Photographic contributions by Chris Walker, Ed Robinson, George Bamford and Aki Rask

LAURA'S LATEST NEWS

24.01.12

Testing a Clio Cup car for the first time

The press release.

A rising motorsport star Laura Tillett made an impressive and highly encouraging test debut at the wheel of a Renault Clio Cup race car at a rain-hit Brands Hatch on Tuesday, 24th January – so much so, the 20-year-old is now focusing her efforts on securing a 2012 race deal in the championship.

Driving a car prepared by multiple title-winning team Total Control Racing, the squad with which Nicolas Hamilton – younger brother of 2008 FIA Formula One World Champion Lewis – competed in 2011, former karting sensation Laura adapted well to the demands of the 2.0-litre Clio.

Although persistent rain and a very slippery track surface didn’t make for ideal conditions in which to debut, the West Malling starlet made strong progress throughout the day. Taking everything learnt during nine years of top-level karting and adapting that to the altogether different demands of a ‘tin top’ saloon car, Laura shone and underlined her position as one of the UK’s top female talents.

“I really, really enjoyed the test and I felt very confident by the end of the day, even with the weather against me, so it couldn’t have been much better”, said the Kent racer, “Having never been in a saloon car before, I didn’t know what to expect but it was fantastic. The team is really lovely, they gave me a lot of help during the day and gave me some great advice.

“The test has definitely swayed me into looking at a future in saloons, I know I’d be comfortable racing in something like Clios. I always thought single-seaters would be the way to go after karting but the Clio is so much fun to drive. Hopefully we’ll be able to arrange another test soon with TCR.”

In order to make the step-up to car racing this year, Laura needs to attract sufficient sponsorship and commercial backing. As the first British female to ever compete in the top class of the CIK-FIA World Karting Championship though, her talent and potential is clear to see along with her marketability.

TCR team principal Lee Brookes, himself a former Clio Champion in the mid-Nineties and a Privateer Cup winner in the high profile British Touring Car Championship, was impressed with Laura’s maiden run – especially with the poor weather making the debut markedly trickier.

“Laura adapted to the Clio really well and for her first ever time in one of these cars, we were very encouraged”, Brookes commented, “It’s difficult to come in from karts, put aside some of the things that come naturally there and learn the different things you need to try and get the most from a car like a Clio. The conditions were terrible but she did a great job, we’d love to run Laura this year.”

There are just over two months remaining before the start of the 2012 AirAsia Renault Clio Cup UK season, with rounds one and two of the 16-race campaign scheduled to take place at Brands Hatch in Kent over the weekend 31st March/1st April.

Running as support to the high-profile Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, Clio Cup is expected to once again enjoy prime live television coverage on the ITV network this year while also being watched by tens of thousands of spectators trackside at each venue.

10.01.12

Laura gives up her CRG drive to persue a car racing career

Laura would like to thank CRG for their valuable support during 2011. CRG was a warm and friendly team and she enjoyed being with them immensely. Although this is sad she has now decided that the time is right to try the move into cars.

11.12.11

The CIK Macau Grand Prix end of season race

Laura was unfortunate to get a flat tyre in te pre final so she had to start from the back of the grid. She eventually came through to 7th in the main 25 lap race. A big thank you to CRG for their support in 2011.

Laura was on Hong Kong TV in the evening

8.12.11

Staring role on the CIK poster

Laura's picture of her driving the Tonykart in last years race is all over Macau as she begins her campaign in China aiming to finish the year on a high.

2.12.11

Going for a test in a Formula Ford

Laura gets a taste of Formula Ford for the first time.

22.11.11

Laura drives the Williams F1 simulator

Laura would like to thank Williams Grand Prix for the opportunity to drive this incredible simulator.

She drove the simulator for 4 12 lap sessions.

20.10.11

Henry's Headway Challenge

Laura competed in the charity race at Buckmore Park, organised by John Surtees.It featured many of the countries leading young motorsport stars, using the popular Club 100 karts. Laura was instantly in the B final after being fractionally underweight in qualifying. She forced her way through to third in the race but was too far back to catch the front two.

Final round of World Championships at Suzuka

Unfortunately CRG are not now taking their team to the last round of the Word Championships in Japan.

18.09.11

CIK FIA World Championships Sarno

Sarno was a difficult race with very few highlights. In the final race she was knocked off and had to circulate at the back for most of the race.

04.09.11

CIK FIA World Championships Genk

At this race Laura there were high hopes for a good performance after Zuera where mechanical issues prevented a top ten finish. Along with mechanic Glenn, Laura had additional driver coaching from ex World Champion Terry Fullerton. Terry is vastly experienced and there is always something a driver can learn when he is around. The early tests showed good speed but then an engine seizure was the start of a problematic series of tests and races. With only two engines allowed 11th was the best result from the 4 races which was a huge disappointment as the performance has been much improved in the recent races.

31.07.11

WSK round 3 Zuera

Once again Laura was at the top of the time sheets, nearly always in the top 6. Qualifying went very well with a 4th best time. In Superpole she came in 6th.

 A good start in race one saw Laura up to 5th only to be smashed off the circuit by the same driver who wrecked her Zuera race last year, on the same corner! As she tried to recover through the pack two drivers collided right in front of her and her chassis was written off. A new CRG chassis was prepared by her mechanic Glenn Keyaert overnight but the next day the motor blew again in warm up and the pace was just not there in the final. The engine that had been so fast in practice was now not pulling. 

21st Overall in the WSK KF1 Championship

24.07.11

World Championships Zuera

A Lap of Zuera with Laura Tillett

Practice the week before saw Laura testing with help from family friend Terry Fullerton. Terry is one of the best driver coaches in the world and Laura really benefited from his advice. This race saw Glenn Keyaert take over the mechanicing from Peppo and Laura would like to thank Peppo for his work during the first half of the season.

Practice was going really well with Laura never really out of the top ten and topping the time sheets on one occasion.

The racing was spoilt by the engine blowing up before it had even finished running in and then the second engine did exactly the same thing after half a lap of qualifying. Coming from the back with the engines hurriedly rebuilt did not help the performance. Sunday warm up yet again the motor blew again whilst running in however she did manage to come 11th in race 3 from the back and set the same lap time as the eventual winner. Race 4 was a similar event with lap times the same as the leader again but too many incidents to get a result. A big disappointment when the pace was so fast.

26.06.11

WSK Euro series La Conca Italy.

La Conca was the first race for many years that had large amounts of rubber deposited on the track. This situation is rare nowadays as the tyres do not seem to coat the track anymore. However a combination of a painted track and many days of hot sunny weather combined to make conditions that were amongst the toughest seen for years.

Laura worked hard with Peppo, Eddy and GFR to overcome the problems and although she was knocked to the back at the start she came through to 13th setting the 5th quickest time of the final.

12.06.11

World Championships at Wakersdorf

The first round of the World Championship at Wakersdorf saw rain appear just as Laura took to the track for qualifying on slicks this put at the rear of the grid and the results below just show how tough it was to get through in this high caliber race.

Day one

Race one 27th

Race two 18th

Day two

Race three 21st

Race four 18th

17.04.11

WSK Euro series Portimao Portugal.

Portimao finished with a 16th in the first final and a 20th in the second. Technical difficulties hampered the results, which is disappointing when there is so much speed in the chassis and effort put in by everyone in the team.

13.03.11

WSK Euro series Sarno Italy.

A new WSK KF1 format meant having two separate finals, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.

The meeting started well with Laura qualifying ahead of her 4 other CRG team mates. Then in the first heat her rear bumper was smashed off causing her to come in for a mechanical problem, then an almightily accident in heat two as one kart was rammed into the back of Laura's kart and shot up into her head. Laura was shaken but fortunately had nothing more than a headache.

She started the final from grid 28 after the two DNF's and eventually came 11th, once again the fastest driver on CRG and Maxter and only a tenth off of the fastest lap.

The second day bought rain and a miss starting kart meant that yet again she had to start from the rear. Laura had a really good start making up many places in the pitch darkness of this late race but the setup was not good enough to sustain her position ending up 19th.

The experience of driving for the CRG team was thoroughly enjoyable and there is anticipation that this year the performance will be very good.

30..01.11

5 days testing in Sardinia Italy with CRG.

Laura instantly felt comfortable driving the new CRG Maxter and thoroughly enjoyed her weeks testing with the team despite the cold and wet weather which was the worse in the region for years.

Major News!

New Team for 2011

Laura Tillett is to compete for the CRG factory team in the 2011 season. Racing in the KF1 World and WSK Championships she will be driving CRG karts and Maxter engines.

05.01.11

Laura would like to thank Roberto Robazzi and Junior team manager Paul Spencer for the opportunity to race for Tonykart during 2010. She would also like to thank her mechanic Alex Barten who has been fantastic, as were Guy De Nies and Neil Colonel who also did one race each. She is now looking forward to this years races with her new team.

The Macau Cup SKF

A broken wiring loom caused her kart to not start in the pre final so Laura had to start from the rear of the main final.

After a good start she was hit by a driver coming sideways out of a crash putting her to the back but she rejoined from the rear and had a solid drive through to 11th with consistently good lap times.

12.12.10

World Series round 3 Sharm El Sheikh

A hot and dusty Ghibili Raceway caused many engines to take in grit through the air filters as everyone went off line in the first heat. Laura was up to 4th in this race but her best engine blew up and she stopped 2 laps from the end.

In the final Laura was taken off by another driver so she had to be content with 9th. She ended up 13th in the WSK World Series.

31.10.10

Laura misses the World Championship

Laura is unable to race at the World Championship, due to CIK qualification regulations that disallowed most of the Super KF drivers from competing. 3 months is a long time to be out of a kart so Laura has been concentrating on her fitness ready for the next race in Egypt.

http://twitter.com/properformance_/status/25197289802

22.09.10

Milville USA WSK World series round 2

New Jersey Motorsport Park was a race to forget. 14th was all she could manage as the problems in the setup could not be overcome.

Bring on the next race!

1.08.10

Henry's Headway Challenge

Laura joins Johnny Herbert, Barry McGiugan, Andy Stapley and Josh Webster in the Buckmore Old Boys 1 team at a Club 100 charity race. The race was organised by John Surtees to remember his son Henry Surtees and raise money for the Headway brain injury charity.

A great time was had by all and the event raised £60,000. Thank you to Buckmore Park and Club 100 for running this well organised event.

12.07.10

Portimao WSK World series round 1

Portimao saw her first SKF race that actually could be described as having hot weather. Starting from from 12th the pre final all started well with Laura moving up the field and setting the 4th quickest time of the race. Unfortunately a front tyre destroyed itself as it overheated and she went back to 11th.

Allowed to change one of the fronts for an old tyre used in the heats meant that although able to finish the race, Laura could only remain static in the field finishing 10th.

3.07.10

Sarno WSK Euro series round 5

After having a motor blow up in the heats it was going to be a tough race from grid 15 but Laura survived the intense competition and got to 13th in the pre final. She finished a creditable 9th in the main final. She finishes 11th overall in the Super KF WSK Euro Championship.

6.06.10

Henry's Headway Challenge Monday 12th July 2010 at Buckmore Park

Laura is to partner Johnny Herbert in the charity meeting organised to celebrate Henry Surtees life.

Henry and Laura used to race together at Buckmore Park and John Surtees helped Laura enormously when she first started.

The charity that will benefit from this event is the Headway brain injury charity.

29.05.10

Genk WSK round 4

The Tonykart Junior team and Vortex engines gave Laura the equipment necessary to be competitive and she was looking forward to another good finish after gaining 10th grid for the pre final. However, before the start of the race another driver swerved violently smashing Laura off the track. She rejoined 100 meters behind the 31 karts, after overtaking half of the grid, she overtook a driver who then knocked her off the track at the next corner, so Laura pulled in to save the tyres for the main final. The main final was going well and she had passed about 10 drivers when yet again she was spun around from behind. She recovered to 21st place. After the success from the previous races it was a disappointing end.

9.05.10

Major News!

Laura is to drive for the works Tonykart Junior Team

Tonykart are one of the most professional team in the world of karting so to be offered the chance to drive for them is a real honour. Laura now has that chance and this has created an enormous amount of excitement in the family.

This of course means leaving Dean Panrucker's Millennium Motorsport team and this has caused a certain amount of upset. Laura owes allot of her success to Dean, Dan, Terry and Spike. This team is a fantastic team where no driver is ever left out or neglected and Laura would like to thoroughly recommend them to anyone wishing to succeed in their karting career.

The team move means an engine change too and she would also like to thank GFR for the brilliant TM engines that she has used this year.

26.04.10

Another fantastic result at Zuera in Spain

Laura made the Superpole top 12 again for the second WSK race in succession and after three tough heats had grid 8 for the pre final. At one stage she ran as high as 5th in the pre final, only to get knocked off the track by someone she had already overtaken. In the final she got a bad start when her side of the grid was held up going over the start line and as a result of this she needed to come from 18th after the first lap. However Dean and Dan had her Tonykart TM working faultlessly and she overtook many works drivers to finish in a fine 8th position.

18.04.10

Laura appears in an article in Kent Life Magazine

Laura's story is used as a feature in Kent Life's "Young Guns" monthly article.

17.04.10

An amazing performance at the second round of the WSK

All through practice and qualifying Laura was setting some of the quickest lap times amongst the best kart racers in the world. In qualifying she made grid 7 which put her into Superpole for the top 12 drivers.

After three excellent heats Laura put her kart on grid three for the pre final. She then comfortably came 4th chasing 3rd place Sauro Cesetti and pulling away from the rest of the pack. Starting on Grid 4 for the second race hopes were high but unfortunately her engine suddenly misfired over the start line, cutting out and causing a false start, she managed to catch it and restart but as they rounded the last corner but one, the engine spluttered and died.

28.03.10

Laura has a go in an RF82

Laura tests an old race car around Brands.

16.03.10

The 1st round of the WSK at La Conca in Italy

Quick all week Laura was constantly upsetting some of the established works drivers at La Conca.

After getting a 15th grid in the final a typical karting fist corner pile up took her out in the first race but she recovered to 17th in the second final.

07.03.10

Laura poses for George Bamford

Laura is selected for a book project by one of the countries top photographers.

23.02.10

Laura is the joint winner of the BWRDC Helen Spence Trophy

22.02.10

The 15th Winter Cup at Garda Italy

Things were looking up for Laura in practice, She was fast and quickly at ease with the new equipment.  A sparkplug malfunction after half a lap in qualifying forced Laura to start from the back of the grid for the two heats. She made 28th grid in the pre final, made her way through the pack up to 17th but the power started to become intermittent and this resulted eventually in a non finish. In the main final she moved up from 34th to 20th when one of the drivers, of whom she had just passed, spun her round. She rejoined the race to pass another three drivers and 24th position was the result.

21.02.10

Photo shoot at Buckmore Park kart circuit

Laura has spent this morning posing for the national press.

The story that the pink helmet just had to go, to help stop the rear end attacks by the boys, has ended up in the Metro and we hope that other publicity will come from the great photo's that were taken by the other main papers. See the latest article in the Metro.

10.02.10

A new team for European Super KF racing in 2010

Regretfully Laura is to leave PDB in 2010 as she wants to keep her association with her UK team manager Dean Panrucker and the Millennium Motorsport's team. Because of this she is to switch to the Tonykart chassis and she will also use the GFR TM engines as used in the UK events last year.

Laura would like to thank Tim Gillard for the fantastic chassis and his continual support for the last 5 years. Laura would also like to thank the whole of the PDB team for their generous support, they really are a great team to be involved with and we have thoroughly enjoyed our years karting with them.

19.01.10

Laura meets Jenson Button at the Autosport Awards

Jenson presents Laura with the 11th place award won at the Super 1 Championship. Laura was also a nominee for the Gold Star award by the BWRDC.

16.01.10

11th place in the Copa di Campeones in Vendrell Spain

After getting a bent axle in the pre final Laura came from the rear of the grid to 11th in this the final big race of the year.

06.12.09

Laura has a feature in the Metro Magazine and an interview broadcast on Radio 5 live.

After appearing in the Metro Magazine, a number of magazines and Radio 5 live contact Laura for her story.

Metro article

06.12.09

Laura appears on BBC South East and live on Radio Kent

A feature about Laura's kart racing career appeared on the BBC today. Showing her driving around Buckmore and being interviewed. She also had a live interview broadcast on BBC Radio Kent. BBC

13.11.09

21th place at the KF2 WSK Championship in Lonato

Although on the pace again, two of the 4 heats were spoilt by being knocked off at the start, so the final was going to be difficult to make with 70 drivers entered. She was unlucky enough to be pole in the repecharge but a great drive saw Laura in a comfortable 2nd. Despite a tough battling race, the final of 34 drivers saw Laura make the 6th quickest lap and she was the fastest driver using the Parilla engine. 21st was her final position.

Laura is now looking forward to 2010 where she will compete in SKF.

01.11.09

11th in the British S1 KF2 championships

Fulbeck was the last round and after getting a 5th grid for the pre final hopes were high for a good result. The reeds broke on the roll up lap and she was unable to take the start. In the main final she got up to 7th from the back and the engine broke again. Two non finishes meant that a top ten finish in the championship was lost.

18.10.09

Laura finishes 25th at the Macau World Championship

Laura was the first British female to ever compete in the World Championship of the premier class of karting and she made it through to the final in conditions that were anything but easy. The track was breaking up, which caused everyone a headache with set up as the track was constantly changing.

In qualifying she was 5th in group and 16th overall. She was faster than many super stars and out qualified 5 times World Champion Davide Fore and current KZ World Cup winner Jonathon Thonon. In the first heat an Italian driver drove right over her, so she had a smashed up kart and a non finish. A non finish could have taken her out the final but she battled to get two good finishes in the other heats and this got her grid 30 in the 34 kart pre final.
In the main final another driver drove up her back at the start getting stuck on top of her, 25th was her final position.

11.10.09

WSK Championship round 6 at Zuera in Spain

Laura is getting quicker at every European event and qualified on grid 16 for the pre final, finishing the main final in 12th.

this was here best result of the year and shows that she has become one of the fastest drivers in the country.

22.09.09

British Super One KF2 Championship Larkhall

Starting on grid of 7th of Final 1, she was knocked back to 16th but came back through to 11th and she was only three 100ths off of setting the fastest lap. The start of Final 2 lasted only 1 lap as another driver buried her into the fence with a move that earned him a penalty and bent her kart.

Even with this problem Laura has moved up to 9th in the championship.

13.09.09

British Super One KF2 Championship Nutts Corner

Over to Northern Ireland for this one where a hovercraft would have been a more suitable vehicle, we spent the whole meeting wading around in 2 inches of water.

Laura achieved 6th place on the grid and after a dry, wet, dry, wet final on slicks she came away 9th.

Then the heavens opened up and the second final was cancelled.

23.08.09

Laura races in the SKF class in Essay, France.

In the World's top karting class a spirited drive in race one saw Laura comfortably in 10th until the very last lap when the engine blew up. She was still classified 14th which was a point scoring position and therefore classified here overall as 24th.

In race two her back bumper was rammed into her tyre destroying her chances by wearing out the soft Bridgestone specials and dragging the engine down. She finished 17th.

02.07.09

WSK at Salbris France

Laura makes it to the final of a WSK event for the first time.

26.07.09

British Super One KF2 Championship Whilton Mill

Laura's fastest engine seized in practice but she still managed a creditable 6th place from 18th on the grid.

Laura is 11th in the British Championship using her Gillard TM equipment.

05.07.09

WSK at Genk in Belgium

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 from the equipment 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 qualifying 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 6th but was unable to close the gap to the leaders.

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 at the first round of the WSK championship in 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 abroad

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 completing 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 the late Henry Surtees. Henry was tragically killed in an F2 race in 2009. John and Henry were very supportive of Laura in her early racing days so we were very sad to learn of this horrific incident.

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 today's top level professional karting. Things had changed a bit since Laura's father finished racing in 1995.