Divina Galica

Divina Mary Galica MBE (last name pronounced "Galitsa"; born 13 August 1944) is a British sportswoman. She competed in four Winter Olympics as a skier, captaining the British Women's Olympic Ski Team in 1968 and 1972. She also pursued a career in motorsport, entering three Formula One World Championship Grands Prix.

Divina Galica
MBE

Born	(1944-08-13) 13 August 1944 Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1976, 1978
Teams	non-works Surtees, Hesketh
Entries	3 (0 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1976 British Grand Prix
Last entry	1978 Brazilian Grand Prix
British Formula One Championship career
Active years	1978–1980
Races	6
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	1
Career points	22
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0

Skiing career

Galica was born in Bushey Heath, near Watford, Hertfordshire. Aged 19, she participated in her first Olympic games at Innsbruck in 1964, competing in downhill skiing and the slalom. She also participated in the next two winter Olympics, at Grenoble in 1968 and Sapporo in 1972. On both occasions Galica was captain of the British Women's Olympic Ski Team, and finished in the top ten in the giant slalom. Aside from Olympic competition, she achieved two World Cup podium finishes in the downhill event, taking third place at both the Badgastein and Chamonix rounds in 1968. She also held the British women's downhill skiing speed record (at 125 mph). Following her subsequent driving career, Galica returned to skiing and once again represented Great Britain at the 1992 Winter Olympics, this time in the speed skiing event.

Driving career

Accepting an invitation to a celebrity auto race, Galica surprised everyone with her driving talent. She eventually took up motorsport as a second career, initially racing karts, moving into Formula Two and Formula One before finding success in sports cars and trucks. Her racing career has included stints in Formula Renault and Formula Vauxhall Lotus.

Galica was taken under the wings of John Webb and Nick Whiting, who entered her in the British Shellsport International Group 8 series in 1976, driving a Surtees TS16 Formula One car. After promising showings in this domestic series, Whiting decided to enter Galica for that year's British Grand Prix, using their Surtees. This appearance was notable as the first time in 13 years that a car had been entered for a World Championship Grand Prix using the supposedly unlucky number 13; so it also proved for Galica, as she failed to qualify for the race. The appearance meant she also joined a select band of seven Formula One drivers who have also competed in the Olympics.

Galica driving a Brabham BT37 in a Historic Grand Prix at the Lime Rock Park circuit in 2009

For 1977 Whiting acquired a second-hand Surtees TS19 for Galica to use in the British series. The Whiting team lacked the technical expertise required to properly set the car up for each race, and Galica was often hindered by poorly adjusted machinery. Arch rival Tony Trimmer was also equipped with a Surtees TS19, but his engineering background and well-funded team meant that he was the class of the field at most venues. Whiting managed to secure sponsorship from Olympus Cameras part way through the season, as prior to this the whole team had been run on a budget of only £10,000 for the entire season. Despite this, Galica did manage to take third place at the Brands Hatch and second place at the Donington Park rounds, but with Trimmer winning both he took the Championship title.

Hesketh Racing's works driver Rupert Keegan had taken part in a couple of rounds of the British domestic series in 1977, and at the start of the 1978 Formula One season Hesketh offered Galica the opportunity to replace him in the team's Hesketh 308E car. She took the Olympus sponsorship with her (replacing Hesketh's previous Penthouse magazine sponsorship), but failed to qualify the 308E for either of the 1978 World Championship season's first two races. Following the second failure she returned to the British Shellsport Championship, now a fully Formula One series. Reunited with her TS19, Galica took second place at the Zandvoort round. However, in her absence Trimmer had upgraded to an ex-works McLaren M23 car, and with the ageing TS19 she stood little chance of being competitive. A second entry, later in the season, in her own M23 only produced a seventh-place finish.

Aside from a limited number of outings in single-seater cars, Galica switched her attention to the Thundersports S2000 sports car class, taking a number of top ten finishes, and truck racing. She became a racing instructor with Skip Barber Racing Schools, rising to become senior vice president of Skip Barber Racing, managing both its driving school and racing series. In 2005, at the Mont-Tremblant weekend of the Skip Barber Race Series, Galica announced she was leaving Skip Barber to work for iRacing.com as a director in the company. Since 2018 (or earlier), she has been working for Bertil Roos Racing School as a driving instructor.

Racing record

Complete Shellsport International Series results

(key) (note: results shown in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Pos.	Pts
1976	ShellSport Whiting	Surtees TS16	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	MAL 7	SNE 6	OUL Ret	BRH NC	THR 4	BRH 6	MAL 4	SNE 5	BRH 9	THR 7	OUL 6	BRH 13	BRH 10		4th	57
1977	ShellSport Whiting	Surtees TS19	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	MAL DNS	SNE 2	OUL Ret		MAL Ret	THR Ret	BRH Ret	OUL 4	MAL 3	DON 2	BRH 3	THR Ret	SNE DNS	BRH 6	6th	74
		March 742	Ford BDX Swindon				BRH Ret

Complete British Formula One Championship results

(key) (note: results shown in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Pos.	Pts
1978	Team Olympus	Surtees TS19	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	OUL	BRH	SNE	MAL	ZAN 2	DON	THR	OUL	MAL	BRH						14th	19
	Melchester Racing	McLaren M23	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8											THR 7	SNE
1979	Divina Galica	March 792	Hart	ZOL	OUL	BRH Ret	MAL	SNE	THR	ZAN	DON 5	OUL	NOG	MAL	BRH	THR	SNE	SIL	19th	2
1980	Divina Galica	March 792	Hart	OUL	BRH	SIL	MAL	THR	MNZ	MAL	SNE	BRH	THR	OUL 6	SIL 9				20th	1

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Pts.
1976	ShellSport Whiting	Surtees TS16	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	FRA	GBR DNQ	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	CAN	USA	JPN	NC	0
1978	Olympus Cameras with Hesketh	Hesketh 308E	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG DNQ	BRA DNQ	RSA	USW	MON	BEL	ESP	SWE	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	USA	CAN	NC	0

Formula One non-championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position.) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1
1977	ShellSport Whiting	Surtees TS19	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ROC 12
1978	Olympus Cameras with Hesketh	Hesketh 308E	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	INT Ret

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Pos.	Pts
1977	Ardmore Racing	Chevron B39	Ford BDA	SIL	THR	HOC	NÜR	VAL	PAU	MUG	ROU	NOG	PER	MIS	EST	DON 15	NC	0
1978	Bob Salisbury Racing	March 782	BMW	THR	HOC	NÜR	PAU	MUG	VAL	ROU	DON	NOG	PER	MIS	HOC DNQ		NC	0
1979	Divina Galica	March 792	Hart	SIL 11	HOC	THR	NÜR 17	VAL	MUG	PAU	HOC	ZAN	PER	MIS	DON 11		NC	0
1980	Wendy Wools	March 792	Hart	THR Ret	HOC	NÜR	VAL	PAU									NC	0
	Divina Galica								SIL Ret	ZOL	MUG	ZAN	PER	MIS	HOC

See also

• List of female Formula One drivers

References

• Diepraam, Mattijs (1999). "Female speed addict". 8W. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
• "Driver: Galica, Divina". Autocourse Grand Prix Archive. Archived from the original on 20 February 2006. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
• "Divina Galica GBR". Ski-DB.com. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
• "Driver: Divina Galica". ChicaneF1.com. Retrieved 12 November 2007. (World Championship stats.)

External links

• Profile at A Second A Lap