Race Like Roberta Elizabeth Marshall Cowell and Charlie Christina Martin

Friday was International Women's Day, and this week I plan on continuing with that theme. There are many lists online in the form of "Verb," like "Name of Woman Known For That Action." This week I will be playing with that type of list, so today we start with Race Like Roberta Elizabeth Marshall Cowell and Charlie Christina Martin.

 

Roberta Elizabeth Marshall Cowell, born Robert Marshall Cowell in 1918, was a pioneer in motor racing, women's history, and LGBTQ+ history. She is the first known woman to undergo gender reassignment surgery in Britain. Cowell was obsessed with cars and mechanical engineering from an early age, and from 1936 until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, she focused on engineering and motor racing. She studied engineering at University College, London, and worked as a mechanic, preparing for the Donington Grand Prix and competing at Brooklands and the Belgian Grand Prix.

In 1940, her racing career was interrupted by the Second World War. She served in the Royal Air Force, flying combat and aerial reconnaissance missions. In 1944, she was shot down by ground fire and taken prisoner by German forces. During her time in captivity, Cowell created a new racing design for the Grand Prix and taught automotive engineering to fellow prisoners.

After the war, she returned to auto racing in 1946 and participated in various events. After transitioning she was featured on the cover of Picture Post magazine in 1954 and returned to racing in the late 1950s. By 1954, her change of legal gender had restricted her from competing in Grand Prix motor racing. Additionally, her later life was marred by financial troubles, culminating in her filing for bankruptcy in 1958. Although she continued racing into the 1970s, she soon fell out of public life. She later died on October 11, 2011 at age 93.

Charlie Christina Martin is a British racing car driver and transgender rights activist who competes in endurance racing. Born in Leicester, UK, Martin began her career in 2006 in the Hillclimb Leaders Championship and moved on to race in the European Hill Climb Championship in 2014. She has also participated in the Trophee Tourisme Endurance and the Race of Remembrance, an endurance event that raises money for the Mission Motorsport charity.

In 2018, Martin joined the Richardson Racing team to compete in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge, the official support category for the British GT Championship. She completed her first test of LMP3 endurance racing machinery at Circuit de Chambley with the Racing Experience team in a Ligier JSP3 car. In July 2018, Martin was announced as a member of the Electric Production Car Series Drivers’ Club.

Martin will be competing in the 2019 Michelin Le Mans Cup, joining Luxembourgian brothers Gary and David Hauser on the Racing Experience team. She will compete in a 5-liter, 420-bhp Norma M30 LMP3 car. In March 2020, Martin became the first transgender person to compete in the German VLN Championship, driving a BMW M240i in the series for the Adrenalin Motorsport team.

Martin is the first transgender driver to be affiliated with FIA Formula E and joins other female drivers who have either competed in the series or participated in test events. She is the great-granddaughter of engineer Percy Martin and part-owner of the machine tool company that he founded in 1921.

Martin is transgender and has used her status as a prominent racing driver to raise awareness of LGBT and transgender rights. She was influenced by trans model Caroline Cossey and led a campaign for drivers to run with rainbow stickers on their cars during the 2018 Ginetta GT5 Challenge and British GT round at Silverstone.

Martin was announced as Stonewall's first sports ambassador as part of the charity's Rainbow Laces campaign and became the first-ever racing driver to join Athlete Ally's ambassador program. In June 2019, she was announced as an ambassador for Racing Pride, an initiative developed in partnership with Stonewall UK to promote LGBT+ inclusivity within the motorsport industry.