OFF THE TRACK - Alisha Palmowski, Ginetta Junior Scholarship Champion Sits Down with Us Before the Season Opener

35 Days till the Michelin Ginetta Junior Championship takes off at Donington Park and we wanted to take a moment to highlight the Junior’s Scholarship Champion, Alisha Palmowski.

Ms. Palmowski is only the second woman to have won the 3 day shakedown that combines off-track and on-track competitions after Jamie Chadwick nearly 10 years prior. It’s a fight each year that brings out the best of the UK’s junior drivers to go head-to-head to secure a fully-funded season in the championship the following year.

Looking back at her progress, Palmowski explained “We've always aspired to be involved in Ginetta, and we've always looked up to it as an iconic British motor sport manufacturer. So to be given the opportunity to compete and in a support series of the British Touring Car Championship, it's absolutely amazing. A position we never thought we'd be in to be honest! So obviously it provides an amazing platform for me to really kickstart and benchmark my career among some of the greats like Norris and Chadwick who came before me.”

Here’s our conversation with the Ginetta Junior’s Scholarship Champion

Let's start from the beginning, tell us a little bit about how you got started in Karting and who helped you get there.

My great granddad was actually a former BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Car racing driver. So I've always grown up with the influence of racing and motor sport. Always watching Formula One. And if I wasn't watching then, I was on the Sim, racing games, and that sort of thing. So just before my 9th birthday back in 2015, I was looking to have just a normal arrive and drive session and the local indoor karting track, and I absolutely loved it.

Admittedly, I wasn't that quick back then, but I loved it and we took off straight away.

I went on to compete in local Championships, indoor and outdoor. Till 2018, when I took a step up to karting in a National Championship across the UK. So that's really where it all started for me and where my thoughts really began.

What are your most notable successes over the past seven years?

It's really a constant progression and reminder of the progress along the way. After two years in corporate Championships, then the step up to driver owned karting then the transition to the Daniel Ricardo series.

What further pushed me early on was, I missed the cadet phase of my motorsport career since I've always been too tall. So, when I was ten or eleven years old, we had to jump straight from junior corporate karting straight up to junior two stroke driver owned karts.

Obviously that was a huge step from topping out at 40 miles an hour to about 70 miles an hour. But each year has been learning and developing myself as a driver throughout the last few years.

Why Ginetta?

To be honest, we've always aspired to be involved in Ginetta, since I really do believe to be the best, you've got to be the best. In the junior Championship in particular, it really does produce and have the best standard, the highest standard of junior racing drivers. And, Ginetta provides the perfect benchmark and provides the perfect platform for me to sort of start my proper career in racing and as well, obviously being a support series for the BTCC fully televised on ITV Four. It also gives me exposure and sort of experience around media and it just totally starts me off as a racing driver and it's got the whole package. So it really is an amazing opportunity. It's perfect for me.

Looking ahead to your first GT season and into the BTCC. How are you preparing?

For these next few months, we are actively seeking a sponsorship budget for pre-season testing, since obviously we need a decent amount of testing in order to be competitive next season. And I am also massively keeping on top of my fitness since obviously in motor sport, that's a huge element. So I'm trying to be as prepared as I can ahead of the season starting.

It's a huge step up not only in learning the cars, but obviously I'm going to be going to, I think, seven, eight new tracks, obviously. So SIM work is a huge element of it and one I find I really enjoy. You can look and analyze the data and really break things down in a non-pressured racing environment.

What are your goals going forward?

My predominant priority right now is next season and doing the best job that I can, delivering the results. I'm under no illusion that the hard work starts now and it's going to be a steep learning curve. But as long as I'm learning and progressing next year, then I'll be very pleased. And then beyond that, any opportunities that might arise, I would just love and jump at the opportunity.

And obviously, as I say before, Ginetta provides loads of opportunities to almost go into potentially to go into any form or rank of racing, whether that be single seater racing such as Landon Norris, Jamie Chadwick have done or such as Tom Ingram or even Le Mans cars like Charlie Robinson has done so anything in motorsport... Would love to do it for a career.

What advice would you give yourself five years ago?

To any younger drivers, just never give up. There's going to be tough times. It's no easy journey and just keep persevering, especially in a race, because actually, some of my best performances have come when I might have made a mistake or when I had an incident or something. I can really just get your head down and just keep going and keep working that little bit harder than the other drivers and results will eventually come.

For additional information on Alisha and where she’s headed check out her website: AlishaPalmowski.com/calendar