13/8/1946
Record updated 10-Mar-08
Divina Galica MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) is best known for her Olympics career and her motorsport racing career.
Divina Galica was born in Bushey Heath, near Watford, Hertfordshire.
She participated in her first Olympic games at Innsbruck 1964, competing in downhill skiing and the slalom. She also participated in the next two winter Olympics, at Grenoble 1968 and Sapporo 1972. Galica, a two-time captain of the British Women’s Olympic Ski Team, also briefly held the downhill skiing speed record at 125 mph.
She accepted an invitation to compete in a celebrity auto race at Oulton Park and surprised everyone. She eventually took up motorsport as a second career, racing in karts, sports cars, trucks, and even Formula One, racing a Nick Whiting run Surtees TS16 in the ShellSport F1 series in 1976. She also reintroduced the number 13 to the Grand Prix world by entering the British Grand Prix that year but in the end failed to qualify. The number had only been used once, by Moises Solana at the Italian GP in 1963, since Giulio Masetti died in a Maserati carrying the No.13 when taking part in the Targa Florio in 1926. She drove a Nick Whiting run Surtees TS16.
In 1977 Nick Whiting acquired a TS19 to replace the ageing TS16 and Davina put in some spirited performances finishing on the podium a number of times.
She entered two rounds of the World Championship in 1978 for the Hesketh team failing to qualify for the Argentine and Brazilian GPs. After that she reverted to her trusted TS19 in the Aurora F1 championship before swapping the Surtees for a McLaren M23.
Her racing career included stints in Formula Renault, Formula Vauxhall Lotus, and Formula 2.
She was made a Member of the British Empire for her sporting exploits and also one-time holder of the F1 car lap record at Donington Park race circuit in the UK.
Galica is now a senior vice president with Skip Barber Racing, managing both its driving school and racing series.