Rally Driver Pat Moss-Carlsson Dead at 73

In an era when women were supposed to be confined to the kitchen, a handful of trailblazing females made their name in a predominately male profession; motorsports. Namely Betty Skelton Erde - once the fastest woman on earth, Janet Guthrie - the first woman ever to compete in the Indianapolis and Daytona 500, and Pat Moss - considered to be one of the most famous women in British motorsport.

Pat Moss-Carlsson pasted away on October 14th, 2008 after losing her fight with leukemia. Moss is survived by her husband, Erik Carlsson, daughter Suzy and her racing legend brother, Sir Stirling Moss.

Pat’s first started her sporting life competing in equestrian events until at 17, Sir Stirling's manager Ken Gregory took her on a rally. She enjoyed it so much, that it wasn’t long after she was competing regularly in British rallies with her Morris Minor convertible. Moss’s successes on the track grew, but it was when she took to driving a Healey 100/6 and won a fourth place on the Liège, and led the Healey team to win the Manufacturer’s Award, that people started to take notice. It was the first time that a lady driver had finished in the top ten on that grueling event, and the points gained assured her of the Ladies European Champion title.

In 1964 Pat Moss married Erik Carlsson, a rally driver for Saab. Despite a tempting offer from Ford, Pat joined her husband and became a part of the racing team. In the four years with Saab, she was third on the Acropolis, and fourth on both the Liège-Sofia-Liège and RAC Rally, all in 1964, third on the savage Monte Carlo of 1965, and third on the Czech Rally of 1967 in the new Saab 96.

The British publication TimesOnline.com delivered a moving obituary outlining Moss's racing career, and in it they write:

In the two decades of her career she had shown unequivocally that, where speed and stamina counted, there was every reason that a woman driver could succeed against the men. Certainly to the male drivers of that golden period, she was a genuine rival.

We also found an article dated January, 2005 titled Portrait of a driver: Pat Moss-Carlsson, where Moss spoke about one of her most frightening accidents.

"I was at Solitude in Germany with the Healey and it was bucketing down. I was at the back and there were AC Cobras at the front and all the big stuff, and I managed to pass them all - stupid, I suppose, in the rain - and I aquaplaned on the last bend. So I went into the sleepers and one sleeper went into the front wheel and through the passenger seat and the car turned end over end down the bank. Apparently from the hotel you could see the car in the air, flying over the timing box..." She drags wistfully on a cigarette. "That was a nasty one."

Despite the seriousness of the accident, Pat's immediate concern at the time was to recover the sidescreens from the Healey because good ones were difficult to come by. "And then Eric came howling down the bank and pulled the sidescreen off so I could get out. I was so angry. I said, 'You've ruined the bloody thing now'."

In the article we also learned that Pat had three points on her drivers license from speeding in her Saab 9-5 Aero Estate. "It's pleasant to drive," she says of it. "It has a button on top of the gearstick with an 'S' on it for Sport that makes it go like hell when you press it."

Our condolences and thoughts are with the family and friends of Pat Moss-Carlsson.

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