Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Blog Watch

Aficionados of women in motorsport should check out this new blog.

As someone who finds modern day rallying and racing about as pointless as bungee jumping, I'm obviously more interested in the old-timers. The pre-war competitors seem much more interesting than their present day sisters. and quite often this is because of their adventures away from the track.

Perhaps this new blog misses out a bit by focusing on the records rather than the characters of those determined individuals - yes, for example, Joan Richmond did compete in the 1932 Monte Carlo Rally, but more interestingly she drove her little Riley to the start ..... overland from Australia.

Have women made any progress at all in motorsport over the last few decades? Back then photographers insisted on taking snaps of the leading racers powdering their noses, nowadays it's soft porn. One group who do have something of the spirit of their predecessors are the female Arab rally drivers from the Middle East featured on the blog. They're certainly challenging the status quo.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that you go faster with at least one tyre touching the ground.

Anonymous said...

You're right of course, but I think the Brooklands banking might have been a bit on the bumpy side.

Rachel H-G said...

Hi - Rachel from Speedqueens here. Thanks for your kind words. I take on board what you're saying about missing out the "personality" stuff. The blog will keep evolving and as more drivers are featured in full profiles, the more this kind of thing will come out.