quote:
Originally posted by Henry
The 70's was probably the high point for female drivers in Australia: notables in touring cars were people like Sandra Bennett, Chris Cole, Sue Ransom (who was married to Bill Brown the upside-down newsagent for a time, and went on to drive jet-powered drag cars), Robyn Hamilton (who was tutored by Frank Gardner, was apparently VERY quick in both tourers and open-wheelers, co-drove once with Captain Peter Janson, changed her name by deed poll for sponsor exposure, and then vanished without a trace), Karen McPherson (a Brock ex-, who by contemporary accounts was pretty quick, but never made the papers). Later we had Alexandra Surplice (her name just about gave Bill Tuckey a horn), who bought the ex-works ex-Peter Willamson Tojo Corolla hardtop, and was probably best remembered for getting in Slug Harvey's road in the 1982 Castrol 400... so Harves swatted her and she barrel-rolled the poor little thing). They all had the advantage of looking suspiciously like women, even wearing overalls (at least they stuck to nomex, rather than denim ones

).
Australia enjoyed visits from international car starlets like Janet Rutherford, the first woman to qualify for the Indy 500, Marie-Claude Beaumont, a rapid French rallyist, and the Turin Tigress, Lella Lombardi, the only woman to net points in F1, and a real threat to the testosteroners in F5000 (Kevin Bartlett rated her highly); the high-profile 1987 entry of Mercedes Stermitz and the late Annette Reevemussen(?), the emergence of other female drivers like Melinda Price, Kerryn Brewer, Paula Elstrek and Heather Spurle... fast forward to the now, and it's pretty much the boy's club, although admittedly, high-level motorsport competition is less accessible now than it's arguably ever been.