At the age of 18, Brooke Kitson is fast becoming BriSCA F1’s biggest asset – not only the youngest woman driver to qualify for a World Championship Final, she is also creating her own brand on social media
There aren’t many stock car drivers producing podcasts on social media directly from the racetrack, let alone a woman driver in full make-up and manicured nails just after a race. But 18-year-old Brooke Kitson is making quite a name for herself on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok doing just that.
In the rough, tough world of full-contact short-oval racing and notably in the sport’s most fearsome formula, the mighty BriSCA F1 stock cars – powered by 750bhp Chevrolet V8 engines – Kitson has become the sport’s poster girl and biggest asset.
Since her first outing in a BrISCA F1 stock car two years ago, when she was 16, the teenager from March in Cambridgeshire has created her own social media brand and in doing so, promotes the sport to a younger audience, who regard her as the face of stock car racing.
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“I love talking!” Kitson said, who also speaks at various women in motorsport promotional events, including at Silverstone. “I really enjoy putting the podcasts together and speaking in front of an audience. It’s something I plan to do even more of now.”
She is an excellent communicator. Her YouTube podcasts are well produced – including on-board footage of every race she competes in – and being articulate in front of the camera she tells the story behind her day and can explain what is happening out on the track.
None more so than at King’s Lynn’s Adrian Flux Arena in July, where she competed in the first of two World Championship semi-finals.
By finishing ninth in the race, Brooke made history by becoming the youngest female driver to qualify for the sport’s most prestigious race, the 36-car World Championship Final, run this Saturday at Northampton Shaleway.
“Qualifying for a World Final was something else,” she said. “My dad (Daz Kitson), who was BriSCA F2 world champion and has raced in BriSCA F1s, has never qualified – so it’s something I’ve done that he hasn’t managed to do in his career.”
The 25-lap race is the centrepiece of a three-day meeting at Northampton, which starts tomorrow evening, with competitors from around the world, including Holland and New Zealand.
“I’m really excited to soak up all the atmosphere,” she said. “I know the nerves will definitely kick in when I’m getting strapped into the car before the actual race. I’m on the 13th row – which is kind of in the middle – and that’s normally where you see most of the carnage happen.
“But all I’m thinking about is the experience. I am going to soak all of that in, because I know that it isn’t an experience I have ever had before and it is just so exciting.”
And once the race has been run, expect to see her back in front of the camera describing every moment to a captive and growing audience.