Bremont Terra Nova — how adventure watch survived our test to ‘the end of the world’

Where do you begin when you are interviewing a man who has started 322 Formula 1 grands prix, who has won 11 of them, who has stood on 68 F1 grand prix podiums, who has bagged 14 F1 grand prix pole positions, who has driven 17 F1 grand prix fastest laps – much of that magnum opus compiled in Ferraris – yet who, even now, is still racing and indeed still winning? That’s right: in August of this year, at the wheel of a Ford Mustang, 53-year-old Rubens Barrichello won the NASCAR Brazil championship, and, more remarkable still, he did so at his first attempt.

Although he retired from F1 in 2011, he has never stopped racing. In 2012 he dipped a toe into IndyCar – briefly – then he embarked on a career in Brazilian Stock Car Pro, which championship he has won twice, in 2014 and 2022, and in which series he continues to race to this day. So where do you start when your interviewee has done so much, so well, over such a long time? There is only one answer: at the beginning. “What are your earliest memories of motor sport?” I venture.

Rubens Barrichello Brazilian NASCAR Velo Città — Rubens Barrichello is still racing and still winning; he was crowned Brazilian NASCAR champion at Velo Città in August.

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“I lived the first 20 years of my life in Interlagos,” he says, smiling via video call from a visibly comfy house, which is in a significantly posher suburb of São Paulo than Interlagos. “I was born in Interlagos – and I think that if you live in Interlagos the chances are that you’re probably going to race a car, or at least a go-kart, at some point. But, before I ever did that, I used to ride my bicycle to my grandma’s place, and she lived right beside the circuit. Her house had the best view you could get, right between Turns 1 and 2 of the old Interlagos.

“So I used to watch the cars going round and round and round, from my grandma’s place, and my dreams were inspired by that early experience. And my uncle, Darcio dos Santos, who was a racing driver [and more recently a race team owner], a very good one actually, a Brazilian champion, was driving in Formula Vee back then, and every time he drove out of the pits he would look up at my grandma’s window and give me a wave if I was there.

“My dream was: I want to do that. Then, when I was six years old, my grandpa gave me a kart of my own, and then my dream became: I want to do Formula 1. And, to make that possible, not only my dream but also my obsession then became: I want to develop as a racing driver. And, you know, I’m jumping forward many years now, sorry, but when I first started racing in F1, in 1993, the second grand prix I did was at Interlagos. The circuit was different from how it had been when I was a boy, and a grandstand had been built between the track and my grandma’s house, but I could still just about see her house from my Jordan F1 car, and I could still remember the six-year-old boy I’d been, who’d dreamed big. And now I was living that dream.”

Rubens Barrichello and Ayrton Senna Imola, 1994 — Barrichello with Ayrton Senna, Imola, 1994

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“That’s an extraordinary story – and an inspirational one, too,” I reply, but my interlocutor is already in full flow and he does not need another question to trigger further reminiscences: “Because of the layout of the old Interlagos, I could see almost the whole circuit from my grandma’s house. I could see almost everything. I remember so well the 1980 Brazilian Grand Prix, when I would have been seven. I was watching all those beautiful F1 cars, and I have a particular memory of Mario Andretti’s Essex-sponsored Lotus 81, because he spun off after just one lap right in front of me, and I said to my grandma, ‘Let me climb down and touch that car,’ but she wouldn’t allow it.

“Then, when I started karting, my father used to take me to the circuits, and straight away I had a good feeling for what my kart was doing. I used to come back to the pits and say to my father, ‘Look, Dad, it’s misfiring at the first stage of the throttle opening,’ but he wouldn’t believe that a little kid could be sensitive to something as subtle as that, so he’d pretend to adjust something, but actually do nothing, then tell me he’d fixed it, and I’d go out again then come back in and say, ‘Dad, nothing’s different, it’s still misfiring.’ He was amazed. I’ve always had that special sense for what a race car is doing – and, when I got to F1, super-experienced engineers like Gary Anderson [at Jordan] and Ross Brawn [at Ferrari and Brawn] used to say, ‘Rubens is a superstar at setting up the car.’ And I had that from the very beginning.

“Ayrton was always very kind to me. He was like a big brother”

“From early on I kind of became part of my kart, part of its movement, at one with its tyres, dampers and suspension, and I always wanted to save the tyres, because my father didn’t have enough money to buy new ones. That made me a driver who never wanted to slide a kart – or, later, a car. I wanted to drive on the limit, not over it, and keep everything straight. And I won five Brazilian karting championships, first as a kid then as a teenager, and one of my rivals was Christian Fittipaldi, and beating someone from that famous Brazilian racing family made a lot of people pay attention. I still enjoy karting now. I qualified this year to race in the masters section of the Karting World Championship in Bahrain. I love it all. I always have. For example, when I was just four, I was taken by my father to watch my uncle race his kart, and one of the other karters in that race was Ayrton Senna da Silva. Ayrton was leading, but he was taken out by another karter. And Ayrton sat in his kart by the side of the track and waited for the guy to come round again, and, when he did, he took the guy out, and after that it was a mess, like a boxing ring. Then Ayrton started to do well, really well, in Europe, and we used to read about him back home. Then when I got to England, later, I bought or rented every VHS tape of his races that I could find, all the races he’d done before F1, and I watched every minute of all of them.

Eddie Jordan and Rubens Barrichello — flanked by Gary Anderson and Eddie Jordan in Barcelona, 1993

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“Ayrton was always very kind to me. He was like a big brother to me, because he knew I didn’t have a lot of money, so he always did his best to help me. He introduced me to people. He did whatever he could. But he was a hero as well as a big brother. I always used to watch his hands in the videos I’d bought or rented. The way he drove – wow! – I was just in love with that. So, yes, from early on, he had a very big impact on my career.”

Now seems like an opportune moment to move our conversation on to F1 – after all, we have 322 grands prix to consider. Rubens warms to the theme. “I was only 20, and I was testing the 1993 Jordan car at Silverstone, the small circuit, and after just 10 laps Gary [Anderson, the team’s technical director], said to me, ‘Rubens, you’re the guy for me.’ Like I said before, it was the way I was translating what the car was doing. Gary said to the other engineers, ‘We can really develop this car with this boy.’

“My first grand prix was at Kyalami, in the Jordan, and I remember the amazing feeling of being in the same driver briefings as people like Ayrton, Alain [Prost], Michael [Schumacher], Gerhard [Berger], and so on. It was so…” – he hunts for the mot juste, then he settles for – “…nice. It was so full of energy. But I had a gearbox failure in that race, Kyalami, and another gearbox failure next time out, at home at Interlagos. Then the next race was at Donington, when it was so wet, and I did well, because I was always good in the rain, but then I ran out of fuel. And that weekend I met George Harrison, the Beatle, and he said to me, ‘You have a musical name, because ‘bari’ is a musical term, short for ‘baritone’, and so is ‘cello’. So that’s why I wanted to come and say hi to you.’ It was an amazing experience for a boy from Interlagos.”

“Eddie Jordan and Jackie Stewart were legends but very different”

The following year, 1994, Barrichello remained with Jordan, but, although he kicked off the season with fourth place at Interlagos and third at Aida – his first F1 podium –everything went terribly wrong next time out, at Imola. “There was a spiritual link between Ayrton and me,” he says solemnly. “There was something that somehow drew us together. I had that enormous accident at Imola, then he had an even worse one. And maybe it was my huge crash, but, although I know I carried his coffin at his funeral, and I’ve seen photographs of me doing that, I have no memory of it. I think I lost a bit of my memory after my massive Imola shunt, but actually I think maybe God was protecting me by blocking those memories, because, always, even straight after he’d died, when I think of Ayrton I think of him smiling.

“But, all the same, him not being there in 1994 was hard. I don’t think many people understood how bad it was for me, how much I was suffering. Then I decided, and I said, ‘I hope that, although Ayrton is no longer with us on track, I hope I can do things on track in his place that will make Brazil proud.’ I wasn’t trying to compare myself to Ayrton, but I wanted to do well for him and for Brazil. And, when we raced in Brazil in 1995, which was the first race of that season, the grief really hit me. When I looked at all the spectators, I said to myself, ‘Jesus, this is up to me now. Me and [the two Forti drivers] Roberto Moreno and Pedro Diniz are the only Brazilians in the race – how am I going to manage?’ And someone said to me, ‘Perhaps you don’t understand how much Senna loved you, but, believe me, he did, and he’s looking after you.’ And although that made me miss him even more, that sadness was an amazing feeling.”

Barrichello had a decent ’95 – the highlight was second place in Montreal, followed by strong points finishes at Magny-Cours, Spa and the Nürburgring – but 1996, still with Jordan, was better still. He often qualified well, and he raced and scored points in Buenos Aires, the Nürburgring, Imola, Silverstone, Hockenheim, Budapest and Monza. Even so, after four seasons with Eddie Jordan’s eponymous outfit, for 1997 Rubens was on his way to a brand-new team, also eponymous, also founded by a larger-than-life F1 character: Jackie Stewart’s Stewart Grand Prix.

1994 San Marino Grand Prix, Barrichello

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“Eddie and Jackie were both legends, but they were very different. People didn’t understand Eddie until they knew him. But I knew him, and he and I always hugged each other when we saw each other, right up to the very end of his life. I was the first driver to get him a pole position; I was the first driver to get him a podium; he gave me my F1 chance. Then, at the end of 1996, when he signed Ralf [Schumacher] and Fisico [Giancarlo Fisichella], I started speaking to Jackie. I liked what I heard. He was very serious about his plans for 1997, very focused, and he had Bridgestone tyres [rather than the Goodyears with which Jordan would be persisting for 1997], which appealed to me. And at Monaco, which was only the team’s fifth race, I finished second, beaten by only Michael and Ferrari, and that was fantastic.

“And you know something else I’m proud of? Jackie used to take almost all his drivers to Oulton Park, and coach them there, even F1 drivers. But he never did that with me. I had great respect for him – he was a great man and he’d been a great driver – and I like to think he had great respect for me, too, and that that’s why he didn’t try to coach me. I think he could see that I wasn’t sliding his F1 car, that I wasn’t trying to force it to do things that it didn’t want to do. I think our driving styles were similar. We both aimed to be smooth – instinctively. I see it when I sit next to him when he’s driving a road car. I see it when we play golf together.”

Barrichello spent three years with Stewart – 1997, 1998 and 1999 – and, apart from that superb second place at Monaco in 1997, the highlights were three third places, all of them in 1999, at Imola, Magny-Cours and Nürburgring. “That Nürburgring race? Well, I was happy for Jackie, of course I was, and also for Johnny [Herbert, who won it for Stewart], but obviously I’d love to have won it. But I don’t mind, because I love Johnny.”

Perhaps another reason he did not mind was that he knew he was about to bag the biggest prize that any F1 driver can ever dream of: a Ferrari deal. He spent six years at the Scuderia, and he won nine grands prix in rosso corsa. “I started talking to Ferrari at Monaco in 1999,” he recalls. “One of Jean Todt’s assistants came up to me in the paddock and said, ‘Mr Todt wants to talk to you,’ and he gave me a piece of paper with a message that said, ‘Meet me at the Hotel de Paris.’ So I went, on my moped, and I met Jean Todt. He said, ‘How would you like to drive for Ferrari?’ And I said, ‘Very much.’ But I knew that the team was built around Michael, so I added, ‘But only as long as there’s nothing in my contract that says that I have to give way to Michael. But, yes, if you want a serious racing driver, someone who’s going to race to win for you, then, yes, I’d absolutely love to do that.’

Jackie Stewart Nürburgring in 1999 Johnny Herbert Rubens Barrichello — Tartan army: Stewart Grand Prix’s sole win was at the Nürburgring in 1999; Johnny Herbert finished first, Barrichello was third

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“They gave me a contract, and it was written that way. There was nothing in it about me having to give way, or having to obey team orders, or having to be number two to Michael. So I signed it. I knew that Michael was a superhero, I knew that Michael was something special, and I knew that I was just the boy from Interlagos who’d always dreamed big. But I was excited, because I wanted to be given a chance against the very best, and, according to my contract, that’s what I now had. What I didn’t know, but I found out later, was that all those clauses were in Michael’s contract, even though they weren’t in mine.”

“For him to be number one, do you mean?” I suggest.

“Yes. Yes, exactly. So many times when I was looking good they told me to drop the revs, when there was no need for me to drop the revs, and other things like that. So many times I would have been able to do better, to win more races. OK, Michael was probably better than me, but he was probably better than everyone. But how much better than me was he? We’ll never know.

2000, Rubens Barrichello Ferrari at the Nürburgring F1-2000 — In 2000, Barrichello made his dream move to Ferrari – here at the Nürburgring driving the F1-2000; his first F1 victory was weeks away

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“So all I can say is that nine grand prix wins for Ferrari, in that situation, is pretty good, but I know that no one will give a damn about that except me. It’s the same as: no one will ever give a damn about the fact that Ayrton was brilliant at Donington in 1993, of course he was, but I went from 12th on the grid to fourth place on lap one while he was going from fourth on the grid to first place on lap one. People see what they see, but I know what I did, and I’m proud of it, and I hope that my sons and their kids will always be proud of it, too.

“Also, at Ferrari, I was always the one who developed the car, much more than Michael did. I was the one who tested the tyres, who tested the suspension options, and I loved that, and the engineers loved it too, and the fact that I was good at that meant that there was actually a lot of harmony in the team.”

“How did you get on with Michael?” I ask.

“Michael often stayed with me when we raced in Brazil,” he begins. “He liked hanging out with me and my friends in Brazil. But he was always a little reserved, always holding something back, unless he’d had a drink. If he’d had a drink, he used to open up a bit more, and then he used to say to me, ‘Rubens, you’re bloody good, you know. You’re bloody quick.’ But even then, even if he’d had a drink, if you tried to go deeper, to ask something more personal, he’d change the subject. But, even so, when we were talking like that, perhaps a little tipsy, I felt that he wanted – no, maybe even needed – to say a little more. But he always stopped himself. That was Michael. He was a very private person.”

“You have to remember that Michael wanted to win at all costs”

Michael Schumacher is an enigma. Was he one of the greatest drivers in the history of our sport? Yes, he was, undoubtedly. But, equally, there is mystery around him, and that mystery will surely never now be unravelled, owing to the diminished situation in which he now exists. Nonetheless, although his abilities were god-like, there was also something of the devil about him. He was sometimes vicious on track, unnecessarily so. “Why?” I ask.

There is a pause. “OK, look, I’m not saying that he was bad. I’m not saying that at all. I’m just saying that he and I were different…” – there is another pause, a longer one this time – “…but, you know, on the day that those guys [Michael and his brother Ralf] lost their mom [April 20, 2003], when we were at Imola, they were first and second on the grid, and they raced each other hard. Well, that didn’t feel right to me. That could have ended in tears. There’s a time and a place for two brothers to race each other hard, and maybe that wasn’t it.” For the record, they finished first (Michael) and fourth (Ralf). Rubens was third.

Rubens Barrichello Kart racing in Florianapolis, 2006 — Kart racing in Florianapolis, 2006

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“Look, I’m not saying they were wrong. I’m just saying that that’s not the way I’d act if it was my mother and my brother. But you have to remember that Michael wanted to win at all costs – at any cost perhaps. That was just the way he was. At Hungaroring in 2010, when he was in a Merc and I was in a Williams, he gave me no room, no room at all. We’ve all had loads of opportunities to do something like that on track, something…” – again he searches for the right word, and I fancy he selects a softer adjective than the one that perhaps he first had in mind – “…silly. But I didn’t do that stuff. That just wasn’t my way. And I wanted – and I want – my sons to know that that isn’t how I race, and I want them to race the way I did, and I do. You can have all the trophies in the world but they’re worth nothing if you don’t race with…” – again he pauses for thought – “…dignity. So, to sum it up, Michael was a supernaturally gifted driver, but sometimes he was a bit too ruthless, and he was a very nice person, but he was even nicer if he had a glass of good red wine in his hand. I wish he was able to respond, to give his opinion, but very, very sadly he isn’t.

“Let me tell you this. One time I met Michael’s son Mick at a restaurant in Brazil. We had a really lovely chat and I got the feeling that he kept expecting me to ask him details about Michael’s physical condition, but I decided not to. I decided not to because I know how private Michael always was. And at the end of the evening, Mick looked me in the eyes, and he said, ‘Can you tell me something funny about you and my dad?’ And I told him a story about Michael, Ross and me getting tipsy together at the Montana Restaurant in Maranello, and we lost Ross. We just lost him. Suddenly he wasn’t there any more. And when we looked for him, with our driver driving us, we found him walking on his own in the middle of nowhere, still a few kilometres from his house. And Mick laughed, he hugged me and we said goodbye.”

I figure that that seems as good a place as any to curtail my Schumacher enquiries, but Rubens wants to add a few more adjacent thoughts: “Maybe I should have won more races in my F1 career. Maybe I could have done, if I’d behaved differently. But so what? The best time I’ve ever had in my racing life was when I won the Brazilian Stock Car Pro championship in 2022, with my sons on the podium with me. That’s the kind of thing that matters to me most.”

Brush with Michael Schumacher at the 2010 Hungarian GP

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In 2006, 2007 and 2008, Barrichello raced for Honda’s F1 team. The stats reveal that they were not great seasons for him: 53 grand prix starts; one grand prix podium (Silverstone 2008). Towards the end of that final year, 2008, the world was becoming ever more seriously mired in global financial crisis, and the board members of multinational automotive corporations such as Honda were beginning to feel mighty nervous. Subaru and Suzuki withdrew from the World Rally Championship, and Kawasaki ditched MotoGP. In December 2008 Honda pulled the plug on its F1 team and it appeared that Barrichello, and his team-mate Jenson Button, would be left high and dry.

We now know that what happened was the opposite of that. Ross Brawn and Nick Fry bought the team for £1, which price looked even keener when you factored in that Honda had committed to cover any redundancy payments, effectively giving Brawn and Fry a free Formula 1 team, fully functioning, unencumbered by financial baggage. Better still, thanks to something called a double diffuser, which Williams and Toyota also adopted but Brawn mastered better than their two partners in that technical jiggery-pokery, compliant as it was with the letter if not the spirit of the regulations, the Brawn BGP 001 was a winner straight out of the box.

Rubens Barrichello Kyalami, age 20, 1993 — First F1 race, Kyalami, age 20, 1993

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“During the winter of 2008-2009 I had no idea whether or not the team was going to survive,” Rubens remembers. “No one did. Even so, I kept in touch with Ross often, calling him twice a week, and I trained like crazy in the gym. I wanted to be ready – just in case Ross’s and Nick’s plans came through. And in the end they did, I flew to England, I signed a contract – for just four races at first, with much less money than before – and we went down to Barcelona to test the car. After that test I hugged Jenson and he hugged me, because we knew something magical had happened. We knew our car was a winner.”

“I hugged Jenson and he hugged me. We knew our car was a winner”

For Rubens, however, the same trouble that he had encountered with Honda in 2006 – brake pads that did not suit his braking approach – now prevented him from matching Button’s early season speed. His results in the first seven grands prix of the year were second, fifth, fourth, fifth, second, second, and DNF – pretty good – but Jenson won six of those races, missing out only in Shanghai, where he finished third.

“But when I finally solved my brake pad issue, I was faster than Jenson, and in the second half of the year I won in Valencia and Monza, whereas he never won at all. But by that time it was too late for me to challenge him for the world championship because Red Bull and McLaren had come on well and they were winning almost all the races by then. It is what it is. But I was pleased for Jenson when he became world champion, and I was absolutely delighted for the team.”

2002 Hungarian GP, Rubens Barrichello Michael Schumacher — A Ferrari 1-2 at the 2002 Hungarian GP, with Barrichello winning from pole; Schumacher was just 0.4sec behind at the finish

Grand Prix Photo

And what of Barrichello’s final two seasons in F1, 2010 and 2011, with Williams? “What took me there was two things: first, the story of someone, Frank [Williams], who was fantastically courageous, and, second, the certainty that there wouldn’t be team orders. Because at Ferrari I’d had team orders, and even at Brawn it had been clear that, once Jenson had started the season so well, Ross wanted him to do the winning rather than me, to secure the drivers’ world championship as well as the constructors’ world championship. But Williams was a disappointment to me because when I got there it soon became clear that it wasn’t Frank in charge. Even so, I enjoyed the first year, 2010, with Nico [Hülkenberg], but the second year, 2011, with [Pastor] Maldonado, well, they needed money, which is why they hired him, and it all got very political. I’d like to have had one more year with Williams, but they chose Maldonado and Bruno [Senna] for 2012. As I say, they needed money. It would have been my 20th season in F1, which would have been cool.” He shrugs, then smiles.

Rubens Barrichello the Williams man, 2011 — Barrichello the Williams man, 2011

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“But I’m a happy man,” he continues. “I love my family, I love my racing even more than I did when I was younger, and I’m so grateful that I’m not only still racing but also still competitive. My sons are both racing – ‘Dudu’ [he means Eduardo] in WEC this year and ‘Fefo’ [he means Fernando] in Euroformula Open and Formula 3 this year. They’re both doing well. I have my dogs, too, and they’ve all got names related to racing. So I have Enzo [Ferrari], Skip [Barber] and Stocky [stock cars]. I love music and when my friends come to my house, we all sing together. And I’ve even learned something from Michael: the love of good red wine.”

Rubens Barrichello with Brawn in 2009 — With Brawn in 2009 – an opportunity missed?

Grand Prix Photo

Rubens Barrichello with son Eduardo and Fernando, São Paulo — Best time – with sons Eduardo, left, and Fernando, São Paulo

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Born: 23/05/1972, São Paulo, Brazil

1978 Begins karting in São Paulo.
1990 Wins Formula Opel Lotus Euroseries – six wins from 11 races.
1991 Wins British Formula 3 title.
1993-96 At 20, becomes F1 driver with Jordan; one podium – 1994 at Aida, Japan
1997-99 Switches to Stewart. Second at Monaco in ’97; three third places in ’99, including team 1-3 at the Nürburgring.
2000-05 Hits his stride at Ferrari as team-mate of Michael Schumacher. Nine F1 wins; second in drivers’ standings in 2002 and ’04 but only eighth in ’05.
2006-08 Joins Honda; fails to score any points in 2007 for first time in F1 career; single podium in 2008 at Silverstone.
2009 Team-mate to Jenson Button at Brawn; chance of an F1 world title missed. Wins in Valencia and Monza.
2010-11 With Williams but unimpressed. Best result: fourth, Valencia, 2010.
2012 IndyCar with KV Racing – 12th; starts Stock Car Pro racing in Brazil – wins title in 2014 and ’22. Still in series today.
2017 Le Mans 24 Hours: 11th overall.
2025 Wins NASCAR Brasil Series at 53.

Bremont Terra Nova — how adventure watch survived our test to ‘the end of the world’

50. Marie-Claude Beaumont (F)

1973 Le Mans 24 Hours
June 9-10, Le Mans, France
Chevrolet Corvette C3 1st in class

When in 1971 the Le Mans organisers rescinded its ban on female drivers – in place since Annie Bousquet’s fatal crash at the 1956 Reims 12 Hours – it didn’t anticipate having a woman in the largest-capacity car. After consecutive DNFs, including a high-profile collision with a Matra in ’72, Marie-Claude Beaumont helped Henri Greder muscle a Corvette to 12th overall.

49. Yvette Fontaine (B)

1969 Bekers van de Toekomst
September 7, Zolder, Belgium
Ford Escort Twin Cam 2nd

By outqualifying and beating the Porsche 911L of her closest rival in the heat and the final of this concluding round of the Belgian Touring Car Championship, Yvette Fontaine became a national champion. She had won its 1600cc class six times from nine starts – but points were actually awarded on the basis of overall race position.

48. Christabel Carlisle (GB)

1961 brscc national race
October 1, Brands Hatch
Morris Mini 6th

A breathless three-way Mini battle was this race’s highlight. In only her first full season, Christabel Carlisle led initially before eventually having to give way to Vic Elford. She was able, however, to stave off Steve McQueen – yes, that Steve McQueen – for second in class. This trio was called onto the rostrum by popular demand.

47. Cathy Muller (F)

1984 Albi Grand Prix
September 30, Albi, France
Ralt-Alfa Romeo RT3/84 1st

Tired of being told that she was effectively ducking out by contesting the European Formula 3 Championship, and that her home series was much more competitive, a piqued MC Motorsport ran Cathy Muller at the latter’s final round at Albi. Third-fastest in a wet qualifying, she won the dry 30-lapper by 1.74sec.

46. Louise Aitken-Walker/Ellen Morgan (GB)

1983 Peter Russek Manuals Rally
July 23, Swansea
Ford Escort RS1800 1st

Two of its five stages through the Welsh forests took more than 30min to complete. Fastest on both of them – by 18sec on the decisive concluding test – Louise Aitken-Walker became the first woman to win a British national rally. Her margin was 40sec. Future two-time British champion David Llewellin, also in an Escort, was almost 2min behind in fourth.

Sheila van Damm:Anne Hall 1953 Alpine Rally — It might have been summer but in the 1953 Alpine Rally, Rootes driver Sheila Van Damm faced wintry conditions

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45. Sheila van Damm/Anne Hall (GB)

1953 Alpine Rally
July 10-16, Marseille-Munich-Cannes
Sunbeam-Talbot Alpine 24th

The first woman post-war – and the second ever – to gain a Coupe des Alpes, awarded for a penalty-free run. Sheila van Damm’s team-mate Stirling Moss would tell you how difficult this was on so gruelling an event, in a car that was neither a powerful sports job nor a nimble tiddler. His effort of 1954 brought him to tears of relief.

44. Gwenda Stewart (GB)

1934 Speed record attempt
July 25, Montlhéry, France
Derby-Miller
European closed circuit record

In setting a new world mark for 2-litre cars over the flying kilometre and mile Gwenda Stewart also set a new official best for a European circuit: a 147.79mph lap of Montlhéry, a steeply banked 1.6-mile oval. She crashed later that same day while testing experimental Bosch sparkplugs.

43. Sarah Bovy (B)
Rahel Frey (ch)
Michelle Gatting (DK)

2023 Bahrain 8 Hours
November 4, Sakhir, Bahrain
Porsche 911 RSR-19 1st in class

Start from pole position. Maintain a strong and consistent race pace while remaining error-free. Ally perfect pitstops to an optimal tyre strategy. And keep a lid on increasing pressure. This is the long-established ideal recipe for success in endurance racing – as followed by the first female crew to win in a world sports car championship.

42. Rosemary Smith/Valerie Domleo (Ire/GB)

1965 Tulip Rally April
26-29, Noordwijk-Geneva-Noordwijk
Hillman Imp 1st

The event had perhaps lost some of its teeth but it remained a tough 1800-mile hack to, through and from The Alps, which were blanketed by snow. Former model/fashion designer Rosemary Smith mastered the conditions without studded tyres.

41. Dorothy Levitt (GB)

1903 Southport Speed Trials
October 2-3, Southport
Gladiator 12hp 1st in class

Victorians were loosening their corsets in the freer Edwardian era when Napier’s SF Edge plucked Dorothy Levitt from the typing pool. Her presence was a gimmick – the first British woman to contest a speed event – until the 21-year-old won her flying kilometre heat along Southport seafront. She won the final against more powerful opposition by a street, too.

40. Phoebe Wainman-Hawkins (GB)

2025 UK Open Championship
May 11, Skegness Raceway
Hawkins-Chevrolet 1st

Thirty-plus 600bhp stock cars on a quarter-mile oval, with no quarter asked for, and none given. It might not be glamorous but it’s fierce. Returning to the cockpit from an 18-month lay-off, new mum Phoebe Wainman-Hawkins in a borrowed car became the first woman to win a major BriSCA F1 title.

39. Jannine Jennky (F)

1928 Burgundy Cup
May 16, Dijon, France
Bugatti Type 35C 1st

Louis Chiron – that season’s most successful motor racing driver – was the clear favourite to win this French Championship 300-miler in a works Bugatti Type 35B. But a Parisian musical comedy singer matched him, despite having 300cc less. Feeling her pressure – Jannine Jennky set fastest lap – Chiron, recovering from a pitstop, crashed out on lap 23 of 28.

Sabine Schmitz in BMW M3 E36 1996 Nurburgring 24 hours — Sabine Schmitz was part of a trio that obliterated the opposition in the ’96 Nürburgring 24 Hours

38. Sabine Schmitz (D)

1996 Nürburgring 24 Hours
June 15-16, Nürburgring, Germany
BMW M3 E36 1st

The ‘Queen of the Nürburgring’ – racing under her married name of Sabine Reck – was crowned when she became the first woman to win an international 24-hour race. No more than 85 of its 140 starters finished, and the closest to her winning car – co-driven by Johannes Scheid and Hans Widmann – was fully four laps of 15.5 miles behind.

Elsie ‘Bill’ Wisdom, Joan Richmon 1932 JCC 1000-Mile Race — ‘Bill’ Wisdom and Joan Richmond outclassed the fellas over two days in their Riley Nine at Brooklands in 1932

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37.Elsie ‘Bill’ Wisdom (GB)
Joan Richmond (AUS)

1932 JCC 1000-mile Race
June 3-4, Brooklands
Riley Nine Brooklands 1st

A handicap race over two days resulted in the first endurance victory for a female crew. Elsie Wisdom was a track regular. Joan Richmond, who had driven from her Australian home to contest that year’s Monte Carlo Rally, was a newcomer. Upping their pace on day two, they took the lead with an hour remaining. They covered 1046.4 miles at 84.41mph.

36. Ellen Lohr (D)

1992 Rennsport-Festival
May 24, Hockenheim, Germany
Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5 Evo2 1st

Catching team-mate Keke Rosberg, his softer tyres fading, and having set fastest lap, Ellen Lohr barged past with two laps to go to score the only DTM win for a woman. They would collide again, at the first corner of the second race. Both retired because of damage. The 1982 Formula 1 world champion, accused of seeking revenge, didn’t look bothered.

35. Betty Haig/Joyce Lambert (GB)

1936 Olympic Rally
July 22-30, Birmingham-Berlin
Singer Nine Le Mans 1st

This Monte Carlo Rally-style, 2000-mile precursor to the Olympics was decided when its weather turned nasty and Betty Haig made her move on the muddy roads alongside the Danube, near the Czech border. The great-niece of Field Marshal Haig thus upstaged the Nazi propaganda machine – and won that sporting holy of holies: an Olympic gold medal. Unique in motor sport.

34. Lilian Bryner (CH)

2004 Spa 24 Hours
Jul 31-Aug 1, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello 1st

Starting from pole, courtesy of Fabrizio Gollin, Lilian Bryner and her other co-drivers – Enzo Calderari and Luca Cappellari – battled a works-supported Ferrari 575 GTC until the latter’s diffuser was damaged around Sunday lunchtime. Handed the final stint, Bryner finished one lap ahead to become the first – and so far only – woman to win this race since its 1924 inception.

33. Pippa Mann (GB)

2010 Freedom 100
May 27, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Dallara-Infiniti IPS Pole position

By stringing together consecutive flying laps at an average of 187.989mph, the Londoner became the first woman to top the timesheets in The Brickyard’s (then) 101-year history. Sadly her race, the fourth round of the Indy Lights single-seater series, would end when she became entangled in somebody else’s accident at Turn 1 on the third lap.

32. Anne Hall / Lucille Cardwell (GB)

1961 East African Safari Rally
March 31-April 3, Nairobi-Dar es Salaam -Kampala-Nairobi
Ford Zephyr 3rd

When requested to ease her pace in order to make sure of winning the Coupe des Dames and the Manufacturers’ Prize, Anne Hall, a 41-year-old from Huddersfield, having her first experience of African rallying, pressed on regardless. Only a brace of Mercedes-Benz denied her outright victory after 3300 miles mostly on rocky, dusty roads.

Kitty O’Neil 1976 speed record attempt — Kitty O’Neil, ‘the fastest woman in the world’, was also the stunt double for Lynda Carter in Wonder Woman

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31.Kitty O’Neil (USA)

1976 Speed record attempt
December 6, Alvord Desert, Oregon
SMI Motivator 512.71mph

Employed to beat the women’s Land Speed Record, and so running ‘just’ 60% power, stuntwoman Kitty O’Neil broke it by over 200mph, peaking at 621mph – a whisker slower than the outright record – on her inbound run. Contractual snafus prevented her from making an attempt on the sound barrier in this rocket-powered-and-boosted – to 61,000hp – 39ft long three-wheeler.

30. Jamie Chadwick (GB)

2024 Indy NXT
June 9, Road America, Wisconsin
Dallara-mazda IL-15 1st

Expertly controlling the race’s pace from pole position, backing up the chasers before pulling away on the faster sections of this challenging road course – ‘America’s Spa’ – allowed Jamie Chadwick to lead this 20-lapper throughout. Two women had won in this feeder series prior, but this was a first female victory achieved away from the ovals.

29. Michèle Mouton/ Fabrizia Pons (F/I)

1982 Portuguese Rally
March 3-6, Estoril, Portugal
Audi quattro 1st

Emerging intact from the thick fog that had caused team-mate Hannu Mikkola to roll into retirement in the darkness of the opening stage of the second leg (of four), Michèle Mouton set 18 fastest stage times on the 31 gravel tests, having bided her time on nine Tarmac sections, to win by more than 13min.

28. Cathy Muller (F)

1982 Volant Elf-Winfield
October 24, Magny-Cours, France
Martini-Renault 1st

Past winners of this prestigious find-a-driver competition first held in 1963 included François Cevert and René Arnoux. Its latest crop had been winnowed from 300 to five for the five-lap final. Cathy Muller won after the leader spun out. A jury of the great and the good of French motor racing then ordered a re-run. She won by 3sec this time.

27. Sara Christian (USA)

1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock, Round Four
September 11, Langhorne, Pennsylvania
Oldsmobile 6th

In an unfamiliar car – she’d wrecked her Ford – on the most feared dirt oval, and against 44 others squabbling in nascent NASCAR, Sara Christian finished 10 laps behind the winning Olds of Curtis Turner – but two ahead of Lee Petty’s Plymouth – after 200 miles. She finished fifth in a lesser race three weeks later: the best result for a woman in NASCAR.

Katherine Legge 2005 atlantic championship — Katherine Legge won three races in the 2005 Atlantic Championship, finishing the season in third

26. Katherine Legge (GB)

2005 Atlantic Championship
April 10, Long Beach, California
Swift-Toyota 014.a 1st

Having brushed the wall in qualifying, Polestar Racing’s Katherine Legge lined up seventh for her maiden race Stateside. Avoiding the early dramas, and surviving a collision of her own, she was poised to pounce when the leader suffered a car problem in the closing laps. The first open-wheeler victory for a woman in America was also the occasion of this Brit’s first full-time drive.

Kay Petre 1935 match race — Small in frame but big in ambition, Kay Petre – ‘Queen of Brooklands’ – was a match for men in the mid-1930s

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25. Kay Petre (CDN)

1935 Match race
August 25, Brooklands
Delage Type DH 1st

The organisers backed down – downgrading the proposed match race versus Gwenda Stewart to single-car runs – after 4ft 10in charger Kay Petre lapped faster in practice (134.75mph) than John Cobb, the record-breakers’ record-breaker, ever had in this ageing 10.7-litre V12 behemoth. The car had been given a year’s stay of execution by wary scrutineers. Despite a slipping clutch, 134.24mph sealed her victory.

24. Brittany Force (USA)

2025 4-wide Nationals
April 25, zMax Dragway, North Carolina
Top Fuel dragster 341.59mph

This twice NHRA Top Fuel champion – in 2017 and 2022 – was already the quickest ever over 1000ft – a 3.623sec pass recorded at Reading, Pennsylvania in 2019 – when she also became the fastest ever: 341.59mph. Stop press: she increased this in September to 343.51mph – and has announced her intention to retire at the season’s end.

23. Lyn St James (USA)

1992 Indianapolis 500
May 24, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Lola-Chevrolet T91/00 11th

Permitted by Ford to switch to Chevy power, the 45-year-old Lyn St James qualified 27th – ahead of former winners Tom Sneva and Gordon Johncock – after 13 laps of practice. And in a race blighted by 13 crashes – cold tyres/cool conditions – she was in 10th position when mistakenly advised to let AJ Foyt past. She did, however, become the first female – and the oldest – Rookie of the Year.

Liz Halliday 2006 Sebring 12 hours — While Sebring saw Liz Halliday’s peak moment, she’s also raced three times in the Le Mans 24 Hours, finishing 4th in class (LMP2) in 2006

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22. Liz Halliday (USA)

2006 Sebring 12 Hours
March 18, Sebring, Florida
Lola-AER B05/40 2nd/1st in class

Making impressive early inroads after starting 28th because of a puncture in qualifying, and making the most of the problems that befell Penske’s category favourite Porsches – as well as keeping the victorious Audi R10 diesel honest – British-based Californian Liz Halliday, co-driving Jon Field and his son Clint, nursed the misfiring car home to win the LMP2 class.

21. Desiré Wilson (ZA)

1980 Silverstone 6 Hours
May 11, Silverstone
De Cadenet-cosworth LM 1st

A month since her historic British Formula 1 win at Brands Hatch, and a fortnight after her World Sportscar Championship breakthrough at Monza, Desiré Wilson was at it again as team boss/co-driver Alain de Cadenet’s ‘closer’. Recovering from a one-lap penalty – overheating brakes had caused her to miss the chicane – and compensating for a misfire, she retook the lead with less than 30min left.

20. Lella Lombardi (I)

1975 German Grand Prix
August 3, Nürburgring, West Germany
March-cosworth 751 7th

“That’s the one I remember,” said March boss/designer Robin Herd. “Quietly impressive. Much better than her Montjüich performance.” This was achieved despite a late puncture, and with a cracked rear bulkhead causing snap oversteer – a problem undiagnosed despite Lella Lombardi’s regular complaints since a Monaco practice crash in May. Only when her replacement Ronnie Peterson described the same handling characteristic was the crack discovered. Herd: “Poor Lella. I feel sorry for her. And wonder about it even now.”

19. Odette Siko (F)

1932 Le Mans 24 Hours
June 18-19, Le Mans, France
Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 SS 4th

Having become the first woman to contest this race – she finished seventh in 1930 alongside Marguerite Mareuse in the latter’s 1.5-litre Bugatti Type 40 – Odette Siko now scored what remains the best finish for a woman. Her self-entered car, co-driven by ‘Jean Sabipa’ – Louis Charaval – survived an attritional race held in sweltering conditions to win the 2-litre class. They finished just one lap behind the third-placed 3-litre Talbot.

18. Janet Guthrie (USA)

1978 Indianapolis 500
May 28, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Wildcat-DGS 9th

Now running her own team and benefiting from a more competitive car – she qualified 15th (190.325mph) for her second consecutive start at Indy – Janet Guthrie let nothing get in the way of her maximising the opportunity. And that included a wrist fractured in a fall during a charity tennis match just two days before the race. Hiding her injury – and pain – she finished 10 laps behind the winner, but within the top 10.

17. Maria Teresa de Filippis (I)

1958 Belgian Grand Prix
June 15, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
Maserati 250F 10th

The first woman to start a world championship grand prix – and what a place to begin: the super-fast, made even faster since 1956, road circuit that gave even the best pause for thought. Maria Teresa de Filippis lapped at over 116mph in practice – 16.3sec slower than Stirling Moss’s 1956 best in a similar car – but times had moved on. Her private 250F uncompetitive, she was lapped twice – as was Jo Bonnier’s sister car, to be fair. Finishing was her victory.

Camille du Gast 1903 Paris-Madrid — Camille du Gast tends to her De Dietrich before the deadly 1903 Paris-Madrid race

16. Camille du Gast (F)

1903 Paris-Madrid
May 24, Paris-Bordeaux, France
De Dietrich 30CV 45th

The only woman competing was ahead of the eventual winner after 280 miles – and reportedly running eighth (of 200 starters) – when 40 miles from the end of the first leg Camille du Gast stopped for three hours to help an injured team-mate. Her calmness and care saved ET Stead’s life. This ‘Race of Death’, however, went no further than Bordeaux. The French government promptly banned city-to-city races on open roads – and women drivers from competing due to “feminine nervousness”.

15. Danica Patrick (USA)

2008 Indy Japan 300
April 20, Twin Ring Motegi, Japan
Dallara-Honda IR-05 1st

‘Yeah, but when will she win?’ The question was beginning to weigh heavily. Finally Danica Patrick gave her answer. Starting sixth on a grid arranged according to championship positions after rain had caused qualifying’s cancellation, she handed a strategic masterclass to Hélio Castroneves and Scott Dixon by saving sufficient fuel for a late-race charge. The first female winner in America’s premier open-wheel category took the lead three miles from the chequer.

14. Pat Moss/Ann Riley (GB)

1962 Tulip Rally
May 7-10, Noordwijk-Monte Carlo-Noordwijk
Morris Mini Cooper 1st

Pat Moss illustrated her impressive versatility by giving this most iconic of rally cars – “twitchy, and pretty unruly at the limit” – its first international victory. And this was despite the upset of her elder brother Stirling’s ongoing and slow recovery from his career-ending crash at Goodwood. Again navigated by ‘Wiz’ – Ann Wisdom, now operating under her married name Riley – Moss beat 143 rivals to win this there-and-back French dash.

13. Michèle Mouton/Fabrizia Pons (F/I)

1982 Acropolis Rally
May 31-June 3, Athens, Greece
Audi quattro 1st

Europe’s toughest rally demanded stamina and tenacity. More than 600 miles of special stages, several made uncharacteristically muddy by thunderstorms, were included in a 2200-mile route so tightly scheduled that many of its road sections had to be pace-noted, too. Measuring her effort perfectly, Michèle Mouton took the lead at the midway point of the first day and, by setting the fastest time on 26 of the 55 tests, gradually extended her lead to win by 13min 39sec.

12. Lella Lombardi (I)

1975 Spanish Grand Prix
April 27, Montjüich Park, Spain
March-cosworth 751 6th

This chaotic weekend of driver protests and numerous accidents, one of which resulted in the death of four bystanders, epitomised F1 at its most rashly macho. Lella Lombardi, ‘The Tigress of Turin’ – she wasn’t from Turin – kept her head down and elbows in, steered around the debris, and was holding an admittedly two-laps distant sixth place when the race was put out of its misery after 29 (of 75 scheduled) laps. Only half points were awarded. But she had made her point.

11. Michèle Mouton (F)

1985 Pikes Peak Hill Climb
July 13, Pikes Peak, Colorado
Audi Sport quattro S1 1st

Petty attempts by officials to unsettle Michèle Mouton left her in a cold fury. Denied a rolling start because of an overly enthusiastic practice getaway – mechanics had to push her car up to the start line – she drove on the edge. This was unfinished business: she had finished second in ’84. Having jettisoned co-driver Fabrizia Pons to save weight, she set a record to prevail by more than 30sec. She challenged ‘King of the Mountain” Bobby Unser to a race back down; he declined.

1962 Leige-Sofia-Leige Rally — Ewy Rosqvist/ Ursula Wirth 1962 Touring Car Grand Prix of Argentina

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10. Ewy Rosqvist/Ursula Wirth (SWE)

1962 Touring Car Grand Prix of Argentina
October 25-November 4, Buenos Aires-Tucumán-Buenos Aires
Mercedes-Benz 220SE 1st

Nobody gave former veterinary assistant Ewy Rosqvist a hope on this rugged rally, its 2874 miles of gravel roads divided into six sections. Yet she was the fastest on all of them, while all of her four team-mates retired (former German rally champion Hermann Kühne was killed in an accident). She averaged almost 79mph to claim the victory by more than 3hr. The only female driver among the 257-car field beat the previous record average by 3.5mph.

9. Shirley Muldowney (USA)

1982 US Nationals
September 6, Indianapolis Raceway Park
Top Fuel dragster 1st

They had been partners in business and in private from 1972-78: Conrad ‘Connie’ Kalitta had been Shirley Muldowney’s crew chief during her first NHRA Top Fuel title of 1977. Now they were sworn enemies. This battle of the exes resulted in the fastest two-car race to date, from which the woman came out on top thanks to a 5.57sec/251mph pass. It all but guaranteed her unprecedented third Top Fuel crown. Her second had been earned in 1980 – by which time she was running her own team.

8. Elizabeth Junek (CZ)

1928 Targa Florio
May 6, Medio Circuito delle Madonie, Italy
Bugatti Type 35B 5th

An exhaustive reconnaissance of the 67-mile circuit winding through the Sicilian mountains put Elizabeth Junek’s rivals to shame. Fourth after the first lap she vaulted Louis Chiron, Giuseppe Campari and Albert Divo on the second to lead by a half-minute. The muscular Campari responded to be a minute ahead of the Czech at the conclusion of the penultimate lap. But the Italian’s Alfa Romeo was also running on a rim. She was back in the box seat – only to suffer a puncture herself. Plus her engine was overheating. The greatest near miss in the history of women in motor sport.

7. Desiré Wilson (ZA)

1980 Monza 6 Hours
April 27, Monza, Italy
De Cadenet-cosworth LM 1st

Desiré Wilson seemed set fair for victory – until rain began to fall with less than a half-hour to go. De Cadenet’s underfunded team had no wet tyres so she had no option but to stay out on slicks. Thus she was powerless to prevent Henri Pescarolo’s Porsche 935 from re-taking the lead. The latter’s team had miscalculated, however: this was a race of duration, not (1000km) distance. Safe and fast enough in difficult circumstances, she became the first woman to win a world championship sports car race when her Porsche rival pitted for fuel three laps from home.

6. Susanna Raganelli (I)

1966 World Karting Championship
September 25, Amager, Denmark
Tecno-Parilla 1st

Her European Championship victory in May had been for national teams. Now Susanna Raganelli was going it alone – and dominating. She won all three finals – of increasing length – having won all three of her heats and comfortably setting the fastest time in practice. The press moaned that she had the most powerful engine. So what? Getting the best kit is a huge part of the game. Among those she beat – from 42 rivals across 13 countries – were Ronnie Peterson (third), Keke Rosberg and Toine Hezemans. The Roman remains the only woman to win an FIA-affiliated world championship.

Desiré Wilson (ZA) 1980 Evening News Trophy — Theodore Racing’s Desiré Wilson on the grid at Brands Hatch in 1980 – round two of the British F1 Championship

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5. Desiré Wilson (ZA)

1980 Evening News Trophy
April 7, Brands Hatch
Wolf-cosworth WR4 1st

Separating a pair of theoretically superior Williams FW07s in qualifying, Desiré Wilson lunged from the outside of the front row at the restart – team-mate Geoff Lees had caused a stoppage – and led this 40-lapper on the Grand Prix layout. throughout, consistently extending her advantage, and setting the fastest lap, until she was more than 15sec to the good at the finish. Being the only woman to win a contemporary Formula 1 race, however, did not prevent her from losing her full-time drive in the British Championship after finishing second – and setting another fastest lap – in its fifth round (of 12) in May. Money talks.

4. Danica Patrick (USA)

2005 Indianapolis 500
May 29, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Panoz-honda GF09 4th

There were rookie errors: a first lap/Turn 1 wobble that likely cost Danica Patrick pole after being fastest in practice – she qualified a female-best fourth; stalling at a pitstop; and a restart collision/spin that cost her an extra stop because of a damaged nose cone. All was forgiven when, on lap 190, she retook the lead for a second time. A gambling fuel strategy, however, forced her to back off after four laps at the front, and she would have to ‘make do’ with Rookie of the Year and a female-best fourth place. By comparison, her third place of 2009 seemed run of the mill. In a good way.

3. Jutta Kleinschmidt (D)

2001 Paris-Dakar
January 1-21, Paris-Dakar
Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution 1st

The last true Dakar ended in controversy – as well as making history. The buggies of team-mates Jean-Louis Schlesser and Josep Maria Servià started the penultimate stage early, forcing leader Hiroshi Masuoka to run in their dust – and he crashed his Mitsubishi. Jutta Kleinschmidt had been a model of consistency throughout and started that decisive stage in third overall, 40min behind team-mate Masuoka. She finished it in the lead – due to the hour penalties handed down to transgressors Schlesser and Servià. Only a short final test remained. Masuoka clawed back 16sec – but the only female winner kept her cool in the desert to be 2min 39sec ahead.

Michèle Mouton:Fabrizia Pons 1981 SanRemo Rally — History in the making as Mouton became the first woman to win a round of the WRC – here at the 1981 Sanremo Rally

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2. Michèle Mouton/Fabrizia Pons (F/I)

1981 SanRemo Rally
October 5-10, San Remo, Italy
Audi quattro 1st

Audi team leader Hannu Mikkola’s opening-stage drama – 15min lost to a fuel injection issue – though a window of opportunity, had left Michèle Mouton exposed, out on the ledge. She responded in measured fashion, taking the lead just past the midway point, and appeared to have done enough on the gravel sections to protect her lead on the final leg’s Tarmac stages, which in turn exposed her heavy 4WD’s shortcomings. That was until the replacement of a driveshaft accrued 2min of road penalties; Ari Vatanen’s nimbler Ford Escort was now just 34sec behind. Unable to sleep, she instead recce’d the stages one more time. It paid off. It was the chasing Finn who blinked first, hitting a rock on the day’s opening 33-miler – twisty, wooded and shrouded in mist – and slumping to an eventual seventh after suspension repairs. The WRC had its first female event winner: by 3min 25sec.

Pat Moss ann Wisom 1960 Marathon de la Route — Pat Moss and Ann Wisdom were “given a tremendous reception” in Liège, as Motor Sport reported in its October 1960 issue

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1.Pat Moss/Ann Wisdom (GB)

1960 Marathon de la Route
August 31-September 4, Liège-Verona-Liège
Austin-Healey 3000 Mk1 1st

A real he-man’s rally – Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, northern Italy, (the old) Yugoslavia, northern Italy once more, then back to Liège via the French Alps. Much of it at night, allowing little time for sleep: 90 hours non-stop. On rough and narrow roads. Through rain and fog in the mountains. Making navigation tricky for ‘Wiz’. And with any lateness at the majority of time controls resulting in automatic disqualification. All tackled in a raucous, hot and cramped hairy-chested sports car.

Pat Moss, left, was holding second place at quarter-distance when the transmission first gave cause for concern: the overdrive packed up; a drain plug was lost; and the clutch began to slip due to a failing oil seal. Beginning to regret her insistence that lower gearing be fitted for better acceleration, she dropped as low as fourth in Yugoslavia. But she nursed the car – and outlasted those who had moved ahead.

Nothing could be done at Verona – by when she had recaptured second – and a concerned service crew advised her to stop occasionally to administer restorative squirts from the fire extinguisher. It wasn’t until the French/Italian border was reached – by which time she was 6min in front – that the gearbox could be replaced. Taking no risk thereafter and battling tiredness she maintained her advantage to the finish.

1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spider Competizione

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