Penny Mallory is one of the few women in the world of rally driving & motoring journalists who is highly respected as an expert. She is one of the most successful women rally drivers ever & the first woman in the world to compete in a World Rally Car (the Formula One of rallying). She co-presents ITV’s The Used Car Roadshow & reported for GMTV.
An accomplished broadcaster, she has presented Channel 4’s highly successful series, Driven, World Rally Championships, Accident Blackspots, Discovery’s Classic Car Club & narrated the Conquest of Everest 50th Anniversary DVD as the descendant of the legendary mountaineer, George Mallory.
Penny had a passion for all things mechanical from an early age & a real love of engineering. At just 14, she ran away from her home in Kent to London & eventually found refuge & support in homeless hostels. She realised that to change her situation she would have to apply herself & in time worked her way to becoming a sound engineer & graphic artist.
A chance event allowed her to realise a childhood dream of driving a rally car & she was hooked. Despite being just in her early 20s, she was told that she was too old & the wrong sex to start this sport. After just three months of learning how to drive a rally car, she’d put together a two-year sponsorship deal & in 1993 became the National Ladies Champion. Her unique & inspirational story shows there is no limit to what you can achieve with will power & commitment.
Penny is always pushing her own boundaries & continues to learn new skills every year. She has Diplomas (with Distinction) in Life Coaching, Counselling, Psychotherapy & NLP. She has always had to be at peak fitness for rallying & developed this interest further, training for the last year to be a welterweight boxer – she is undefeated! She is also qualified to teach adults (PTTLS) & works in a Category B prison delivering a course in Restorative Justice. Alongside this, Penny looks after her two young daughters & Alfie the cocker spaniel.
Her guest features include writing & presenting her own strand Dashboard Divas for This Morning (ITV), Watchdog, Britain’s Worst Roads (BBC), a 13-part series for BBC UK Style, Can Ski Will Ski as well as her own consumer series Top Dog & presenting the flagship live series, Men & Motors Live.
Penny enjoys getting the best out of life & is keen to help others achieve this also. She ran the London marathon for Bernardos & is an Ambassador for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme, Investors in People & Blackberry.
