Women in motorsport (was F.Woman)

[Rob29]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by carrera

Originally posted by StephenRae
................................. it's not fair to dissallow previous license holders who have shown the commitment but for whatever reason not been able to continue racing...



From what I've read several of these women have raced before, were they not licenced?

Not in cars that I know of,karts apparently did not count under the rules.

[redshoes]

As I recall the stipulation was to have not held an MSA racing licence, which obviously wouldn't have been required to do Club 100 karts and the like.

[diz]

Originally posted by AndyF
Please can we stick to the topic. Comments like this are not really needed in this thread. I understand this topic produces heated debates, but any further comments from any member of this nature will be pulled.

Andy

I was about to reply in a very similar vein to the offending poster, when I read further.

I was more concerned by Craig's insinuation that Graham Glew was in it to fund Philip Glew's career. Surely this is verging on libel, or at the very least in poor taste. He is a businessman and whether this is his motive, or not, IMHO it is not for this thread about the TV show, or any other thread.

[Craig]

haha! Would be very interesting to see how that stood up in a court...! As you say, he's a businessman, and he's in this to make money... so where is the confusion??

BTW my post was in reply to this:

the whole point of the series is to sell more cars.or am i just cynical?

Relax already!

[peter thurston]

It all sounds to me like that old saying 'those who can, do and those who can't, talk about it. Hats off to them for giving it a go and besides I,d like to see you lot trying to give birth

[MikeH]

Is the FW programme going to be like "Racing Rivals"? If so I'm easily avoiding it like the plague... RR was horrible but that's because I hate reality TV and besides, 2 minutes of race highlights after seeing a day in the life of such motorsport greats as Karl Goshawk (I think that was his name anyway...) didn't interest me much.

Besides which, I was at Knockhill a couple of weeks ago and the FW races were the only races I didn't watch to the end - dull as dishwater. (Though the guy who came with the series and commentated on it, sorry don't know his name, seemed to get really excited over nothing at all and kept saying how great the racing was... sorry - didn't agree...)

[Artie]

Going back to Stephen Raes` comment:
There obviously had to be some stipulation to control the novice standard of the applicants for FW and undeniably specifying that no one applied who had previously held an MSA licence of any sort was a logical one but it has since opened up a can of worms in debate; Firstly, you do need a licence to compete in a kart dont you? I dont think the specification was for National B only?
As we all know to gain a licence its a straight forward proceedure for anyone with a minimal aptitude for motor racing which involves a few laps around a circuit with an instructor, a basic written test and a nominal fee.
If this is as far as ones racing aspirations get, it is surely debatable that they are no longer classified as a novice? Compared to one who has competed in a kart or regularly attended track days, or even a `racing experience day`? All of which offer more experience than the ARDS test.
Many of these girls will have prior knowledge of National circuits, race conditions and car control which are huge hurdles to overcome to a complete novice.

So, as you may know I was `the one` who was excluded on the first day of the elimations camp for having held but never used, a National B race licence, which had been declared in my application.
It has since been noted that I was not the only one who had held a licence.
FW has been a tough ride and the exclusion hard to accept knowing Id have been a good contestant but hey, life goes on and is rarely fair but its all character building stuff!

[Les]

don't think much of the advertising for the series - tantrums and lipsticks - looks very much as if in the racing rivals league but we will see tomorrow,

[StephenRae]

I thought the 'Racing Rivals' had to come up with a wedge of cash to do the series, the insights into their private lives, while not interesting me in the slightest did add a little depth to the series, but what gave it credibility was the fact that a good percentage of them were proper racers.....This is obviously not the case with F Woman.

[Werewolf]

saw FW at Oulton and it was a joke.hope that with a little more experience that the racing will get better.fingers crossed.

[Artie]

It definately seems to have improved round by round according to the spectators reviews so there is a lot of credit to be given to the girls but I believe it should have been at a higher standard from the very first round. There were so many much more talented women out there who could have done the series more justice and improved the credibilty.

[Les]

a lot like Racing Rivals then - that started off badly and improved.

[Artie]

and now Gordon Sheddon is team mate of Plato in BTCC!?

[Artie]

did he have race history?

[Craig]

Is he? Have they sacked Rob Huff? :confused:

And, yes, he did have rather a lot of history...

[Artie]

Hmm ok Craig...clever trousers!! So someone is on the ball and contributing something with substance at last - Paula Cook and Natalie Barrett had a fair history prior to RR also didnt they. Was the series open to anyone who had 80k?

[Artie]

Was it GS or Rob Huffs` history you were referring, in either case...fill us in.

[Artie]

How is Sheddon doing this season in Seat Cupra?

[redshoes]

Racing Rivals (aka SEAT Cupra Championship) is a completely different thing to FW, I don't know how anyone can compare the two is a mystery to me. The SEATs are aimed at established racers who bring sponsorship, exactly the same as any other National series, apart from the style of the TV coverage. FW is aimed at compplete unknowns where everything is paid for by the series organisers.

[sidsideways]

I've just watched Speed Sunday about Formula Women. I like the cars (RX8) a lot which may explain why I own one. But is this just a Mazda marketing gimmick or a real attempt to discover real talent?

[Logrence]

Looks like a contrived bit of rubbish to me.

[racingdad]

redshoes is right - the Seat Cupra Championship is a straightforward saloon car racing series, run by Seat for drivers who pay about 20% more than the Renault Clio Cup sries with the difference that the Seat championship has an exceptional prize in the shape of a fully paid works BTCC (or ETCC) drive and a salary - it just happened to have a 'reality TV show' running alongside it to try to get the non-racing fraternity involved; a novice wouldn't have a hope in hell. Formula Woman is geared around the TV series, so is deliberately aimed at novice drivers. I have no idea what the prize fund is like but it does at least give 16 hopeful female drivers the opportunity of competing, and who knows, there may just be a couple of genuinely good drivers among them.

[redshoes]

Not sure there is a 'prize' as such, other than to say you were the winner.

[Craig]

Pretty poor TV show whether you're looking at it in terms of a) a racing show or b) a reality show. Both ways it was poor. Was Tim Harvey supposed to be Simon Cowell or whatever he's called? :lol:

Did see at least a couple of faces on there that I know though. One was hoping desperately that she'd not be seen whilst the other chose not to tell anyone of her involvement... cannot comment as to why

[mcurtis26]

I must admit I was expecting to see a bit more track action. I was surprised when they decided to stop laps because it was raining. VBH mentioned something about a btcc drive for the winner, but that was the first i've heard about it.