I met Divina when I attended Skip Barber racing school in Sebring where she was one of my instructors. We have kept in touch and she has even come to see me race from time to time. She has an unbelievably impressive resume as a racer yet is one of the most humble people I know. I consider her to be a dear friend and I am honored that she has agreed to be the first featured She Racer for the launch of our site.

Divina started her career as an Olympic skier for Great Britain. In fact for a time she held the British downhill speed record - at 125 mph! Her introduction to racing came when one day Divina was invited to drive at a Ford Escort celebrity racing event. She surprised the spectators as she proved to be a natural behind the wheel; working her way up the field and finishing second. She says that her experience as a skier taught her how to follow the fast line and clearly she is comfortable going fast. She was immediately contacted and recruited by John Webb to train and drive for Brands Hatch. Although she got off to a difficult start when during her first race she totaled on the second lap, Webb stuck by her. By the following year he announced that she would move up to a Formula One car and compete in the Shellsport Formule Libre Championship where she finished fourth in the series.

Divina has driven in both Formula 2 and Formula 1 and is one of the only handful of women to participate in a Grand Prix weekend. Unfortunately to date no women have qualified for the actual race. She eventually moved on to the British Sports 2000 sports car class, taking a number of top ten finishes, and racing semi trucks. Divina again demonstrated her drive for success when she joined Skip Barber as an instructor and worked her way up the ranks to become senior vice president. From there she moved on to become a director for IRacing. She currently still instructs for Skip Barber and participates in a Thursday night IRacing league, where she enjoys competing virtually at legendary tracks around the world.

She Racing asked Divina to share some of her experiences and perspectives as a female racer.

Did you have a coach/mentor?

When I started racing in 1974 I did not have a coach as they were not around in those days but I did have a mentor who was John Webb, then Managing Director of Motor Circuit Developments (MCD) a company that owned four tracks in the UK ( Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Snetterton and Mallory Park). John persuaded me to take up racing after seeing me race in a celebrity race and he also persuaded Shell to be my first sponsor and Nick Whiting (brother of Charlie Whiting FIA Formula One Race Director) to run me in his team. Without John's intervention and enthusiasm I never would have taken up motor racing.

What was your most memorable moment?

My most memorable race was in 1977 when racing a Surtees TS19 F1 car in the British Formula One Championship and chasing Tony Trimmer in an identical car at Donington Park Circuit. After more than an hour of racing we finished side by side at the flag and shared outright lap record of the track. Tony won by a nose, it was a very exciting race and one time that I found myself "in the zone" and driving effortlessly with no mistakes.

What was the greatest lesson learned?

The greatest lesson I have learned is that if you don’t have a drive you need to go to as many races as you can and talk to the Teams. The racetrack is also a great place to talk to sponsors.

My advice to any driver even if they have raced for some time is to take a Skip Barber 3-Day Competition School as it will make them a better driver. Plus they should spend a lot of time driving a simulated game such as iRacing.com as they can then learn all the tracks for very little expense and keep their racing skills sharp.

What female racer(s) is she following these days?

I always follow Danica Patrick who I think is a terrific driver and often hammered in the press because she has not won a race in the Sprint Cup Series, the press conveniently forget that many of the drivers she is racing against have not won either. I also follow Simona de Silvestro who is possibly the best female open wheel driver of this decade and I was disappointed that Sauber F1 Team decided not to let her drive for them this year but hopefully she will return to Indycar and I look forward to seeing her race in the US again.

You can read more about Divina and her racing career at the following links:

http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motors...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...