Cars’ racing is considered to be a men’s hobby. But times are changing, and it’s becoming more common to meet women at the start, not only as a navigator, but also as a pilot. Sisters Anna and Louise Getley are among those who repeatedly refute established stereotypes and pave their way to the top behind the wheel of a pre–war Bentley. Anna and Louisa Getley have spoken about racing, family business and future plans In an interview with AutoClassicNews.
-How did you become interested in retro cars?
-Vintage Bentleys have always been part of our family and we grew up around them, with our Dad working in Bentley restoration. Our much loved family car, DD (a ¾.5 litre from 1924), was bought by our grandfather in the 50s as his university get-around. This is the car my Dad then learnt to drive in and subsequently race. It seemed almost inevitable that we would catch the Bentley bug and follow in their footsteps. We are now the third generation to race DD at Le Mans, which felt very special.
-Who was the first suggested participating the race?
-Our Dad was the first to suggest getting involved in vintage racing, which I think he was fairly surprised to hear us turn around and say we would love to give it a go. After a few practice runs around the back streets of Bicester, we were suddenly on our way to our very first race a couple of months later.
He probably thought we didn’t have any interest! But it turned out to be the complete opposite and we’ve seriously caught the racing bug now. It’s become a real family affair (unfortunately for our mother…).
-Do you remember your first race?
-Our first race was at Donington back in 2023. The two races there were part of our 6 race crash course we did in order to get a National Race license, enabling us to compete at Le Mans a few weeks following. Louisa took DD for our first race and managed to get on pole in qualifying, but ended the race in second place after some chicane issues. It was all a steep learning curve, but we have a bit of a all-or-nothing attitude to racing so this particular Baptism of Fire set us up well to go to France.
-You participate races at Goodwood, Silverstone, and Porto. What is the most difficult part of racing a pre-war car for you?
-The most challenging part about driving a pre-war car is definitely learning to Double-D Clutch. The gears have taken a lot of getting used to and our Dad has been very patient with us as we’ve gone up and down the local country roads occasionally crunching through the gears.
Funnily enough the pedals being switched has been quite easy to adapt to! We’ve had to build our muscles a bit for the steering but we’ve enjoyed driving the Bentleys so much.
-What motivates you to participate in races?
-We just really enjoy being out of the track and taking the car around all these different circuits. The Bentley is a car that you really have to get involved in driving, and we have so much fun flying it through corners like Le Rouge in Spa and along the Mulsanne Straight at Le Man, there really is no other feeling like it. DD is a surprisingly light car and has more grip than you would expect – there have been a couple of sticky moments where we’ve flown into a corner too fast, but the car has caught us.
-Are there any plans to participate, in addition, for example, in historical rallies?
-We have taken part in the HeroERA Rally for the Ages for two years running, winning our class both times. We really enjoyed it and have been looking to take part in more rallies going forward.
We’d like to get a bit more involved in rallying, and we are keen to give trialling a go! We haven’t convinced our father to let us get the car soaked in mud yet though…
-You were recognized as the best lady driver and the best young driver among the members of the Bentley Drivers Club in 2023. Is recognition important to you?
-We appreciate the recognition we have been shown as it is always nice to receive awards, but we are just out there to have fun and show other women that anyone can be involved in vintage racing and we need more women to join us! We’ve had a lot of fun being competitive and would love to see more girls joining us out on track.
-The Bentley was an everyday car for your grandparents. Have you ever drive a car in everyday life or only on race tracks?
-We love driving DD around the country lanes when we get the opportunity, sometimes taking her down to our Autnie’s café or going for a spin around Bicester. We also drove her down to Le Mans when we raced there and to spa last year too. It involved long stints of driving but it was enjoyable to last down the autobahns in Belgium and through the landscape of southern France. We also always get a few horn beeps and waves as we travel down the motoroways, which we always enjoy.
-Your father founded Kingsbury Racing. What role do you play in the company?
-Unfortunately, we don’t have much of a role to play in the company as we lack any serious mechanical knowledge. We’ve been trying to learn some basic mechanical maintenance through our Dad, but certainly not enough to have any role in the company’s running.
-Do you plan to continue the family business in the future?
-We’ve really enjoyed becoming a bigger part of it — we don’t have the engineering’s skill sets at the moment but we are very keen to learn more. We’ve been trying recently to learn more about engine building and doing our own repairs (although with a lot of help at the moment). It’s something we would love to do so watch this space!