MG Motoring 2017 | Page 20

MG Car Club of South Australia
Welcome to the M . G . Wags ' Page

T rust you are all into the swing of

2017 . Many of us , of course , are working towards a successful National Meet at Easter right now . Please make best efforts to support the club at this time by registering to attend and / or volunteering .
Whilst Googling with such search terms as " MG and lady drivers " or similar ; I happened upon the following story of famous women in motor sport in the 1930s . Thought I ' d share the following with you ..........
Girl Racers of the ' 30s .
Into the mid 1930s gloom ....... a world locked in the Great Depression , on the brink of war ....... came Eyston ' s " Dancing Daughters " .
These talented girl-racers were part of a deliberate marketing strategy by MG , in 1935 , to market the handling and reliability of the PA Midget via participation in the gruelling Le Mans 24 hour race . Women ' s relative rarity on the racing scene was just what the MG advertising office could exploit .
Lacking today ' s technological advances ; the Le Mans was a really mean beast then . For example , there were no modern communication links between teams and their pits and especially trying was the night driving with headlamps less powerful than a small torch .
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Three Eyston-coached women-only teams entered the race . ( Geo Eyston was a contemporary racing star ). The results were sensational ..... they all finished the race ( a feat in itself ), and the fact that WOMEN could drive them and at NIGHT ... well , the Midget must be invincible !! However , it took the Dancing Daughters ' superb driving skills to truly highlight the features of the car .
The marketing deal with the girls and MG worked both ways . Being sponsored by a major marque certainly enhanced their future racing careers and certainly did no harm to the sales of the PA Midgets .
Here are some photos of these dashing dames and others of those times :
For a video link of the racing era , go to : https :// youtu . be / s9BVMCN9J44
By Barb Harrington
If you have any submissions for the Wags ' Page ; please email :
Barb Harrington at barbandsteve22 @ iprimus . com . au
marked " Wags ' Page "
PA Midget