One of the first female NASCAR drivers in the world, Ethel Mobley, has competed in over 100 NASCAR events throughout her long and successful career. She showed great promise from the start, and would often finish in the top ten when it came to car racing. One of her best-known achievements was placing 8th at the Daytona Beach Road Course. Ethel was part of a legendary Flock racing family, with three of her brothers: Tim, Fonty, and Bob Flock actually helping pioneer NASCAR in the first place.
According to Tim Flock, one of Mobley’s NASCAR racing brothers, Ethel was named after the gasoline her father used in his car. In 1949, she became the first female racing driver to ever compete against men in the state of Georgia. Mobley was the top woman driver in the southeastern United States and regularly placed first in all-women races.
Erica Thiering
Erica Thiering is a seven-time NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Champion and began her racing career when she was just sixteen years old in the Edmonton International Raceways four-cylinder class. She often dedicates her races to her sister, Erica, who sadly passed away.
The Canadian race car driver comes from Sherwood Park, Alberta, and claims to dream of one day becoming an astronaut. It’s not every day that an unknown racer from Alberta makes it to NASCAR, which just goes to show that with enough talent, hard work, and dedication — anything is possible.
Erika Monforte
Erika Monforte was born in 1989 at the Zoppola, a commune in the Province of Pordenone, Italy. She showed great promise as a racing driver from a very young age and made her first attempt to compete in amateur tracks more than a decade ago. Her father, Maurizio Monforte, was also a professional racing driver and retired back in 1998.
The up-and-coming Italian race car driver got herself into a few serious races over the years, including the Abarth 500 Italia as well as the Mugello Circuit and the Superstars GT Sprint Championship with a Porsche 997. In mid-2014, Erika Monforte made her NASCAR debut and placed 9th, winning the female category. She’s also the proud mother of two daughters, Matilde and Sofia.
Natacha Gachnang
The highly accomplished racer Natacha Gachnang has been in 16 races since her debut in 2009. Gachnang is also the cousin of former Formula One driver, Sébastien Buemi. Perhaps car racing is a family thing… or not. Either way, she's that good!
At age 22, Gachnang found herself the victim of a dramatic car accident when trying to qualify for the inaugural FIA GT1 World Championship race in Abu Dhabi. Luckily, she didn't require any surgery and recovered quite fast. That same year, she became a member of the world's first all-female crew, and raced at the Le Mans 24 hours in 1991 and again in 2013. There’s no doubt that Gachnang had to face many obstacles on her path to becoming an accomplished NASCAR driver, but that just makes her respectable record even more impressive.
Chrissy Wallace
Chrissy Wallace's racing credentials begin with her immediate and extended family. As the daughter of Mike Wallace, the pro-NASCAR driver, and also the family member of Rusty, Kenny, and Steve Wallace, Chrissy has been firmly established in the racing culture right from birth. In 2007, she became the first female driver to ever win the Hickory Motor Speedway race in North Carolina. Her NASCAR debut occurred in 2008 when she participated in their Craftsman Truck Series and finished in 18th place.
Since then, Wallace has managed to secure other victories and records, such as being the first woman to win an American Speed Association Late Model track championship at the Lebanon I-44 Speedway. This was the same track where her father, Mike, won the championship more than two decades before.