Lucy Block

Lucy Block (born Lucy Jones) is an American driver who competes in rallying and other off-road disciplines. She is best-known for being the widow of WRC driver and Gymkhana creator, Ken Block and the mother of Lia Block, but she has enjoyed a good career in her own right.

She first rallied in America between 2009 and 2013, initially as a co-driver to Chrissie Beavis. Her first rally as a driver was the Middle Cog rally in 2009, swapping seats with Christine. Her car was a VW Golf. 

She took the wheel again in 2010, driving a Mazda3 in the Mexico Rally and finishing 17^th. She was also 19^th in the LLCote Rally. 

A break from competition followed while she had her third child, son Mika, but she returned in 2013. This time she was in a Ford Fiesta R2, the first of a series of Fords she would drive for the next ten years. Her best results were two fourteenth places, in the Maine and New Hampshire Rallies. 

She did not compete in 2014, but she reappeared in 2015, driving a Ford Fiesta. Her best finish was eleventh, in the New Hampshire Rally. 

After only making occasional appearances for several years, she committed to her first championship in 2018. She contested the ARA rally series in the States and earned her first top-ten finish in the New England Forest Rally. Her car was a Fiesta R2T and she and co-driver Krista Skucas were fourteenth in the final standings. 

In 2019, she only had one outing, driving the Fiesta in the 100 Acre Wood Rally. She was 24th overall. 

Driving the same car again, she did three rallies in 2021,with a best finish of fourteenth in the Cooper Tire Oregan Trail Rally. 

A fuller ARA competition season followed in 2022, driving a Rally3-spec Fiesta. This year, she was challenging much more for overall positions and her results included three top-tens. Her best finish was sixth in the Ojibwe Forests Rally and she was ninth in the championship. 

Another full season in the Fiesta brought three ninth places in 2023: in the New England Forest Rally, the Oregon Trail and the Olympus Rally. For part of the season, she was competing against her daughter Lia. Her co-driver was Alex Gelsomino, who previously co-drove for her husband Ken. Another highlight that year was her debut run in the Pikes Peak hillclimb, driving an electric Hypercraft Sierra Echo buggy. She was tenth in her class. This was a tribute to Ken, who had died in a snowmobile accident earlier in the year.

She did two rallysprint events in 2024, driving a Ford Fiesta in the Lost Pines rally and a Can-Am Maverick in Rally Austin Rallysprint. The Maverick came out for the Utah Motorsports Campus round of the 2024-2025 Nitrocross championship, where Lucy was tenth overall, fifth in her semi-final. She also competed in the BajaBugs category in a VW Beetle. This Utah track is her home circuit.

She used the Fiesta again in 2025, finishing fourth in the Rally Ranch Classic RallySprint.

Lucy, Lia, daughter Kira and son Mika all compete for their family team, Block House Racing, of which Lucy is the principal. Away from motorsport, she runs a catering company. 

(Image coypright Kevin Scott Batchelor/Popular Mechanics)

Lia Block

Lia Block is an American rally and off-road driver who has also spent time racing single-seaters. 

She began her career very early, entering her first rally not long after her 15th birthday. This wasn't event her motorsport debut: she had already tried out drag racing aged fourteen and was one of the youngest drivers ever to be granted an NHRA license. The rally was the Oregon Trail; which she managed most of the first leg before her "Hoonigan" Ford Fiesta R2 succumbed to engine problems. Still with co-driver James Matthew and a different Fiesta, she fared better in her first full season in 2022. By June, she was into the top ten, securing ninth place in the Southern Ohio Forest Rally. This was one of two top-tens that year, the second being another ninth in the Susquehannock Trail Rally. She was twelfth in the ARA championship and fifth in the 2WD class.

Top-ten finishes became the norm for her in the 2023 ARA series. She was driving a Subaru BRZ which seemed to suit her. Her best finish was fourth in the Oregon Trail Rally and she won the 2WD class in all but one of the rallies she finished, leading her to the ARA Open 2WD championship. At 16, she was the youngest champion in ARA history. She was fourth in the main championship. The only real disappointment that year was a non-finish in the Lake Superior Performance Memorial Rally, where she was trying out a Ford Escort Cosworth. 

Her ARA performances had begun to draw attention and 2023 was a busy year for her. In July, she was signed by Carl Cox Motorsport to replace Christine GZ in their Extreme E team. She joined Timo Scheider for the Sardinia and Chile races, earning a best finish of fifth in Sardinia. She was fourteenth in the championship.

She had already been running a dual campaign in the Nitrocross rallycross series in the States, driving for the Swedish OMSE team in the NEXT class. After a part-season, she was fifth in the NEXT championship, not helped by two disqualifications at MidAmerica and Utah, for rejoining the main circuit unsafely. She had won the Utah race. Her best recorded finishes of the year were two second places at Wild Horse Motorsports Park and Glen Helen. At the end of her 2023-2024 season, she was offered Travis Pastrana's car for the Group E races at Glen Helen. This is the highest level of Nitrocross. She was eighth in her race.

After this year, her career began to take multiple directions at the same time. She drove for the Dreyer & Reinbold team in the shortened 2024-2025 Nitrocross season, again in Group E. She was eighth this time after four rounds, with Utah being her best circuit. She was fifth.

Rallying had been put to one side for the moment. She only did one ARA event in 2024, the Lake Superior Performance Rally. She and navigator Keaton Williams had been running in third place and had won their last completed stage when they crashed out in their Subaru. 

Late in 2023, she had made the surprise announcement that she would be moving into single-seater racing, despite having little circuit experience. She was signed up for the 2024 F1 Academy season, driving for ART Grand Prix as the Williams supported entry. As prep, she did the Spanish-based Formula Winter Series with GRS. This was very much a learning experience and her highest finish was a 25th place at Ricardo Tormo.

Her first F1 Academy year was also a tough one, with several races affected by mishaps and unavoidable contact with other drivers. Her home races in Miami were a case in point and she could only manage 15th and tenth. Her best finishes were two fourth places in Singapore, and she was eighth overall.

Her second F1 Academy season had more high points. She won her first race at Singapore mid-season after keeping her lead in the reverse grid race, having started from pole. This came off the back of her first podium at Zandvoort. She had overtaken Tina Hausmann for second place, behind Nina Gademan. Both times, the second race was nowhere near as good for her, and she received a penalty at Zandvoort for starting from the wrong grid position after Chloe Chambers pulled out. She was ninth in the championship after a very up and down season.

Another big moment for her in 2025 was when she was asked to drive an ex-Keke Rosberg 1982 Williams Formula One car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Her two-year term in F1 Academy came to an end then and she decided to leave single-seaters and return to rallying. She had done one event in 2025, the Boone Forest Rally in a Ford Fiesta, finishing third overall and winning her class. It was time to get back out.

Her first rally of 2026 was in the Fiesta, in Rally3 spec. She and new co-driver Alessandro Gelsomino were excluded from the Snodrift Rally's Powerstage for receiving outside assistance, having led at the time. Lia decided to switch to a more powerful Rally2 car, a Hyundai i20, and was immediately fourth in the 100 Acre Wood Rally. This improved to third in the Olympus Rally and a close second in the Southern Ohio Forest Rally. She is also returning to rallycross in 2026.

She is the daughter of the late Ken Block, of Gymkhana fame. Her mother Lucy, sister Kira and brother Mika also compete in rallying.

(Image from rallyx.se)

Carla Costa

Carla and Barbara Costa

Carla Costa is a Portuguese driver from the Azores, Portuguese-administered islands in the Atlantic.

Her career began as far back as 1998 and her first car was a Renault 4, an unlikely rally car. Nevertheless, she used it between 1998 and 2002, before replacing it with a sportier Citroen AX.

It was in 2005 that she started competing regularly, using a 1200cc Renault Clio. Co-driven by Elisabete Nunes, she won her class in two events: the Rali FM Ilha Azul and the Alem Mar Ilha Lilas rally. 

The first part of her career ends here. She did not compete again for ten years, but made her return in 2015, entering the Azores Ladies' Trophy, a women-only rally series with its own events. Her car was a Citroen Saxo and her co-driver was her daughter, Barbara. They won the last event of the championship, the Especial Sprint da Riviera, outright, after third places in the two previous rounds. This was enough to secure her the ladies' championship title.

She competed in the Ladies’ Trophy again in 2016, and won the first two rounds, the Rali Regional Vila Nova and the Rali Praia da Vittoria. A retirement in the third round dropped her to third in the championship. Her car was a Renault Clio.

Her navigator since that year was still her daughter, and the pair continued to rally together for the first couple of events in 2017. With Rul Avila, Carla won two "Ladies & Veterans" rallies outright in the 2017 Azores championship. She was driving the Clio.

She was back in mixed competition in 2018, still in the Clio. She earned two top-twenty finishes in the Sical and Ilha Graciosa rallies.

In 2019, she was second in the Azores ladies' championship, first in the asphalt series, with a best finish of 22nd in the Acoreana Rali. This year, she had several different co-drivers, the most frequent being Lisandra Inacio.

After a year off during the first part of the worldwide coronavirus crisis, she returned to the stages for the 2021 PicoWines Rali, finishing 26th. This was followed up by another win in the 2022 Azores Ladies' championship and had a best finish of eighth in the Rali Ilha Graciosa, driving a Renault Clio.

She was very active again in the Clio in 2023, finishing thirteenth in the Azores championship and scoring another eighth spot in the Ilha Graciosa Rally.

Another Azores championship season proceeded in 2024, including a sixth place in Especial Sprint Motorshow. She ended the year Azores ladies' champion again and was 16th in the championship.

Her son Diogo and husband Joao have both competed as co-drivers and drivers. In 2024, Carla, Joao and Diogo all drove in the Rali Alem Mar - Ilha Lilas event. Joao was 20th, Carla was 30th and Diogo crashed out.

Susann Bergvall (Hansen)

Susann Bergvall is a Swedish rallycross driver who is still the only woman to win an FIA-sanctioned rallycross title.

She is mainly known for her successes in the 1400cc class of the European Championship in the 1990s, after several years of running on a very low budget. She had begun her career in folkrace at the age of 18, driving a Volvo, before switching to rallycross in a Volvo 240. 

A couple of years in Swedish championships followed, including a run in a women-only category in 1988. She was not even able to afford wet tyres for some events and mostly competed for fun. This changed when she joined forces with Kenneth Hansen in 1990. They ran their team together, with both of them competing, and gained significant support. In 1993, they were approached by Citroen to run their works cars and Susann found herself with a really competitive car for the first time.

Her title win came in 1994, driving a Citroen AX Sport. She won three rounds outright at Lousada (Portugal), Lyngas in Norway and Estering in Germany. Her nearest rival, Manfred Beck, only finished fifth at Estering, which secured her the championship.

In 1995, she was fifth in the European 1400 Cup, driving two different AX models for the Hansen team. This was her last season of racing. 

After that, she left active competition, but stayed involved in rallycross through management within the Hansen team. She introduced them to working with data logging, a role she still carries out, but which was quite a new concept in 1995.

She and Hansen married and rallycross drivers Timmy and Kevin Hansen are their sons. Timmy was nearly two when Susann won her European title.

(Image copyright Hansen World RX Team)

Bridget Burgess

 

Bridget Burgess is an Australian stock car driver who lives and competes in the USA. 

The Burgess family moved to the States in 2008, when Bridget was seven. Both of her parents were involved in off-road racing and drifting and she grew up working on cars.

She raced in the Lucas Oil Off-Road series from the age of 16, alongside her mother Sarah, before switching to stock cars in 2019. Sarah Burgess remains integral to her daughter’s racing efforts, acting as car entrant and crew chief. The team, BMI Racing, is family-based, with Bridget’s father Adam spotting for her. Sarah is often Bridget’s chief (or only) mechanic during races too.

In her first year, she did two rounds of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series at Meridian and Roseville. Both times, she made her way up from the back of the grid. She was eleventh at Roseville and twelfth at Meridian. This was in spite of her car being an unreliable rented machine.

In 2020, she attempted to run in the ARCA Menards West series, although her season was curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic. She did not finish the first round at Las Vegas due to a broken rear gear. In the end, she managed nine races, with a best finish of seventh at Las Vegas.  

She did all rounds of the West series in 2021, driving a Chevrolet entered by her mother. The nine races yielded another two top-tens: eighth at Sonoma and ninth at Colorado.

The BMI team registered for a full season in the West series in 2022 and Bridget had a reliable but slightly inconsistent year. Things started to get going in the fourth round at Portland, where she was seventh, the first of four top-ten finishes. She was seventh in the championship. A single main ARCA series outing at Phoenix led to a 23rd place.

(Image copyright Meg Oliphant/ARCA)

Alexandra Hammersley

 

Peugeot 203 in rally trim

Alexandra Hammersley was a French driver who entered both races and rallies. Her British name came from her husband, who was also a rally driver.

She was a regular in rallies in France and Europe in the 1950s, often with her daughter, Genevieve, as her navigator. 

In 1950, she co-drove for her husband in the Liège-Rome-Liège Rally. She entered the event for the first time in 1951, sharing a Peugeot with Ginette Francois-Sigrande.

Genevieve first joins her mother later that year. In 1951, they were 40th in the Tour de France, driving a Peugeot 203. In the 1952 Tour, they were 50th. 

They entered the 1953 Monte Carlo Rally together, but retired shortly after the start when Genevieve Hammersley was hit by a bicycle. They had arrived on time from their start point at Lisbon but the accident happened at Cannes, not far away. Genevieve was taken to hospital.

The same year, they were 19th overall in the ADAC-Rallye Travemunde and second in the Paris-St. Raphaël, driving a Lancia Aurelia. This was her second go at the women-only rally, having finished sixth in the Peugeot in 1951. 

An outing in the Aurelia for the Alpine Rally ended in retirement. Driving the Peugeot 203, the mother-daughter team finished 72nd in the Tulip Rally, starting from Paris.

In 1951, Alexandra was also sixth in the Bol d’Or endurance race in Paris, driving a Peugeot 1.5. She only raced occasionally on circuits.

She disappears from the entry lists after 1953. Other than the accident to Genevieve, Alexandra’s career went largely unremarked-upon in the French press. Her origins and later life are a mystery and no photos of her have come to light.

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)

Jonna Eson Brådhe

Jonna Eson Brådhe is a Swedish rally driver active since 2010. She is the third generation of female drivers in her family, after her grandmother Margot and mother Liz.

She started as a teenager navigating for her father Johnny, and began rallying a VW Golf in youth events in 2010, aged 16. 

In 2011, she was Sweden’s top female youth rally driver. Her co-driver was her mother.

She earned her driving license in 2012, and used it to enter Swedish club rallies in a Peugeot 309, with mixed results. The Peugeot was soon replaced by a Subaru Impreza, which was faster, and scored her some decent positions in the Class C Cup. This was a welcome diversion from her roll on the Kolsva Rally in the Peugeot; she had been on course for ladies’ award when she crashed.

She got the hang of the 309 in 2013 and finished her first Swedish championship rallies. Her best finish was 54th place in the East Swedish Rally and she also finished the Uppsala Rally. It was this year that she came to the attention of Uppsala Rally winner Ramona Karlsson, who recruited her into her female driver training programme alongside six others. This lasted for a couple of seasons.

Later, she had her first taste of WRC power, albeit as a co-driver,  in a Skoda Octavia, in which she and Nils Jensen were 17th in the Fixussprinten  rally. 

Jonna became more consistent in the 309 through 2014, picking up more Swedish Championship finishes in the Uppsala and South Sweden events. This was her last year with this particular car.

In 2015, she travelled to the Middle East for the FIA Women in Motorsport Qatar Desert Challenge, competing against other elite female drivers for a spot in the Sealine Desert Challenge. She was not one of the winners. Back in Sweden, she had a new car, a Ford Fiesta which she used for the Swedish Junior Championship. She was ninth in her class at the end of the year and her best finish was probably a 46th place in the Rally Uppsala, out of 64 drivers.

Her second season in the Fiesta brought her mixed results. Her first rally of the year, the Rally Bilmetro, ended early due to a lost wheel and a broken driveshaft put her out of the LBC-Ruschen. In between, she was 34th in the Ostersund Winter Rally and secured her best-ever career finish, 21st in the Rally Gotland. Her preferred South Swedish Rally was the scene of a career-best 33rd in a Swedish Championship event before the car was updated to an R2-spec machine. Her best result in it was a 22nd place in the Violenrallyt.

Her car for 2017 was a Peugeot 208, another R2 car. She was sixth in her class in the European Rally Trophy championship, with a best finish of 27th, in the East Sweden Rally. She also won her class in the SM Vaakuna Rally, in Finland. This was her first overseas event, the first of two rallies in Finland that year. The second was the Real Park Lake City Rally, in which she was 48th.

In 2018, she entered her first Rally Sweden in the 208, finishing 47th. This was her first World Championship rally. She also competed in Germany, taking part in the International Lausitz Rally and coming in 49th under Superrally rules. She was third in the OT2WD class of the Swedish championship at the end of the year, winning 10,000 krona. 

She continued to compete in Sweden in 2019, still driving the 208. Her best finish was a 20th place in the Rikspokalen rally, from 167 finishers.

Despite restrictions on rallying due to coronavirus in 2020, Jonna remained busy, driving an R5 Mitsubishi Mirage. She was fifth in the Rally Sweden Lockdown, behind Mattias Ekstrom. Her best result was a third place in the Backeforssnurren event, a sprint rally. Mid-season, she was fourth in the Kvallsrallyt.

In 2021 she continued to perform well in the Mirage. She was fourth in the JR Motorsport Pokalen, winning her class, then was fourth again in the Gastabudstrofen Light. In August, she entered the Rally Killingen, a round of the Swedish championship. She finished 36th out of 94, fifth in class.

Another year in the Mirage was mostly spent in rallysprint events, with considerable success. She was sixth in both the Skilling 5 and Karlskronapokalen, both gravel rallies. These were two of five top-ten finishes she earned in 2022. Her only international trip was to Germany for the Lausitz Rally, where she was eleventh and won her class. 

She mostly stayed within Sweden in the Mirage in 2023. Her best result was a second place in the Bjorn Waldegards Minne, a gravel rallysprint with 88 finishers. In September, she did one Finnish rally: the SM Ralli Kokkola. She and co-driver Jesper Samuelsson had an off and did not finish.

2024 was a mixed year, marred by a non-qualification for the SM Veckan Sprint Rally, going over the time limit at the LBC-Ruschen event and crashing out of the Rally Nykoping, but she also had some great finishes in the Mirage. She was second in the Hasselasvangen snow rally, from 40 finishers. Later in the year, she was third in the Lovdansen gravel event, from 70 finishers.

Her one trip to Finland in 2025 gave her and the Mirage their best result: a tenth place in the Royal Rally of Scandinavia. This gravel rally had a huge rate of attrition, but Jonna stayed out of trouble. Her best Finnish rally was the SM OK Auto-Ralli, where she was 22nd and won her class. 

(Image copyright svtplay.se)

May Cunliffe

May Cunliffe was particularly known for her exploits in a Sunbeam or a Bentley on sand in the 1920s.

Born in 1906, she was only sixteen when she first drove at speed. Her father Alfred and older brother Jack were already involved in speed trials and May was soon joining in, using the family’s 3000cc Bentley.

The Bentley was a standard road-going model that the Cunliffes always drove to the circuit and back. She won her class at the 1926 Southport Speed Trials in this car, over a kilometre from a standing start. 

Later on, May wanted more power and became the first driver to own a factory-modified, supercharged Bentley in 1926. This 3000cc car, originally built as a normally-aspirated model in 1923, was the precursor to the more famous Birkin “Blower” Bentleys that raced at Le Mans. May won her class in this car at Shelsley Walsh and the Southport Speed Trials.

Her next car arrived in 1928, another supercharged model. It was a 2000cc Sunbeam built in 1924.

The first part of her career ended that year, when she was involved in a serious accident at the Southport 100 Mile race on the beach. She was part of a battle for the lead with Raymond Mays’ Vauxhall-Villiers when the Sunbeam, travelling at about 100mph, became bogged down in ruts created by previous contestants in the sand, causing it to flip over and land on top of its crew. May was injured but her father, who was acting as her riding mechanic, was killed. 

Not long after the accident, she married Harry Millington and had her son in 1932. Unable to leave the sport behind, she began sharing a Frazer Nash with Philip Jucker in 1935, racing at Donington and Shelsley. Jucker replaced the Frazer Nash with an Alta in 1936 and May raced this car too. An accident that ensued at Shelsley in the Alta spelled another temporary end to her career; the throttle got stuck open, propelling her through a barbed-wire fence and leaving her with facial injuries.

It was a long time before she got back behind the wheel again, but she did make another comeback in 1953, racing a Cooper-Norton in the Brighton Speed Trials. She shared the car with Stuart Lewis-Evans. 

May’s son Tim inherited his parents’ love of speed and in turn, passed it on to his own son.

She died in 1976.

Susanne Kottulinsky

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She died in March 2025, aged 64.

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

Monique Proulx

Monique with the BMW 2002

Monique Proulx was a Québécois driver who raced mostly in Canada in the 1970s.

She was born in 1947, and had a rather shaky start in life, contracting polio at the age of three, which meant that she had difficulty walking until she was a teenager. Initially, she worked as a teacher. This came to a temporary halt at the end of 1965, when she found herself with a baby son, Stéphane. As a single mother, she continued to work, but now as a model and actress. In 1971, she appeared in several Canadian TV adverts, including one for tights. She also owned a local chain of beauty salons.

She began racing in 1971, after becoming romantically involved with Jacques Fortin, who raced at club level. They shared a BMW 2002, and Monique also raced a Datsun 240Z. She started out in novice races, and often made the podium. She finished as runner-up in a Canadian Production endurance championship in the Datsun. Her start in motorsport apparently followed a court battle with the Canadian Auto Sports Club, which had vetoed her international license being awarded. Early in her career, she had a female rival, Louise Roberge. The press were keen to publicise their apparent dislike of one another.

In 1972, she bought her first single-seater, a second-hand 1600cc Formula Ford. This car was far more expensive to run than the BMW, so she continued to share her boyfriend’s car, making only a few appearances. In the BMW, she was eighth in the Sanair Trans-Am race.

Another run in the Sanair Trans-Am race in 1973, in the same car, led to a fourteenth place. She was the top Canadian finisher.

After some Formula Ford and Formula Vee races, she raised her single-seater game in 1974, and took the step up to Formula Atlantic. In her first season, she became the first woman to qualify for a race at the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, although it was a support race, rather than Formula One. This year, she raced Alan Karlberg’s car, with sponsorship from Kimberly-Clark.

Back in a saloon, she was the first, and still the only, woman to win a mixed race at Catamount Speedway. She was racing in Ministocks.

She competed in Formula Atlantic between 1974 and 1979, once scoring a pole position in 1976. Due to sponsorship pressures, she did not complete as full season during this time. In 1975, she was sponsored by New Freedom, a new brand of sanitary towels, which was somewhat shocking in the male-dominated world of motor racing. Driver and commentator David Hobbs is meant to have joked, “I’m only worried it will rain and the damn car will swell and not get between the guardrails!” 

Monique was quite successful in getting innovative sponsorship deals, albeit short-term ones. She was apparently the first female driver to be sponsored by a tobacco company, although the details of this are proving hard to find. This was probably due to her TV work, which included acting, stunts and being a “traffic girl” in a helicopter. In 1976, she appeared on the Canadian version of “Superstars”, but was not among the leading sportswomen.

Later, she also raced a Chevrolet Camaro. In 1979, she did at least one race in Trans-Am, at Trois-Rivières, finishing eighteenth.

Her son, Stéphane, was also a racing driver. She retired from the circuits in 1980, in order to support him in his own racing activities. He was a contemporary of Jacques Villeneuve and was tipped as one to watch. He died in 1993, from head injuries complicated by advanced HIV.

Monique died in 2012, aged 65.

(Image from http://www.catamountstadium.com/mini_stock_competitors.htm)

Racing Mothers

Stirling Moss with his parents, Aileen and Alfred.

There are many examples of fathers and sons racing: Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve, or Graham and Damon Hill spring to mind. However, there are also mothers who passed their love of speed onto their sons and daughters. Here are some of them.

Melanie Snow - became the first mother to race alongside her own son in major sportscar races in the US. She and her son Madison, who was only sixteen at the time, both won their respective classes in the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge in May 2012. They were in two different Porsche 911s. In 2013, they joined forces for the Daytona 24 Hours. Alongside Sascha Maassen, Marko Seefried and Klaus Bachler, they were 19th overall, 11th in class. Their car was a Porsche 887 GT3 Cup. Melanie’s son Mckay, Madison’s brother, is a karter and member of the family team.

Lieve Thiron - more than ten years earlier than Melanie Snow, Lieve drove a Porsche 996 GT3 in the 2001 Zolder 24 Hours with her son, Mathieu Geerinckx. Her husband, Mathieu’s father Dirk Geerinckx, was also part of the team. They were thirteenth. Lieve and Mathieu competed together occasionally until 2003, when she retired. Their best result together was tenth, in the 2002 Zolder 24 Hours.

Micki Chittenden - Micki is a member of the Vandervell family, who raced saloons in the 1970s, often in BWRDC-associated events. Her daughters are Tiffany Chittenden and Tamsin Germain, who are both karters. Tiffany is the more successful of the two, and has also done some single-seater racing in the UK and New Zealand.

Aileen Moss - drove a Marendaz, mostly in rallies and trials, in the 1930s. She was married to Alfred Moss, who drove in the 1924 Indianapolis 500. Her children are more famous: Formula One driver Sir Stirling Moss, one of the most successful drivers never to be world champion, and Pat Moss-Carlsson, multiple rally winner in the 1960s.

Elsie “Bill” Wisdom - Brooklands race-winner and rally driver, Elsie Wisdom, was mother to Ann Wisdom, who is best-known for being Pat Moss-Carlsson’s navigator in the early part of her career. After her marriage to Peter Riley, Ann occasionally navigated for him, too.

Judy Lyons - competes in historic Formula One in the UK against both her stepson, Michael, and her husband, Frank.

Monique Proulx - raced in single-seaters up to Formula Atlantic level in Canada in the 1970s, as well as sportscars, including a Chevrolet Camaro, in Trans-Am events. Her son, Stephane, was a promising single-seater driver, a rival to Jacques Villeneuve as Canada’s next Formula One hope. He died in 1987 from racing injuries. He also had HIV and was in poor health at the time.

Alexandra Hammersley - rally driver of the 1950s, who used a Peugeot 203 and a Lancia Aurelia, among others. Her daughter, Genevieve Hammersley, was a rally navigator. Unusually, she read the maps for her own mother.

(Picture from http://www.perbeer.dk/quiz/quiz3.htm)