Emily Linscott

 

Emily Linscott is an ambitious single-seater racer from the UK who began her career very young.

She first raced a car in 2017 when she competed in the last three rounds of the Ginetta Junior championship. This was only her second season in motorsport full stop, having taken up karting in 2016, aged 13. She also had a shaky start in cars; only the second time she drove on a circuit, she was taken off at Snetterton by an F3 car. The Ginetta was written off and she had to have a spare car brought from the factory.

Her best Ginetta Junior overall finishes were a pair of twelfth places at Brands Hatch and Silverstone, although she scored far better in the rookie rankings. 

Richardson Racing saw her potential and she was signed by the team for the 2018 Ginetta Junior season, earning a best finish of ninth and 16th in the championship. This was in spite of a crash in practice at Knockhill which left her with heavy bruising. The car’s brakes failed going into the hairpin and Emily narrowly avoided going into the barrier head-on. After seeking clearance from the track medics, she was back on the circuit for qualifying and her two races.

At the end of the season she travelled to Malaysia for a guest appearance in the Southeast Asia Formula 4 championship, finishing seventh twice at Sepang even though her car had gearbox and electrical problems. She did not finish the third race of the meeting, having collided with another driver while running in second place. 

In 2019, she travelled to the USA at weekends for the Lucas Oil Formula Car race series, where she was being mentored by Pippa Mann. She was eighth in the championship, with two second places at NCM Motorsports Park. At the end of the year, she was third in the series' Scholarship shootout. She also took part in a couple of rounds of the Dunlop Endurance Championship with Peter Bassill, driving his Ginetta G55 at Oulton Park. They won their class in both of their races. 

Her focus switched again to single-seaters for 2020 and she stayed in America for the Lucas Oils Formula Car Championship, supported by Indycar driver Pippa Mann. She was seventh in the championship, with one podium finish at New Jersey. 

She is racing in US F4 in 2021, driving for Teena Larsen’s Kiwi Motorsport. Once again, she is being supported by Pippa Mann and her Shift Up Now initiative. Part of Emily’s season is being financed through crowdfunding and the rest by a scholarship from PMH Powering Diversity.

Her time training in the US seems to have paid off; her third race at Road Atlanta gave her a debut top-ten when she finished eighth. She also impressed by moving strongly up the field after qualifying problems.

She did complete 14 of the 17 rounds of the championship, but as she was gathering sponsorship on a race-by-race basis, there was no budget for testing. As a British citizen, she was also unable to undertake paid work in the US. She was 23rd in the championship and later admitted that her time in the States had taken its toll on her mental health. She is currently taking a break from competition.

(Image copyright Emily Linscott)