Women in Motorsport being such a buzz topic in the past few years is great! But there is still a long way to go. Who is putting in the work at the lower levels to show these women the path to becoming a professional driver?
Formula Woman
Formula Woman, a team that requires no prior experience to try out for and hosts annual tryouts in search of new talent. In 2022, Nora was one of those applicants. After two successful seasons of karting, Nora was eager to get started in her first race car.
Nora’s first weekend at Shannonville Motorsports Park with ApexV2R was an incredible success. After a single in-car day on track, Nora was at the top of the timing charts. This trend would continue at her second training weekend, taking place at Calabogie Motorsports Park. Tasked with learning the feel of the track from the seat of a car and not a simulator, Nora showed just how adaptable she could be. Every curve ball thrown at her from traffic, to weather changes, she handled with ease, further proving that she was ready for her preliminary Formula Woman assessment.
Formula Woman wanted to assess the girls holistically to get into the heads of who had the potential to become a great driver, and who has a little bit of natural talent. This in mind, the girls began their morning with fitness testing. From there, applicants were split into groups to complete the three final stages of their assessment; interviews, a written test, and the best part: driving. Nora spent time rigorously preparing for the interview stage, having her friends ask her questions and reviewing her body language in previous interviews. Her preparation paid off. Within a week, she was preparing for her trip to the UK for the Semifinals.
Of three hundred applicants, fifty were selected to attend the Semi Finals held at Bedford Autodrome in the UK. Nora was ready to take on the biggest challenge of her career to date. Formula Woman’s Semi Finals echoed the initial assessments, consisting of fitness, interview skills, and race craft. The only big difference from the initial assessment was that in UK fashion, the assessment vehicles were right hand drive. Nora was quick to spend time on the simulator with the shift knob on the left in order to set herself up for success on track, but it still took a little bit of getting used to during in-car. Keeping a positive attitude throughout the experience, Nora enjoyed every moment. In the span of a few months, she went from being nervous about her on camera assessments, to winning the media portion of the Formula Woman competition. All of her hard work had paid off.
