Annie Blanche Marie Soisbault de Montaigu (born 18 June 1934 in Paris - died 18 September 2012 in Paris) was a French tennis player and motorsports driver. [1]
Soisbault's early success came in tennis and she reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon 1952 Jr. Tournament, [2] however it did not pay as well as racing did in the 1950s. By the time she was in her early 20s, Soisbault had purchased her first two cars: a Delahaye Grand Sport and a Triumph TR3. In that same year she was a backup driver in the 1956 Monte Carlo Rally. [3] She was considered one of the finest women racers in the 1950s and 60s. [4] She won the 1963 Tour Auto Ladies' Cup and in 1966, she was the first woman who averaged more than 100 km/h driving a Porsche 906 at Mont Ventoux. [2] [5]
She is buried in Paris at Père Lachaise.
Kathleen Coad Petre, known as Kay Petre, was an early motor racing star. She was born in York, Ontario, now part of Toronto.
Patricia Ann Moss-Carlsson was one of the most successful female auto rally drivers of all time, achieving three outright wins and seven podium finishes in international rallies. She was crowned European Ladies' Rally Champion five times. Her older brother Stirling Moss was a Formula One Grand Prix star during the 1950s. From 1963 until her death in 2008, Swedish rally driver Erik Carlsson was both her driving-partner and her husband.
Louis Alexandre Chiron was a Monégasque racing driver who competed in rallies, sports car races, and Grands Prix.
Mariette Hélène Delangle (1900–1984), better known by her stage name Hellé Nice, was a French dancer and motor racing driver. She danced in Paris at the Hôtel Ritz, Olympia Hall and Casino de Paris, before her career was ended by a skiing accident. She then became a racing driver, using roadster cars built by companies such as Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, DKW, Ford, Hispano-Suiza, Renault and Rosengart. She competed in various Grand Prix motor racing, hillclimbing and rally events at a time when it was rare for a woman to do so. She won the Grand Prix Féminin and the Actor's Championship in 1929. Already famous in Paris, she became a household name in France in the early 1930s and raced as an exhibition dirt track driver for a season in the United States.
Michèle Hélène Raymonde Mouton is a French former rally driver. Competing in the World Rally Championship for the Audi factory team, she took four victories and finished runner-up in the drivers' world championship in 1982.
Selwyn Francis Edge (1868–1940) was a British businessman, racing driver, cyclist and record-breaker. He is principally associated with selling and racing De Dion-Bouton, Gladiator; Clemént-Panhard, Napier and AC cars.
Vanina Ickx is a Belgian racing driver.
Carmen Jordá Buades is a Spanish motor racing driver. From 2015 to 2017, she was a development driver for the Lotus and Renault Sport Formula One teams. Her appointment by Lotus saw her become just the eleventh woman in history to be part of a Formula 1 team's driver line-up.
Molly Anne Taylor is an Australian rally car driver. She is the 2016 Australian Rally Champion, the first and only woman to win the Australian Rally Championship and the youngest regardless of gender, and the 2021 Extreme E Champion.
Margaret Mabel Gladys Jennings was a Scottish motor racing driver. As Margaret Allan she was one of the leading British female racing and rally drivers in the inter-war years, and one of only four women ever to earn a 120 mph badge at the Brooklands circuit. During the war, Jennings worked as an ambulance driver and then at Bletchley Park's intelligence de-coding centre. After the war, she became a journalist and was Vogue magazine's motoring correspondent from 1948 to 1957.
Elizabeth Haig (1905–1987) was a British racing driver who competed in rallying, hill climbs and historic racing. She won the 1936 Olympic Rally, the first and last time after 1900 that an automobile race was part of the Olympic Games.
Enid Mary Riddell was a British socialite and racing driver during the 1930s and 1940s. She was also a member of some far-right political groups in the United Kingdom and was imprisoned for violating the Official Secrets Act 1911 during the Second World War.
Yvonne Marie Louise Simon was a French racing driver who participated in rallying, circuit races and endurance racing.
Dorothy Conyers Nelson Champney became Dorothy Riley was a British rally driver who drove the fastest car by a woman in the 1934 Le Mans 24 hour race partnered by Kay Petre.
Lucy O'Reilly Schell was an American racing driver, team owner, and businesswoman. Her racing endeavours focused mainly on Grand Prix and rallying. She was the first American woman to compete in an international Grand Prix race and the first woman to establish her own Grand Prix team.
Joana Mascarenhas de Lemos is a Portuguese former rally raid racer. She raced on motorcycles between 1990 and 1995 and automobiles between 1996 and 2004. When she ended her racing career in 2006, she maintained her connection to sport, this time as an organizer of major sporting events, being largely responsible for the two editions of the Lisbon-Dakar Rally. Since 2012, she is Head of the Family Office of Maude Queiroz Pereira.
Germaine Rouault was a French racing driver.
The Automobile Club féminin de France (ACFF) was a French women-only automobile club founded in 1926.