Shift Up Now athlete Ashley Freiberg is set to make a full-season return to racing, having landed a seat in the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America with support from the Yokohama 'All In' campaign.
American racing driver Ashley Freiberg is set to make her full time racing return in the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America, with sponsorship from Yokohama Tire and with MDK Motorsports team.
Yokohama's support is part of the "All-In" campaign, aimed at promoting inclusiveness in the sport. Freibeirg is one of the two female racers supported by the initiative.
Freiberg, 31, last raced in a full-time campaign in 2015. Originally from Illinois, she started karting and advanced to single seaters in 2007, becoming the first woman to step on the podium and win a race in a Skip Barber National race. Between 2008 and 2010, she took 25 race wins and two series titles - before having to put her racing career on hold for funding issues.
Freiberg then ventured into sports car racing and entered the 2013 GT3 Cup Challenge: she became the first woman to win a North American GT3 Cup. Thanks to the BMW North America Scholarship Driver program, she contested the Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge on the IMSA platform, again becoming the first woman to win outright.
She graduated to IMSA in 2016, competing in events such as the Daytona 24H and the Sebring 12H.
Her obvious talent was often hampered by the lack of funding, that slowed down a highly promising career. Freiberg made her debut in Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America in 2017 - and became the first ever woman to stand on the podium in the Lamborghini one make series globally.
She was then back behind the wheel for one-off rounds in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge in 2018 and 2020, and would then also return to Lamborghini Super Trofeo in 2022 at Road America, where she claimed a class podium at her racing return.
A Shift Up Now athlete - the all-female racing collective led by Indy500 star Pippa Mann - Freiberg has now the opportunity to focus on a full time program with MDK Motorsports in the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America, starting from this weekend at Sebring International Raceway, on on March 24-26.
“I am beyond grateful to be racing with MDK Motorsports for the the 2023 Porsche Sprint Challenge season,” she said. “The last time I had a full season in a car was in 2015. So my heart is exploding with excitement to be back behind the wheel full-time and back with the MDK family.
“I just want to give a huge thank you to all of my supporters, Yokohama, ShiftUp Now, TrakRacer, Bell Helmets, Dream Giveaway, and MDK Motorsports. I’m ready to go racing.”
Yokohama aims to turn the 'All In' campaign "into a recurring program", said Patricia Wall, Yokohama’s Motorsports Manager.