Clare Vale doesn’t just race cars, she does it sideways. She is the first woman in South Africa to burn rubber drift-racing. And she also sells used trucks.
She sells trucks in an industry dominated by males, alongside her husband and son. But that is not why FORBES WOMAN AFRICA visited Clare Vale.
She is a 54-year-old professional motorsport drifter; again in a male-dominated industry. Born and bred in Johannesburg, she believes Cape Town is her spiritual home.
Vale was always interested in cars. Selling BMWs in her 20s was the start of a long road in the motor vehicle industry.
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“In the five years I spent there, I learned a lot about cars. It also drove my motorsport passion because those were the days when there was a lot of racing at the old Kyalami racetrack. It grew from there,” she recalls.
She met her husband, Don Vale, while selling him a BMW, she laughs. It was then she moved to Cape Town to start selling trucks with him. He was a director at MAN Truck – they later took over the branch and became an independent dealership.
Although Vale spent years selling trucks and attending racing events, it was only 10 years ago that her passion ignited. She went for an advanced driving course in a BMW M3, with former South African professional racing driver and current instructor, Basil Mann.
He encouraged me that day; he saw I was enjoying myself, telling me to go faster and stop driving like Miss Daisy.
Vale asked him if she could become a racing driver. After a long pause, Mann said it would take a lot of practice. She went home and told her husband she wants to race.
Vale persisted with her dream and says she was thrown in the deep end when she had to learn to race in a Shelby Can-Am sports car. That was her first racecar and she completed three seasons driving it.
In 2007, Vale became the first woman to race in the WesBank V8 Supercar series.
“It was a macho class, there had never been a female driver ever, it was all the macho guys and it was a challenge because those cars are extremely fast. People aren’t scared to bump, they’re committed and I loved it, I fitted in really well,” she says.
Clare Vale prepares for a race. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla 
Clare Vale on the race track. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla
In 2009, Vale was the first woman to take pole position and lead a V8 race; she was also the first lady to have a V8 Supercar podium finish.
“The V8s are special cars, they’re loud and tough, extremely fast, they look really mean,” she says.
Most of the drivers thought Vale was only on the track for them to overtake, but she improved as she kept racing. This earned their respect and friendship as she became just another racer.
“Motorsport is special because they don’t have a class for females and a class for males, it’s not like golf or tennis, we’re all together,” she says.
One night, Vale went to a drifting event. Drifting is when the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn of the car. She was struck by the diversity of the large crowd, the sport appealed to everybody because it was entertaining. People didn’t go there to see who crossed the line first, she says. They loved the spectacle, the excitement and the burning of rubber. She thought to herself that this was something she could do.
In 2012, Vale shifted to drift racing, where she was the first female driver to participate in the SupaDrift Series in South Africa. But it wasn’t easy; they had no idea how to build a drift car because they only had experience building racing cars.
Clare vale, director of MAN Truck. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla 
Clare Vale in her drifting vehicle. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla
“We actually built a racecar and it didn’t want to drift, it took us a year to make it work, it was a Mustang,” she says.
Vale didn’t know how to drift and says she made a fool of herself. For about a year, she had another car that also refused to drift and she kept crashing, but she didn’t give up. With the help of her family and the drifting community, she improved the car.
It was also challenging for Vale to adapt to the different rules of drifting. Rather than just needing to be quickest, drifting is all about impressing the judges
“The judging in drifting is different; you get judged on angle, how sideways your car is. You get judged on a certain speed, accuracy and lines and also flare; how spectacular it is and lots of smoke,” she says.
As one of the few women in drifting in South Africa, Vale is encouraging young women to get involved, especially as technicians.
“That is also important, cars are more computerized and there is a huge demand for trained technicians in the industry. It is there that women are going to be better drivers because they have the technical knowledge.”
Off the circuit, Vale is a director of The Truck Man, an independent dealership that sells used trucks and trailers.
Clare Vale motorsport racer poses next to her vehicle. Picture: Motlabana Monnakgotla
“Motorsport doesn’t define me; I’m not a racing driver and not a full-time professional racing driver, it’s a huge part of me, but it’s not actually what I do, I’m a businesswoman,” she says.
“Even more so, the motorsport industry is not perceived as a mass-market sport,” she says.
Vale and her husband started The Truck Man in 1998 and it is now one of the biggest independent used truck dealers in South Africa, she says.
The company’s customers are diverse, from farmers in the Free State to export businesses outside the country. Vale says more people are buying used trucks instead of the new models they would have bought before.
In addition to being a pioneer in motor racing, Vale was appointed Road Safety Ambassador for the Road Safety Foundation, as well as the Chairperson of the Women in Road Safety Forum. She is also the current ambassador for Continental South Africa’s Vision Zero road safety initiative.
Perhaps Vale’s greatest achievement, however, is smashing the stigma about female drivers in South African motorsport.
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