Teresa Cupertino de Miranda, the first Portuguese woman to race the Dakar Rally, passed away Monday after a long illness. She was 78 years old.

Cupertino entered the 1992 Paris–Cape Town Rally, a year after traveling there on an expedition. She raced a Nissan Patrol with Berta Assunção and Manuel Caetano as navigators, and the trio finished 110th overall.

Afterward, most of her cross-country rally action came in the Portuguese and Spanish national championships with a Toyota Land Cruiser. Her 2003 memoir Viagem Com o Meu Olhar includes passages on her career.

Other Portuguese women Dakarians include Joana Lemos (on a bike from 1995 to 2005 and as a navigator for Margarida Pinto Correia in 2006), Céu Pires de Lima (car, 1997 to 2006), and Elisabete Jacinto (truck, 1998 to 2009). Maria Luís Gameiro is the most recent case, finishing 26th in Challenger at the latest race in January.

She was also on the Automóvel Club de Portugal’s board of directors from 1998 to 2004.

Her father Arthur was the founder of Banco Português do Atlântico, one of the largest banks in Portugal until it was acquired by Banco Comercial Português in 2000.

Featured image credit: Automóvel Club de Portugal