Carlisle, Christabel

[johngee]

I'd like to mention Christobell Carlisle who raced a mini in the '60's. I seem to remember her giving some of the established saloon car drivers a pretty hard time. I think she was a school teacher and very pretty but that's about all I can remember

[rbs]

She also drove an Austin Healey Sprite. If I remember correctly she had a bad accident at Silverstone that finished her racing career. She is now
Lady ????.

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by johngee

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Christobell Carlisle who raced a mini in the '60's. I seem to remember her giving some of the established saloon car drivers a pretty hard time. I think she was a school teacher and very pretty but that's about all I can remember

There was an article in Motorsport about her recently - Very quick by all accounts.

[johngee]

Originally Posted by rbs

She also drove an Austin Healey Sprite. If I remember correctly she had a bad accident at Silverstone that finished her racing career. She is now
Lady ????.

You've jogged my memory. I seem to think that the accident involved hitting a marshal and she was (hardly surprisingly!) very badly affected by it. I didn't know she'd become a Lady but she was quite an 'upmarket' girl!

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by johngee

You've jogged my memory. I seem to think that the accident involved hitting a marshal and she was (hardly surprisingly!) very badly affected by it. I didn't know she'd become a Lady but she was quite an 'upmarket' girl!

Just dug the article out and she did retire after an accident at Silverstone in which a Marshal unfortunately died.

Since then she has climbed Kilimanjaro, walked from Lands End to John O'Groats for her 60th birthday, walked the Iberian Peninsula and also has an MA in Architectural History - obviously still quite a lady!

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by Alan Raine

Just dug the article out and she did retire after an accident at Silverstone in which a Marshal unfortunately died.

By weird coincidence, I started to sort out my old Autosports last night and one of the first issues my eyes fell upon was that of July 26th 1963. It included the race that Christabel was in, which was one of the support races for the British GP. She was in a 3 way dice, when she lost control of the Sprite coming through Woodcote and hit the pit wall and the scrutineer, Harold Scree. He was only there to try and identify who was was dropping oil on the circuit (was that the cause of Christabel's accident?) and very sadly died of his injuries.

[John Fielden]

By the way it is Christabel and she was the prettiest thing on the circuit.

(Thread title amended, thank you, John - JT)

[Salsin]

Her Mini had the registration number CMC77.
She also published a book in 1963 called "Mini Racing" - its a softback only 58 pages, about A5 in size, which I have in my own book collection. There are 2 copies currently for sale on "Bookfinder" - at about £40.
Mike Dodman