The crowd at Killarney race track for the International Historic race meeting in February 2008 couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing.
There was Sarel van der Merwe in a seven-litre Galaxie V8, Pedro Passyoutoo from Spain in a Ford Falcon V8, and Isle of Man ace Tim Boles in a Chev Camaro with enough excess power to light up Table Mountain for the holiday season.

All fighting for the lead in the pre-1977 Touring car race, which was just the way things were scripted.

But mixing it with them, passing under braking, ducking this way, diving that, and generally making life miserable for them everywhere but on the super-fast straight, was a 1400cc Renault Gordini.

Such a giant-killing act hadn’t been witnessed since the days of Scamp Porter and Geoff Mortimer in the ’69 Nine Hour, when a works Gordini finished fourth among Ferraris and Porches.

But if you’d taken the trouble to stroll into the Gordini pit between heats, you’d have probably stumbled over a trolley jack and plopped face-first into an oil tray at the sight that met you.

There was the driver, still in racing overalls, feeding her 10-month-old daughter Kayla some gooie stuff, while her dad and husband and long-time crew chief John Boyce went about checking tyre pressures and the like.

Yes, Cindy Evans-Finney is not your average racing driver, but as she explains, she had an unusual childhood.

“My dad will celebrate his 50th year in motor racing this year, and my mom was a Rhodesian champion back then, in what is now Zimbabwe.

“I have always loved racing and I wanted to race a bike, but my dad put his foot down at that.”

Cindy’s dad, Brian Evans, was a five-time Rhodesian autocross champion, and her mom, Alannah, raced and rallied bikes and cars over a two-decade period.

Having hung out at race tracks for as long as she could remember, Cindy couldn’t wait to get started and that happened in the late 1980s. Her first event – at 13! – was in a Formula M midget racer at Lichtenberg, and she won five races!

Since then she has campaigned in Historic racing with a verve and flare that almost saw her hit the big time in racing in the UK a few seasons back.

She went to England to compete for a drive in the Renault Clio Championships in 2001 and out of 500 entries she was one of two foreigners and the only female to make the finals.

She didn’t get the drive but she was offered a drive in the Irish Formula Ford championship for 2002 which she took. Unfortunately the car broke in every race it started!

“I learned so much though, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. How to operate under pressure.”

Applying the pressure

Back in South Africa it’s Cindy that’s usually been applying the pressure in her rather beat-up-looking Gordini prepared by Don Boyce and her father, who are masters at making the car go like smoke and handle like probably no other Renault Gordini has before or since.

Renaults are not that easy to keep running, however; spares are extremely rare for a car that was only in production for a few years and sold in very limited numbers.

But when the Gordini hangs together, Cindy’s usually among the front leaders.

Classes in Historic Racing are based on lap times, not engine capacity, which means she’s up against Porsches, BDA Escorts and other potentially much faster cars than hers.

And when not racing in Historics she’s usually at the track to support her husband, Jason Finney, in his VW Golf Challenge car.

In the zone

You get very few truly fast woman recers and even fewer are really aggressive; Cindy is super-quick and very aggressive – that she’s pretty and very feminine just makes the mix so much more appealing.

It’s in the braking zone that she is at her best. She never settles for a slot behind the car ahead, she’s always poking that ol’ Renault’s nose in amongst the Porsches, the Alfas, the big-buck Escort BDAs, looking for an opening, making one happen, but always in control and never over the top.

In this respect she’s the best lady racer in the country right now, and possibly the best we’ve ever had.

She got two thirds in the first two races at Killarney, against the best of the big bangers, and the second on the Sunday was in pouring rain.

She finished just behind Sarel’s Galaxie and the Camaro in heat two, with Sarel fish-tailing the monster all over the pit straight in a do-or-die effort to keep the Camaro, (but probably more importantly the Renault!) behind in the run-in to flag.

The best part

During the third race it rained even harder; the Camaro didn’t start and Sarel snapped a propshaft, so the girl from Edenvale won outright in her Gordini!

“The best part for me was the view I had,” said Cindy. “There were these massive V8s going sideways all over the place in front of me on every corner, it just looked so … so exciting.

“I could have taken a big risk and tried to pass, and I got past a few, but I didn’t want to take the heroes out of the race.

“I know I’m cheeky in a racing car, sticking my nose in where it sometimes doesn’t belong, but you have to be.

“As for 2008, after taking last season off to have Kayla, people said I wouldn’t be as quick when I got back, now that I have a baby.

“Well, it isn’t so. I’m a bit rusty, but it’s great to feel the adrenalin flowing once again.”

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