A few female racing trailblazers, here and abroad.

Danica Patrick

She is a world sports star who achieved ground-breaking results at Indianapolis and Daytona, and a win in Japan, but has often struggled to keep with the pace on race day. She has polarised opinions but said: “Racing is, by all means, very male- driven. It ’s mostly men, but in this day and age, those things are shifting.”

Suzie Wolff

The 33-year- old Brit, who is now a TV analyst, was a development driver for the Williams F1 team. On retiring from the track, she said: “Do I think F1 is ready for a competitive female racing driver who can perform at the highest level? Yes. Do I think it is achievable as a woman? Most definitely. Do I think it will happen soon? Sadly, no.” She launched Dare to be Different, a scheme to promote women in motorsport.

Lella Lombardi

There have been only five female F1 entrants and the late Italian is the only one to have notched championship points.

Leanne Tander

The Australian raised the F3 bar for women around the world. “People like to have a go at us. They will try and tell us girls can’t race but there’s a possibility for my daughter to grow up and see girls at the top and they’ll think, ‘OK, that’s an option,” she said in a News Corp interview last year.

Shirley Muldowney

Women have a relatively strong place in American drag racing, and Muldowney (now aged 75) was a celebrated pioneer who beat the opposition on and off the track.

Avalon Biddle

The 23-year- old Orewa motorbike competitor won the inaugural eight-race women’s European title last year.

Emma Gilmour

The Dunedinite was formerly ranked the world’s best women’s rally driver.

Courtney Duncan

The 20-year- old from near Dunedin is close to the top of the world women’s motocross standings.

Katherine Prumm

She raced against Kiwi men, and won the women’s world motocross titles in 2006- 07 before a terrible training accident in Auckland intervened.