Winter 2011

Over the winter period I have been very busy keeping my name out there and also keeping as fit as I can ready for the season to start in April. It started with me taking part in a 12 Hour Kart Event in Stoke On Trent with truck racers Chris Levett and Andy Lovenberry at the beginning of November. We missed out on the victory by around 10 seconds but raised a lot of money for the Help For Heroes and talking2minds charities and it was a really fun event too even though it was a bit too cold as it had snowed that day!

The second major event for me was my return trip to the Porsche Human Performance Centre with the MSA Academy, it revealed I had lost body fat and gained muscle mass which was my target from the first session. It was a very enjoyable day as all the facilities are top notch and the trainers are also full of encouragement for us to make the most of our day there.

Over the winter I arranged for 3 teams from my school to enter the British Schools Karting Championship where we competed in a practise and semi-final at Gloucester’s JDR Karting and 2 out of our 3 teams have now made it through to the regional final at Llandow Kart circuit in early March so watch this space for the result on who makes it to the national final at Daytona, late March.

My twitter has also become more widely used over the break as I have now broke the ‘100 follower’ mark by around 30. If you are not already following me on twitter then this is another of the many ways to find out how I am feeling and how things are going for me at the race events of this year so visit my ‘Get Closer’ page and click on the ‘Twitter’ logo to take you straight to my profile.

I also attended the ‘Women In Motorsport’ Seminar which was held in Coventry. They had 5 major guests including former rally co-driver Nicky Grist and motorsport presenter Louise Goodman. Workshops were run focusing on different skills which we have to execute in the motorsport world and I attended 3 of the sessions: focusing on dealing with the media,
Last of the winter activities was in January where I was offered the chance to test one of the new Smart cars racing in the 4two cup on the newest Silverstone GP circuit. The brakes on the car I thought were brilliant and the paddle shift was convenient so made it nimble – with quite similar characteristics to a kart. It felt very roomy inside too which was a lot different to what it looks like on the outside, you really wouldn’t think it would be so spacious!

The last to my exciting news is a few announcements. Firstly SUPAGARD will again be supporting me throughout this new season along with Geometric Manufacturing and Fadal CNC. ‘My connection with Supagard that was made during last year has been a huge step towards achieving my goal in motorsport and has allowed me to make the most of my potential in all aspects of the VW Cup. With their continued support this year I hope to gain some good results and help them increase their brand awareness even more.’ Teamed with Slidesports Race Engineering in a MkV Golf Gti I will be doing my best to impress with some good results this year. I have just started testing before the first round in April, and I’m looking forward to getting racing again even though I am loving being back in the seat again! With a trip to Zandvoort planned for this season I am looking forward to every minute of it.

Hope to see you all around this year! Never be afraid to come and say hi, I will always endeavour to make time to talk.