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 and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, 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 (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, 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 12/16 in a race in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

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 county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

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 manufacturer of high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then-German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the Italian-born industrial designer Ettore Bugatti. The cars w ...

. 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 19,579 as of 2011, i ...

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 a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

. 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 t ...

and a Riley. 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 Holy Trinity Brompton with St Paul's, Onslow Square and St Augustine's, South Kensington, often referred to simply as HTB, is an Anglicanism, Anglican church (building), church in London, England. The church consists of six sites: HTB 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 factori ...

in 1940. Cummings died on 4 December 1971.

Legacy

Her Bugatti ''

Black Bess 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 ...

,'' 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 to ...

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 is situated on the Leidsestraatweg near the A44 highway. The museum's former names are "Nationaal Automobiel Museum" and "Louwman Collectio ...

in the Netherlands.

References and sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cummings, Ivy 1900s births 1971 deaths English female racing drivers People from Edmonton, London