Jamie Chadwick launches female karting competition to encourage young women drivers

Britain's leading female racing driver says she still receives insults about her gender.

Jamie Chadwick, who now races in America's Indy NXT series, once felt she had to ignore sexist comments in order to fit in.

Now in a bid to encourage more young women into motorsport, she has launched a female karting championship.

"I get negative comments all of the time [about gender]," Chadwick, 25, told BBC Sport.

"If I don't have a good year, I don't want that to be reflected on my gender. I don't want that to be because I'm a woman.

"I want to create a community where girls can feel comfortable and safe and enjoy karting."

The winner of the new competition will receive financial help and mentorship from the three-time champion of racing's W Series.

Chadwick, a Williams F1 Racing Academy driver, is not used to starting at the back of a grid but at Sandown Park in Surrey she found herself behind 21 others.

However, this was not an official race, but the launch of an opportunity for women and girls to compete in an all-female series which she has put her name to.

The competition will see eight races across three different Daytona tracks in England at Sandown, Milton Keynes and Tamworth.

Emma Rabbage crossed the line in fourth place in Surrey.

"There is prejudice against females," she said. "On some of the tracks I've been to there have been comments towards me, it knocks your confidence.

"It's a male-dominated sport, it can be quite an intimidating environment."

A report last year by More Than Equal, an organisation co-founded by ex-Formula 1 driver David Coulthard, found just 13% of those participating in karting are female, a statistic which drops to 7% in Formula and GT racing.

Amelia Charlesworth was another of those racing in Surrey.

"Whenever we go to tracks, I'll be the only female driver, that's indoor, outdoor, whatever," said Charlesworth.

"A day like this is so good to have other females you can connect with. Men drive a lot more aggressively, they are stronger and push it a lot more on corners, but I think women can be smarter and figure out which lines to take in different way."

While a woman has not competed in Formula 1 in almost 50 years, Chadwick said she would love to race at that level.

However, she believes that women face a physical disadvantage in feeder series Formula 2 and Formula 3 where cars are still without power steering. Ultimately, though, Chadwick has no doubt it is a numbers game.

"There's just so few women starting in the sport, naturally when you filter through to the top you have one female driver in F3 and none in F2," she said.

"We need to do all we can do we can to create more visibility for women at the highest level of the sport to try and encourage more young girls to start in the first place."

Like Chadwick, Sophie Norbury followed her brothers' love of motorsport before finding herself captivating by karting.

"Being a woman in karting has helped build confidence, not just in karting but my confidence as a person," she added.

"It doesn't matter about anybody else once you put your helmet on."