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.....were run she was consequently photographed leaving home in the morning carrying her school bag.
The other drivers came from all corners - hotel receptionists, shop owners, motor trader's daughters, turkey farm owners, RAF servicemen's wives and policewomen among them. Only Louise had no previous motorsport experience, while others - Lesley Cowcill and Geunda Eadie - were already known on the club racing and rallying scene.
John Taylor ran a number of elimination sessions on airfields or in quarries to find the right racers. He used Group 1 Escort RS2000 Mklls from Ford's popular Rally School, after which the top 30 faced a final two-day knockout in Yorkshire. Following that, Stuart Turner cornered Charles Reynolds, John Taylor and me for our recommendations. We all agreed on one thing, this unknown girl from Duns in Berwickshire (where Jim Clark and Andrew Cowan were locals) Louise Aitken, was more impressive than any of the others, quite without fear, and quite unimpressed by any of her rivals.
We suggested pumping all of Ford's and Faberge's money into a programme for her, but Stuart didn't agree.
"No, I want to run a Championship for them all. If we link 15 women to 15 RS dealers, then kit them out in identical cars and clothing, just think of the publicity we'll get."
And so it was. John organised more pre-season training and the series was launched at the Royal Garden Hotel in London in January 1979 by Jackie Stewart.
Some of the drivers were, and still are, relatively unknown. On the other hand, Louise went on to prove her promise, Jayne Neate became Jayne Wignall (and is still a great force in Historic rallying), Felicity Kerr later married Historic Escort rally driver Charles Golding, and Julie Speechley went on to marry John Taylor.
Theirs was to be a one-make Championship, the chosen cars being newly-launched Fiesta 1 SOOSs in Group 1 tune, with the optional alloy wheels and a Dunlop control tyre regulation, decked out in Faberge Kiku yellow and brown livery. Although there was relatively generous prize money for every event, the real reward was a works drive. To earn that, competitors had to show serious potential.
At the start, some of the girls had a lot to learn. In the elimination stages, some already regular competitors were so cocky that they spilled cones in the driving tests, and span off when driving unfamiliar RS2000s.
Event organisers were helpful in the Championship. Separate Faberge-Fiesta races were organised at BRSCC race meetings - one each at Mallory Park, Silverstone, Donington Park, Brands Hatch, Oulton Park and Thruxton - while six rallies in the BTRDA Championship were also tackled. Ford tried to help preparation by providing stronger Group 1 parts including tubular Panhard rods for the rear suspension. As championship manager, I bought and ran an identical yellow, but standard, Fiesta 1300S to the race cars. On more than one occasion it had to be robbed of parts to keep a championship car going. There was one memorable instance at Thruxton when a car broke its gearbox in qualifying. The competitor wanted to steal mine to save time on repairs and offered her body as payment. I'm still not sure if she was joking.
Although a number of RS dealers were making their first foray into motorsport, amazingly, all the cars were ready for the first event, the Dukeries Rally. The biggest drama had already come at a pre-season test day in Bardon Quarry where Trudi Smith rolled her Kidderminster Motors car and a lot of panel-bashing was needed to get it looking right.
14 finished that first rally, with Lesley Cowcill (Ringways Garage of Crewe) at the top above all but two of the Escort 1300 men running in a parallel one-make championship. Red faces all round......
Captions -
Top-Right - Louise (left) and her co-driver Anne Kidd before the 1979 series began. Anne was still at school when chosen.
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