A notoriously dangerous and male-dominated sport, rally driving isn’t a typical dream job for six-year-old girls.
But then again, Penny Mallory’s life hasn’t been exactly typical.
Following a family breakdown, Penny left her comfortable middle-class home in Kent when she was just 16.
Entirely disengaged from education, she began to drink, steal and self-harm, soon finding herself with nowhere to sleep but homeless hostels in London.
“I was fiercely independent,” said Penny, looking back on her teenage years. “I didn’t enjoy school and hated my family life, I was just desperate to get away.
“I ended up living among drop-outs and people who had given up on life.
“My boyfriend was addicted to heroin and we were in a really bad way.
“I spent about two years living like that, falling in and out of jobs with nowhere permanent to stay.”
Ultimately, Penny’s relationship with her partner broke down and it became the catalyst she needed to completely change the direction of her life.
“To say chips were down would be an understatement,” said Penny, who is now 51.
“I had nothing left.
“Yet that meant I had nothing to lose.
“I ended up phoning directory enquiries and asked if they could give me the number for someone who could help me be a rally driver.
“At first they laughed and didn’t take me seriously, but eventually I got put through to a rally school and booked a lesson.
“It was my childhood dream, though it turned out to be a lot harder than I expected.”
The first hurdle for Penny was money, or rather the lack of it.
“It took me a long time to learn how to drive a rally car,” she said.
“And of course, it’s not exactly the cheapest hobby.
“I ended up borrowing thousands of pounds from the bank, and actually lied to my bank manager for years to fund my driving.”
Luckily for Penny, the risks paid off and aged 21 she secured her first sponsor.
“I did well with my first sponsor,” she said.
“And from there I managed to progress up the ladder.
“It’s sort of a cycle, the better your sponsor means the better you do in the race, which means you attract more attention and then more sponsors.”
Just four years after getting into her first rally car, in 1993 Penny became the National Ladies Champion Rally Driver, and over the years has been behind the wheel in more cars than she can count.
But certain motors such as MK2 Escorts, Ford Cosworths and the Ford Focus World Rally Car are particularly memorable.
And it’s no wonder that the Ford Focus World Rally Car specifically stands out in her mind as, at 28, Penny was the first woman in the world to drive a car of this specification during a World Rally Championship.
Although she quickly rose to the top of her game, Penny appreciates that many women might have found it intimidating to enter the world of rallying, where men and women compete alongside each other in the same competitions.
“It is entirely male dominated,” she said.
“There are a few women drivers but generally it’s a bit of a rarity.
“I wasn’t taken seriously until I started delivering results.
“So I used to keep my mouth shut and let my results do the talking.
“The first championship I ever did was in the Welsh Forests.
“I really cut my teeth on that track and it’s still one of my favourites.”
And although she doesn’t rally anymore, Penny spent nearly 20 years presenting various rallying TV programmes including the World Rally Championships on Channel 4.
Now she is a keynote speaker who specialises in what she calls “the psychology of success”, a job which has seen her make presentations around the country in prisons, schools and at world-class sporting events.
This week she will be speaking at the 21st Aberdeen Ladies Lunch, held by Action Medical Research at the Marcliffe Hotel and Spa.
The national charity is raising money to fund specialised medical research into diseases which affect sick and disabled children across the UK.
But regardless of the different directions her life has taken her, Penny remembers why she got into rallying.
“In rallying there is always something around the next corner which you’re not expecting,” she said.
“It challenged me, and that’s what I needed.”
For more details about tickets to the event, which takes place tomorrow, Thursday, March 15, contact janet@action.org.uk
