Racing driver’s change of pace (From Evesham Journal)
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Racing driver’s change of pace
2:00pm Monday 11th March 2013 in News
RIDE IN STYLE: Racing driver Zoe Wenham from Kemerton gets ready for a more leisurely drive in this 1932 MG M-typle Midget.
A YOUNG racing driver swapped life in the fast line for a leisurely drive in a vintage car for BBC2 Antiques show Flog It.
Zoe Wenham is used to flooring a Ginetta G50 sports car at 150mph around a race track.
But the 18-year-old jumped at the chance to appear on the show with presenter Paul Martin even if the 1932 MG M-type Midget she drove was built decades before she was born.
She said: “I was really nervous to start off with because the car looked so different to anything I had ever driven.
“It is about 60 years older than me. But I really enjoyed it.”
Miss Wenham, from Kemerton near Bredon, was put forward for the TV show, filmed at Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, by the British Women Racing Drivers Club.
During filming she drove the antique car and answered questions about being a young female racing driver.
“I have been karting since I was about nine,” said Miss Wenham, who attended Evesham’s Prince Henry’s High School.
“When I started we joined the British Women Racing Drivers Club, which brings together lots of women from different driving disciplines. Women are a minority in a man’s world and being part of the club adds an extra dimension.”
Earlier this year, Miss Wenham was given the gold stars award by the BWRD Club, meaning she will now be mentored by Formula One development driver Susie Wolff. This year will see her racing in the Avon Tyres British GT 4 Championship, which she hopes to win after finishing in second place last year.
In the future she hopes to move up the ranks and help to move women’s role in racing onwards and upwards.
“With Susie being in the development role in Formula 1 now we are starting to see a change,”
she said. “Last weekend we saw the first female on pole in America NASCAR racing.
“It is definitely coming through. We can really start capitalising on being competitive with the men.”
The episode of Flog It featuring Zoe will be aired in June.
Any businesses that would like to sponsor the young driver can e-mail her at zoe@zoewenham.
co.uk.
