scene, Women In Sportscar Competition, published in 1958.


(Image from AC Owners’ Club website)

Julia Pankiewicz

Julia Pankiewicz is a Polish single-seater driver. She is most famous for racing alongside her identical twin, Wiktoria.

Julia and Wiktoria both came to prominence competing in Italy, in Formula 4. Twin female drivers have never before raced in such a championship, although they had previously competed against one another in Eastern European Junior Rotax. Julia was usually the faster driver.

Julia graduated from karting at the start of the 2015 season. She raced for the Swiss RB Racing team with Wiktoria. She had a best finish of fourteenth, achieved twice at Misano. Her final championship position was 33rd. She clinched the series’ women’s trophy after Wiktoria had to sit out the last rounds of the season, having suffered a serious accident at Adria. This was the end of the Pankiewicz twins as a sister act, although Julia continued her career.

In 2016, she did a few races in the Formula Renault Eurocup, as well as Formula Renault NEC. Her best result in the Eurocup was nineteenth at Aragon Motorland, one of three races she did there. She did slightly better in the NEC series, with a thirteenth at Hockenheim and 27th overall. Although she was not really competitive, she had a decent finishing record and was rarely last. Lando Norris was that year’s champion. 

Her 2017 season was based around the Eurocup, with only a couple of guest spots in the NEC series. Her best Eurocup result was fifteenth at Monza, and she was 30th overall. Her NEC races at Monza yielded the best results of her career: a seventh and tenth place.

Her team boss Mark Burdett described her as “a pleasure to work with” but her career petered out after 2017. She appears on the entry list for the 2018 Euroformula Open Winter Series, driving for the leading RP Motorsport team, but does not appear to have raced. 

(Image from www.motorsport.v10.pl)

Female Rally Drivers Around The World: Bulgaria

Diana Stoyanova in 2015

Women have been part of the rally scene in Bulgaria since the days of Communism and are still a strong presence now. The best-known Bulgarian female rally driver is multiple European ladies’ champion, Ekaterina Stratieva, who has her own post.

Elena Apostolova - Bulgaria’s leading female driver in the 1980s and early 1990s. As she was active during the Communist era, her cars were always VAZ Ladas. Her career began in 1972, driving a Trabant with her husband Stoyan. She competed in Bulgaria itself, including the Albena Rally which was a round of the ERC, and sometimes in Yugoslavia. Her best finish was probably a 25th place in the 1985 Rally Vida, also an ERC counter. Both of her daughters, Pavlina and Gergana, are involved in rallying. After her retirement, Elena began organising a women-only rally in Bulgaria. In recent years, she has returned to co-driving for Stoyan.

Gergana Apostolova - rallied in Europe in the 1990s. She is from a notable Bulgarian rally family and began her career as navigator to her father, Stoyan. This was a job she alternated with her sister, Pavlina. In 1996, she began driving herself, and competed in Germany. She was 59th in the ADAC 3-Städte Rally, driving a Suzuki Swift. In 1997, she drove a Ford Ka in the Monte Carlo Rally’s Prince Albert Challenge. Unusually, her navigator was her mother Elena, an experienced driver herself. They did not finish. “Geri’s” best overall result was 29th in the 1997 Rally Albena. Her car was a Nissan Sunny and Elena was co-driving once more. 

Victoria Garkova - Bulgarian driver who started competing around Eastern Europe in 2017. Her car is a Hyundai r20 Coupe and she contested the Hyundai Trophy, as well as the Romanian junior championship and a Turkish rally. In terms of major events, her best result has been a 27th place in the Rally of Bulgaria, assisted by Velislava Pavlova. Her best outright finish was 15th in the Tvardica-Elena Rally. She was fourth in the Hyundai Trophy standings.

Tsvetomira Georgieva - rallied a Renault Clio, mainly in her home country of Bulgaria. She began competing in major rallies in 2009, and posted top-twenty finishes from the beginning, with a fifteenth place in the Rally Trayanovi Vrata. She also finished her first rally abroad, the Prime Yalta Rally in Ukraine. In 2010, she was ninth in the Hebros Rally, and finished the Vida Rally in fourteenth. Her other events, including the Serbia Rally, ended in DNFs. In 2011, she only managed two major rallies, including the IRC-counting Prime Yalta Rally, which she did not finish due to mechanical problems. She was also twelfth in the Rally Stari Stolici. She did not compete after that, and died in early 2015, aged 33.

Maria Gocheva - rallied a Lada VAZ 2105 in Bulgarian rallies in the 1990s. She was most active in 1997, when she entered several rounds of the Bulgarian championship. Her best finish that year was eighteenth in the Rally Stari Stolici. Her programme included two European championship rounds: the Albena and Hebros rallies. She was beaten to the ladies’ award in the Albena event by her chief rival, Gergana Apostolova. 

Diana Stoyanova - Bulgarian driver who usually uses a Citroen Saxo VTS. Her first rally seems to have been a women-only event in 2007. She has been competing in national and international rallies in Bulgaria since 2010, including the Rally of Bulgaria itself in 2012, although she did not finish. The Hebros Rally has given her her best results so far: eleventh in 2010 and twelfth in 2011. In 2012, she did not finish any major events, although she entered at least three. In 2013, she was thirteenth in a Rallysprint event in Greece, driving the Citroen. In addition to rallying, Diana also competes in hillclimbs in the Citroen, and has concentrated on this in recent years. A return to the stages in 2016 gave her the Bulgarian ladies' title, driving a Saxo. She won her class on the Serbia Rally, and was fifteenth overall. In 2017, she only ran a limited programme in the Saxo, and did not retain her title. 2018 was a much better year; she was fourth in Rally Bulgaria and ninth in the Serbia Rally. Her car was a Honda Civic. Using the same car, she won her class in the 2019 Balkan Rally Trophy, picking up two top-ten finishes: eighth in the Serbia Rally and tenth in the Rally Sliven in Bulgaria. Making a small comeback in 2025, she was tenth in the Rally Dryanovo, driving a Civic.

(Image from www.dro4cars.com)

Maggie (Margaret) Anderson

Renault 5 ladies' race at Monaco

Maggie Anderson raced saloons in the 1970s. She was the first person to win a Renault 5 one-make race in the UK and raced the same car in Monte Carlo.

She came to prominence as part of John Webb’s Shellsport promotions in the mid-1970s. As she had been a professional hot-air balloonist, Webb was keen for someone of her background to get involved. Her first races were at the Brands Hatch racing school in 1973. This was then part of Webb’s operation. Maggie’s debut outings in a Ford Escort Mexico led to Driver of the Meeting awards and podium positions. Her first public event was a Shellsport Celebrity Escort race and she was fourth behind male drivers from other areas of motorsport, including Tony Lanfranchi and Bernard Unett.

Maggie did not just impress Webb with her interesting background. Her fast learning and early speed led to a test in a Shellsport Formula 5000 car in 1974, but a puncture meant the session was a short one. 

In 1974 and 1975, Maggie raced a Renault 5, backed by Elf. She won her second ever public event in the car, a one-make race at Brands Hatch. This was the first Renault 5 race ever held in the UK. The championship lasted for 30 years and was superseded by the Clio Cup. That year she finished runner-up in the British Renault 5 Trophy. 

She drove the 5 in an invitation-only ladies’ race at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1975, against eleven other women including eventual winner Marie-Claude Beaumont, Christine Beckers, Judy Witter, Gabriel Konig and Eeva Heinonen. Maggie was extremely aggressive in the opening laps and made up several places, but she outbraked herself at the chicane and went off-track.

Still backed by Elf, she also raced a Renault 17, in which she won the Ladies’ class of the Avon Tour of Britain, with Susan Tucker-Peake. They were 22nd overall. 

She became a regular in the BWRDC Ladies’ Shellsport Escort series after proving her mettle in other one-make series. This eventually led to her winning the Shellsport Ladies’ Escort Championship in 1977. 

Maggie’s career was short, lasting just four years. After her time in active competition ended, Maggie married Wilf Loynd and alongside him, worked as an organiser for the Tour of Mull rally for many years.

She came out of retirement for the 2004 Renault Festival at Thruxton, driving a 5 among past Renault 5 championship and race winners.

(Image from renault-5.net)

Camilla Antonsen

Camilla Antonsen is a rallycross driver who was the  winner of the North European Zone 4WD Championship in 2010. Her car was a Ford Fiesta ST. This was the first of two rallycross championships she has won.

Rallycross is the discipline for which she is best known, but she began with a mixture of autocross and rallying in the 1990s. Her first car was an Opel Corsa which she used in 1992 and 1993. 

Her first season as a rallycross driver appears to have been in 1998, when she entered the Norwegian series.

She continued to try out different motorsport opportunities in Norway. Between 2002 and 2004, she also made various starts in the Norwegian Touring Car championship, driving a Vauxhall Vectra. Her best results were two podiums in 2003, leading to a seventh place in the series. 

Her name first appears in the NEZ Rallycross entry lists in 2007, driving a Skoda Fabia. She was fourth overall in the Open class at Nysum in Denmark. At the same meeting the following year, she was third in the Open class but also raced a Vauxhall Astra in the Super 2000 class, finishing fourteenth. She later appeared at her home round in Norway and was fifth in Open, driving the Fabia. 

A switch to a Ford Focus brought her a debut NEZ Open class win in 2009, at her lucky Nysum circuit in Denmark. This was followed up in 2010 by another win at Vilkycial in Lithuania, driving a Ford Fiesta in the 4WD class. This was her first of two wins as she also came out on top at Riga, as well as a second place at Nysum.

In 2011, she was second in the NEZ 4WD championship, as well as taking part in the Scandinavian rounds of the European Championship and the top-level Norwegian series. She scored one NEZ win in Lithuania.

She won the renamed Supercar division of the 2012 Norwegian championship, in the Fiesta. This was a clean sweep of wins. She was also seventh in the NEZ 4WD championship after winning the Norwegian round. 

She switched to rallying in 2013, in a BMW M3. Rallying had been part of her motorsport schedule on and off since 2011, when she drove a Volvo in Norway and occasionally, Sweden. The Volvo had been in her possession since about 1999.

The BMW was another car that she returned to over and over again between 2013 and 2019. In 2014, she scored her first top twenty finish, coming 19th in the Numedalsrally. Later, the M3 proved very suited to rallysprint events. The Gardemosprinten in Norway was her best event; she was eleventh in 2017 and runner-up in 2019. This came in the same year as a fifth place in the Mjavannsprinten and sixth in the Kongsvinger Rallysprint.

She rallied a couple of other cars during this time, including a Renault Twingo in 2014 and a Subaru Impreza in 2017, although she was not as successful as she was in her BMW.

Rallycross had not been forgotten either. In 2014, she raced a Ford Fiesta in the European championship for part of the year, in the Touring Car class. She won one round at Buxtehude in Germany. This was the first win for a woman driver in the Touring class and only the second-ever female European rallycross win ever, after Susann Bergvall in 1994.

She was back in the European rallycross championship for 2015, in the Fiesta. Her best finish was sixth in Belgium and she was eleventh in the championship. 

Her 2016 season in the ERC Touring class was an indifferent one and her Fiesta looks to have been sold at the end of the year. She switched to a newer Citroen DS3 for 2017 but was only able to enter the Norwegian round of the ERC. Another new car in 2018, an Audi A1 this time, was a more successful substitution. She was fifth in the ERC Touring championship , with a best finish of fourth in Sweden.

She did not compete in the 2019 ERC and concentrated on rallying the BMW. Her 2020 plans were sent into disarray, thanks to the worldwide disruption of motorsport in 2020 by the coronavirus epidemic, but she did manage the Grimstad Rally in Norway in her BMW. She and co-driver Anniken Storsveen were 22nd overall.

In 2021 she did two rallies in the BMW, including a sixth place in the Kongsvinger Rallysprint, and one in a Volvo 940, the Rally Finnskog. Her first rally of 2022 was also in the Volvo. Apart from the Rally Larvik, she used the Volvo all year, earning a best finish of 16th in the Rally Trogstad. Her co-driver was Anniken Storsveen.

The same car, co-driver and driver combination came ninth in the 2023 Trogstad Rally.

She rallied both the Volvo and the BMW in 2024. The BMW gave her her best result, seventh in the Rally Grimstad Sydsprinten. The Volvo was her favoured car in 2025, although the BMW was quicker again. She drove it to 13th place in the Ruglandsprinten.