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.....Right from the start, though, it was Louise Aitken who set several fastest Fiesta times, and she undoubtedly impressed Ford by having three-times Marathon winner Andrew Cowan working for her in a chase car.
All 15 women finished in the following Lakeland Stages rally, this time with Jayne Neate winning and Louise upending her car after one of the stages. It was immediately obvious how hard they were all trying, but more than one admitted to difficulty with full throttle on the long straights.
Easter Monday at Mallory Park and a Silverstone race two weeks later were where those with circuit experience suddenly shone. Solihull policewoman, Lynn Jensen took pole position at Mallory while Edna Eagleton of Hexham won at Silverstone. At this point Louise Aitken was trailing, but bolstering from Andrew Cowan and her brother made her much more aggressive for the rest of the season.
Ford legend and PR man Gilbert Staepelaere then fixed a one-off race with the Zolder organisers in Belgium, and it would be true to say that the Belgians didn't know what had hit them. It didn't count for the championship but Lynn Jensen beat everyone else out of sight and Louise Aitken was well-placed.
By mid-season, the innovative championship, was as tight as ever and although two cars had been written off and speedily rebuilt, there were full fields from start to finish.
By this time almost every car had been scraped, nibbled, shunted or rolled, but the girls were still raring to go.
Lesley Cowcill still led, but Geunda Eadie (who loved circuit racing) was behind, Jayne Neate was third, and Edna Eagleton was fourth. Louise Aitken? Not yet figuring, but the second-half surge was to come.
A pattern began to set, with Geunda ready to win races and Fiona Butterfield and Vivien Ayres always competitive. Then came the Halewood Stages - held mainly on Eppynt tarmac - where Louise Aitken and Anne Kidd simply pulverised their opposition. In only two hours of competitive rallying, Louise took the Fiesta category by 92 seconds and completely outclassed her rivals. It was a startling performance that wasn't likely to give her the Championship, but it impressed the hell out of everyone watching, including observers from Ford.
Geunda Eadie reinforced her tarmac skills in the Oulton Park race, making it her fourth outright victory in 10 events. By this time she had nothing to prove, the championship was already going her way. Mary Fullerton crashed and broke her collarbone, sadly ending her hopes......
Captions -
Top-Left - As a reward for winning the Faberge series, Geunda drove this works Group 2 Fiesta 1600 on the Lombard-RAC Rally of 1979.
Bottom-Left - The Faberge Fiestas carried the same numbers throughout the season - No.68 was always driven by Edna Eagleton and No.63 by Fiona Butter field. This was the start of the Silverstone race.
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