Wonderful time
- It was a wonderful time and I thought everything was funny. Sometimes I had success when I won four times Ladies Cup in "The Thousand Lakes Rally" in Finland..
At the beginning
In 1952 I met Yngve Rosqvist, a young blond, broad-shouldered engineer. We got married in 1954 and settled down in the village of Skurup located between Malmö and Ystad. There we bought a beautiful small house. I kept my employment even after my marriage. My husband and my father-in-law were both passionate drivers. My husband participated in smaller races and my father-in-law was interested in rally driving.
The first rally experience of my life was with my father-in-law and my husband. In 1954 I was given the role as the “third man” in the “Rally of the Midnight sun”. My father-in-law was a very skilful driver and had been participating in many motorcycle races earlier. But already after the first 1000 kilometers we were given penalty points, meaning that we were placed at the end of the leaderboard and at the last stage, not far from the checkered flag, we had a flat tyre. That was the end of it all. By now I had acquired the taste for it. At some of the intermediate stages I was given the opportunity to sit behind the steering wheel and it gave me such pleasure that I decided to participate in a rally either as driver or co-driver. I practiced quite a lot with my husband. The local automobile club arranged orienteering competitions in which we participated.
In 1956 I made my first rally appearance behind the wheel with Majbritt Clausson as co-driver. Once again it was in the “Rally of the Midnight sun” in the month of June. I had one misfortune after the other. Finally we had engine failure and we had to stop, but this gave me even more motivation to continue. I took time off from work one time after the other to attend in smaller rallies. The success varied! Sometimes it was a hit and I positioned myself well, other times it went totally wrong.
Most of the time I competed together with my sister in law Anita Rosqvist, who wasn’t a good driver but an excellent co-driver, who I always could rely on. This was a very expensive pleasure and I had to finance it all by myself. A major rally would cost me approximately 3000 Sek (about 300 Eur), but I could not resist it. Of course I had to earn this amount myself. I could not expect my husband to finance my hobby, especially as he himself also took part in different competitions and rallies. We were for sure a family of motorsport.
A road maraton
Difficulties
- Despite all the success began serious difficulties for me already 1960. Firstly, it was very expensive to participate private in so many rallies, secondly, it was long time I had no income, for the third began my workmates grumble because they have to do my work when I took more and more time off.
Divorce
- Additionally came very soon a new concern. As I spent less time at home than before, it came to disagreements with my husband, which ended in divorce. With heavy heart, I took leave of our beautiful home. I furnished the a small apartment for me in Malmö.