The memory of motorsports is usually built with names that every fan instantly recognizes. Appears Juan Manuel Fangio when talking about dominance in the 50s and later it emerges Ayrton Senna as a symbol of speed in modern Formula 1. In current times we also remember Fernando Alonso o Max Verstappen for their careers in top-level championships.
However, in that mental journey almost a woman’s name never comes upas if the past of this sport had been occupied only by men. That image is misleading because before the Formula 1 World Championship existed there was already a driver who had won extremely difficult races in Europe.
A Czech driver broke the male narrative of early motorsports
The protagonist of that story was the Czech Eliška Junkováwhich achieved a result that has not been repeated in high-speed motorsport. In 1927 he won his category during the first German Grand Prix held at the Nürburgring. With a private vehicle with a smaller displacement, he managed to surpass competitors with more powerful machines and better prepared equipment. That triumph made her the only woman to have won an international Grand Prix on speed circuits.
Targa Florio of 1928 raised its international fame”/>
The secret of his performance was not in physical strength, something that characterized many rivals of the time, but in a thorough preparation. He studied each section of the course, memorized curves and repaired his own car when a problem arose during the test. In extremely long races, such as Targa Florio In Sicily, he even analyzed food and breaks to maintain concentration for hours.
The Italian pilot Emilio Mattresses He even told her before a competition while touching her shoulder that “with this you can’t achieve anything.” Junková responded by pointing to her head and replied that “not with that, but with this, yes.”
The relationship with Čeněk Junek opened his path to racing
His emergence into that world was even more striking due to the context. She was born in 1900 in Olomouc, into a modest family, the daughter of a locksmith. in your city There were hardly any cars on the road when I was a child. The relationship with the banker Čenek Junek changed the direction of his life because he shared his interest in driving and He accepted from the first moment that his wife competed. First she participated as a co-driver and, after obtaining her license in hiding with the support of her husband, she later took the wheel in mountain events, circuits and long-distance races.
The moment that defined his fame came in the 1928 Targa Florio, then considered the most demanding competition on the European calendar. The route exceeded 500 kilometers along narrow mountain roads with unpaved sections. During several laps he rolled in the lead with his Bugatti after overtaking the Frenchman Albert Divo on the track. Victory escaped when he hit some stones that damaged a wheel and forced a long repair. She finished fifth after more than seven hours of racing and just nine minutes behind the winner.
That performance multiplied his popularity in the international press, but the episode that marked the end of his career occurred a few weeks later. In July 1928 she returned to the German circuit with her husband to participate in another test. Junková was waiting in the pits when another Czech driver stopped in front of her to tell her that Čeněk had suffered a fatal accident. The banker became the first victim of the Nürburgring layout.
The death of her husband at the Nürburgring put an end to her career
The decision to abandon racing was immediate. Despite receiving proposals from teams and manufacturers, never competed again. She remained linked to the automobile through industrial projects and collaborated in the organization of the Czechoslovak Grand Prix in Brno. She also worked with companies in the sector and participated in initiatives linked to European motorsport.
In 1972 he published a book of memories titled My memory is Bugattia personal testimony that reconstructs the racing environment between the two world wars. The commentator and historian Martin Straka Years later, he highlighted the precision of those pages and stated that “it is one of my basic books on motorsports.” The expert explained that the story shows in detail how each competition was preparedfrom training to race strategy.
Despite this career, his name was left out of the usual story of motor sport for decades. Straka explained that Junková was “an extraordinary woman and an extraordinary competitor,” highlighting her determination to compete in a male-dominated environment. In historical comparison it usually appears next to Maria Teresa de Filippisfirst woman to participate in Formula 1, or alongside Lella Lombardi, only driver to have scored points in that championship.
Eliška Junková’s memory shows that the history of motorsport includes episodes that do not fit the most repeated image of the sport. Long before Formula 1 existed, there was already a driver capable of winning on European circuits and challenging the favorites in high-endurance races. His victory at the Nürburgring remains a unique case in speed competitions.
