Joan and Kay, the Riley Belles of Brooklands

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You may know Thelma & Louise, French & Saunders or Wendy & Lisa. All of these female double-acts became famous through the medium of popular culture, but the pre-war motoring world and its own duo of famous ladies: Joan and Kay, and you see them here in this picture. That’s Joan Richmond on the left and Kay Petre on the right, with a works Riley between them, in October, 1933. With just two years separating them, Joan and Kay were teammates and they drove the Riley Brooklands in a number of events. They must have known how to repair it, too. The original caption of this picture reads "Kay Petre and Joan Richmond give a Riley an overhaul."

While they flew the flag for Britain in international motor sport, both girls originated from faraway lands. Joan Richmond was born in Cooma, Australia, and had started her career in training and racing horses in Victoria, until women were banned from doing so in 1932, so she took up motor racing instead. After some local successes, she soon decided to enter her own Riley in the Monte Carlo Rally and drove the car overland(!) in five months to Europe. She travelled to Great Britain next and continued her career in motor sport there, eventually competing in seven Monte Carlo Rallies and two Le Mans 24-hour races.

Born in Ontario, Canada, Kay Petre came from the other side of the world but had spent part of her youth in England, and married an Englishman in 1929 with a soft spot for aviation. Perhaps it was no surprise that she ended up at Brooklands, the racing circuit and aerodrome where she would soon become a well-known figure on the track, setting a number of records there in a variety of cars. She was most successful behind the wheel of Rileys, which, like Joan, she raced and rallied, but also sprinted and hill-climbed. A crash during practice at Brooklands in 1937 spelled the end of her racing career. Coincidentally, Joan Richmond’s fiancé had been involved in another crash at Donington Park just two months earlier. He didn’t survive it.

Words: Jeroen Booij
Picture: PA Images

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