So I enjoyed reading Dennis Grant's take on autocross
on Wikipedia. If you read his own bio
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Grant) you almost
get the feeling that the cost of Street Modified ran
this international champion out of autocross, but
let's not start on this debate.
I want to change the subject now entirely. Down at the
bottom of his biography, I clicked on Canadian Race
Car drivers. There he is, right under Scott Goodyear.
Well, then few letters below that, under P, is Kay
Petre. I had never heard of her before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kay_Petre
Then I clicked Female Race Car drivers at the bottom
of her biography. There are the obvious well known
names: Katherine Legge, Lyn St. James, Danica Patrick
and so on, but the majority I had never heard of
before. A vast number of these women raced fifty or
sixty or more years ago. Did you know that Maria
Teresa de Filippis was the first woman Formula 1
driver in history?
The story of Eliska Junkova of the former Moravia is
deeply compelling:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliska_Junkova
She died in January 4th of 1994 in Prague. I was in
Prague on that day myself. I had no idea.
-Katie Kelly
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