THE QUEEN OF SPEED
Born Ewy Jonsson in Stora Herrestads, a very rural area in Southern Sweden, she was the only girl out of five children in a farming family.
The farm had more than sixty cattle, horses, poultry and many more animals. Ewy used to help out with all the chores. She claimed that she owed her upper body strength to all the beet trimming that she did.
Ewy also learned to drive around the farmyard.
After agricultural school where she specialized in cattle husbandry, Ewy trained as a veterinary assistant, earning a BA, before getting a job in her home region.
The farms were so widespread that she needed a car. Her father, Herman, promised to buy her one if she took formal lessons and passed her test.
Ewy got an instructor from nearby Ystad. He was absolutely terrified by her driving. “You’re going too fast. What do you want to be? A rally driver?”
He refused to get in the car with her again, so Ewy had to complete her lessons in Stockholm.
Her father kept his promise and bought her an old Mercedes-Benz, even though he could ill afford it.
Ewy had to visit seven or eight farms a day. Her job was artificial insemination. Delivering bull semen is a time critical operation so speed was of the essence – “Moving quickly with a temperature sensitive load was essential.”
Ewy loved speed and started to time herself between farms, always trying to beat her record. “I was driving so well that I often finished for the day, one and a half to two hours before my colleagues, despite all my stops on the farms.”
She met military engineer, Yngve Rosqvist. They were soon married very.
He was an amateur speedway rider and also loved cars. He used to go and watch the Swedish Rally and took Ewy along with him.
He suggested to Ewy that they tried rallying themselves. They both joined the Swedish Royal Automobile Club (KAK). The plan was that Yngve would be the driver and she would be the co-driver.
However, at their first race, Yngve stunned Ewy by saying, “Here you go, Ewy – I’ll read the map.”
After this, they shared driving duties until the Automobile Club suggested she became a driver in her own right. Very quickly, Ewy became one of the most competitive drivers on the circuit. Her first co-driver was her sister-in-law, Anita Rosqvist.
Ewy’s first year of racing was in a Saab, but she didn’t like the car, so she switched to Volvo.
In 1959, Ewy won the European Championship. She considered herself lucky. The title is awarded as a cumulation of points from rallies across Europe. The final race of the season was the RAC Rally in London. Ewy was just one point ahead of her main rival, Pat Moss (the sister of Stirling).
In London, Ewy was taken ill and was unable to race. She assumed she had lost the Championship but was pleased to hear Pat Moss had also been unwell on the day and hadn’t raced. Ewy said that she had won the title by default.
Nevertheless, she was delighted to have been presented with her prize by Princess Grace of Monaco.
Rallying was an expensive business and Ewy realised she could no longer afford to do it as a private citizen. So, in 1960, she signed a contract with Volvo to be a ‘Factory Driver’. This entailed testing cars as well as appearing in races.
Ewy won the Thousand Lakes Rally in Finland for four successive years.
She also won the ‘Midnattssolrallyt’ (Rally to the Midnight Sun) – nowadays called Rally Sweden).
She became European Champion again in 1960 and shared the title with Pat Moss in 1961.
Ewy also won the Swedish Athlete of the Year award for 1961.
Ewy introduced Pat to the Swedish World Rally Champion, Erik Carlsson.
Erik and Pat were married soon afterwards.
In 1962, Mercedes Benz bought out Ewy’s Volvo contract. Her new employers were based in Stuttgart in Germany, so Ewy moved there, becoming fluent in German.
That same year, Mercedes-Benz entered three cars into the notorious Argentine Turismo Standard Grand Prix – a 2,891-mile race around Argentina. It was classed as the toughest rally in the world because every year, at least one driver was killed.
Mercedes-Benz offered Ewy the chance to drive their third car. She became the first woman ever to drive in the race. Her usual co-driver, Anita, was pregnant, so she couldn’t go.
Ewy selected a former rival, Ursula Wirth, as her new co-driver. She was given a Mercedes weighing two tons to drive (Car no. 711).
In the macho culture of Latin America, the fact Ewy and Ursula were entering the race was at best, treated with laughter and at worst, with contempt. Her entry was considered a publicity stunt for Mercedes.
However, Formula One World Champion, Juan Fangio (an Argentinian), sought Ewy out. He said, “You can win this, Ewy. The guys will be wild, but just go like you always have and trust yourself and it will be good in the end.”
Ewy felt Fangio’s words gave her great confidence.
257 cars entered the race. It began in torrential rain. Many drivers sped off, but Ewy decided to initially take it easy. From the word go, cars were crashing.
Mercedes’ first driver, Eugen Bohringer, had to withdraw from the race when he drove through deep water and his engine flooded.
The second driver, Hermann Kiihne, was tragically killed when a pack of wild horses ran in front of his car. Ewy was tempted to give up but was told by her bosses, “You have to keep going, Ewy! Because you’re the only car we have left in the race.”
Ewy and Ursula won every single stage of the lengthy race and became overnight heroes in Argentina. Massive crowds (of males) greeted them at the end of the day, and they needed a police escort to get to their hotels.
Newspapers suggested they should become models. Ewy said, “We always cleaned up as best as we could. We straightened our hair in the rear-view mirror. Then we looked reasonably fresh compared to the male drivers, who were all bearded and shabby.”
Ewy and Ursula won the race by over three hours and smashed the record. They drove at an average of 80mph (the previous record was 75mph). Only 43 cars successfully completed the race.
Ewy commented, “They said I could never finish. So, I finished first!”
Matchbox subsequently put out a model of Car 711.
Her next success was the Monte Carlo Rally, winning the ‘Coupe des Dames’.
Shortly afterwards, Ewy and her husband, Yngve, got divorced. Her frequent absences from home had caused the split. “With a heavy heart, I said goodbye to our beautiful home.”
Ewy entered the Argentinian Turismo again the following year (1963) and came second. It was during this race that she came closest to disaster.
Massive crowds were out cheering her on. There were so many people in front of her that she didn’t see that barriers on a railway crossing were coming down. She only stopped when she crashed into the gate.
A part of it flew through the windscreen. Both women ducked.
More frighteningly, a train thundered past, missing the front of the car by literally inches.
For the 1964 race, she had a new co-driver, German journalist Eva Maria Falk. They came third.
In 1965, the Argentine Turismo was cancelled as being too dangerous. It was never raced again.
That same year, Mercedes decided to abandon their rallying programmme. Their traditional racing cars were much heavier than the new vehicles arriving on the production line.
Ewy was offered a contract by Audi but chose to stay with Mercedes and abandoned top level racing.
By now, she had met her second husband, Baron Alexander von Korff-Schmysmak, Head of the Mercedes Motorsport Division (known as Alex). They were married in the chapel of the Old Castle in Stuttgart.
Ewy took part in a couple more minor races but retired properly in 1967. In her whole racing career, she had no accidents, no crashes and not even one breakdown.
“My husband got sick and asked me to stop competing…I wanted to be able to take care of him.” She was just 35 years old.
Ewy teased the Argentinian media, saying she was leaving racing because she wanted to become a housewife and cook.
Ironically, being Scandinavian, the only condition she hated driving in was snow – “Never in control.”
From now on, she worked as a test driver for Mercedes and also as a guide in their museum in Stuttgart. As well as Swedish and German, she could speak fluent English and Spanish.
Ewy was extremely proud that her Argentino Turismo car was in the museum, sandwiched between Formula One Grand Prix winning cars of Juan Fangio and Stirling Moss.
Alex died after a serious illness in 1977.
Three years later, she met Karl Gustav Svedberg, the Head of Philipson Bil AB, a company who imported Mercedes cars into Sweden and then sold them through his dealership.
Ewy moved back to Sweden to be with Karl Gustav, living together in a flat in Stockholm, although they never married.
Karl Gustav died in 2009.
Mercedes never forgot Ewy. They sent her flowers and gifts every single birthday and Christmas.
She remained a national hero in Sweden, Argentina and Germany.
At her death, Ewy was hailed as the greatest female rally driver of all time.
RIP- Rallying In Patagonia
