{{Short description|Swedish automobile rally racer (1934–2019)}} {{Infobox person | name = Ursula Wirth | image = Ursula Wirth och Ewy Rosqvist.jpg | alt = Two white women in helmets, hugging, outside a car. | caption = Ursula Wirth (left) and Ewy Rosqvist-von Korff (right), in 1962. | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = April 25, 1934 | birth_place = Sundsvall | death_date = {{death date and age|April 10, 2019|April 25, 1934}} | death_place = Stockholm | other_names = | occupation = Automobile racer | years_active = | known_for = Won the Gran Premio Argentina with Ewy Rosqvist-von Korff in 1962 | notable_works = }}
'''Ursula Wirth''' (April 25, 1934 – April 10, 2019) was a Swedish automobile rally racer. She and Ewy Rosqvist-von Korff won the Gran Premio Argentina in 1962, when they were also the first two-woman team to enter the race.
== Early life == Wirth was born in Sundsvall, the daughter of Kurt Artur August Max Wirth and Ruth Ingrid Tora Sjöbohm.
== Career == Wirth was a rural veterinary assistant as a young woman, driving from farm to farm to treat animals. Finding that she enjoyed driving, she became interested in rally racing. She placed well in a rally at Västergötland in 1960, and soon teamed up with another woman rally driver and veterinary assistant, Ewy Rosqvist-von Korff.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a8y4DwAAQBAJ&q=Ursula+Wirth+rally&pg=PT102|title=Extraordinary Sportswomen|last1=Hedenborg|first1=Susanna|last2=Pfister|first2=Gertrud|date=2019-10-31|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-351-11740-1|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tolvhed|first=Helena|date=2017-08-03|title=Ewy Rosqvist, rally queen: gender, identity and car racing at the beginning of the 1960s|journal=Sport in Society|language=en|volume=20|issue=8|pages=1047–1058|doi=10.1080/17430437.2016.1175138|s2cid=147076234|issn=1743-0437}}</ref> Together, they won several international road rally competitions in the early 1960s,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://media.daimler.com/marsMediaSite/en/instance/ko/Mercedes-Benz-rally-driver-Ewy-Rosqvist-celebrates-her-85th-birthday.xhtml?oid=9919981|title=Mercedes-Benz rally driver Ewy Rosqvist celebrates her 85th birthday|date=July 25, 2014|website=Daimler|language=en|access-date=2019-12-18}}</ref> including the Gran Premio Argentina in 1962.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/womens-sport/2019/08/19/moment-time-nov-4-1962-ewy-rosqvist-wins-touring-car-grand-prix/|title=Moment in Time: Nov 4, 1962 Ewy Rosqvist wins Touring Car Grand Prix of Argentina|last=Tomas|first=Fiona|date=2019-08-19|work=The Telegraph|access-date=2019-12-18|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}</ref>
At the 1962 Argentina rally, Wirth and Rosqvist were not only the winning team, but the first two women to enter the six-stage, 2871-mile race; they won all six stages and set a speed record with their win.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/december-1962/7/matters-moment-fords-internation-class-g-record|title=Matters of moment {{!}} Motor Sport Magazine Archive|date=December 1962|website=Motor Sport Magazine|page=7|language=en|access-date=2019-12-18}}</ref> The two Swedish women were provided with bodyguards during their time in Argentina, for fear that they would be attacked by racing fans.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/october-2002/90/attraction-control|title=Attraction control {{!}} Motor Sport Magazine Archive|date=October 2002|website=Motor Sport Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-12-18}}</ref> Reports of their win were accompanied by headlines like "Pretty Dolls Whip Men in Grand Prix",<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40729916/pretty_dolls_whip_men_in_grand_prix/|title=Pretty Dolls Whip Men in Grand Prix|last=Arias|first=Ronald|date=1962-11-05|work=The Evening Sun|access-date=2019-12-18|pages=40|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and "Swedish Blondes Break Tradition in Grand Prix."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40730146/swedish_blondes_break_tradition_in/|title=Swedish Blondes Break Tradition in Grand Prix|date=1962-11-05|work=Mt. Vernon Register-News|access-date=2019-12-18|pages=10|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Wirth and Rosqvist won the Coupe des Dames at the 1963 Monte Carlo rally.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com/marsClassic/en/instance/ko/Ladies-team-driving-Mercedes-Benz-220SE-wins-Coupe-des-Dames.xhtml?oid=4910469|title=Ladies team driving Mercedes-Benz 220 SE wins "Coupe des Dames"|website=Mercedes-Benz|language=en|access-date=2019-12-18}}</ref> Wirth worked with English driver Pat Moss in 1964,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y-_xufYqoK8C&q=Ursula+Wirth+rally&pg=PA110|title=Harnessing Horsepower: The Pat Moss Carlsson Story|last=Turner|first=Stuart|date=2011-06-15|publisher=Veloce Publishing Ltd|isbn=978-1-84584-306-9|pages=110|language=en}}</ref> and left racing in 1965, but taught driving for almost thirty years in Stockholm. In 1969, she appeared in the film ''Monte Carlo or Bust!.''<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40730315/sportsmen_play_roles_in_auto_comedy/|title=Sportsmen Play Roles in Auto Comedy|last=Russell|first=Fred|date=1969-05-01|work=The Bridgeport Post|access-date=2019-12-18|pages=23|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
== Personal life == Wirth married television presenter Magnus Banck in 1965, and left rally racing. She was widowed when Banck died in 1981. She remarried in 1987, to Ingmar Fernström; he died in 2014. Ursula Wirth Fernström died in 2019, just before her 85th birthday, in Stockholm.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://minnessidor.fonus.se/memorial_page/memorial_page_personal_info.php?order_id=3647485&set_site_id=2&fbrefresh=3647485&sign=3d911698f41d033f0f470ac6fab999c0|title=Minnessida för Ursula Wirth Fernström|website=minnessidor.fonus.se|date=7 May 2019 |language=sv|access-date=2019-12-18}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
* {{Subject bar|portal1=Biography|portal2=|portal3=}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wirth, Ursula}} Category:1934 births Category:2019 deaths Category:Swedish racing drivers Category:Swedish female racing drivers Category:People from Sundsvall Category:Sportspeople from Västernorrland County Category:Female rally drivers Category:20th-century Swedish sportswomen