Rosemary Smith set out to prove that women drivers could do as well as men
The queen of world rallying died on December 5th, aged 86
As she battled through her first Monte Carlo rally in 1962, Rosemary Smith learned later, a man was closely observing her. For fully two hours he followed her twists and turns in the terrible weather, the snow and sleet. It wasn’t so much her driving he was appraising, though she could pull out of a skid on an icy road as well as anybody, having learned that when driving the big old family Vauxhall on wet Irish grass at the age of 11. No; he was enjoying the rarity of seeing a woman in a rally at all.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Backwards up the Khyber”
From the February 10th 2024 edition
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