MOTORSPORT engineering student Rachel Roberston isn’t just content to learn about how to fine tune a racing car, she is determined to make her mark driving one.
The 17-year-old is halfway through a Level 3 Motorsport Engineering course at Wiltshire College & University Centre’s specialist school at Castle Combe Circuit during the week, but at weekends she is building a reputation behind the wheel.
After a successful stint in kart racing, last October she beat 49 other young drivers to win a scholarship with Radical Racing and Wera Tools to compete in the Radical Cup UK, driving a Radical SR3 XXR – a British-made, 232bhp, 145mph sports car specifically designed for racing.
Despite the leap she has made in speed, performance and class of competitor, she has already notched up two podium spots.
Taking on older drivers with vastly more experience is a far cry from the eight-year-old who badgered her father to let her have a go at kart racing at her local track in Edinburgh. Despite falling in love with the thrill of driving she had to wait six years for another go because the track closed down.
Aged 14 she so impressed officials at another track they encouraged her and her father to buy her own kart and race it. Within a year she was recruited to kart team Guy Cunnington Racing and made a name for herself in the British Kart Championships.
At the same time she wanted to ensure she had a good grounding in motorsport and looked for an engineering course. “There were only three colleges in England which offered a course specifically for motorsport engineering and Wiltshire seemed the best fit for me,” she said.
“I’ve really enjoyed the first year of the course and it is especially useful for me, wanting to be a driver. It’s just given me that background information when I need to know about the car. If my engineer asks what’s wrong with it at the end of a session I can pinpoint a certain component, it just gives me that advantage over my other competitors.”
Although she has loved cars from an early age there is no racing pedigree within her family, which makes what she is learning in the college’s workshops all the more important. “I’d have probably done this course even if I wasn’t a driver,” she said.
“But I’ve not grown up around motorsport so I am kind of playing the catch-up game. On the course we do a few practicals, which are helpful when I’m on the scene, but the theory side, the specific physics and maths to do with the engineering, that’s been really helpful just to expand my knowledge even more.
“Now I know if I want to soften the dampening rate, for example. I can calculate in my head just how much and why I need to do that.”
Rachel is still competing in the British Kart Championships with her team to retain her sharpness, as well as the six rounds of the Radical Cup UK, three of which have already taken place. Each round features two sprints of 25 minutes and a 50-minute endurance race.
It was in only her second endurance race at Brands Hatch that she grabbed a podium place. “That felt great,” she said. “Especially as I’m still new to the car and getting used to it. I got much more comfortable with the car by the end of the weekend and that helped me push it to end up on the podium.”
She has followed that up with another podium finish in her third outing at Silverstone.
With just a few seasons behind her she is determined to continue improving, gaining more experience and building on her reputation. She hopes to retain a driving spot once her course finishes but is prepared to use the skills she has developed to work as part of a motorsport engineering crew. Anything to stay close to the sport she loves.
“When you put on your helmet, there are no other thoughts,” she said. “It’s literally just you and the car. It’s just me driving and I just find it really freeing. I can block out everything else that’s happening and focus purely on going fast.”
As one of just three women out of 20 on her course and starting out in a sport that still has few female drivers, she is conscious that she is part of a generation that is breaking the mould on and off the track. “From my experience, I think people accept female drivers a lot more now but they’re still quite surprised when they walk past my car and I’m in a suit and helmet,” she said.
“They’re like, ‘oh, this is your car?’ and I just reply ‘yep’. I’m just quite happy to represent the women in the Radicals, especially because I’m the only one, and hopefully, even in the college, because there are no other girls on the course that I know are actually racing. I’m quite happy to represent that.
“I hope that one day I can be somebody’s role model.”
