Ladies, we’ve come a long way
One of the first assignments I got when I started in the automotive news beat in the late 1990s was to join the Honda Media Challenge. In essence, we journalists were made to drive a race-tuned car—in this case the Honda City —and beat the time of other media competitors in a closed-off circuit. We were trained by a team of Filipino rally drivers led by Vip Isada.
I have since joined subsequent media motorsport challenges, in particular the Ford Lynx Cup under the Tuason Racing School at the Batangas Racing Circuit and the Subic International Raceway. Getting involved in motorsports also motivated me to join an automotive mechanics course at the Don Bosco Technical Institute to better understand the inner workings of cars. I also expanded my library on motoring literature, buying books about car histories and brand developments.
Included in my stash, of course, are books authored by women for women, such as “Essential Car Care for Women,” and the “Porsche Ladies” (from the Porsche Museum),” which I bought when I visited the museum in 2011.
There were a handful of us women who participated in these motoring media challenges. And I’m mighty proud to see that more and more women have gotten into the driver’s seat in motorsports, both here and abroad, and made their mark. Recently, there’s Bianca Bustamante, a Filipina who made history as the first female in McLaren’s Driver Development Program and a participant in the F1 Academy, a series designed to support female talent in motorsports.
Just last weekend, at the Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippine Cup, three women participated in various categories. One of them was Maila Alivia, 55, of Toyota Isabela, who emerged the champion of Races 1 and 2 of the Super Sporting Class, the highest category in the annual one-make race series.
Maila’s victory was perfect timing, happening this women’s month. She’s no overnight sensation, though. Maila had been in the local motorsport scene since 2004, when she dabbled in extreme 4×4 races. In 2018, she joined circuit racing. In an article about Maila in this section, written by Ronald Delos Reyes, she shared that for years she didn’t win anything, and was on the verge of quitting the sport, until this victory last weekend.
For women during the early years of the automotive industry, getting behind the wheel meant escaping from the “bourgeois constraints,” breaking away from traditional gender roles. This insight from the book “Porsche Ladies” struck me the most.
“For these lone warriors, motor vehicles meant freedom, emancipation and adventure. Against all preconceptions, they self-confidently took their seat behind the wheel and impressively demonstrated their driving skills again and again,” the book expressed, as it featured Bertha Benz, Aloisia Porsche, and the other early women in motorsports. The book narrated that, in August 1888, without the knowledge of husband Carl Benz, Bertha took off with a prototype of the Benz Patent Motor Car on a 194-km trip from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back.
“Bertha Benz was not only the first female car driver in the world, but she contributed to the automobile’s breakthrough with this impressive demonstration: With her long-distance trip, she proved to her hesitant husband that his invention was finally marketable.”
That historic first drive by a woman has been memorialized in the Bertha Benz Memorial Route which the Germany Travel website maps out for any adventurer willing to retrace for himself or herself.
The Germany Travel further narrated: “This authentic route spanning 194 km from Mannheim to Pforzheim via Heidelberg take in plenty of stunning sights along the way … Bertha Benz drove her two sons from Mannheim to Pforzheim via Heidelberg in August of 1988 in the Benz patent motor car that Carl developed. When the tank was empty, she bought three liters of ligroin from a pharmacy in Wiesloch, making this the world’s first petrol station. The water and oil had to constantly be topped and the broken drive chain had to be repaired by a smith in Bruchsal, who also covered the brake pads in leather.
“Later on, Bertha cleaned the blocked fuel line with her hat pin and used her garter for insulation. And her sons did have to push the car once at the edge of the Black Forest.”
The book also featured a poster of female racing driver Ernes Merck in front of the Mercedes-Benz Type S in 1928, designed by Ferdinand Porsche. Ernes, with her bob hairstyle and red racing overalls, became the first professional female race car driver.
Elfriede Junek, a native of Prague, was also one of the best female race drivers of her time. She won her first race in 1923 at the age of 24, and engaged in sensational racing duels with her husband. Her preferred racing machine was a Bugatti, with which she won the 3-liter sports car class at the Grand Prix of Germany at the Nurburgring in 1927.
Louise Piech, daughter of Ferdinand Porsche, was also among the fastest female drivers of those early years. At 18, she obtained her driver’s license and soon indulged in her passion for motorsports. Behind the wheel of the Mercedes designed by her father, she won race after race against her male competitors.
“Women in race cars were a thorn in the side of the National Socialists, since they didn’t fit the ideological conception of the selfless wife and mother in the least,” the “Porsche Ladies” wrote.
Our exciting stories on the fast (and slow) lanes continue, ladies. And in this pivotal era when a sea change in mobility options is rapidly happening right before our eyes, lots of new (and old) barriers need to be broken through.
