A group of girls got a taste of racing at a go-karting event yesterday (18 Aug) at Gravity, Wandsworth.
The event, organised by initiative Girls on Track, brought together female racing stars Jamie Chadwick and Emma Gilmour and underprivileged girls from the London AAA Zone (Ambition Aspire Achieve).
Judy Murray, a patron of encouraging more women in sports, oversaw the series of talks and challenges, intended to inspire the group of potential athletes.
A total of 24 young females – aged 10-14 – were invited to attend from both their online groups and local community programmes to give aspiring girls an insight into the world of motorsport and inspire them to get involved in a traditionally male-dominated industry.
Jamie Chadwick, Driver, Veloce Racing said: “This has been a brilliant day for raising awareness of women in motorsport. These young girls have a bright future ahead of them and I hope we might have inspired some of them to get involved in our industry.”
The event was run by Extreme E and W Series outfit Veloce Racing, in conjunction with Girls on Track.
It was hosted by Gravity in Southside Shopping Centre - a new entertainment venue offering darts, bowling and electric go-karting. experiences.
The venue was split up into three sections; a pit stop challenge with Mariella Bailey on hand to talk about her experience as Veloce Racing W Series Team Principal, a Batak reaction game with Emma Gilmour discussing her international rally experience as well as the upcoming challenge of Extreme E, and finally the go-karting itself with Jamie Chadwick providing the on-track action.
The W Series championship leader ran demo laps throughout the day before taking the fastest young racer from each session out for a once in a lifetime experience – sharing the track with Chadwick.
The day was capped off with Chadwick and Gilmour going wheel-to-wheel in the all-electric karts followed by a trophy presentation for the quickest drivers of the day and the winners of the Batak and pit stop challenges.
Emma Gilmour, Driver, Veloce Racing commented: “We’ve had a lot of fun today on all of the different challenges we set up for the girls. Veloce Racing and Girls on Track put on a fantastic event and its always great to be able to spread the word on women in motorsport – it was great to see how enthusiastic these kids are about racing.”
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