Karen Gaillard is a Swiss driver who races sportscars internationally, having begun in touring cars.
2019 was her first season in cars. Her first steps up from karting were to enter the Cupra Young Driver Challenge in her home country, finishing third. Not long after, she made her TCR debut at the Nurburgring with Topcar Sport. Unfortunately, she spun on the first lap and picked up two penalties. She did better in the second race, finishing ninth. Her car was a Cupra TCR.
She returned to the circuits in 2020 for the Monza 12 Hour race, again driving for the Topcar team as part of her Cupra prize. She and her two team-mates were thirteenth in the first section of the race and twelfth in the second. The team was then third in class, fifth overall in the 16 Hours of Hockenheim. This was the year of the pandemic, so her season was curtailed
Her first taste of prototype power also came in 2020. She took part in the first round of the Spanish Endurance Championship, driving a Vortex V8 in the GT class for Lionel Amrouche's team. Her two races were at Navarra and she was seventh and fourteenth in her class.
She continued to race in the 2021 24H series, but was now driving the Vortex in the GTX class. Paired with Lionel Amrouche himself, she was second in class at Dubai and third in both Mugello races. She was fifth in her class championship.
The MitJet Trophy in France was her next destination. This is a silhouette formula, combining aspects of prototypes and touring cars. Karen's best finish was sixth in an away round at Catalunya and she was eighteenth overall. She also did some rounds of the Benelux MitJet Trophy.
2023 was better and she was second in the Endurance Prototype section of the Ultimate Cup in Europe, driving a Nova Proto with Gregory de Sybourg. They were seventh in the overall championship, with a best finsh of fourth at Estoril. A bad finish at Estoril dropped them down slightly.
For 2024, she was signed by the Iron Dames team for the Le Mans Cup, alongside Celia Martin. Driving a Lamborghini Huracan, they were sixth in the GT3 class, with one podium finish at Paul Ricard. They were seventh and 16th at the Le Mans rounds themselves.
With a different team, but the same car, she also tackled the Ultimate Cup again, this time with Iko Segret and Marc Faggionato. Again, Paul Ricard was her best circuit and she was fifth there. She and her two team-mates were eleventh in their class and 16th in the overall Prototype championship, not helped by a non-finish at Magny-Cours.
Her time as an Iron Dame continued in 2025, as a member of their IMSA squad and driving solo in the Carrera Cup France. The latter came after winning a young driver shootout. The IMSA season was cut short to a single run in the Daytona 24 Hours, where she and her team-mates were eighth in the GTD class and 33rd overall. The French Carrera Cup was a challenge and her best result by far was a seventh place at Valencia. She also did some rounds in the Swiss Porsche Cup and the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe.
(Image copyright Charly Lopez/DPPI)
