{"id":681668,"date":"2026-05-19T22:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/681668\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T22:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:08:17","slug":"young-women-behind-growing-interest-in-high-octane-motorsport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/681668\/","title":{"rendered":"Young women behind growing interest in high-octane motorsport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Less than two years ago, Georgia Tillyer would watch high-octane motorsport drifting from the sidelines, snapping pictures as a track photographer.<\/p>\n

Now, she is the one in the driver’s seat.<\/p>\n

“As soon as I flicked the car out for the first time and just that pure adrenaline, I was like ‘this is awesome’,” the 21-year-old said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Drifting at Sydney Motorsport Park in Eastern Creek. (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)<\/p>\n

The Sydney resident picked up the high-octane sport after another spectator asked her why she was not on the track.<\/p>\n

“It’s like the penny dropped, I was like, ‘What’s stopping me from doing this?’,” she said.<\/p>\n

The next week she bought her car, lovingly-named Night Fury, learnt how to drive manually and entered her first event at Sydney Motorsport Park.<\/p>\n

\"Drivers<\/p>\n

More women are now participating in motorsport. (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)<\/p>\n

In drifting, drivers intentionally oversteer their car, causing the wheels to lose grip while they take corners at high speeds.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that I’m a drifter, they wouldn’t pick it,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Tillyer told the ABC she was often competing as the only woman on the track.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes you get teenagers that come to the track and are like, ‘Oh my god there’s a chick driving’,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s sad that it’s still a thing nowadays that men think women don’t want to do this, or women can’t drive.”<\/p>\n

Women racing to learn motorsport\"Cars<\/p>\n

Amelie Parsley, who is still on her P-plates, has had an interest in cars since the age of four. (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)<\/p>\n

Amelie Parsley is in the same position Ms Tillyer was two years ago.<\/p>\n

The budding motorsport enthusiast is still on her P-plates, and was one of a handful of women being taught basic car control skills at Sydney Motorsport Park in Eastern Creek.<\/p>\n

“It’s very new for me, but you get a lot of happiness from being able to do it for the first time. You feel very proud of yourself,” Ms Parsley said.<\/p>\n

She has been interested in cars since she was four years old, and dreams of going professional as a driver or engineer.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Motorsport Australia program has taught 124 women this year. (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)<\/p>\n

The Motorsport Australia program, which is touring the country for the third year, is aimed at women looking to try out motorsport for the first time.<\/p>\n

It has already taught 124 women this year at seven events across the country, with two more planned this month.<\/p>\n

Stephen Doherty drove down from Newcastle with his daughter Lily, whose love of Formula 1 and Supercars inspired her to take part in the program.<\/p>\n

“It’s awesome, something I haven’t done, but each time I’ve seen her come back she’s got a great big grin on her face,” Mr Doherty said.<\/p>\n

Rising star Alice Buckley debuted in the Super2 Series earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\"Motorsport<\/p>\n

Motorsport enthusiast Alice Buckley loves to compete. (ABC: Nickoles Coleman)<\/p>\n

At 18, she is only the fourth woman in Supercars history to make it to that level.<\/p>\n

After competing for over a decade, the Gold Coast-born driver is used to being surrounded by men both on and off the track.<\/p>\n

“I have my moments when I do walk into a room, the older I get, and go I’m the only female,” Ms Buckley said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a bit, not awkward, but it is a bit weird at times.”<\/p>\n

However, she praised the Supercars’ community for welcoming her into the sport.<\/p>\n

“The sport’s changing lots and I think it’s changing for the better,” she said.<\/p>\n

One of those changes is viewership, with women making up over 46 per cent of people attending last year’s Supercars’ NTI Townsville 500 event.<\/p>\n

But at the sport’s biggest race of the season, the Bathurst 1000, female ticketholders were just below 30 per cent.<\/p>\n

In Formula 1, women made up nearly half the fans going to watch this year’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Female ticketholders at the Bathurst 1000 were just below 30 per cent. (AAP: Dan Himbrechts)<\/p>\n

That comes after Australian teenage racers, Joanne Ciconte and Aiva Anagnostiadis, competed in the all-female F1 Academy series last year.<\/p>\n

Launched in 2023, it is a Formula-4 level series designed to foster female drivers.<\/p>\n

It has been more than five decades since Lella Lombardi, the last woman to compete in a F1 Grand Prix, raced in Austria in 1976.<\/p>\n

Ms Tillyer hoped that would not be the case for much longer.<\/p>\n

She encouraged anyone curious about motorsport to jump behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

“It’s just getting past those nerves and getting past the fact that people aren’t judging you,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Everyone’s coming here to learn, everyone’s coming here to have fun.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than two years ago, Georgia Tillyer would watch high-octane motorsport drifting from the sidelines, snapping pictures as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[70319,59566,328732,64,63,328736,12356,77956,116085,813,328728,328730,70318,328737,806,805,824,246230,328733,803,804,85,328734,40367,328735,247362,328731,328729,260091],"class_list":["post-681668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-aiva-anagnostiadis","tag-alice-buckley","tag-amelie-parsley","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-grand-prix-in-melbourne","tag-bathurst-1000","tag-drifting","tag-f1-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-formula-4","tag-georgia-tillyer-motorsport","tag-joanne-ciconte","tag-lella-lombardi","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motorsport-australia","tag-motorsport-australia-program","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports","tag-super2-series","tag-supercars","tag-supercars-nti-townsville-500-event","tag-sydney-motorsport-park","tag-women-drifters","tag-women-in-formula1","tag-women-in-motorsport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}