Caitlin Wood: Gal's Track Day

Monday 30th October, I had the privilege of attending an all girls track day organised by the incredible Caitlin Wood.

I spent the day with 9 other amazing girls where we got to learn how to drive and handle a Caterham.

Caitlin is a 26 year old Aussie who has previously raced in the W-Series and several other different GT Series.

She has been pushing the boundaries and breaking the bias of women in motorsport for 20 years.

After seeing the ‘Gal’s Track Day’ advertised on Instagram, I was immediately interested and contacted Caitlin to book my place straight away.

Upon arrival, we were each greeted by Caitlin and introduced to the lovely instructors that would be helping us throughout the day, Martin and Matt.

As we waited for everybody to arrive, an array of snacks and drinks were available for us to help ourselves to, including some delicious doughnuts.

The first task of the day was to complete a burnout, followed by some laps around the painted island in the middle of the activities area.

As soon as I took off, I felt my nerves completely disappear and I instantly fell in love with the car and how fun it was to drive.

We were encouraged to test the limits of the car and so I proceeded to spin out multiple times… whoops!

Next up was doing a burnout after a countdown.

Five red lights would appear one by one.

Once these disappeared we dumped the clutch and took off.

This felt a lot more official and really got my adrenaline going.

The third task of the day was to complete a doughnut.

This was by far the biggest challenge of the day for me, personally.

Trying to use the right amount of throttle whilst also turning the right amount proved to be rather difficult.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed every second and couldn’t quite believe I managed to make the car spin in a circle, despite it being on the spot haha!

The final thing for us to do was put everything that we had learned together for a timed shoot-out.

All the girls did a great job with the fastest time being 30.95 seconds.

To finish off, we had the chance to sit down, eat some food and reflect on the day.

Caitlin delivered a wonderful presentation about her career, experiences in motorsport and how she got to where she is today.

Overall, the day was a huge success and I think that the communal atmosphere that Caitlin hoped to create was most definitely achieved.

I, personally, felt not only have I improved my handling skills, but also my confidence.

I can’t wait to do it again and will most definitely be booking a place for myself on Caitlin’s future events.

Caitlin's Instagram:@caitlinwoodracing

MILLIE JOHNSTON