Zoë Claire Wenham (born 7 May 1994) is a British

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

driver. Wenham started her career in karting, competing in various championships between 2004 and 2008, before she switched to car racing in 2008, entering the

SAXMAX 750 Motor Club is a motor racing club in the UK. It was founded in 1939 to promote the sporting use of the Austin 7. '750' refers to the near-750cc Austin 7 engine. It later led to racing and the 750 Formula where specials are raced. Famous membe ...

series. She competed in that series for two years, before moving into the Volkswagen Racing Cup, where she competed for another two years. She made her move into the

British GT Championship The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports GT ...

in 2012, taking second in the GT4 category in her debut season, driving for Century Motorsport. Her performances in the series saw her win the BWRDC Elite GoldStar Award at the start of 2013.

Racing career

Early career

Born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Wenham first appeared in karting in 2004, competing in the 2CKC Cadet Championship, which she won at her first attempt. In 2005, she entered the BWRDC Kartsport Trophy, the Clay Pigeon Kart Club Championship Comer Cadet and the Hoddesdon Kart Club Championship Comer Cadet championships, finishing fourth, first and sixth respectively. For 2006 and 2007, she competed in the Clay Pigeon Kart Club Championship Minimax and the Hoddesdon Kart Club Championship Minimax championships once more, with her best result coming in the latter series in 2007, with a third place overall finish. For 2008, she entered the Ace & King of Clubs Meeting Rotax Junior, finishing 20th, and also made her car racing debut in the

series, finishing 16th overall, having entered nine races. She returned to the series for 2009, this time driving for Ferguson Motorsports and finishing ninth, having competed in the whole season. For 2010, although she had two outings in the SAXMAX series, she moved to the Volkswagen Racing Cup, driving a

Volkswagen Golf GTI Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...

entered by KPM Racing, where she finished 21st overall, becoming the series' youngest ever driver. She remained in the series in 2011, now driving for Slidesports in a similar car, and was able to finish eighth overall, with a single podium being her best result.

British GT

For 2012, Wenham signed for the

Century Motorsport Century Motorsport is a professional motor racing team based in Fenny Compton, Warwickshire, in the United Kingdom. They currently participate in the Ginetta GT4 Supercup, the British GT Championship, the Ginetta GT5 Challenge Championship, G ...

team to compete in the

, partnering Dominic Evans in a GT4-class

Ginetta G50 The Ginetta G50 is a specialist GT4 class-developed racing car, designed by Ginetta Cars. A road version of the car was planned, but did not enter wide-scale production; instead, the smaller Ginetta G40 was launched. Development In late 2007, ...

. She finished in fourth in her first race, and on the podium in her second race, being partnered by

Ginetta Ginetta Cars Limited is a British specialist builder of racing and sports cars based in Garforth, Leeds, West Yorkshire. History 20th century Ginetta was founded in 1958 by four Walklett brothers (Bob, Ivor, Trevers and Douglas) in Woodbridge, ...

's Mike Simpson, as Evans had encountered licensing issues. The season would prove to be a successful one; although a victory eluded the pairing of Evans and Wenham, she was still competing for the title with two races to go (with Evans competing for the runner-up spot, having entered two less races). Following that event, however, Wenham had to settle for second place, the title being won by Team WFR (and their driver pairing of

Jody Fannin Jody Fannin (born 4 September 1993) is a British auto racing driver. He competed in the European Le Mans Series in 2017, winning the GTE Championship with Rob Smith driving for JMW Motorsport in a Ferrari 488 GTE. He was the 2012 British GT GT ...

and

Warren Hughes Warren Hughes (born 19 January 1969) is a racing driver from Newcastle, England. He has raced in a variety of different series, most notably the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), the FIA GT1 World Championship, the Le Mans Series, ...

), with Wenham stating that her debut season had "been absolutely amazing". In 2013, following Wenham's reception of the BWRDC Elite GoldStar award, it was announced that she would remain in the series for Century Motorsport, but that she would now be partnered by Declan Jones, as the team looked to take the GT4 title. The first round of the season saw both drivers take their first ever victories, with Jones becoming one of the youngest ever winners in the series. Soon after the event, and following some controversial comments by former- Formula 1 driver Stirling Moss,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

interviewed Wenham about Moss' comments, which she strongly refuted. The following round at Rockingham saw the duo of Jones and Wenham finishing second. This was followed by an unsuccessful round at Silverstone, suffering from mechanical maladies all weekend, and eventually finishing 34th overall.

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 201 people living in 74 h ...

saw her and Jones finish third in race one, and fifth in race two. At Brands Hatch, she finished the race, but finished 22nd and last overall. She was unable to compete in the Zandvoort round due to "extenuating circumstances", and switched to Blendini/Triple-R for the season finale, partnered Rory Bryant. She finished the season classified fifth in the GT4 driver's standings, with 130.5 points. In November, she was selected as the UK's only representative for the

Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup was a one-make racing series by Volkswagen based in Germany, which used the Volkswagen Scirocco model. The first season was in 2010, having replaced the previous ADAC Volkswagen Polo Cup which had run since 2004. It was a ...

selection shootout. However, she was unsuccessful, and the scholarship was awarded to Lucile Cypriano.

Personal life

Wenham is a former pupil of

Prince Henry's High School Prince Henry's High School, formerly Prince Henry's Grammar School is an upper school with academy status in Evesham, Worcestershire, England. It is a co-educational high school, in which there are about 1,280 students enrolled, aged between 1 ...

in Evesham, Worcestershire, with her interests outside of motorsport including

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

and swimming. Her brother, Guy, also competes for Century Motorsports, in the SAXMAX championship. She has stated that her idols are Sebastian Vettel and

Jessica Ennis Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill (born 28 January 1986) is a British retired track and field athlete from England, specialising in multi-eventing disciplines and 100 metres hurdles. As a competitor in heptathlon, she is the 2012 Olympic champion, ...

References

External links

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Century Motorsport profileBritish GT profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wenham, Zoe Living people English racing drivers 1994 births British GT Championship drivers Sportspeople from Cheltenham English female racing drivers