Halliday enjoys ALMS return despite Petit Le Mans retirement

Liz Halliday’s return to her native USA didn’t end as she would have hoped after an accident for co-driver Dean Stirling forced an early retirement at the Petit Le Mans race. However, despite that frustration, the California-born dual sportswoman enjoyed her outing with Creation AIM. [Read more]

Justine Jackson takes a DOUBLE-VICTORY at the Palisadoes International Raceway

The Jamaica Karting Association held their 9th racemeet of the year at the Palisadoes International Raceway in Kingston, Jamaica on Sunday, September 21, 2008. Justine Jackson, driver of Kart # 0, participated in the Rotax Senior Class only in an effort of focusing on her Championship hopes, being 2nd in the hunt and only 27 points out of the lead.

Her efforts proved to be worth it as she started off her day on a high capturing pole position in the 5 minute qualifying session. Starting from P1, Justine sped off to take 2 victories in race 1 and race 2 (12 laps each) along with the fastest lap in race 2 earning an extra point as she continued to reel in the championship lead.

Race 3 proved to be different as she started from 4th place and after getting a bad start, was pushed back to P6 after the first corner. But with a strong head on her shoulders, Justine quickly grabbed back her 4th position after passing 2 karts on lap 1 and another on lap 2- kart # 83 who proved to be her battling partner for the 15 lap race. Now in 3rd place and P1 and P2 still in close contact, Justine and kart # 83 dueled throughout the race, but her 3rd place finish was lost as she caught up on a bunch of lapped karters within the closing laps of the race. In exiting the last corner onto the main straight, Justine took to the outside line and kart # 83 took the inside to sandwich the lapped karter and in a photo-finish was just barely clipped on the finish line to take 4th place.

A job well done for the young Formula 1 aspirant, taking the overall Rotax Senior Class victory! She now trails by 24 points in the championship. With only 2 racemeets left, can she capture the 2008 Rotax Senior Championship? Only time will tell. She sure thinks so!

Double podium finish for Sarah Bennett-Baggs!

Sarah’s inaugural outing in her new loaned 911 SC won her a double podium finish at Silverstone over the weekend. Extending her points for 2nd in the Championship.

Sarah Bennett-Baggs returned to the Porsche Club Championship at Silverstone last weekend - following a huge accident at Castle Combe three weeks ago, which wrote off her beautiful pink 1978 Porsche 911 SC.

Sarah was loaned an identical car Porsche 911, which was quickly prepared with her engine and gearbox by Harvey Racing, then wrapped in an eye-catching pink furry wrap by Cre8, Potters Bar based Creative Agency. [Read more]

Sarah Wheery gets two wins at Cadwell

Grimsby lady car racer Sarah Wherry managed to get two first in class wins at Cadwell Park on Saturday the 6th in her Toyota MR2 MK2 2L, it was the first time she has raced the car in the Nippon Challenge a new series set up for any Japanese cars to race in,”I was racing against Evo`s,Subaru`s,Nissan`s ,Mazda`s and Honda`s it was great racing in difficult wet conditions, “so to get the wins at my local circuit was brilliant said Sarah”. [Read more]

Good weekend for Shea Holbrook at Labour day Members Memorial SCCA

Labor Day Members Memorial SCCA

Rainy Florida turned out to be a good weekend for Shea Holbrook. Shea has been very busy racing with NASA in a Teen Mazda Challenge up north at tracks such as, Mid-Ohio, Summit Point and Road Atlanta.

[Read more]

Highs and Lows at Castle Combe for the Pink Panther

Sarah Bennett-Baggs went fully prepared with her pink Porsche to Mondays Castle Combe event after a successful test day where her pink 911 3.0SC was fully back on song.

The results were confirmed in qualifying when she put in a fantastic time 0.5s quicker than last years pole time! However it wasn’t enough as her much more experienced rival Jeremy Clark, put in an even quicker time to get pole position. So it was 2nd in Class on the grid for Sarah and over 2s clear of her next rival in 3rd.

The tightly packed grid of the Wiltshire circuit was always going to be challenging as sprint races here are all about the start. Sarah had a door banging start to the first race, but kept her nerve and came out of the first few corners on Jeremy’s tail, chasing him hard to the end of the race to finish a close second and half a lap clear of the next competitor in 3rd.

The 2nd race of the day was not to be so successful. Another brilliant start by Sarah holding her own in the bun fight to get down to quarry corner. She turned into Quarry alongside her rival Jeremy Clark, but an incident was unfolding up ahead and the 911 of Ian Oliver got tapped into a spin in front of Jeremy. He braked to avoid the accident and Sarah’s path was clear to go, but as Sarah pushed hard to pass, the spinning car came across her path and she T-boned the car at full throttle. With such a high speed accident the race was red flagged to recover the two cars. Both Ian and Sarah were unhurt in the incident which resulted in both cars being badly damaged.

Hope’s to fix the pink panther look rather doubtful in just three weeks before the next rounds at Silverstone, but Sarah is more hopeful of returning to finish the series in a borrowed car of similar type.

Despite this, Sarah is still lying 2nd in the Class Championship standings and is down but not out!

The final rounds of the Porsche Club Championship are at Silverstone GP circuit and Spa Francorchamps

Good run for Justine Jackson at the Palisadoes International Raceway

The Jamaica Karting Association held their eighth race-meet of the year on Sunday August 24 at the Palisadoes International Raceway in Kingston, Jamaica, having been postponed from the previous Sunday, when Tropical Storm Fay passed through flooding the track.

Justine Jackson participated in the event racing in two classes- FR 125cc Rotax Senior Class and the 125cc Shifter class with a total of 6 races, qualifying 3rd and 5th respectively.

Her day got off to a bad start after being involved in an on-track incident in Race 1 of the Rotax senior class where she was punted from behind and forced into another kart, followed by an off-track incident with an angry parent which really affected her mentally. But remembering what she learnt at the Women in the Winner’s Circle Driver Development Program, she had to put it behind her knowing that she still had 5 more races. Jackson would later finish 3rd in Race 1, 4th in Race 2 and she claimed the top spot in Race 3!

In the Shifter Class she finished where she started in Race 1 and 2- 5th place. But Race 3 would later shape up to be the most exciting race of the day. Justine drove her heart out, racing from 3rd on the grid to 1st in a handful of laps while being trailed by the top 2 qualifiers, kart #90(championship leader) & #23. She held her own driving defensively making it virtually impossible for her competitors to get by, not making a single mistake despite enormous pressure from behind. But what looked like a second win for the day turned into a 2nd place finish after being passed on lap 5 by kart #90. For the remaining laps she battled with kart #23 trading 2nd place, back and forth, 3 times before finally finishing 3rd after a race well fought. But her competitors had nothing but praise for the 17 yr-old, Formula 1 aspirant.

A Difficult Silverstone Weekend for Sarah Franklin

As ever in motorsport, you have to take the rough with the smooth and Sarah Franklin had to take the rough during a difficult time at Silverstone on the weekend of the 16th & 17th August.

Sarah had just two 30 minute sessions on the Friday to reacquaint herself with the long 2.2 mile Silverstone International Circuit and also to get used to a car with new control tyres and different brakes to those she has been running in the Ginetta Club Championship.

‘It was like driving a completely different car,’ Sarah said, ‘I was really struggling to get any heat in the tyres and was feeling like I was constantly going to fall off the circuit!’

The forecast for the weekend wasn’t good so Sarah invested in a set of wet tyres which obviously then meant that it didn’t rain once during the Ginetta sessions!!!!

With only 15 minutes to qualify and with just 5.1 seconds separating the whole field, Sarah qualified in an extremely disappointing 26th place. The good news of the day was that Sarah’s car won the ‘Best Presented’ Ginetta of the weekend!

Race 1 got off to a hectic start, with a spinner on the first corner causing chaos! Sarah managed to pick her way through and avoid the carnage and push on until the inevitable safety car came out. By this time, Sarah was up into 21st with Steve Williams in front of her. Sarah tried to stay with Williams during the re-start but he got a better run out of the last corner and managed to get into Copse ahead of her. Sarah then pushed on, avoiding other people’s incidents, to bring the car home in 16th position.

Race 2 saw Sarah ready to really push. She got a good start and was several places up by the right hand turn at Becketts on lap 1 when she was tapped at the rear. Whilst this wasn’t a huge nudge, it was sufficient and in such a way that her rear hub was broken meaning she had to retire the car.

‘I was looking forward to a good race and am gutted that this is the way it has ended – and so early on in the race. I really need to get to grips with the new tyres and brakes and this is something I’ll have to work on before the next race.’

Sarah hopes to be out again in the Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship at the Donington round in October.

Cassey Watson ‘Buliding’ up the pace with Gentoo

Ginetta Junior driver Cassey Watson has always been recognizable in both SAXMAX and Ginetta Junior for her cars purple paintjobs and pink tiger graphics. However from now on she will be recognizable for flying the colours for award winning Sunderland based housing firm and community builder Gentoo. The market leading company, and Sunderland’s biggest landlord, back the two cars owned by CBS Racing who have signed Cassey to run alongside team owner’s son Alex Austin.
[Read more]

Driving ambition for Karen Andrews

Karen Andrews, female racing driver, looks set to have an exciting racing season ahead of her following a very promising performance recently at Mallory Park, Leicestershire.

Karen, Senior Engineering Technician for the multi-disciplinary consultancy group Scott Wilson, has been driving since the age of four and races competitively in her spare time. Mallory Park on the 17th May, in which she headed off the competition, helped Karen raise her profile on the racing circuit, gaining further recognition for her driving ability and attract sponsorship support.
[Read more]

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