I want this with every single bone in my body. Every single inch of my heart. I want this and I truly I can get to where I want to go. And I’ll keep going until I get there.
One of the reasons I’m obsessed with sharing the stories of women in sport on Sparta Chicks Radio is because I firmly believe “you can’t be what you can’t see”.
Emily Duggan’s story is a perfect example of this.
When Emily was a little girl, she was watching TV one weekend and came across the Supercar motor racing series here in Australia and was instantly hooked.
‘It was a Supercar race and I just remember that something inside of me was saying ‘I could do that’. And not that I wanted to go there as a spectator and watch the race. But I felt like I could drive the cars the way that these drivers were driving them and be competitive’.
However Emily, in that moment, also realised there were no women racing and thought “…it was just a boy’s sport. Girls didn’t do it and certainly didn’t do it at that type of level. So it was just…put it to the back of my memory and never really gave it another thought until I was much older.”
Thankfully the voice that whispered to Emily that day never disappeared and as soon as she started working, she began saving for her first racing car - and hasn’t looked back since.
In 2016, Emily became the 1st female driver to race in the V8 Touring Car Series here in Australia and now in 2019 is racing in the Super3 series (which is the 3rd tier in the Supercar series here).
And sometime soon, I know we’ll see Emily line up at the start of the iconic Bathurst 1000 race (a race I’ve promised to watch, for the first time ever, when she does!).
Emily joins me on Sparta Chicks Radio this week and shares:
* why she told her friends she was saving to buy a house (when in fact she was saving to buy a race car),
* the importance of listening to the voice inside you,
* the importance of choosing who you take advice from (and who you shouldn’t listen to)
* why she dyed her (naturally) blond hair brown before her first race,
* how she physically trains for the sport, given the incredible loads that are placed on her body in the car,
* what it’s like to drive a car at 230km (140mi) per hour,
* why she says she’s not an ‘adrenaline junkie”,
* her experience with the Imposter Complex,
* why having a different background or experience from everyone else in your industry is a blessing and advantage, and
* the biggest life lessons racing has taught her.
Click here to listen on iTunes.
Notes and resources:
To find out more about Emily or to say hello, you can find her on Instagram, Facebook or via her website.
