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With Formula W being launched this year to encourage and promote opportunities for female racing drivers I thought it might be an interesting exercise to look back upon the girls, and ladies - whatever today’s politically-acceptable term might be (search me) for female racing drivers - who competed at Goodwood during its front-line era, from the inaugural meeting in September 1948 to closure in the high summer of 1966.
Doug Nye: Goodwood's original queens of oversteer
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Christabel Carlisle graduated from club racing at genteel Goodwood to International racing as a BMC works team driver - here at the 1963 Sebring 12-Hour race in America.
I would very much appreciate some feedback help here, because some of the names encountered from race programmes and from Robert Barker’s great book “A Record of Motor Racing at Goodwood” (St Leonard’s Press, Bradford, 1998), have - I must admit - left me in some doubt about the listed driver’s gender…
It’s perhaps a bit embarrassing to admit as much, but when I see such potentially dual-gender names as ‘Bunny’ or ‘Jocelyn’, or ‘Viv’ or ‘Georgie’ or ‘Shelley’, for people I do not personally remember, I am afraid I cannot say, hand on heart, yes - she qualifies under this heading.
I do remember - or think I remember -that Jacqui Cook became Jacqui Bond-Smith and she might have become confused with an otherwise fictitious ‘Jacqui Smith’ who appeared on occasion, but again I cannot as yet confirm whether Ms Bond-Smith and Ms Smith were one and the same, or two different people. And so, if you are out there - or if you know for sure - please do let us know.
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Anyway, here’s the list I have come up with so far. Perhaps it is significant that after no girls/ladies appear to have competed in any of the Goodwood race meetings in 1954, a ladies-only race brought up the numbers immensely - to no fewer than 29 - in 1955. Through the era overall, just like their male competitors, the girls were variably talented, and variably serious about race driving.
The very best I personally recall were Pat Moss - Stirling’s sister - the wonderfully charismatic Christabel Carlisle, and the simply startling Anita Taylor and Gabrielle Konig, while Jean Denton was fearsomely determined - as her subsequent business career confirmed. But here’s the listing… Any memories? Do tell…
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Christabel Carlisle’s driving gained real respect for extracting absolutely everything that her BMC Mini ‘CMC 77’ could possibly offer…
1948-1949
Nancy Binns
Betty Haig
Peggy Lambert
Dorothy Patten
Monica Whincop
1950
Nancy Binns
Mrs M. Gilbert
Lady Mary Grosvenor
Betty Haig
Mrs M.K. Harman
Peggy Lambert
Barbara Marshall
Jean Mortimer
Mrs J.P. Treen
1951
Miss J.M.Bode
Mrs M. Gilbert
Lady Mary Grosvenor
Monica Whincop
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1952
Mrs J. Bode
Bluebelle Gibbs
1953
Miss B. Carlyon
Hazel Dunham
Bluebelle Gibbs
Betty Haig
Rosemary Seers
1954
None that I can trace…
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The contemporarily far more usual picture of girls’ activities in the Goodwood paddock of the 1950s - presiding over the picnic lunch...
1955
Margaret Ashby
Jean Bloom
Angela Brown
Patsy Burt
Mrs J. Deeley
Hazel Dunham
Miss A.L.Field
Annette Firth
Carol Fisher
Bluebelle Gibbs
Betty Haig
Mrs R.V. Harvard
Miss J. Heaslip
Michaela Hornby
Lady Jane Howard
Hazel Innes
Wendy Knight
Angela Lane
Miss J. Leavens
Nancy Mitchell
Jean Mortimer
Mary Morton
Pat Moss
Sally Noel-Buxton
Sheila Park
Rosemary Sears
Lorna Snow
The Hon Brigid Westerna
Joan Winterbottom
1956
Margaret Ashby
Jean Bloom
Patsy Burt
Dorothy Champ
Sheila Darby
Hazel Dunham
Carol Fisher
Bluebelle Gibbs
Betty Haig
Miss C.D.Hailwood
Michaela Hornby
Jane Howard
Beatrice Naylor
Bunny Munns (not sure of gender!)
Avril Scott-`Moncrieff
Mary Seed
Rosemary Seers
Gillian Spooner
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1957
Margaret Ashby
Jean Bloxam
Patsy Burt
Dorothy Champ
Hazel Dunham
Bluebelle Gibbs
Betty Haig
Mrs A. Hayward
Bunny Munns (still unsure of gender?)
Beatrice Naylor
Avril Scott-Moncrieff
Rosemary Seers
Lorna Snow
Gillian Spooner
1958
Margaret Ashby
Jean Bloxam
Patsy Burt
Phyllis Cornell
Miss J. Covell
Georgie Delaroche (probably female?)
Bluebelle Gibbs
Lady Jane Howard
Kathleen Howard
RosemaryMassey
Bunny Munns (jury still out?)
Beatrice Naylor
Avril Scott-Moncrieff
Rosemary Seers
Mary Wheeler
1959
Margaret Ashby
Jean Bloom
Jane Covell
Jocelyn Freeman (wife of John Freeman I think?)
Bluebelle Gibbs
Kathleen Howard
Rosemary Massey
Beatrice Naylor
Rosemary Seers
Rosemary Smith
Mary Wheeler
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Pat Moss (left) and Ann Wisdom (right) with Monte Carlo Rally winner - and inventor of the ‘Gatso’ speed camera - Maurice Gatsonides. Pat was sister of Stirling Moss, Ann daughter of Tommy Wisdom, racers both.
1960
Sally Bealey
Jean Bloxam
Jocelyn Freeman?
Mrs P. Gammon
Bluebelle Gibbs
Kathleen Howard
Elizabeth Jones
Bunny Munns (again)
Beatrice Naylor
Viv Sakal?
Avril Scott-Moncrieff
Mary Wheeler
1961
Jean Bloxam
Christabel Carlisle
Patricia Coundley
Bluebelle Gibbs
Kathleen Howard
Elizabeth Jones
Shelley Marten?
Bunny Munns?
Beatrice Naylor
Joy Pitman
Viv Sakal?
Rosemary Seers
Mary Wheeler
1962
Miss K. Burley
Michelle Burns-Greig
Christabel Carlisle
Patricia Coundley
Bluebelle Gibbs
Wendy Hamblin
Gabrielle Konig
Jenny Tudor-Owen
Mary Wheeler
Mrs V.M. Wylie
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1963
Christabel Carlisle
Patricia Coundley
Val Gardner?
Bluebelle Gibbs
Wendy Hamblin
Gabrielle Konig
Jenny Tudor-Owen
Mary Wheeler
1964
Patricia Coundley
Jean Denton
Mrs J.A. Freeman
Bluebelle Gibbs
Natalie Goodwin
Wendy Hamblin
Elizabeth Jones
Gabrielle Konig
Valerie Pirie
Anita Taylor
Jenny Tudor-Owen
Mrs F. Waters
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From our friends at the Revs Digital Library - 1969 World Championship of Makes-qualifying Targa Florio in Sicily with Gabrielle Konig driving husband Mark’s gorgeous Nomad Mark 2.
1965
Jacqui Bond-Smith
Michelle Burns-Greig
Jean Denton
Natalie Goodwin
Wendy Hamblin
Gabrielle Konig
Miss L. McKechnie
Claire Newbold
Anita Taylor
Jenny Tudor-Owen
Mary Wheeler
1966
Jacqui Bond-Smith
Jacqui Cook
Jean Denton
Mrs J.A. Freeman
Wendy Hamblin
Gabrielle Konig
Claire Newbold
Wendy Paget
Mrs D.G.T. Russell
Photography courtesy of The GP Library.
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Doug Nye began writing about racing cars at ‘Motor Racing’ magazine in 1963-64. Today he is a multiple award-winning motor sports journalist and author of over 50 years’ experience, with some 70 books to his name. He is Goodwood Motorsport’s founding Historian and consultant and fulfils similar roles for Bonhams Auctioneers and the Collier Collection/Revs Institute in Naples, FL, USA. He is a member of the National Motor Museum Advisory Council at Beaulieu, Hants, and is a regular columnist for ‘Motor Sport’ magazine, while contributing to many other specialist periodicals worldwide.
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