Dare To Be Different hosted their first event for 100 local school girls at Daytona Sandown on Wednesday.
Dare To Be Different was founded by former Williams Martini Racing development driver Susie Wolff and the Motor Sports Association (MSA) when they joined forces in January 2016. The initiative is about increasing female participation not only on the track but in all aspects of motorsports.
At the karting facility they provided Honda-powered 160cc Cadet and 200cc Junior karts for the girls to race also competing in a pit-stop challenge. Wolff’s former team Williams brought along an F1 show car for technical tours and photo opportunities, while Sky F1 presenter Natalia Pinkham taught the girls interview skills.
Ambassadors from the national flagship programme Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network (STEMNET) assisted in an hovercraft-building exercise that the girls participated in.
“Today was the realisation of many months’ hard work, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to everybody in the team that helped to put it all together,” said Wolff. “When the girls arrived at Daytona Sandown this morning, it was truly a great moment and they all looked to be having a lot of fun during the day.
“The whole concept of Dare To Be Different is about pushing these girls out of their comfort zones and encouraging them to try something new. Ultimately, we want to see more girls coming into motor sport at grass-roots level, and karting is just one aspect of that.
“The breadth of potential careers within motor sport is immense, and to reflect that, beyond the karting we also offered the girls journalism and media presentation skills, hovercraft-building, fitness workshops and nutrition advice. Today is just the start of the Dare To Be Different journey – there’s so much more still to come.”
