AWMN in Profile: Linda Devlin

Generations in Motion

Her daughter cheers from the sidelines, still too young to grasp lap times but old enough to love the spectacle. Just as Linda once watched her dad, the next generation is already in the stands. Motorsport wasn’t just a hobby in the Devlin family — it was a language: the bark of engines, the tang of petrol in the air, and the clatter of a ratchet, Linda’s favourite tool to this day.

Those weekends shaped her childhood. While other families spent Saturdays at sport or at lakes with the boat, the Devlins spent theirs trackside — lugging tyres, tuning carburettors, and huddling under jackets when the weather turned. Linda and her brother would watch wide-eyed as their dad hurled his Mini around corners, setting lap records in a car he’d built himself. Their mum wasn’t just on the fence line either; she once ran a sprint meet while pregnant with Linda, setting in motion a tradition that her daughter would one day continue on track.

By eight years old Linda was racing karts, spending nearly a decade learning patience, car control, and the hunger to win. Karting became her playground, her proving ground, and the place where she first discovered what it meant to push her own limits. Then, at seventeen, came the invitation of a lifetime: a drive in a 1964 Mini Cooper S belonging to her dad’s best mate, Henry Draper. The car was already steeped in history, and as Linda slotted into the seat for the first time, she carried that history with her. From that moment, she never looked back.

Her career since has been defined by poise, precision, and a fierce devotion to the small but mighty Mini. She has claimed four Mini Challenge championships and produced results that mark her out as a racer who thrives under pressure. She once outdrove the field by thirty seconds in a Queensland downpour on a track she’d never even seen before. At The Bend in South Australia, she stormed to victory on the international circuit with a twenty-second margin.

Even her licensing test became a story in itself — thrown straight into qualifying at a brand-new track, she outpaced the locals by three seconds and claimed pole. All this was achieved in Henry’s other Mini, a 2008 Red JCW ex-Mini Challenge car — a 1.6-litre turbocharged machine — or in Linda and her dad’s Chrome Blue one, built to the same spec.

Linda has also etched her name into the record books. In the 1964 historic Mini, she became the first woman to win a Historic event at Winton, a breakthrough moment in Australian motorsport. She added two outright victories there in 2013, a Mini championship event win at Wakefield, and — with Henry — finished 2nd outright in the gruelling Winton 300. In 2012, Linda and her dad also became the first father/daughter team to compete in the Winton 300, with her dad stepping in as Henry was unavailable.

Along the way, she collected awards including Youngest Driver, Best Performed Female Driver, and Group Nb category honours. At the 2019 MINI Australia Dash, she finished 2nd in a 1964 Morris Cooper S, and at The Bend she qualified on pole in a John Cooper Works Mini before an electrical fault cruelly kept her off the start line.

Her story has often been compared to one written half a world away. In the early 1960s, British driver Christabel Carlisle became a motorsport icon, racing Mini Coopers in Chanel suits and outpacing some of the biggest names of the day. In just three seasons she carved her place in the British Saloon Car Championship (now BTCC), proving that women could be both visible and victorious. What Carlisle began in Britain finds its mirror out here in the colonies, where Devlin has turned Minis into a proving ground once again.

But Linda’s most powerful story isn’t about lap times. It’s about identity. She laughs when she recalls her mum racing pregnant with her — and history repeated itself when she discovered she was expecting, just a day after finishing second in the championship in 2022. For some, that moment might have marked the end of a racing chapter. For Linda, it became another challenge. Just twelve weeks after giving birth, she strapped back into the driver’s seat. “It makes me feel like me,” she says. “As a mum you can lose yourself, but racing gives me that back.”

Family has always been the polestar of her career. Her dad is more than just her mechanic — he’s her engineer, mentor, and steadying force, preparing the car and standing ready in the pits. Her mum and partner Brad keep things moving off-track, wrangling her daughter so Linda can focus on the race. Even her sponsors, Track Performance Solutions, Shrektech Automotive and The Park Hotel Werribee, feel more like extended family, part of the tight-knit crew that makes her racing possible.

There’s also a quiet contrast in Linda’s life that few outside motorsport ever see. During the week she worked in the childcare sector, but now guides high school students as a student aide with patience and care. Then, on the weekends, she straps into a turbocharged ex-Mini Challenge car, chasing tenths of a second at circuits like Winton, Calder Park, and The Bend. It’s a balance that seems worlds apart — nurturing by day, relentless competitor by night — yet both call for the same qualities: dedication, composure under pressure, and a refusal to quit when things get tough.

Ask her about her favourite tool and she’ll grin: “A ratchet. They’re so satisfying to listen to — and such a time saver.” That answer says a lot about her approach. She takes joy in the simple, practical things, but she knows exactly how those small details add up to big wins.

For Linda, racing is both anchor and horizon. It connects her to her dad’s history, her mum’s determination, and her daughter’s future. It’s where she feels most herself — helmet on, world narrowed to nothing but the next corner. She plans to keep pushing for as long as she can, chasing moments that silence the doubters and remind her why she belongs here. Her advice is simple: “Take every opportunity, but also make it happen for yourself. Be humble, enjoy the adrenaline rush — and always keep a great crew around you.”