WS Racing Girls Only Team announced a new team member: Carrie Schreiner and Celia Martin will share the Audi R8 LMS with British driver Pippa Mann, as she joins the all-female outfit in the NLS GT4 class, including the 24 hours of Nürburgring.
The all-female Girls Only team will have a new face at the wheel of its Audi R8 GT4 next year, as British racing driver Pippa Mann will make her racing return to Europe. She will in fact compete in the German-based NLS series, partnering Carrie Schreiner and Celia Martin. The trio is also set to start the 24 hours of Nürburgring at the Green Hell.
2021 will be the third year for WS Racing´s all-female project: in fact, the Giti Tire sponsored team not only has exclusively female drivers onboard, but all crew members are also women - from team boss, to engineers and mechanics. Alongside Giti Tire, Volkswagen has also partnered with the project to turn it into reality in 2019; the first idea was already set in 2015, but time and resources were not in place until four years later. Now the team has successfully taken off and claimed their best result with a class victory at the final 2019 VLN race at the Nürburgring.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join the Giti Tire Motorsport by WS Racing “Girls Only” program”, said Pippa, one of the most successful female racing drivers worldwide and the last woman to compete at the legendary Indianapolis 500.
“The goals of this program back up everything I believe in as a woman in motorsport, and I was thrilled when Thorsten and Nicole reached out to me this fall. I’m doing my best to learn the race track as best I can on a simulator here in Indy, and then hopefully we can start the licensing process in March, and I will be ready to race, and Rock the Green Hell with Carrie and Célia this summer.”
Pippa Man started her racing career in European karting before making the step up to single seaters in the 2003 UK-based Formula Renault. In 2009 she crossed the Atlantic and moved to Stateside, where she competed in IndyLights. In the premier american feeder series, Mann won her first race in 2010 at Kentucky Speedway, with a gap of over 6 seconds to the closest competitor - an impressive margin in an oval race. Pippa is only one of two female drivers to have won a race in IndyLights until today. She drove her first Indy500 in 2011 and competed there six more times thereafter.
An active advocate for women in motorsport, Mann entered an all-female team for the first time in 2018, as part of the Shift Up Now team for the 25 hours of Thunderhill.
She was part of the Formula E testing program with Geox Dragon Racing and is working as performance driving instructor and coach alongside her driving career. Additionally, Pippa has a scholarship for young female drivers at Lucas Oil School of Racing, where she worked this year with young British racer Emily Linscott.
Pippa Mann will share the new black and yellow Audi R8 LMS GT4 with Carrie Schreiner and Celia Martin in the popular NLS endurance racing series: the first race of the season is scheduled for 27th March 2021.
But the exciting news from the Girls Only team are not over, as the German-based team has its eyes on a LMP3 team! The project will launch on 18th December and the fans can be involved to crowd-fund the first races with the squad. We will bring you the latest developments as available.