Auto racing activities in Canada exploded during the 1960s. The opening of Mosport (Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) and the emergence of lucrative sponsors led to the establishment of some Canadian motorsport legends. Billy Foster, Al Pease, Craig Fisher, Eppie Wietzes and Earl Ross were some names that emerged in the 1960s with several finding massive success in the following decades. Running from 1961 to 1971, the Shell 4000 Trans-Canada Rally was a major sponsored event where elite drivers competed across the rich mosaic of our country. Beyond attracting Canadian competitors, the event proved enticing to many international drivers including three-time NASCAR champion David Pearson being a notable face at the 1965 edition of the event competing with Dodge.
The call of the challenging Shell 4000 Trans-Canada Rally was so alluring that a handful of brave, intrepid women entered the event competing in the special Coupe des Dames award. Disarming observers as an attractive woman with a head of blonde hair, Diana Carter proven even more dazzling when wearing a helmet driving to three victories in the Coupe des Dames competition at the Shell 4000 rally.
One of Canada’s most successful female racers during the 1960s, Diana Carter’s interest in fast cars started in her teens growing up in Etobicoke. Her father began to teach her to drive at the age of 13 which gave her a heightened sense of confidence on the road. This curiosity was kicked into a higher gear at the time she met boyfriend Jerry Polivka who was a casual rally and sports car racer. She swiftly became enticed and acclimated to the culture of motorsports.
Diana Carter’s first participation in the rally was in 1961 as a co-driver to Carol Crawford running a Morris sedan. The two years later, Carter returned to the Shell 4000 Trans-Canada Rally taking on the lead driving role piloting a Studebaker Lark with Gillian Field as a co-driver. A chemist by profession, Field had previously partnered with another current Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame inductee Alice Fergusson in the rally in 1961 sharing a Citroen DS. Carter and Field proved to be a formidable pair winning the Coupe des Dames award in 1963 and 1964 when they ran with a Volvo Canadian.
During the same time she found success in rally racing, Carter would regularly appear on closed circuits. At Mosport in 1963, her competition in the touring car category placed her in the field of many esteemed Canadian racing names including Craig Fisher (the first Canadian to win a Trans Am race), Al Pease (who drove in the first Formula 1-affiliated Canadian Grand Prix in 1967), Bill Brack (three-time Canadian Formula Atlantic champion) and Ludwig Heimrath Sr (a longtime sports car competitor who’s successful would include a 1977 Trans Am champion). Providing a shock to the male-dominated Canadian Driver’s Racing Association touring car competition, Carter claimed championship honours in her touring car class in 1963. She would expand into racing sports cars in 1964 driving a Sunbeam Alpine came with a worthwhile racing pedrigue after previously belonging to Eppie Wietzes. She would also take part in Mosport’s four-hour 1964 Sundown Grand Prix alongside Shirley Bowles.
Despite some less than hospitable attitudes for women in motorsports at the time as well as occasional media coverage that could be viewed in hidsight as mildly sexist, Diana Carter's dedication and ability allowed her to experience favourable acclaim from male competitors. “They respect me and accept me as one of them, because they know I’m sincere about driving, and not in for publicity. But, that doesn’t mean they give me a break in races...they hate to be beaten by a woman.”, she said in a 1968 Windsor Star newspaper article. In a September 1966 Maclean’s magazine feature article relating to women in motorsports, Ludwig Heimrath (a German-born Canadian sports car racing legend) was spoke highly of the 1963 CDRA touring car champion saying, “Mostly girls who drive just want to wear a tight driver’s suit and run around town in a crash helmet, and all the boys are supposed to fall down and kiss their feet. Diana Carter is the only girl who goes out there and does a job.”
In newspaper interview, Carter once expressed both a counterpoint that driving proficiency wasn't limited to gender. "There are lots of men who are drivers, too. If everyone who drives would remember he has a rearview mirror and use it, there would be fewer accidents", she quipped in a Toronto Daily Star article.
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| In the twilight years of Studebaker's history as an automaker, their cars continued to perform well in rally competition. With Diana Carter and co-driver Gillian Field claiming Coupe des Dames honours for the 1963 event in a Lark, Studebaker was pleased to avertise the accomplishment. |
Returning to a Volvo for the 1965 Shell 4000 Trans-Canada Rally, Diana Carter won her third and final Coupe des Dames with American Jean Steagall as a co-pilot. This was accomplished despite penalized for being one of many racer caught speeding on the Ontario highway leg of that event. Although her and her navigator raced with the men, there remained a sense of true feminine vanity. Carter would routinely have a wig inside her race car to appear presentable after a competitive outing.
For 1966, the three-time Coupe des Dames winner of the Shell 4000 Rally would make a rare out of country appearance as part of the Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. Profiled in her article for Track and Traffic magazine, she was loaned a Beach Formula Vee car by Larry LePine to compete in the ladies’ races for the weekend. For the 1966 ladies’ racing activities consisting of two five-lap races, Diana Carter competed directly with Nassau’s mainstay female racer Patsy Kennedy, British driver Margaret MacKenzie-Lowrey (who was racing during her honeymoon) and a young American driver named Janet Guthrie. On the 7.2-kilometer race course, Carter won the first heat race ahead of Kennedy and Guthrie but a fan belt failure on her Volkswagen-engined vehicle in the second heat took her out of contention. MacKenzie-Lowrey won the second ladies’ heat race with Kennedy finishing runner-up.
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| The 1965 Shell 4000 Trans-Canada Rally event was one of the most star-studded in the motorsport world for the time. Diana Carter's picture in the year's guide was joined by Mexican racing legend Pedro Rodriguez (competing in a Studebaker Commander), NASCAR great David Pearson as well as Canadian motorsport hall of fame inductees Al Pease and Maurice 'Mo' Carter. |
Earning trophies on weekends, Diana Carter’s day jobs saw her in roles related to auto racing as well as boyfriend Jerry Polivka. Polivka was part of an ownership group that rescued the debt-burdened Mosport Park as well as claimed ownership interest in the automotive magazine Canada Track and Traffic. Diana worked the lead role of publication and circulation for the magazine as well as performed in a marketing role for Mosport. Diana Carter would marry Polivka in early 1967 and competed as Diana Carter-Polivka through the year. However, that marriage as well as her time as an auto racing competitor would come to an apparently abrupt end. In the latter part of the 1960s, Carter’s driving pursuits were halted by lack of support and sponsorship.
Her competitive career behind the wheel of a race car would end but she found new avenues to apply her interest in motorsport as well as her office experience. In 1968, Diana Carter’s relocated south of the border becoming the public relations director for the yet built Michigan International Speedway and later be involved in promotion for now-defunct Texas World Speedway.
Spending much of her later years out of the spotlight, she would appear once more in connection to auto racing when she was 2013 inductee into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame. Most recently in June of 2025, the Museum of Toronto recognized Diana Carter as one of 52 women who transformed Toronto. Diana Carter passed away on September 27th of 2020 at the age of 83.
In a newspaper article, Carter responded to why she decided to race saying, "There is no explanation except that is a wonderful feeling to be in competition. There are many things involved. There is the machine, which you have to know, your own condition is important, and then there is the exhilaration of speed."
References:
Belcher, D. (September 11, 1968) “Hooked at First Victor Diana Wins Another Lap”. Jackson Citizen Patriot., Pg. 6
Edmonds, A. (September 17, 1966) “Go Kill Me a Tiger” Macleans., Pg 17-19
Lugsdin, N. (March 2, 1968) "Top Women Driver 'Chic, Cool and Sure Behind theWheel". Windsor Star., Pg. C7
Sale, J. (October 2014) "A Canadian Trailblazer Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame Inductee Diana Carter". Inside Track Motorsport News., Pg 70-71
Stapleton, B. (May 1, 1964) “A Driving Woman Male Competitors Can’t Criticize”. Toronto Daily Star., Pg. S1
(April 18, 1964)“Women Rallyist Enthusiastic Drivers”. The Globe and Mail., Pg. 20
(May 29, 1964) “ Feast of Speed for Spectators at Harewood” The Globe and Mail., Pg. 45
(August 12, 1965) "Wigs Cover Drivers' Hair". The Brantford Expositor.,
(August 14, 1965) “Wig Standard Equipment for Women Racing Driver”. The Ottawa Citizen.,
(July 16, 1965)“Women Find Car Racing Expensive but Fun”. The Globe and Mail., Pg. 8
Carter, D. (January 1967) “Nassau” Canada Track and Traffic., Pg. 19-20
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