Born: Unknown (circa 1900), Australia (assumed)
Died: Unknown
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: NA
Racecar driver Marie Jenkins rose to prominence in 1920s Australia, including racing at the Maroubra Speedway opening meeting in December 1925. She became the first woman to win a race at the steeply banked and notoriously dangerous circuit (two other racers had died while practicing), beating the likes of Phil Garlick and Hope Bartlett the following month. The Newcastle Herald reported, in standard misogynistic fashion, “though she owed her victory to the generous way she had been treated by the handicappers. She is the first woman to win an event at the Speedway, and she received a great ovation from the spectators, particularly the fair sex.” In her Type-13 Bugatti Brescia, the Yarra (Melbourne) resident repreatedly placed first in her races, earning the moniker “queen of speed” by The Australian Women’s Mirror. But it wasn’t all victories – shortly before her first Maroubra race, she’d rolled her car in a race at the Aspendale Motordrome. As reported in the 9 November 1925 edition of Broken Hill (NSW)’s Barrier Miner:
WOMAN SPEED MOTORIST NARROWLY ESCAPES DEATH
Melbourne, Monday, Miss Marie Jenkins, a champion woman driver, narrowly, escaped-death, when racing in a handicap at the Aspendale speedway on Saturday. Her car skidded, when travelling at 55 miles an hour and somersaulted. Many people thought that she must have been killed, but she sprang to her feet merely shaken. She said she would not give up racing.