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When in 1971 the Le Mans organisers rescinded its ban on female drivers – in place since Annie Bousquet’s fatal crash at the 1956 Reims 12 Hours – it didn’t anticipate having a woman in the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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.