Eliska Junkova

Eliška Junková (16 November 1900 – 5 January 1994), born Alžběta Pospíšilová and also known as Elizabeth Junek, was a Czechoslovakian automobile racer. She is regarded as one of the greatest female drivers in Grand Prix motor racing history.

The sixth of eight children born to a blacksmith in Olomouc, Moravia, Austro-Hungarian empire, she was nicknamed smíšek at an early age for her ever-present smile. Following the end of World War I, when her native Bohemia became part of the new republic of Czechoslovakia, she found work in the Olomouc branch of the Pražská úvěrová banka (Prague Credit Bank) thanks to her multilingual skills, honed through her desire to travel the world. It was here that she met Vincenc "Čeněk" Junek, an ambitious young banker who shared her fascination with speed, and who would eventually become her husband.

Work took her first to Brno, then Prague, then abroad to France and Gibraltar, although bureaucracy prevented her travelling as far as North Africa, London or Ceylon, as had been her original intention. She returned to Paris to be reunited with her love, who by this time had become wealthy enough to indulge his automotive passions.

Eliska later recalled: "If he is going to be the love of my life, then I better learn to love these damned engines." But she too soon fell for the charms of sports cars of the time, especially Bugattis. They returned to Prague in 1922, where she took clandestine driving lessons to obtain her license. Meanwhile, Čeněk had started racing in earnest. He won the Zbraslav-Jíloviště hillclimb in 1922, the year they finally married.

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