Doreen Barbara Mignonette Evans (1916-1982)
Motor racing driver, Bellevue Garage
National Portrait Gallery: "Doreen Barbara Mignonette Evans (née Boyer), by Bassano Ltd. Whole-plate film negative, 21 March 1935"
Doreen Evans tee shirt
National Portrait Gallery: "Doreen Barbara Mignonette Evans (née Boyer) (1916-1982), Motor racing driver"
Sitter in 4 portraits. One of the leading female racing drivers of 1930's. Doreen Evans was the youngest child in a motor-racing family whose business, the Bellevue Garage in Wandsworth, was a leading MG agency. With her brothers Dennis and Kenneth she competed in MGs in the Bellevue team, and at Le Mans in Captain Eyston's 'Dancing Daughters' team.
[NPG: Link.]
[PB: "nee Boyer"? Surely not - she was born into the Evans family, wasn't she? - so was Boyer her husband?]
NPG: "Doreen Barbara Mignonette Evans (née Boyer), by Bassano Ltd. Whole-plate film negative, 21 March 1935"
NPG: "Doreen Barbara Mignonette Evans (née Boyer), by Bassano Ltd. Whole-plate film negative, 21 March 1935"
Jean Williams, A Contemporary History of Women's Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850-1960
I have not consulted this book, but if anybody wants to follow up on the story it appears to be the most detailed account of women in motor-racing at this time.
Refs to Doreen Evans and the Bellevue Garage in Jean Williams, A Contemporary History of Women's Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850-1960
[Source: Link.]
(Click on image to enlarge)
NPG: " 'George Eyston's Dancing Daughters' - Evelin ('Eva') Gordon-Simpson (née Brewer); Joan Margaret Richmond; Doreen Barbara Mignonette Evans (née Boyer); possibly Barbara Katherine Skinner (née Bolster). Unknown photographer. Gelatin silver print, June 1935. "
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"Brooklands, and the Amazing Women Racing Drivers of the 1930s"
by Rob Baker, Flashbak, 10 July 2018
"In 1933 The RAC gave permission for women to drive at Open meetings at Brooklands on equal terms with men. It meant that the nineteen-thirties became the heyday for women racing drivers."
Fabulous collection of photographs of women motor-racing drivers in the 1930s, including Doreen Evans, here.
"Doreen taking a refreshment at Brooklands in July 1936."
"One of the leading female racing drivers of 1930's. Doreen Evans was the youngest child in a motor-racing family whose business, the Bellevue Garage in Wandsworth, was a leading MG agency. With her brothers Dennis and Kenneth she competed in MGs in the Bellevue team, and at Le Mans in Captain Eyston's 'Dancing Daughters' team."
(Click on image to enlarge)
"Doreen Evans taking over the sash during a relay race at Brooklands, July 1935."
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Further images and info. to be sorted
Doreen Evans
[Image found online, said to have been scanned from MG by McComb". Possibly 1935, "Doreen Evans with R-type #38 rejoining the Brooklands International Trophy Race after a pitstop at the model's racing debut".
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From : Link.]
Kate Walker, "Doreen Evans", 18/8/2011
Some obsessions stay in the family. Same with careers. You may not intend to follow in your parents' footsteps, but it can be hard to escape the influences you grew up with.
And if you grew up in a family of motorsport obsessives who ran one of England's most famous garages, with two racing drivers for brothers, it can be hard to escape a life behind the wheel.
MG fans will know of Wandsworth's Bellevue Garage, which was founded in 1931 and was renowned for tuning fast cars under the watchful eye of 'Wilkie' Wilkinson, one of the founders of the BRMC and a member of the BRDC. Bellevue was the Evans' family business, and all of the Evanses were associated with motorsport in one form or another.
Doreen Evans was born in 1916. Her parents had been regular visitors to Brooklands since the circuit opened in 1907, and family outings often comprised a trip to Brooklands, where the children sat in race cars and watched the drivers ready themselves and their machines for competition.
Her two brothers, Denis and Kenneth, began racing as soon as they were able. As the eldest, Denis was the first to try his hand at everything motorsport had to offer, from hillclimbs and time trials to club events. Kenneth followed in his footsteps when he went up to university, and a year later the pair bought a 750cc Montlhery MG Midget and had it tuned by Wilkinson to give them the competitive edge.
It should come as no surprise, then, to discover that Doreen Evans passed her driving test on her seventeenth birthday and was racing shortly after. She celebrated passing her test with the purchase of one of three J2 MGs; the others were bought by her brothers so that the family could compete as a team. The Bellevue Garage racing stable was successful in trials and speed events, but the Evanses were keen on all forms of motorsport.
When Doreen decided to try her hand at circuit racing, her father bought her an MG Magna with a six-cylinder Wolseley Hornet engine and had Wilkinson tune it for her. Her performances attracted the attention of bigwigs at MG, who began to support the Evans family in their racing ventures, even though the Bellevue crew with their tuned and modified racing beasts beat the works team on more than one occasion.
In 1934, Doreen Evans was partnered with Margaret Allan at the Brooklands' LCC Relay Race, which was beset with torrential rain. The pair finished third overall, but failed to take the Ladies' Cup when a careful perusal of the rulebook showed that anyone finishing on the podium was out of contention for the prize. As a result, the Ladies' Cup went to the P5 team headed by Kay Petre.
Doreen Evans' Brooklands results are not as impressive as some of the other Brooklands Belles', but they were enough to secure her a seat with one of the MG works teams. In 1935, she was one of MG's six 'dancing daughters', three all-female teams sent to compete at 24 Hours of Le Mans. All three teams made it to the end of the endurance race, and Evans and partner Barbara Skinner finished 25th overall and 10th in class.
In 1936, Doreen Evans hit the headlines as the result of an accident at the Brooklands International Trophy Race. She was going flat out down the Railway Straight behind the wheel of an independently-sprung R-Type Midget when she noticed that her car had caught fire, but she was going too quickly to get out safely. By the time she hit the end of the Members' Banking the car - still travelling at speed - was slow enough that she could jump out without risking injury. Evans escaped with some bruises and minor burns, and the car ended the race when it smacked into the paddock fencing.
Evans also drove a saloon MG in rallies as a works driver, but was probably best known behind the wheel of BLL 492, one of the most famous customer MGs ever made. The car was one of three built for the Evans family by Wilkinson, and was a 1934 MG N-Type NA "powered by a six cylinder, 120 horsepower, supercharged, lightweight, special tuned engine, featuring an ENV pre-selector 4-speed gearbox - a predecessor to the automatic transmission," according to an old auction record. It was with this MG that Evans competed in the 1934 and 1935 rally seasons, winning a first class award in the 1935 RAC Rally.
Doreen Evans' motorsport career lasted for only three years. In 1936 she retired from racing and married Allan Phipps, who came from a prominent Colorado family and would later own the Denver Broncos. The couple moved to the States, where Evans secured her pilot's licence, showing that racing or no racing, adrenaline was in her blood. Doreen Evans died at home in California in April 1982.
Kenneth Evans went on to become a grand prix racer, although he retired before the advent of Formula 1. After the war, he became Chief Flag Marshall for the BRDC at Silverstone. Once married, Denis Evans retired from racing and concentrated on running the Bellevue Garage.
[Kate Walker Archive: Link.]
Flashbak: Brooklands and those magnificent women in their racing machines
"In 1933 The RAC gave permission for women to drive at Open meetings at Brooklands on equal terms with men. It meant that the nineteen-thirties became the heyday for women racing drivers."
Terrific collection of images - well worth a look.
[Source: Link.]
Left to right: Gwenda Stewart, Doreen Evans, Kay Petre, Elsie Wisdom, September 1935.
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Obituary: Doreen Evans
IT WAS with much sadness that we heard that Doreen Evans (as she was in the days before she married, and when she was a very popular, and highly accomplished girl racing-driver) had died in America. Sister of two keen motor-racing brothers, Dennis and Kenneth, of whom the latter was the more active driver, Doreen joined them when the Bellevue Garages stable was formed, driving MGs of various kinds almost exclusively. Tall, attractive, and very slim Doreen Evans looked frail but proved that she had the stamina to drive in long-distance races, being, for instance, one of the all-women crew in George Eyston's MG team at Le Mans ("George's young Ladies"), when they successfully completed the course, in a trio of "works" PAs, Doreen, partnered by Margaret Allen, finishing 25th. Her own cars were always immaculately turned-out, in the Bellevue colours, and Doreen drove them with great zest at Brooklands, Shelsley Walsh, where she held the Ladies's record, and at speed-trials. I remember how she kept going at speed in the torrential rain of the 1934 LCC Relay Race at Brooklands, in which the MG Magnette team of Miss Schwedlier, Margaret Allen and Doreen Evans finished third. She then won a Ladies' Mountain race at 67 1/2 m.p.h.
In her fast Q-type MG Midget single-seater she won a 1935 March Short Handicap at Brooklands and was third, lapping at 114 3/4 m.p.h., at the Easter 1935 BARC Meeting. Turning to long-distance racing, Doreen was 7th in the 1935 JCC International Trophy Race at the Track, her MG averaging 80.63 m.p.h., and she narrowly missed taking the Class H outer-circuit lap-record before that season was over. She also drove in the BRDC "500". By 1936 she was driving an R-type all-independently-sprung MG Midget and seemed quite unmoved when it caught fire during the 250-mile International Trophy Race and she had to jump out while the car was still going quite fast.
In 1936 Miss Evans married the wealthy American MG enthusiast Alan Phipps and went to live in the States, raising a family, and seldom being seen in England. She is remembered as a very good racing driver, who had a professional approach to racing which so many amateurs, especially the ladies, lacked. Her versatility was such that she also competed in the trials of those days, until racing took precedence, performing creditably for instance, with the Bellevue team of modified ex-racing "Musketeer" MG Magnetics.
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A FAMILY TEAM
It is unusual, to say the least of it, for three members of a family to take the same interest in motoring events, but the success of Miss Doreen Evans and her two brothers, Denis and Kenneth,should encourage more ventures of this sort. All the members of the team drive M.G. Midgets, and have numerous successes to their credit. Miss Doreen Evans won the Ladies Cup in the London Gloucester this year and the Ladies Award at the J.C.C. Brooklands Rally, and with her brother, "Ka," was a member of the team which were the runners-up for the team prize in the Gloucester. The team have also won three more " golds " on the LondonEdinburgh trial.
Denis Evans and his brother Kenneth are directors of the Bellevue Garage, Ltd., and their firm has had some striking successes in the preparation of M.G.s for racing and reliability trials, and the supercharged 750 c.c. car driven by Mr. D. N. Letts, which won the 1st Walton Sprint Handicap this year at a speed of 92.78 m.p.h., and also took the 850 c.c. Racing Class at Shelsley, with the remarkable time of 45 4/5 secs., was tuned by their firm. They also prepared the K.3 Magnette for Mr. P. L. Donkin, which put up very good performances in both the Mannin Beg Race and the B.E. Trophy.
Mr. Kenneth Evans, who last year won two mountain races on M.G. cars, has acquired one of the latest "Q" type supercharged M.G. Midgets, and will drive it in the major events for the remainder of the season.
[Source: Link.]
"A Joy to Drive With", an advert for Esso petrol from Motor Sport magazine, June 1935. Doreen Evans features elsewhere in this issue as a winning motor-racer.