Jo Polley

 

Jo Polley races Minis in the UK. She came close to winning the 2018 Super Mighty Mini Championship. 

She began in short-oval racing, including Ministox and BRiSCA F2 Stock Cars. From a short-oval family, she raced alongside her brothers for two years from the age of 15, picking up twelve wins in emulation of her champion father, George. Although she wanted to race as a senior, the funds were not there for her to compete alongside her two brothers and she temporarily retired.

She finally moved into long-circuit racing in 2007, having bought her own car. For her first race in the Mighty Mini Championship, she qualified in fourth and finished eighth. 

In her first full year, 2008, she earned one pole position at Mallory Park. She was fourteenth overall, despite having to miss most of the season. She had crashed heavily at Mallory and her car needed extensive repairs.

A second season in Mighty Minis in 2009 gave her her first podium finish, driving a rejuvenated car. She was eighth in the championship at the end of the year. Sadly, financial pressures forced her to sell the car and take another break from motorsport for a few years. 

After a while, she briefly returned to the Mighty Mini series in 2013, before moving into the modern Mini Challenge in 2014, driving a BMW Mini. In an interview with Sky Sports, Jo explained how this was down to sponsorship from PowerMaxed detailing products. The deal led to her working as a grid girl for the PowerMaxed BTCC team as well. She was thirteenth in the Cooper class of the Mini Challenge. 

In 2015, among some other projects, she attempted to win an entry to the Rally Aïcha des Gazelles. She spent most of the season in the PowerMaxed Mini Challenge and was eleventh in the Cooper class. 

In 2016, she continued to race her Mini, and also travelled to Spa for the Mini 24 Hours, in which she and her team-mates won their class. 

She raced in the JCW class of the Mini Challenge in 2017, as part of a three-car Eurotech team. Her best finish was eleventh at Oulton Park and she was 27th in the championship after a part-season. Eurotech also ran a BTCC team and Jo managed their sponsorship as well as standing on the grid for them at races. 

In 2018, back in a classic Mini, she came close to winning the Super Mighty Mini Championship, having led for much of the season after an early win. She was fourth. 

She switched to Mini 7evens the following year and was 16th in the championship, although her pace picked up dramatically towards the end of the season with a couple of top-five finishes. She also raced a classic Mini at the Silverstone Classic with Jeff Smith, whom she had met at Eurotech and was by now her partner.

Jeff and Jo raced together again in 7evens for the shortened 2020 season. She was fifth in the championship, with a best finish of third at Thruxton.

They raced together again in 2021, this time taking on the Masters Pre-'66 Mini Championship. Driving a Mini in her father's signature "Polley purple", she had a best finish of fifth at Brands Hatch. As well as this, she was a regular top-ten finisher in 7evens again and ninth in the championship.

She was third in the 2022 Se7en championship, with third places at Silverstone, Cadwell and Castle Combe. The 2023 championship led to a tenth place, but a one-off Masters Mini outing at Brands gave her a class third.

(Image copyright ByKathryn)