Patsy Burt

Patricia Mary "Patsy" Burt (10 July 1928, Chelsea, London – 4 October 2001) was a British motor racing driver.

During a long and varied career, Patsy Burt won many British national-level competitions, and was the first female driver ever to win the Brighton Speed Trials and the RAC National Sprint Championship. Her run at Brighton in 1968 set a new outright course record, which went unbeaten until 1975. She was also, in 1961, the first British driver of either sex to participate in a full season of the European Mountain Championship. For nearly three decades, Patsy Burt's powder-blue racing cars were a familiar sight, usually placed well up the leader board, at most British hillclimb and sprint races.

Her 42 outright victories and nearly 100 national, international, and ladies' records make Patsy Burt one of the most successful British female racing drivers of all time. Her achievements earned her membership of the British Racing Drivers' Club, an institution few women are ever invited to join.

Patsy Burt's introduction to motor sport was through her father, Eric Burt, who was himself an accomplished racing driver. After initially disliking visits to the Brooklands circuit to watch her father and others competing on the high speed Surrey banking, following World War II she trained as a riding instructor. However, she remained in contact with motor racing through her father's involvement with the Junior Car Club, and occasionally spectated at the Goodwood Circuit, one of Britain's few post-war motor racing venues. Eventually she was tempted into taking part herself, and began her driving career at the wheel of a Jowett Javelin in 1953.

Initially her driving was restricted to rallying and driving tests, through which she eventually earned works drives for a number of manufacturers including BMC, Triumph and Ford. However, it was not long before she also began to take part in circuit races, and she worked her way up from her Javelin firstly to a Jaguar XK120, and then an Aston Martin DB2/4. It was while driving the Aston at Goodwood in 1955 that she overheard a male spectator's comment that she would later cite as a major motivating factor in her future career: "Look, a woman driving. Oh, what a waste of a beautiful motor car".

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