Women are making inroads into the pit lane of Australasia’s top single seater motor racing series.
Engineers, data analysts and mechanic’s positions are all held by females in teams competing in the Toyota Racing Series (TRS), which reaches its climax with the New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild in Manawatu on Sunday.
Six women are helping keep the cars on track, having come into the sport via a variety of paths.
Jennifer Lloyd
The engineer for Canadian driver Devlin DeFrancesco has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Canterbury and is in her fifth year working in the TRS.
With the Giles Motorsport team’s six cars sharing information, it is a chance to try different set ups with different cars to see what works during testing and practice.
The TRS offers Lloyd a chance to come home from England, where she contracts to teams racing in a variety of classes from her Birmingham base.
“It’s a lifestyle choice, not really a career,” she says. “It’s full on with five weeks on the road with TRS. There are often 12 hour days. And if we have to work to three of four in the morning to get a car ready for the next day, you do it.”
Carmen Doran
With a Masters in mechanical engineering, Doran has been data engineering all six cars being run by the M2 team which holds the top four positions in the championship going into the Grand Prix.
Her position involves checking and analysing all the data downloaded from the car’s computer systems after they have been on track.
“We look for trends and any potential technical problems,” she said. “The performance of all six drivers is compared.”
Data collected includes system temperatures, suspension and braking behaviour of the car and checking the electrical current and voltage across all the multiple wiring looms.
Frances Buckley
A mechanic on Christchurch’s James Munro’s car over the first four rounds, Buckley had to cut short her 2016 TRS campaign short when she got a job with Erebus Motorsport’s V8 Supercars team.
Originally from Oxford near Christchurch, Buckley was a groom for the Australian Equestrian team before she decided one horsepower wasn’t enough and changed career paths to do a mechanic’s apprenticeship.
Buckley has previously worked for both the Holden Racing Team and Dick Johnson Racing across the Tasman and has kept her eyelids propped up through a Spa 24 Hours race in Belgium.
Louise Clearwater
In her second TRS season, Clearwater has been spannering Polish driver Antoni Ptak’s car.
She now has nine years experience working on race cars, having started while doing a mechanics apprenticeship in Invercargill.
“I grew up with motorsport and like the travel,” said Clearwater, who has also worked on Super Touring Cars and Formula Fords in New Zealand.
Carly Fleming
After undertaking a specific motorsport training course at Albury in Australia for two years, the Melbourne native is in her second season of the TRS.
Fleming is the No 1 mechanic on Argentinean Nicholas Dapero’s car and also has experience working on cars in the Australian Formula Four and Formula Ford championships.
Elise Acker
The French woman has worked for the Russian Time GP2 team, which Kiwi driver Mitch Evans has been part of, and is about to join the Prema GP2 operation in Italy.
In New Zealand, Acker has been engineering the car of Guanyu Zhou, who lies third in the series.
