Jamie Chadwick announces all-female karting programme to encourage younger girls into the sport
The three times W Series Champion Jamie Chadwick has launched an all-female karting initiative: The Jamie Chadwick Karting Series, in a bid to encourage motorsport participation from younger girls.
The Indy NXT driver has partnered with Daytona Motorsport to provide free karting sessions and mentorship with girls around the UK.
The free sessions are open to girls aged 8 and above and will be implemented for the remainder of 2024.
When talking to Sky Sports News, Chadwick highlighted the lack of initiatives and engagement with the early levels of a motorsport career: “Something that I’ve looked at in the last few years, especially, is what could we actually do to try to help more at grassroots level?” She said.
“And I think something I’ve noticed a massive improvement with over the last few years is we’re having a huge push to get more and more women in the sport, but a lot of that is coming at a slightly higher level – we’ve got F1 Academy, we’ve got initiatives around higher to world championship level karting, British Championships.
“But I actually started in, ‘arrive and drive’ kind of style karting at a pretty low level when I was 12 years old and never really had much of a career roadmap or anything to suggest that there was opportunity beyond that. I just did it as a hobby, so I was fortunate enough there were opportunities that did come around and I had an older brother that helped the early sort of stages of the next progressions, but without that, I definitely wouldn’t have had the chance to progress.
“So it’s kind of going back to that level and trying to identify some talent, encourage and mentor the young girls at that level and give them ideally an opportunity then to progress through to the next step of their careers.”
The programme emphasises the British driver’s interest in making the sport more inclusive and diverse by eliminating the financial barrier at entry-level and offering a mentoring scheme that young karters aren’t always subjected to.
Not only is Chadwick a role model to women and girls in motorsport, she believes that the future will entail women to not only participate, but be leaders of the sport too.
“I think there are a few elements to it,” Chadwick continues. “Of course, even when I started, there were no female drivers competing in Formula 1 to watch at the weekends, there still aren’t, and for that reason, a lot of people won’t believe that they can be Formula 1 drivers or compete at the highest level.
“So why should they start in the sport in the first place? But it’s opening their eyes, giving them the opportunity to progress and have that chance. But also I think when I started as well, I was the only girl going to the karting events and I was lucky enough to have my brother with me and that made it easier and made the transition not so intimidating.
“But if we can create an environment and a culture that there are a lot more young girls competing and they’re able to go and enjoy it and be in an environment they feel comfortable in. I think that’s also important.”
Featured image credit: Williams Racing
