Katie Milner was in action at the world famous Goodwood Festival of Speed last weekend. But it was in very different machinery to the other racing and super cars going up the hill.
The Yorkshire based driver was chosen by the London Taxi Company to give it’s brand new electric taxi prototype it’s UK dynamic debut as she ran up the hill in the first glance class.
The opportunity had arisen through another one of Katie’s sponsors, the prestige watch manufacturer, Omologato who have been backing her since late in the championship winning year in 2016. They have links with Geely, the Chinese parent company of the Taxi firm.
The Taxi is still currently at the pre-production stage as Geely and the London Taxi company try to get it ready in time for the new laws in 2018 when all new London Taxi’s must be Zero emission vehicles.
Katie spoke about her Goodwood experience;
“It was a massive honour to be asked by such a big brand to be their works driver for two days in the first glance class, racing against other new vehicles. “As a pre-production prototype, most of the usual refinements were not in place. It’s iconic look certainly stood out from the Bentley’s, Porsches and Alfa’s also on display, but it can really shift with a lot of torque. Considering that my usual drive [Her Ginetta G40] is much lower and smaller, I really enjoyed this whole new experience.”
Geely is a great company for Katie to make links with as they also own Lotus and Volvo which could be invaluable for possible future Sportscar or touring car drives! She certainly impressed the management with her enthusiastic and quick (for an electric Taxi) runs up the Hill. Her efforts were noticed by the Goodwood Fesitval of speed commentary team who pointed out, how quickly she was hustling the big taxi up the famous hill climb course in front of Goodwood house and the regular Festival of Speed sculpture.
The vehicle proved very popular with visiting crowds and the marshals on the course, who even made signs to pretend to hail her as she sped past. Lots of people came to view the Taxi in the paddock including many drivers of the current London Taxi. She was also interviewed on the Michelin Stage about both the Taxi and her racing career.
It has been a busy time for her recently as she also attended a talk in the week running up to the festival to speak about her career. The event – James Legal – The Business 2017 masterclass, at North Ferriby’s Hallmark Hotel, saw her describing her formula for succeeding as a young woman in an elitist male sport and the attending audience were impressed with her enthusiastic talk.
She now heads to Zandvoort in Holland and the next rounds of the Ginetta GT5 challenge. It’s her first race at Zandvoort and in fact her first race abroad. Fortunately some test sessions have been booked prior to this weekend giving her time to learn the circuit before the race weekend. She’ll be pushing for her best results of the season so far with her first podium coming very close in earlier races.
After the Zandvoort weekend, the championship then returns to support the BTCC at the Scottish circuit of Knockhill, a circuit where she had run strongly in the Junior Saloon car championship so it could see her best results in Ginettas with the Sunday races being shown live on ITV4.
She’ll also be returning to drive the taxi in the future with Geely announcing at the festival that they have plans to take it to the Nurburgring to take the record for an alectric vehicle around the infamous Nordschleife. Katie Milner has lots to look forward to! By Marc Waller
