As the summer season of racing began to wind down, the same could not be said for the number of women in motorsport showcasing their abilities behind the wheel. From the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America Series to Euroformula, the Saudi Toyota Time Attack Championship and much more besides, September proved to be another busy month of record setting and stand out performances.
Once again, there were a plethora of individuals to choose from for this spotlight series. It’s a fantastic thing to see as women’s presence in motorsport continues to grow and grow – and not just in series that would be considered mainstream. Let’s take a look then at some of the women in motorsport who stood out the most over the month of September.
If you missed last month’s edition of this series, you can find it here.
Anna Cecchi
Anna Cecchi has already featured in this series three times this year as she blazed a trail through the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America Championship. This fourth appearance however is her most significant one yet. Heading into the season finale at Road Atlanta, the nineteen year old had a very fair shot of wrapping up a maiden Championship win in style.
That’s exactly what Anna Cecchi did. Qualifying in third place for the weekend, she finished the first of the two final races in second place before rounding out the season with a sixth win of the year in a shortened and rain soaked outing. The weather may have been atrocious but that didn’t stop Anna and the rest of the Charlie Hayes Racing Team from celebrating or put a dampener on the day.
Keith Grant was the only driver capable of keeping Anna honest over the course of the season. He finished in second place, forty-eight points back. Third place finisher in the Championship, Todd Ruttura, was a whopping two-hundred and seven points behind Cecchi in the final standings. Such was Cecchi’s domination in 2026.
Anna also becomes the first female Cayman Class Champion in the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America Series in the process. Moreover, with her Dad also competing in the series, the pair were able to clinch third place overall in the Cayman Pro/Am Endurance Challenge Championship too.
While, at the time of writing, we don’t know Anna’s plans for next season yet, rest assured that we’ll be watching her with great interest.
Signe Pejs Ørnbøll
The Danish driver made September a month to remember. Competing at the FIA Arrive & Drive Macau, Ørnbøll qualified in Pole Position in the Senior Category before going on to convert this into a Championship title, making a crucial move on the final lap of the race to achieve this. Consequently, the young Dane has now qualified for the World Cup to be held in Malaysia later this year. Ørnbøll is definitely a driver to keep an eye on for the future.
Jade Jacquet
Jade Jacquet made history in September. Alongside her duties in F1 Academy, the Williams backed driver has been competing in French Formula 4 in 2026. It’s her second season in the series and she’s been putting all of her experience to good use. Nowhere was that more evident than during the fifth and penultimate round of the season, held in Lédenon.
After starting in Pole Position, she maintained control of the race throughout and proceeded to win. In doing so, she became the first woman in the history of the series to win a race. Given that P12 was her best result of the year thus far, with P11 her best result last season in the series, this jump up not just onto the podium, but onto the top step was a significant achievement.
All eyes will now turn to the finale Le Castellet as well as the next round of F1 Academy in Texas – both in October.
Tatiana Calderón
History was made in the seventh round of the NASCAR Brazil Series in September. Held at the oval track of Circuito dos Cristais, Tatiana Calderón finished the first of the two races for that weekend just shy of the podium in fourth place. But the Colombian driver promptly went on to immediately better her best result of the year in the second and final race of the weekend.
Calderón took charge of that second race and went on to win – not only her first victory in the series but the first victory by any woman in the history of the series. It was a simply phenomenal drive from the experienced racer and put a smile on just about everybody’s face.
Célia Martin
Before the weekend of September 19th, Célia Martin hadn’t been in a GT3 car nine months. But a last minute call up for the fan favourite Endurance Driver threw her back into the mix in a brand new car – an Audi GT3 – with Saintéloc Racing in the 24 Hours Series which was competing at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya in the PRO/AM Class.
Part of a five driver junior team, Célia went on to become an integral part of the weekend as the team went on to not just get onto the podium, but to take victory in the PRO/AM Class – an awesome achievement. Much like other drivers on this list who have to wait for long periods between race weekends, results and performances like this perfectly showcase why they should be snapped up immediately and given full time race seats. Bravo Célia.
Paityn MaryJane Feyen
In the United States of America, Paityn MaryJane Feyen became the Hickory Motor Speedway Track Champion in the LLM Division after a busy season of racing in the #88 car. Hopefully, this will help Paityn move at least one wrung further up on the road to NASCAR ladder.
Lina Andersson
In the final weekend of September, the Tierp Arena SpeedEvents Finals took place in Sweden. Lina Andersson was in attendance competing (along with fellow competitor and sister Wilma) and the former went on to have an absolutely fantastic weekend.
Friday started out for Lina with three solid qualifying runs which both dialled the car and Lina into the proceedings for the weekend. Unfortunately, the rain then came along and washed out the remainder of Friday as well as all of Saturday. Things turned around for the better on Sunday with a final qualifying run before racing got underway.
Wilma picks up the story from there:
“We made our way through the eliminations with some really good runs. In the first round, we hit our dial-in of 7.59, which was so much fun! The car ran consistently and smoothly throughout the rest of the rounds, and Lina put down some great reaction times. We made it all the way to the final and won, where we also ran a new personal best of 7.58! What an amazing way to finish the 2026 season!” – Wilma Andersson
No better way to finish a season of racing than with a victory and new personal best for good measure too. You love to see it and we can’t wait to see both sisters back in action in 2027.
Amber Balcaen
Over the weekend of September 19th, Amber Balcaen went racing at the Sauble Speedway in South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, competing in the OSS Series with Brimstone Games. Just like in her previous outing, the race was reduced by ten laps due to a track curfew meaning that Amber would finish in second place – still a very happy achievement for the driver on a limited schedule this year.
But there was a very positive twist in Amber’s weekend as the original winner was subsequently disqualified from the race for a technical infringement, meaning that Amber inherited the win! Not always the way drivers want to win but a just reward for a strong performance cut short for reasons beyond her control. That means in her last two races, Amber has had two wins and a pole position. Now that’s not bad at all.
Notable Mentions
Abbi Pulling
The GB3 Championship headed to Donnington in September and Abbi Pulling was once again out to leave her mark on the series. Having won her first race in the series earlier this year in Spa, Pulling now returned to the podium for the first time since then. She did this with a third place finish in the first of the three races that weekend. After a more difficult second race where she finished in ninth, Pulling then drove a terrific third race to claim another third place finish. As a result, she’s now in touching distance of the two drivers ahead of her in the Championship with two rounds left to go this season.
Reem AlAboud
The second round of the Saudi Toyota Time Attack Championship took place in Jeddah earlier this month. Reem AlAboud was out competing in the series once again, taking home a third place finish in the 3B Category 3B while also finishing in first place overall in the Ladies Cup.
Chiara Bättig
By qualifying in second place at the latest round of the British F4 Championship held in Croft, Chiara Bättig equalled Abbi Pulling’s record for the best qualifying result achieved by a female driver. It may not seem like much to some but these victories and achievements all add up and we’ve seen in other series just how crucial a good starting position is.
Maya Weug
It’s been a difficult year for Maya Weug to say the least. But some good fortune came the way of the Dutch driver when she got a last minute call to compete in the Euroformula Series behind held at Hockenheim.
Having spent eleven months out of a single seater and then having to jump into a car she’d never driven before, it was a tall order for Maya to be able to deliver a good result. But Maya Weug isn’t just any driver. She finished inside the top ten in all three races across the weekend and improved from start to finish. Finishing the first race in eighth, she then finished in seventh before rounding out the weekend with a fifth place finish. If that’s not enough of an advertisement for someone to put her in a seat full time, we don’t know what is.
Feature Image: Anna Cecchi, 24H Series and Creventic, Tatiana Calderón and Andersson Racing