BROOKLANDS WOMAN RACER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 15, 19 January 1933, Page 13

BROOKLANDS WOMAN RACER.

Visiting Dunedin as the guest of Captain and Mrs. Hyde, of Elder Street, is Miss H. Mabel Lister, a quite intrepid motor car racing enthusiast. Miss : Lister was one of the first women to' join the Brooklands Automobile Racing Club, and with her Aston Martin racing car to compete on the famous Brooklands track at Weybridge, about twenty miles out of London. She has had an interesting career. One of the many girls that the war shook out of a quiet, sheltered life, she got her knowledge of cars and driving in the stirring years 1914-18, and became imbued with a love of speedy travel. Possessed of a versatile personality, many other interests called her attention, and taking up dancing as a profession she was for some years a member of the Russian Ballet. Latterly, however, motor racing has been her hobby, and her little racing car with its slight girlish driver has become a familiar figure on the track. Brooklands is the home of English motor racing. The built-up track, shaped somewhat like a figure of 8, has seen many records established and in turn broken. On a bank holiday or a fine Saturday afternoon in the season as many as 10,000 spectators gather there to watch the cars speed round. There is always, just that element of danger in the sport that makes it appeal to the Britisher, but Miss Lister cannot claim that she has been at grips with death at any time while driving. Her nearest approach came when a woman novice on finishing her round saw a friend at the barrier and cheerfully cut across the course at an angle. Needless to say the cars following closely (including Miss Lister's) were put to it to avoid a merry mix-up. Within quite a short time we have been visited by three most modern English sportswomen, states "The Evening Star," Dunedin. Miss Fay Taylour, the dirt track rider; Lady Chaytor, the flying enthusiast; and now Miss Lister, our first woman motor racer. Each of these has demonstrated strikingly-to us that thrilling sport is no longer the sole prerogative of mere man.