Youngster, Emily Linscott officially left school last week after completing her GCSE’s and now heads to her first race meeting of the UK season this weekend at Oulton Park in Cheshire.
As with many year 11 pupils, Emily has been sitting her school exams, but Emily had to choose to put her racing career on hold in favour of revising for her GCSE’s, which she says “are invaluable to my future, so they needed to take precedence over everything else. It’s ok to race fast but teams also need drivers to be intelligent too, and it’s always best to have a safety net in place too.”
She adds, “I’ve turned down offers to race in America with Pippa Mann and in Thailand in the F4 South East Asia Championship, both of which I really wanted to do. It’s been tough but I was right to make that choice at the time. Now I can focus on getting back out there.”
Linscott is now ready to take on her next challenge, she’s stepping up to a higher level when she joins her new teammate, and sponsor, Peter Bassill, as they race the Hedgehog Cyber Security backed Ginetta G55 GT4 car in the Britcar Endurance Championship in Cheshire at the weekend. Emily said, “the car is a big step up in power and downforce for me over what I’ve driven before. This thing produces 355bhp, weighs about a tonne and has some decent downforce to play with too. I’ve only tested in it once so this weekend will be a steep learning curve but I’m confident I can show my potential up against the Ferrari’s, McLarens, Porsche’s and lots of other fantastic marques; it’s going to be amazing!”
She competes in the remaining four rounds of the Britcar Endurance Championship where the teams swap drivers part way through the 1 and 2 hour long races but Emily is looking further afield too. In February this year she raced Laguna Seca, California, where she impressed a lot of people. One in particular was none other than Indy500 driver Pippa Mann, who had brought Emily to the United States as part of her scholarship drive with the Lucas Oil School of Racing. Linscott recalls, “Pippa said she and the Lucas Oil Race School were very impressed with what I’d done out there and how I’d conducted myself, Pippa even sent me an amazing testimonial too. Ever since she’s been very supportive, helping me work on up-coming projects (watch this space) and trying so hard to get back out to the US. I’m hoping that will come off, but we’ll see if we can find the partners to work with for that one. First things first, Oulton Park.”
