Rebecca Jackson

Rebecca Jackson is best known for racing Porsches in the UK, and for her “Project Le Mans” plan.

She grew up around motor racing, having been introduced to the sport as a baby by her dad. However, she was never a junior karter and only started competing once she was an adult, with her education finished. After university, she ran her own car sales business, which she started in 2007. For fun, she drove her Subaru Impreza on track days. She set up her own Youtube channel, in which she posted her own car reviews of vehicles she was selling. This was the start of her media career, which progressed in tandem with her racing ambitions.

Her first Porsche was a 924, in 2011, which she raced in the BRSCC’s Porsche championship. The car had cost her £5000, the proceeds from the sale of the Impreza, and was pretty basic. She was eighth overall. Her best finish was fifth, at Oulton Park.

Having gained valuable experience, she was fourth in 2012, having scored her first win at Snetterton, as well as a second and third. That year she also raced a Toyota MR2. Quite early in her career, she picked up a reputation as a wet-track specialist, having prevailed in a number of wet races.

For 2013, she swapped the 924 for a production-class Boxter, remaining in the same championship, but a different class. She won the class comfortably, and was 19th overall, six places above her nearest Boxter rival.

2013 saw her launch “Project Le Mans”, a four-year plan that would end with her racing at Le Mans. She used the Autosport International Show to canvass support. To begin with, this was in the form of spare parts, but she did get some cash sponsors on board.

In 2014, she planned to move into the Race Spec Boxter class, the highest level of Porsche  club competition. However, she opted for the Cartek Roadsports Endurance Series, a production-based championship, run by the 750MC. Her best results were two fifth places, at Snetterton and Silverstone, and she struggled a little with non-finishes and development issues with the Boxter. However, her performances were enough to earn her some good Class B finishes, including a second at Snetterton. Later in the season, she drove in the Birkett Six Hour Handicap Relay, as part of Team Turtle Wax, all driving Porsches or Ginettas. They were fifth on handicap, and 22nd on scratch, winning their class. Turtle Wax became her principal sponsor for the next three seasons.

Rebecca moved a little further up the Porsche racing ladder in 2015, with a view to a Le Mans seat in 2016. For this, she needed some top-level GT3 experience, which the GTUK championship provided. She was sixth in the GTB class of the GTUK series, driving a Porsche 997 Carrera Cup car. Her best result was a third place, at Donington, and she was normally in the top five. Although she was still in a Porsche, this was the most powerful car she had raced yet.

Another of her 2015 activities was her RecordRoadTrip, sponsored by the RAC and Audi. The aim of the trip was to visit as many countries as she could on a single tank of fuel. She was assisted by Andrew Frankel, and the car, an Audi, had a special enlarged fuel tank. The pair set a Guinness-ratified world record, having travelled most of the way round Europe.

Later in the year, she did another road trip, the Track 2 Track Challenge. Rebecca and Russian racer Natalia Freidina travelled around the UK and Eastern Europe and raced each other on circuits along the way, including some forgotten F1 tracks.

She spent most of 2016 in the GT4 European Series, driving a KTM X-Bow in the Pro class for the Reiter team. Her best finish was fifth, at Pau, and she was 20th overall. This was her first experience of a sports prototype. She also paid another visit to Dubai for the 24 Hours, but did not finish in the Sorg Rennsport BMW 325i.

This was the final year of her Project Le Mans plan, and true to her word, she raced at Le Mans. She did not compete in the 24 Hours itself, but in the Road to Le Mans support race for LMP3 cars. She drove a Nissan-engined Ligier to sixteenth place, with her By Speed Factory team-mate, Jesus Fuster. This was only the second time she had driven the Ligier. The first time was a month earlier, at Paul Ricard, where she raced in a round of the VdeV championship, finishing sixth.

In 2017, she raced in the UK Mini Challenge. The best circuit for her was Oulton, where she scored her best results, a 12th and 14th place. She was 19th in the championship.

She did not race in 2018. Although she kept it quiet for a long time, she finally announced that she was pregnant with twins towards the end of the year. She returned to the motorsport arena in late 2019, offering her services as a sponsorship coach and advisor.

Away from actual racing, she is a motoring journalist and broadcaster who writes for The Telegraph’s motoring section, among other publications.

(Image from www.rebeccaracer.com)