The march forward for female racing drivers on the international scene has ben somewhat stalled with a paucity of racers at two different stages:
Gold ranked elite Pro drivers are coming, but the changes in recent years offering opportunities and opening up new avenues for women will continue to take time to get to a critical mass.
With Pro-Am racing such a key part of our sport the other numerical challenge is perhaps even more noticeable. There aren’t nearly enough Bronze-ranked women in the sport.
Sarah Bovy’s will she – won’t she relationship with the driver categorisation process reaches a third consecutive season of provisional regrading today, and whilst there are other in the 2025 rankings that have been graded down from Silver to Bronze (Taylor Hagler, Renee Gracie, Ashton Harrison and Vanina Ickx) the realities of numbers, and available budget, continue to be a real challenge.
But here’s a name for any team looking to break that cycle to consider.
Topcats Racing co-owner and driver Charlotte Gilbert scored the overall GT Cup Championship this season alongside Tom Rawlings.
The pair, in a GTC class Lamborghini Huracan, took the fight to GT class machinery as well as the one-make racers in their own GTC class scoring both the class and Overall Championship titles in the process.
Whilst Tom has talent, the focus of this piece is on his, and I hope she doesn’t mind me saying this, somewhat more mature co-driver.
This writer first encountered Charlotte back in 2001 (then as Charlotte Osborn) in the British GT Championship as a replacement driver for Matt Bettley who was killed in a road traffic accident during the Silverstone British GT Championship weekend in 2001.
Charlotte made an immediate impact, at the time a very rare female presence she found real pace in the sometimes recalcitrant Mantis, putting the car into contention for decent finishes when reliability allowed.
She was feisty on track and fun in the paddock, respected by her peers with real potential.
That though was almost a quarter of a century ago.
Fast forward to much more recent years and Charlotte, now Charlotte Gilbert, after a long time away from the driving seat, is running a successful race and road car business with husband and fellow racer Warren Gilbert. That’s included some TV work together on the widely distributed ‘Wheeler Dealers’ show on Discovery.
The pair have two teenage sons and, with empty nest syndrome looming, Charlotte opted to go back to racing in 2020, starting, astonishingly, with the very same Marcos (now much modified ‘Triggers Broom’ style) she campaigned in 2001.
There were immediately some excellent results, including an astounding overall race win in a Red Flagged race where, spotting the opportunity, she stayed out in torrential rain as others (literally) bailed out!.
That saw a switch to one of the team’s Super Trofeo monsters and further class and race-winning success, which brings us to the title winner today.
So why so significant? It’s a second tier national Series after all?
Because – Charlotte and Tom have been beating GT3 and GTO machinery with some decent gentleman talent involved, on challenging circuits, often in a lower class car and, because Charlotte is now 50 years old, and having been away from racing for so long, some 20 years in fact, she’s a sure fire Bronze ranked prospect.
There may not be a lot of budget to come as part of the deal, but if a well-resourced squad is looking for an exemplar of how a more mature female driver can compete at the Bronze level – She might well be worth a shot!
Pics: GT Cup, I&L Photography, Racingsportscar/ Jeremy Jackson
