LAURA'S LATEST NEWS

WSK at Genk

Laura's speed was back at Genk and with both the new kart and Parilla engine performing well she qualified 5th in group and ahead of the eventual winner of the meeting. Various incidents put her out of contention as the first corner of every race seemed impossible to negotiate without the driver behind using her as a brake.

14.06.09

A difficult Rowrah Super one.

A good start saw Laura up to 7th but a strange lack of speed meant that it could not be sustained and she slipped back to 13th.

07.06.09

Laura finishes 6th in the final of the Shennington round of the Super 1 KF2 Championship .

A grid position of 6 after qualyfying and an eventful pre final which saw Laura knocked back from 8th to 22nd was culminated with a fine performance back through to 11th and an equal fastest lap. The main final was less eventful and Laura passed a few drivers to move up to sixth but was unable to close the gap to the leaders.

Laura is now 11th in the Championship.

10.05.09

Laura qualifies 5th out of 60 drivers in the KF2 Western region European Championship Qualifying event.

Will the luck never change? After qualifying 1st in group in the time trials and getting 5th grid after the 4 heats, Laura was expected to qualify for the finals with ease. Unfortunately a kart flying through the air struck Laura from behind and put her out of the first final. Starting 32nd on the grid this meant she had to finish in the top ten to qualify. A fantastic drive to 7th looked like putting her through when 8 laps from the end the reeds on the engine blew apart.

3.05.09

Laura finishes 20th in the repecharge of the Caselletto round of the WSK Championship in Italy.

Motor problems in the heats put pay to any thoughts of making the finals directly although a good performance in the wet coming 12th from the very back of the grid helped her confidence when it was wet for the repecharge.

Unfortunately Laura was knocked off from behind when in a good position loosing any chance of qualifying for the final.

05.04.09

Laura finishes 11th in the 1st final of the PF round of the Super 1 KF2 Championship .

After a fine 11th from 25th on the grid and a fantastic start seeing her move into 5th in the 2nd final, a mistimed overtaking attempt by another driver takes Laura out of the race hurting her arm.

22.03.09

Laura finishes 20th in the repecharge of the Sarno round of the WSK Championship in Italy.

With testing totally wet, the first time Laura had a lap on a dry track Sarno was the first heat, she came from the back to 16th and despite a huge crash in the third heat was looking strong and moving forward in all the races. Then on Sunday Laura, and mechanic Dean Panrucker were both very ill with food poisoning which did not help her performance.

08.03.09

150 drivers in KF2 and Laura finishes 18th in the repecharge of the 14th Winter Cup in Garda Italy.

Laura qualified straight into the Semi finals in 16th place but with only 11 drivers going through to the main 34 kart final it was always going to be tough. She was pushed to the back and came through to 13th only to loose out in the bedlam caused by the fight for the final few places.

22.02.09

Laura finishes 11th  in the repecharge of the 1st 2009 WSK Championship at La Conca Italy.

For the first time Laura raced against 79 of the Worlds' best KF2 drivers, After an eventful and chaotic race where she lost 10 places in one incident, she came through to 11th from 20th on the grid missing out on the 34 kart final by just 5 places.

08.02.09

Laura meets Nigel Mansell

Nigel Mansell visits Tillett Racing Seats for a personalised seat fitting.

12.01.09

THE DRIVER

Eighteen year old Laura Tillett is the daughter of
renowned kart seat manufacturer Steve Tillett

Laura's first drive in a cadet kart was a bit slippery

2009 has seen Laura's first full year racing in Europe

Laura has been a constant fan of Motorsport from the first day she watched her father competing in the British Formula “A” Kart Racing Championships during the early 90’s.

After a whole year of resistance from mum Martine, Laura was first allowed out to drive during the Christmas holidays of 2001. Unfortunately the night before she was due to drive the kart for the first time, it snowed. Determined not to miss her chance she decided to go to Buckmore Park anyway.

It was so icy that Nan and Grandad Tillett had to help push her up the slopes when her wheels spun to a stop!

RACING AT LAST

Laura finally started racing in late 2002, at the age of 11.

She raced in the Cadet class for drivers aged from 8 to 12 and then after completeing her Cadet novice races in 2003, she changed to the more powerful Mini Max class for drivers aged 11 to 13.

After winning Buckmore Parks “Most promising young driver of the year” award, she was picked to represent the junior kart racers at the launch of a new Motorsport initiative by the ex World Champion on two and four wheels, John Surtees MBE. Laura was used in all the press photos with Sir Stirling Moss, Bernie Ecclestone and John Surtees as well as his own son Henry.

By the end of 2004 Laura was the right age to race the fast Junior Max class and the even faster and more prestigious Junior Intercontinental “A” class, which both contain drivers up to 16 years old.
It was decided that Laura should participate in both classes during 2005 to accelerate race experience and this strategy proved successful, with vastly improved speed and race craft.

It was this year that Laura had her first taste of European racing in the European Junior Championship at Salbris in France.

Although a little early to have any hope of winning some valuable lesson were learned. One of the most valuable lessons was that a father and daughter team on their own was up against it in todays top level professional karting. Things had changed a bit since Laura's father finished racing in 1995.