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Horsepower & Heels

Celebrating, promoting and supporting female racers and women in motorsports

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W Series

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Daring to be Different with Porsche

November 7, 2019 //  by Horsepower & Heels

An exciting day was had at the Porsche Cars Great Britain headquarters for 100 girls who took part in a special event partnering with the global initiative Dare To Be Different (D2BD) program. 

The girls, aged between 11 and 14 years old, were invited from local secondary schools in the area to take part in a host of fun STEM skill building activities. The mission: for each to experience what a future career in automotive and motorsports could look like.

Hands-on for Motorsports

Students participate in a ‘Pirelli Pit-Stop’ challenge at the Porsche sponsored Dare to be Different program.

The students took on the ‘Pirelli Pit-Stop’ challenge, where they worked in teams as a pit crew would to change a wheel against the clock. Life saving techniques taught by Dare To Be Different Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Clare Morden, helped them understand resuscitation. Students learned about important emergency aid measures, including how to use a defibrillator.  

An exciting meet and greet session was arranged with leading female W Series racing driver Esmee Hawkey. This allowed the girls the opportunity to ask the Carrera Cup driver questions, get autographs and take all-important selfies with her Carrera Cup race car. 

W Series and Carerra Cup driver, Esmee Hawkey, shares insight into a career as a race car driver with young students at the Porsche Dare to be Different session. – November 6, 2019 UK

Future Inspiration for Automotive Careers

The girls then enjoyed an in-depth tour of the Porsche Cars facility workshops and were given insight into Porsche’s electrification program and the future of mobility. 

Two of Porsche’s female personnel, Technician Charlotte Hargreaves and After Sales Manager, Louise Jenkins-Smith – spoke to the group of young ladies. Each offered valuable career advice and sharing their personal experiences as women in the field with the enthusiastic young audience.

We were delighted to host Dare To Be Different at Porsche Headquarters and our Centre in Reading yesterday. The girls were highly engaged in all of the activities and it was great to observe a real sense of excitement as well as a growth in confidence in all of them throughout the day.  Events like this are an absolute necessity if we are to encourage more females into automotive and I really hope that we have inspired and maybe even helped shape the future for one, two (or even more!) of the girls that were here.”

Alasdair Jakes, Porsche Retail Group

Dare to be Different

The Dare to Be Different organization was co-founded by retired veteran racer Susie Wolff and The Motor Sports Association, the governing body of motorsports in the UK. Upon retirement, Susie wanted a way to help drive female talent in the sport, which despite being performance based and not driven by gender, still sees few females with long term careers in the industry.

“First of all a huge thanks to Porsche for hosting our event at their superb HQ. It was wonderful for the girls to be able to get up close and personal with the road and race cars and have insight into the day-to-day workings of a manufacturer like Porsche. 

Susie Wolff, Dare To Be Different founder

The international initiative’s mission is to inspire, connect, showcase and develop women who either currently work in, or want to work in the motor sport arena. They work by organizing events and programs that foster STEM-based skill sets, and help introduce exciting career opportunities to interested girls.

We are working hard to improve the numbers but there is still a considerable shortage of women across many disciplines in automotive and motorsports. It’s up to us to show them at a young age what potential career opportunities exist, especially when they are making important life choices. My hope is that one day one of these girls will say, “I remember that day – it’s what made me want to be a mechanic/ designer/ sales manager or whatever it is she chooses for her future.”

Susie Wolff, Dare To Be Different founder

Category: Conferences/Events, FeaturedTag: Dare to be Different, Esmee Hawkey, Susie Wolff, W Series, Women in Motorsports

W Series Announces 2020 Drivers

October 21, 2019 //  by Horsepower & Heels

The W Series, a ground-breaking racing series for women that launched in October 2018 to change the racing industry stereotypes and provide opportunity for women in racing has announced its second season of drivers.

After extensive three-day, on-track test sessions at Almeria (southern Spain) last month, and reviewing rigorous lap-time assessment and data-analysis, the W Series has selected six new drivers to race in 2020. They will join the top 12 returning drivers who automatically qualified for the 2020 W Series championship as a result of having finished inside the top 12 in the 2019 W Series championship season.

The 18 confirmed drivers for the 2020 W Series championship

DRIVERCountryAgePts
Position
Jamie ChadwickUK211st
Beitske VisserNetherlands242nd
Alice PowellUK263rd
Marta GarciaSpain194th
Emma KimilainenFinland305th
Fabienne WohlwendLichetenstein216th
Miki KoyamaJapan217th
Sarah MooreUK258th
Vicky PiriaItaly259th
Tasmin Pepper South Africa2910th
Jessica HawkinsUK2411th
Sabre CookUSA2412th
Ayala AgrenNorway25New
Abbie EatonUK27New
Belen GarciaSpain20New
Nerea MartiSpain17New
Irina SidorkovaRussia16New
Bruna TomaselliBRasil21New

Two more 2020 W Series championship drivers will be announced at a later date, bringing the total to 20. Over 40 new drivers applied for consideration in the series.

It’s an impressive list, including the top 12 from our 2019 season, and six new drivers, who all performed well at Almeria. The result is a varied and international group, comprising 18 drivers from 12 countries, ranging in age from the super-experienced Finn, Emma Kimilainen, 30, to the very promising young Russian, Irina Sidorkova, 16.  
Our commiserations go to those whom we haven’t selected, but sadly their disappointment is simply an example of the jeopardy inherent in any athlete’s life at the higher levels of competitive sport. The more you can win, the more you can lose.

Catherine Bond Muir (Chief Executive Officer, W Series)

I was generally impressed by the 14 drivers whom we tested and appraised at Almeria [southern Spain] last month, and making our selection was correspondingly difficult. But we’ve crunched all the data to the best of our ability, and I’m therefore confident that the 18 drivers whom we’ve selected so far represent an excellent line-up. But we’ve left two spaces available, to allow us a little more time to select the final two drivers who, together with the 18 drivers we’ve already selected, will make up the 20 drivers who’ll contest the 2020 W Series championship.

Dave Ryan (Racing Director, W Series) 

More information on the W Series

Visit their website: http://www.wseries.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wseriesracing/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wseriesracing/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/w-series/

Category: Women in Racing NewsTag: Abbie Eaton, Alice Powell, Ayala Agren, Beitske Visser, Belen Garcia, Bruna Tomaselli, Emma Kimilainen, Fabienna Wohlwend, Irina Sidorkova, Jamie Chadwick, Jessica Hawkins, Marta Garcia, Miki Koyama, Nerea Marti, Sabre Cook, Sarah Moore, Tasmin Pepper, Vicky Piria, W Series

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