An all-female racing team from York are out to show that women can compete in the male dominated world of rallying. Sammi Gabb, from North Duffield, and her co-driver Tracey Cook, Pocklington, are both members of York Motor Club, and have long-standing interests in motor sport.

Gabb, the daughter of local rally driver Charlie Gabb, has been involved in motorsport all her life. Having raced in the past with her navigator Mark Raylor, she has years of experience driving rally cars. Cook has mostly been involved, and still is, in other forms of motor racing, including sprints and hill climbs, which she does at the Auto 66 Club in Scarborough.

After meeting at the Chatsworth Rally Show in June this year, the pair decided to set out as a women-only partnership, as Cook explained: “To further our love of the sport, but also to promote women getting involved in it.”

They were the only all-female pair to take part in the Jane Cowling Memorial Stages in Twyford, Lincolnshire, competing in Class 1 (under 1400cc engines) in a Peugeot 106 Rallye. Successfully navigating a course which nearly half the competitors did not complete, evading the jumps, potholes and loose gravel corners, the racers finished 45th out of 75 overall, and seventh in their class.

Their team are currently sponsored by Autoserv Selby, which provides the crew with specialised mechanics who assist them at their events. Gabb and Cook are now looking for financial backing from local businesses, so that they can compete at an event at the end of July, and then the Barkstone Heath Centenary Stages in August.

To follow the team’s exploits, go to www.twitter.com/girlsrallying, and for more information on sponsoring them, email girlsrallying@hotmail.co.uk. For other devotees interested in getting involved in motorsport, the York Motor Club meets every Wednesday evening at the Fox & Hounds pub in Copmanthorpe.