Gainsborough racer preparing to step up the motorsport ladder

Emily Cooper (10) has just signed up for next season’s Super One Series and British ROK Kart Championship.

The schoolgirl only started karting last year and has already won two entry level races at Fulbeck by a big margin.

Gifted Emily also bagged a podium at Tattershall and won only round of the Motorsport Woman event

And Granddad Nick Tinker, who travels to races with her, now hopes Emily can continue her rise up the ladder.

“It’s really exciting for us to go to the next level,” he said. “She showed what she could do in the entry level races.

“There is a lot of quality racers in the Super One and BKC and it is great to be amongst a better level of racers.

“I am hoping for a top ten finish at the end of the year in the Super One Seires. You have parents allegedly putting in £250,000 budgets that we have to compete with.

“The more money you have the further up the field you will get.”

The BROK is based in England but has rounds in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Spain.

And after a disrupted 2020, Emily and her team are now hoping for a smoother road and a chance to show what she can do.

“It’s been a tough year and been quite a transition,” he added. “We are looking to just do as well as we can.

“Every couple of years she will have to move up in class. She started quite so we are perhaps a year behind the others at this level, but already the Zip Team would like her to a couple of rounds in the British Championship this season.

“They picked out Lewis Hamilton from nowhere and gave him a kart, so for them to show an interest and to be keen in her is a good thing.

“The sky is the limit, we are not going to stop and will push it all the way.

"We are not being sexist, but this is a male dominated sport. We have a saying that we don’t chase the boys, we beet them.

"I know she is my granddaughter but she has already proved what she can do.

"We should have been in Valencia next month but it was cancelled. We will just see where she goes.”