HOW to engage young girls in sport – that is the not-so-easy challenge Susie Wolff, the Scottish racing driver from Oban, has taken on. Working in partnership with the Motor Sport Association, Wolff delivers a series of exciting workshops to encourage young girls into all aspects of motor-sports and she recently delivered the Scottish leg of her Dare2BDifferent campaign at Knockhill, just last week.
For those who may not know her name or indeed much about her career, Suzie Wolff started off her interest in motors-sport in karting, before taking the giant step up to Formula Renault and Formula Three, prior to her move to the DTM to compete for Mercedes Benz.
The last three years of her career, before she retired at the early age of 32, were spent with Williams Formula One who she signed with as a development driver in 2012. In 2014, at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, she became the first woman to take part in a Formula One race weekend in more than 22 years. So I don’t think there is any doubt she has the credentials required to deliver the workshops and engage young women with the sport of motor racing.
It was a fascinating day with more than 100 young girls in attendance mostly from local schools. However, a nice little touch to the day was the attendance of two schools from Oban, Suzie’s home. Both of these schools had the unenviable task of getting to Knockhill for 10am in the morning without, I may add, the aid of a racing-car!
The day itself was broken down into four separate workshops. The organisation was slick and well-rehearsed as this was their fifth venue having delivered three in England and one in Northern Ireland this year already. Knockhill was the first and only one in Scotland, and I am told by the Dare2Bdifferent staff, that Scotland had by far the most confident set of girls yet.
The girls from 8-14 and all seemed to be engaged totally in all aspects of the day. It all looked so exciting and interesting I was tempted to join in, but just missed the age cut off by a few (or more) decades!
The anticipation was palpable as the girls moved from station to station. Tasked with staging a mock TV interview, the girls were broken down into groups and filmed delivering their own interviews with each other, after a quick lesson on the technique of broadcasting from the experts.
Next step was to experience the thrill of karting in a completely safe environment. Starting off round the track slowly, I was amazed at how quickly their skills and confidence grew, as they began to race each other, cut-in and overtake. On handing back their suits and helmets, there was more than one girl asking for another chance.
Back down to earth, they then then had to tackle motorsport-based engineering challenges one of which included a really interesting pit-stop challenge, where the girls had to change a mini-wheel, against a rival team and up against the clock.
The last workshop highlighted the need to be fit and alert and they had key fitness and nutrition tips from a leading sports trainer and nutritionist. They also had on hand a Batak, which tests reaction time, with every girl desperate to beat Jenson Button’s score of 114 targets in 60 seconds.
Every girl was engaged and excited and went home with a goodie bag and the Dare2bdifferent T-shirt they were allocated at the start of the day.
This day highlighted the benefit of a hands-on approach and ensured all in attendance participated in every aspect of the sport; no one stood on the side-lines spectating.
There is a lot to be learned from this and many other sports may now look to emulate this type of practice to engage young girls in the aspects of their own sport and encourage them to think of sport, not just for fitness, but as a future career.
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