Here's another bio of Desire Wilson.
Desire Randall was born on 26 November 1953 at Brakpan (near Johannesburg) in South Africa. She married Alan Wilson and she was mainly known as Desire Wilson. She began to race in his native land, taking part in Formula Vee races and winning the South African Formula Ford championship. She came in Europa and took part in the Bénélux Formula Ford 2000 championship. She also won Formula Ford 200 races in England.
She started to race in F1 in 1978, not in Grand Prix but in the British Aurora AFX Championship. She drove an aged Ensign N175 MN04 Cosworth and in his first race at Oulton Park (24 June) she retired. Geoff Lees failed to qualify the same car in the British GP three weeks later. Desire Wilson finished the next races she took part: she was 6th at Mallory Park, 4th at Brands Hatch, third (and first podium) at Thruxton and 6th at Snetterton.
In 1979 the Aurora Championship became more international. The first round was at Zolder in Belgium and the championship came three time in the Continent, also at Zandvoort for the seventh round and Nogaro (France) for the tenth round. Desire Wilson was entered by the Melchester Racing and drove the Tyrrel 008/3 (ex Patrick Depailler in 1978). At the opening race, Wilson knew the circuit and was one of the fastest during the practice. For the race it rained and the Tyrrel had the best tunings. Desire took the lead but spun. She finally finished third and scored 5 point (4 + 1 for the fastest lap). Desire Wilson finished again third at Oulton Park and ninth in the race of champions at Brands Hatch (but third of the Aurora contenders). The rest of the season was not so brilliant and she was classified 7th in the championship, scoring 8 times.
1980 stayed as one of his best season. She took part again in the Aurora championship, driving the Wolf WR4 Cosworth. On April 7 she became the first - and to date, the only - woman to win a F1 race, the second round of the Aurora championship at Brands Hatch. She led from start to finish. Later that year she won with Alain de Cadenet the Monza 1000km and Silverstone 6 Hour World Endurance Championship events (de Cadenet-Cosworth).
She got an entry for the British GP at Brands Hatch with a Williams FW07 run by John Macdonald's RAM team. In unofficial testing, with the full field present, she was an excellent 12th faster. It was the first time she'd drive a sliding skirt ground effect car. Then it came the official qualifying two weeks later. She noticed immediately that she didn't fit the car properly. In fact she didn't drive the same car. It was a different chassis number. When shed got out on the track, it was a million miles away from the car she'd driven before. She was two seconds slower that she'd been then and didn't qualify. After Wilson knew the truth. The car she'd driven in the test was the Williams FW07 that Emilio de Villota used for a few GP that year. For the British GP she'd been given Eliseo Salazar's Aurora car which had been set up to run without the skirts which were banned in that series. The team just fitted the skirts and delivered it to the track. No wonder it didn't work.
In February 1981 the war FISA-FOCA was at its height. The South African race was held under the FOCA banner and "regulations": wings but no turbo (Ferrari, Renault and Alfa Romeo were not present). It was a dress rehearsal for the Cosworth-engined teams. Four drivers were making their GP debuts, including Désiré Wilson in the second Tyrrel 010. She qualified 16th in 1'15"56, just 0.59" adrift of experienced team-mate Eddie Cheever. This despite not having sat in the car before practice, not having sat in any race for 5 months. In the race, our novice stalled at the start and had to be push-started into action, with the rest of the field long-gone. The number 4 Tyrrel set off with a purpose and as rain began to fall, Wilson felt all was not lost. Not only did the car subsequently catch the end of train, it the began to pick other off. Fellow debutantes Siegfried Stohr and Eliseo Salazar were the first to fall. Cheever, his own team-mate, was the next. Then the rain stopped and Wilson, now on the wrong tyres, slid back down the order, briefly emerging on top in a tussle with a tyre troubled Nigel Mansell before getting on the power a little too hard and early and smiting the wall into retirement after 51 laps (the gearbox was damaged).
Ken Tyrrel when he entered Desire Wilson was not paid off. He was looking for sponsors. For the next races the wealthy Argentinean Ricardo Zunino was on the seat of the second Tyrrel. Later in the season Ken would prefer a young Italian called Michele Alboreto.
Wilson then moved to the United States of America, where she also drove Indy cars for a while. In May 1982, Desire was the second woman (after Janet Guthrie) to enter the Indy 500 and the second to pass the rookie test. She made one unsuccessful attempt to qualify, but set a then-record for a woman driver at Indy at 191.042 mph on the third lap of his qualifying run. She pulled off with one of her six engine failures that month.
In 1983 she entered Indy again but didn't complete a rookie refresher test. The same year she competed in 8 Indy-style races with a March-Ford. A 10th-place finish in the Cleveland 500K on a steamy hot August 3, 1983, in her debut turned out to be her best.
In 1984 she passed rookie refresher but didn't make a qualification attempt. She drove a Porsche in the Sportscars World Championship.
In 1986 she made three other Indycar races (March-Ford) and her final Indy race was October 12, 1986 at Laguna Seca. The Indy statistics showed that she won $102,765 during her career.
She continued racing in many forms of motor racing including outings at Le Mans and Daytona. In 1997 she drove the Pace car at Homestead which prompted the formation of the female PPG Pace Car Team. Recently, she has worked with her husband Allen Wilson running a motorsports consulting business.
This is my answer in a previous 8W-game, the special non-championship.
Ealier in 1980 Bernie Ecclestone called her and told her she would put her on the second Brabham for the South African G.P., but there would be no chance to test it before. However, he never called again and Ken Tyrrell called some weeks later, telling her he was interested on her for the race and that Bernie wouldn't call again. She said it was a dream coming true, because driving for Ken, who had discovered so many talents, was an honour. Ken wanted her to drive the second car but he had no money, the team was running almost sponsorless. However, when Kevin Cogan - her teammate and replacement in 1980 Aurora AFX - appeared with some money, she was sidelined. The same when Ricardo Zunino funded the South American rounds. Arriving to Europe, Alboreto managed to bring Italian money to the team and the rest is history.