Speed Queens

Speed Queens is a history of women in motorsport, from the very beginning in 1897 to the modern era. Tracing the different ways that women have found into motor racing and rallying, it covers over a century of stories across the world. Each chapter takes a particular event as an introduction to a racer and her contemporaries, taking a different theme each time and moving forward through history. Circuit racing and rallying are both covered. Much more than a collection of profiles and lists of achievements, it explores ideas including sportswomen as performers in the early 20th century, women, death and risk and how the expansion of small car production in the 1960s benefitted female drivers. Some of the best-known female competitors such as Michele Mouton (rallying) and Lella Lombardi (Formula 1) make appearances, but Speed Queens is not just concerned with big names and historic "firsts". For every woman to be the first to do something on wheels, there were usually several others vying for that honour. In this book, they are given back their place in the story and their relationships to one another examined. AUTHOR: Rachel Harris-Gardiner has been researching and writing about women in motorsport since she was a student in 2001, when she first decided to look up a mysterious female Formula 1 driver called "Davinia Someone" mentioned by her father. The first version of her Speedqueens blog was published in 2004. In 2017, she began writing professionally, having decided against an academic career. A chance meeting at a networking event led to her being accepted into the Autosport Academy training programme, despite being 37 at the time. She regularly writes for Autosport and Motorsport News, covering national racing in the UK, and has a special interest in historic Formula Ford racing. Speed Queens is her first book. 16 b/w illustrations