Motoring
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Formula Woman – what’s that? Are you female? Do you love driving? Then read on…
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y name is Hayley, I'm 29 & live in Coolham. I am self-employed with two businesses – the first (my day job) as a domestic cleaner; the second and most recent as a Group Exercise to Music Instructor teaching Clubbercise (a dance fitness workout taught in a darkened room with glowsticks and disco lights). It’s been a bit of a bumpy road as the first lockdown hit just after I started my qualification, but through the powers of technology, I passed and brought my classes online for five months – I am now one month into teaching in real life! However, I have started another ‘adventure’ on top of this and after the last couple of years we’ve all had, why not? I have become a Formula Woman applicant. You may or may not have heard about this but it has been picking up momentum in the media. What is Formula Woman? In 2004, Formula Woman began with a televised motor racing competition open to novice female drivers - it had over 10,000 applicants competing to be crowned Formula Woman Champion. This time it is back to find six drivers who will compete, not against each other, but against their male counterparts in the televised 2022 GT Cup Series on ITV. The final six will have a fully sponsored drive in two of the McLaren 570S GT4s for the entire season. Formula Woman itself will televise our progress from our assessment day where we will take part in five assessments including two on the track: one karting, one car. The top 16 will then compete in a ‘shoot-out’ towards the end of the year with the final six going into training early next year for the season ahead. I’m afraid I can’t tell you much more about the competition as it is new and, being televised, it’s very much under wraps – even applicants don’t even get the inside scoop! I am feeling more excited than nervous at the moment. Apart from a handful of track days in my brother’s track day car, I am a complete novice. My Dad was a racer many moons ago and even Mum played
her part on the sidecars so it has become a passion for the whole family. When I was little I would be asked, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” and I would simply reply “To drive”. As soon as I turned 17 I was in a car having driving lessons. Now grown up (sort-of!) and working hard for a living being a racer has become a bit of a dream. Having not grown up in a gokart like the racers of today it’s hard to imagine that it could change – instead I take my passion for racing and put it into watching F1 of which I am an avid fan. However, through the powers of social media I stumbled across Formula Woman by chance and it was too good an opportunity to pass up: a competition for novice drivers who have the opportunity to show a natural racing talent is right up my street. It would be the stuff of dreams to make it to the top six, but just to be in a racing environment with like-minded ladies will be a fantastic experience and a big learning curve. Even after the competition, regardless of the outcome we are Formula Women for life and will receive continued support from the Formula Woman team in all aspects of motor racing. As with most motor racing, media and support is a key component. As applicants we have the option of finding personal sponsors; these sponsors can support us in many ways from our assessment fee; travel, accommodation and racing gear costs; to helping with costs for extra training with simulators, karts or track days. In return they will get their business/logo on our helmets and on the car during our televised assessment and as we progress through the competition they’ll also get plenty of mentions on applicants’ social media pages. If you are female, enjoy driving and reading this here is the link to the Formula Woman page: www.formulawoman.co.uk. And if you’d like to follow my progress here’s a link to my Instagram page where I have just started to document my Formula Woman journey: www.instagram.com/haylzmoore92. Hayley Moore
The 2004 Formula Woman championship – now it’s back!
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