Women at the wheel

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Some of the most tenacious and impressive motorists of the early 20th century were women. In 1927 the Hon. Mrs Victor Bruce drove a two-litre AC from John O’Groats to Monte Carlo in mid-winter without stopping. She then proceeded to do a further 8,000-mile loop down through Italy, Sicily, over to North Africa and up through Spain before finishing at the banked-circuit of Montlhéry where she covered a further 1,000 miles on the track, just to prove that she had the stamina.

Then there was Gwenda Stewart-Hawkes who, as an ambulance-driver during the Great War, became an expert at dodging shell craters before becoming obsessed with breaking speed records, first on motorbikes and then in cars, including an ERA. When Brooklands banned night-racing because of the noise, she upped sticks and moved to France to race at Montlhéry. She had three husbands over the course of her colourful life, including Colonel Janson, director of the Spyker car company, and Douglas Hawkes, one of her mechanics.

Today, there are just as many talented women drivers at the wheel, who are to be celebrated next month with a brand new feature at the Hampton Court Palace Concours d’Elegance, which takes place over the weekend of 2-4 September 2022. The Levitt Concours, as it will be known, has been named after Dorothy Levitt (1882-1922) a pioneering motor racer, aviatrix and motorboat racer who died 100 years ago this year.

Taking place on Saturday 3rd September, the concours is a one-day event which starts at the Guards Polo Club in Windsor Park. There, a group of some 30 carefully selected cars owned and driven by women will congregate before making the journey – hopefully in glorious late summer weather – to the gardens of Hampton Court Palace, arriving at 11am. Once there, they will be put on display and judged by the panel of judges made up of modern day racers and motoring journalists.

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