Jasmine Shaw hits her stride in rookie season of Caterham competition
- LIAM REDFORD
- Jul 30
- 6 min read
Coming off her best results to date in the EDGE Caterham Seven 270R Championship, Jasmine Shaw took another step forward at Zandvoort, where she twice improved her personal best, closed the gap to the top-10 drivers, and achieved an impressive eighth place after a season’s best qualifying. Here's a recap of her season so far.
Jasmine Shaw twice improved upon her personal best result in the EDGE Caterham Seven 270R Championship as she took another step forward at Zandvoort. After closing the gap to the top-10 drivers over the course of the season, Shaw achieved a highest result of eighth in the Netherlands. The DPR Motorsport driver had earlier qualified in a season’s best sixth, underlining her improvement in pace across both one lap and a full race distance.
Shaw arrived at Zandvoort high on confidence after achieving her best results to date last time out at Croft. After a short spell in formula car racing, Jasmine has taken significant steps forward in her rookie season in the EDGE Caterham Seven 270R Championship. Now competing her first international car race, Shaw was aiming to continue this momentum and breakthrough into the overall top-10.
Shaw’s 2025 season got underway at Snetterton where she enjoyed a learning weekend as she familiarised herself with a different style of racing. Crucially, Jasmine completed every lap of the three races and although she just missed out on scoring a top-20 finish on her series debut, it was an encouraging start to a campaign which has gone from strength-to-strength.
Round two of the championship took place at Thruxton and it was at Britain’s fastest circuit where Shaw impressed. In all three races, Jasmine was able to fight for positions within the midfield while utilising the powerful slipstream effect. After securing her maiden top-20 result in race one, Shaw finished in a strong 16th position during the second race, before concluding the event with a further top-20 placing.
Although Shaw missed the next round of the season at Anglesey, her performances at Thruxton gave cause for optimism as the EDGE Caterham Seven 270R Championship drivers arrived at Croft. It was in Yorkshire where Jasmine established herself as a contender and her speed was evident from qualifying after she set the 11th fastest time, while being less than a second away from pole position.
In the first race of the weekend, Shaw achieved a season’s best finish of 11th and was less than two tenths of a second away from a place inside the top-10. Shaw completed the event with a pair of 12th place results to underline her consistent progress during the first half of the season. In race three, Jasmine’s fastest lap was only three-quarters of a second away from the overall best to underline her improvements in both qualifying and race pace.
On-track action began for Shaw on Friday as she participated in three test sessions which were held alongside the Vertex Caterham Seven 310R Championship drivers. After finding her feet in a wet first session, Shaw was both fast and consistent in sessions two and three. At the end of the day, Jasmine had set a quickest lap of a 1:57.773, and in the final practice session she was fifth fastest among the EDGE Caterham Seven 270R Championship runners.
The first competitive action of the weekend took place on Saturday morning with qualifying at Zandvoort. In the early stages of the session, Shaw was running comfortably inside the top-10, before she was able to improve further via the aid of a slipstream in the latter part of qualifying. As a result, Jasmine secured her career best qualifying result of sixth with a lap time of a 1:56.865.
Race one took place on Saturday afternoon and with the grid positions based on the results from qualifying, Shaw started from sixth on the grid. It was a challenging opening lap for the DPR Motorsport driver who lost three positions and ended lap one in ninth. Shaw was determined to fight back and she was involved in a fantastic three-wide battle to start lap two.
Despite losing out to Harrison Cavers, Shaw settled into tenth position before she came under attack from Andy Palmer. Palmer moved ahead on lap three and although Jasmine was now in 11th position, her pace increased as the race settled into a rhythm. Following successive personal best times, Shaw was running just a quarter of a second away from the times of the race leader on lap four.
Shaw continued to run in a competitive train of midfield cars and on lap seven, she overtook Gary Cross for a position inside the top-10. Jasmine’s pace was now among the fastest in the entire field and on lap nine, she was the second quickest driver on track. The pressure she was applying to Palmer forced him into a mistake and he spun into the gravel on lap ten.
Shaw briefly overtook Cavers too, with the DPR Motorsport driver starting the final lap of the race in eighth position. A fantastic final lap battle with Cavers saw the LFP Motorsport driver come out on top with Jasmine securing a personal best finish in the EDGE Caterham Seven 270R Championship as she took the chequered flag in ninth position, less than two hundredths of a second behind her rival.
The second race of the weekend took place on Sunday morning with Shaw starting from ninth position courtesy of her race one finish. Jasmine made a good start and comfortably held her position through the opening lap. As she continued to run in ninth position in the early stages, Shaw was caught by Gary Cross with the pair just losing touch with the leading pack.
After the race settled into an early-race rhythm, Shaw and Cross continued to extend their margin behind and therefore they could focus forward on catching the group of drivers ahead. The duo then ran side-by-side to start lap four with Cross pulling clear and Shaw settling into tenth position. This change in positions proved beneficial for both drivers as they ran personal best times despite the overtaking manoeuvre.
The slipstream Shaw was gaining from Cross allowed her to remain in contention with her rival, while the duo were now cutting the margin to the drivers ahead. On lap eight, Jasmine set a personal best time and she was now the fastest driver on track as she targeted another season’s best result. On the following lap, Cross and Shaw caught the small pack of drivers ahead who were fighting over fifth position.
As the group ran nose-to-tail, a small moment for Shaw allowed Paul Oggelsby to close in with the RS Motorsport driver moving ahead on the final lap. Shaw remained behind Oggelsby to the chequered flag to secure a good haul of championship points for an 11th place finish.
Race three of the weekend took place on Sunday afternoon with Shaw starting from 11th on the grid following her result earlier in the day. The DPR Motorsport driver made a good start to maintain 11th, while remaining with the leading pack of drivers. By the end of lap two, the gap to the overall race leader was just three seconds as the powerful slipstream effect was being utilised throughout the field.
In the early stages of the race, the top-12 drivers were running nose-to-tail and regularly drawing level with one another down the main straight. On lap five, Shaw made a move on Gary Cross for tenth position and she continued her momentum by pulling alongside Andrew Bailey to start the following lap.
Shaw remained just four seconds away from the race lead at the halfway point and this was undoubtedly her best showing of the season. A personal best time on lap seven brought her closer to the drivers ahead and she once again drew level with Bailey to start lap eight. As Django Jones fell back in the closing stages, Shaw moved into eighth before mounting a final lap challenge on Paul Oggelsby.
Shaw looked for a way past Oggelsby and attempted to use the slipstream to pass the RS Motorsport driver on the line. Jasmine came within seven thousandths of a second of gaining a further position, however she still secured another personal best result by finishing in eighth, while crossing the line just three and a half seconds behind overall race winner
Shaw took another significant step forward at Zandvoort despite having no previous experience of overseas racing. The DPR Motorsport driver showed excellent speed in qualifying and backed this up with a pair of top-10 finishes, while racing competitively with former race-winners. The next round of the EDGE Caterham Seven 270R Championship will take place at Snetterton on Saturday August 23rd.
