Ivy Cummings (19011971) was an early racing car driver, reputedly the youngest person ever to lap

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, ...

. In 2009 her Bugatti car sold for over £2m.

Biography

Ivy Leona Cummings was born in Edmonton on 27 October 1901 to Sydney George and Edith Cummings (née Mann). She had two younger brothers, Sydney Edward, and John. She became a famous British racing car driver as well as running a garage in Putney Bridge Road,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where she repaired and sold cars. In 1913 she claimed to have taken her father's car and completed a lap of Brooklands aged 12. Starts of the 1926 Boulogne Grand Prix

During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Cummings worked in a convalescent home for injured soldiers, and would take them out for trips in her own car. After the war, around 1919, she began racing. She drove a Coupe de l’Auto

Sunbeam A sunbeam, in meteorological optics, is a lightbeam, beam of sunlight that appears to radiate from the position of the Sun. Shining through openings in clouds or between other objects such as mountains and buildings, these beams of light scatter ...

12/16 in a race in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in 1921. In 1922 Cummings won the Duke of York Long Distance Handicap in the same car. She came third in the

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

Senior Short Handicap and then second in the Essex Junior Long Handicap. June and September 1923 saw her win a Bexhill speed trial in a

Bugatti Automobiles Ettore Bugatti was a German then French automotive industry, manufacturer of high performance vehicle, high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then-German Empire, German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the ...

. The second race was in ''Black Bess'', the 5000cc 1913 Bugatti Type 18. Her father Sydney, a car dealer, bought her the car and she named it after

Dick Turpin Richard Turpin (bapt. 21 September 1705 – 7 April 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher ear ...

's horse. She had been driving this car since March so it may have been the same Bugatti throughout, though she did own two. Cummings won the

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 21,128 as of 2021 ...

Speed Trials in this car in 1925. She was one of two women in the event, the other being Cecil Christie in a

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( , ) is an area of South London, within the London Borough of Lambeth. Named after a medieval manor called Fox Hall, it became well known for the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. From the Victorian period until the mid-20th century, Va ...

. In August 1926, she entered the Grand Prix de Boulogne driving a Bugatti but crashed the car during the race, rolling it. She was uninjured and won a cup for highest average speed. Cummings also raced a GN Akela. This was the car she usually used in hillclimbs. She took part in South Harting climb, the Arundell Speed Trial, the Spread Eagle Hill climb, the Aston Clinton hillclimb, the Brighton Speed Trials and the Herne Bay Speed Trails. She also competed in Junior Car Club High Speed Trial at Brookland and the JCC Half Day Trial. Including the GN and the Bugatti Cummings drove a

Frazer Nash Frazer Nash was a brand of British sports car manufactured from 1922 first by Frazer Nash Limited founded by engineer Archibald Frazer-Nash. On its financial collapse in 1927 a new company, AFN Limited, was incorporated. Control of AFN passed ...

and a

Riley Riley may refer to: Businesses * Riley (brand), British sporting goods brand founded in 1878 * Riley Motor, British motorcar and bicycle manufacturera 1890–1969 * Riley Technologies, American auto racing constructor and team, founded by Bob ...

. In 1928, fellow racing driver Winifred Pink wrote that she considered Cummings to be one of the few women in complete control of a car at 80 miles per hour, alongside Mrs Scott and Ruth Urquhart Dykes.

Personal life

Cummings married Stanley Hughes Simpson, a motor engineer, on 25 June 1925 in Holy Trinity, Brompton. In 1928, she married again, to radiologist Dr. Henry Warren-Collins. Shortly after she stopped racing regularly. She stopped running the garages herself in 1928, and gave birth to a daughter Cynthia in 1932. Her brother Sydney earned his pilot's licence at Brooklands and was killed flying with the

Air Transport Auxiliary The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between fac ...

in 1940. Cummings died on 4 December 1971.

Legacy

Her Bugatti '' Black Bess,'' by this time only one of three surviving models, was auctioned by

Bonhams Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought t ...

in 2009 for £2,176,617. It is now on display in the

Louwman Museum The Louwman Museum is a museum for historic cars, coaches, and motorcycles in The Hague, Netherlands. It has been situated on the Leidsestraatweg near the A44 motorway since 2010. The museum's former names are "Nationaal Automobiel Museum" and " ...

in the Netherlands.

References and sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cummings, Ivy 1971 deaths English female racing drivers People from Edmonton, London Sportspeople from the London Borough of Enfield 1901 births 20th-century English sportswomen