Danica Patrick is the latest in a line of female racing drivers that can be traced back to the sport's earliest days.
Danica Patrick’s historic maiden win in the IndyCar Series has ignited huge public interest, but the American is not the first female driver to taste success. Throughout the history of motor racing a select few have competed, and won, at the highest levels of the sport.
America itself has produced some memorable female racers. In the seventies Janet Guthrie became the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis and Daytona 500 mile races. In 2003 Sarah Fisher became the first female driver to win pole position for an IRL race. She also became the first woman to finish in a podium position at an IRL event. In drag racing Shirley Muldowney won three National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Top Fuel titles. In the years following World War Two Louise Smith won a total of 38 stock car races.
Europe has also produced its share of female drivers. At the Brooklands circuit in England several women competed in the early part of the last century. On the international stage Hélène Delangle and Eliška Junková were both well known drivers. Delangle raced under the pseudonym of Hellé Nice. The young and beautiful French dancer became a media darling. Junkova also raced under a different name, Elizabeth Junek, and was a real talent. Among the Czechoslovakian’s achievements was a strong showing in the Targa Florio and a class win at the daunting Nurburgring. She retired in 1928 following the death of her racing driver husband in the German Grand Prix.
During the fifties Maria Teresa de Filippis became the first female driver to compete in Formula 1. Although she only drove in five championship Grands Prix she was good enough to drive for the Maserati works team. Divina Galicia, Desire Wilson and Lella Lombardi all competed in Formula 1 during the seventies. The latter became the first, and so far only, female driver to score a World Championship point.Since then only one other woman has entered Grand Prix racing. Giovanna Amati drove for Brabham in 1992 but failed to qualify for any races.
Rallying has provided rather more success for female drivers. Louise Aitken-Walker MBE was highly successful in the sport, winning a national championship and being inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame. The undoubted queen of female racing drivers is Michelle Mouton. Driving for Audi she managed to tame the awesome Group B Quattro and became the first woman to win a World Rally Championship (WRC) round. In 1982 she may well have won the championship outright had it not been for poor reliability.
Current female star Danica Patrick will be hoping to accomplish even more than those who have gone before her. Her next aim will be victory in the Indianapolis 500, a race she came close to winning in 2005.
SOURCES:
'The Bugatti Queen' - Miranda Seymour
'The Observer'
'Motor Sport'
The Nostalgia Forum
