Rosemary Smith's passion for speed is undiminished even at 83 years old

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At 79 years of age Rosemary is the oldest person ever to test drive an F1 car
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At 79 years of age Rosemary is the oldest person ever to test drive an F1 car

In the course of her career, Rosemary Smith, one of Ireland's top racing drivers, completed 75 accredited National, European and World Championship rallies.

Three outright victories, many Ladies' class wins and some seven retirements are recorded in her log book.

Add in a test drive in a F1 Renault just three years ago, at the tender age of 79, and one can see that the passage of time has scarcely diminished Smith's appetite for speed.

"I've been driving for some 66 years", declares the now 83-year-old Dubliner. "I put down 17 years on the age section for my licence, but I was actually only 16. Nobody checked. There was no test."

A chance encounter with Delphine Biggar, the wife of Monte Carlo Rally winner Frank Biggar, gave Smith an unexpected opening into rally sport in the late 1950s.

"Delphine was a customer in my fashion business. When she invited me to go rallying with her, it was quickly apparent that I was a better driver than a navigator".

In 1962, in her first Circuit of Ireland Rally, Smith drove a Sunbeam Rapier. Biggar was then replaced by Rosemary Seers for the Tour de France and RAC rallies in September and November.

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Rosemary Smith has been competing in motorsport since the 1950s

Undaunted by mountain accident

Her first outing in the Monte Carlo Rally ended in a serious accident on the Alpine sections in January 1963.

"We went off on a hairpin bend. The car rolled several times. The trees stopped us. My co-driver Rosemary was thrown clear of the car and badly injured. Thankfully she recovered."

Within weeks, Smith was back behind the wheel and winning the Ladies class in the Circuit of Ireland.

Undaunted by that perilous mountain incident, Smith made the finish line in Monaco in 1964, 51 places behind the winner Paddy Hopkirk.

Her ascent towards the top level of rally sport continued with eighth place overall, and the Ladies' class again, on the Easter weekend Circuit.

Smith's breakthrough came in 1965 when she and co-driver Valerie Domeleo-Morley drove a Hillman Imp to first place in the Dutch Tulip Rally.

'A lot of the men thought we were driving too slowly'

"A lot of the men thought we were driving too slowly. In their eyes, we were dolly birds, only there for the glamour photograph. How wrong they were. The best way to counteract those attitudes was to drive faster and win".

Falling asleep at the wheel remains one of the many hazards that endurance rally drivers fear. Smith's false eyelashes served more than a cosmetic purpose. They acted as an early warning system should she begin to nod off.

Lack of concentration wasn't a factor in the 1966 Monte Carlo, where Smith and Domeleo-Morley thought they had won the Coupe des Dames only to be excluded along with all the other Hillman Imps: "It was something to do with the size of the headlights. Honestly!", says Smith.

Of all the continents, mountain passes and river valleys that Smith has criss-crossed down the decades, it is her performance with Pauline Gullick in the World Rally Championship in Kenya in 1974 that gives her the greatest sense of achievement.

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Rosemary has completed 75 accredited National, European and World Championship rallies

"At the East African Safari, I was driving a Datsun Bluebird with bull bars to push things out of the way", she recalls. "Dust and gumbo pink mud was everywhere."

"A bridge had been washed away and the detour would have taken too long. Pauline waded across the river to check the depth.

"The water was only up to her ankles and we crossed safely. Thinking about it now, there could have been crocodiles. It was a crazy thing to ask her to do".

Their eventual 16th place finish in the 5000 kilometre rally depended on intervention from above.

"We got stuck in a pothole and couldn't lift the car out. Then a small plane appeared from nowhere and landed on the road. Two men came to our aid. We were on the road in minutes and they flew off. We'd no idea who they were or where they went".

In her final Circuit of Ireland outing in 1985, Smith finished well down the field. All the attention was on an absorbing battle at the front between the Opel Mantas of Jimmy McRea, Russell Brookes and Bertie Fisher.

Renault F1 Test

Rosemary Smith had one last blast of real speed when Renault invited her to the Circuit Paul Ricard in 2017 to test drive an F1 car.

"A friend told me that I was too old to be doing this, but the Renault team checked I could handle the car before letting me loose by myself.

"Once I got to know the track, I was fine. The power at my fingertips was incredible.

"At the end, the mechanics gave me a standing ovation. They told me that Jeremy Clarkson had been there before me and he had stalled the car.

"But I hadn't", she declares with glee. "Not bad for the oldest person ever to test drive an F1 car."

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