It is common knowledge that women are woefully underrepresented in the automotive industry. From the boardroom to the workshop only a handful of women can be found, but things are beginning to change and across all the automotive sectors there is work being done to encourage women to look at careers in the auto trades.

MTA Queensland does its bit here with initiatives such as the Auto Women project, via its Women’s Career Guidance Officer, and through its championing of the achievements of women with the Women In Industry award, presented each year at the association’s awards gala event.

At this year’s event, that Women In Industry award was won by Skid Control, a Brisbane-based business that offers a range of driver training courses and events held regularly at Queensland Raceway, Lakeside Raceway, and Willowbank Raceway motorsport circuits, as well as the RACQ Mobility Centre at Mt Cotton, south of Brisbane.

A new location near Warwick that offers 10km of dirt tracks across 400 acres will be on the events schedule from the beginning of 2023.

Founded in 2016 by Dylan Cothill, a South African-born racing professional who moved to Australia a decade ago, Skid Control runs a whole series of events that are aimed at enabling participants to learn to control their car in all manner of conditions and learn about steering, vision, vehicle set-up, controlling a slide, track racing, rallying, understanding understeer and oversteer and much more.

Events are all about learning to drive confidently and safely, while having barrels of fun in the process.

There’s Skid Pan, where you learn what a car does in wet and slippery conditions and how to recover from a slide; Rally Days, a grassroots introduction to rallying; Track Race Training, run in conjunction with Time Attack Queensland, where participants do sprint sessions, learn racing lines, braking points, and apex and exit points; Khanacross, aimed at enabling drivers to develop their driving in timed tests; High-Performance Driving, that includes teaching on advanced driving techniques, high-speed braking, oversteer and understeer and more; Test ‘n’ Drive, where drivers have a full day of track time; and Grip ‘n’ Slide, which includes skid pan training and a day of track time.

And then there is She’s In Control – the driving initiative established in 2021 for which Skid Control won the MTA Queensland award (see page 21).

An event in which only women participate, She’s In Control takes elements from other events (particularly popular is the Skid Pan training) and is organised and run by women from the Skid Control team. The instructors are women, as is the team that administers it, takes the photos, and promotes it.

That team includes instructor Hannah Busch, a mechanical engineer by trade, a seasoned photographer, and a performance car and motorsport enthusiast; Zara Waller, a 20-year-old photographer and social media administrator; Michelle Van Der Wilk, an instructor and accomplished driver who competes in the Queensland Rally Championship; and Kass Brumley, Michelle’s rally co-driver and also a photographer who snaps shots for the Supercars series. Kaylin Duffield, Dylan Cothill’s wife, was instrumental in setting up the event and is an instructor too.

Establishing She’s In Control was a reaction to what the Skid Control team had witnessed at their regular, open, events. With as many as 15 events held each month and more than 250 people taking part, the team noticed that the number of women participants was disappointing. Sometimes one or two women would participate but, most often, those who did attend stood on the sidelines just observing the men having all the on-track fun. Reaching out to these women, it became clear to Skid Control that they just did not feel comfortable sharing the track with the men.

“We’d be at the track and there’d be these guys on the skid pan and these girls all standing around,” said Hannah. “I said, “Are you going to have a go?” and the answer was, “Oh, no, I can’t do that in front of the boys” or “I’m too scared to be on track with the boys” or “Oh no, this is a boys thing.” And we were like, “No, it’s not. It’s an everyone thing!

“And so, about two years ago, I said to Dylan that we’ve got to do some more stuff with women. We’ve got to start offering these ladies events, marketing it to the ladies and getting the girls involved on the instructor side of things.

“The thing is, there was a perceived barrier and we had to break that barrier and go, “Okay, you’ve got girl instructors, you’ve got girl photographers, you’ve got only girl participants, what’s your excuse now?”

The result of launching She’s In Control has been outstanding. In the year since it began it has moved from having around 10 participants to more than 30 enjoying the monthly events. And there is a community building as women – now confident in their abilities and in taking their spot on the track – move on to challenge themselves in the other events and even try their hand at competitive motorsport.

“We’ve seen a huge number of girls come through now who are willing to come and have a go,” said Zara Waller.

“I have just seen one of the ladies, who I saw at her first ever skid pan event just three months ago, out and competing in Time Attack events with all the boys.
And she is having a blast!

“And that is great because motorsport is one of those communities that is so open and welcoming. Everyone is willing to help you. It’s one of those communities that is amazing to be part of, and for us to be able to share that with other people, I think, is amazing.”

The She’s In Control initiative will continue to grow, with its program rotating through the different disciplines Skid Control offers but, ironically, its success may, at some point in the future, see it lose its place on the company’s event schedule. However, you won’t see anyone too upset about that. After all, for it to become completely normal and unquestioned that women can jump in a car and feel comfortable participating against, and with, the men is the whole point.

“I did actually say that a few months ago,” said Hannah with a chuckle. “I said that our biggest problem was that we were going to do ourselves out of a job!

“And that is a good thing. It’s not like they won’t be coming to Skid Control events, it’s just they won’t feel they have to come to girls’ events.”
Driver education will always be a vital service and She’s In Control is a great way for young women to develop the skills they need to stay safe on the road.

“I really want to make this program highlighted to Year 12 students around the Brisbane and Gold Coast area,” said Hannah. “This is about life skills as well. There are women out there who are missing out on learning how to better control their cars, or missing out on making sure they are safer on the road, because they think it’s a blokes’ environment. The whole idea of She’s In Control is to create that ladies environment, where girls can network with other girls. Confidence when driving on the road is such an important thing.”

Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (December 2022/January 2023) 

2 January 2022