The Indy NXT racer has launched ‘The Jamie Chadwick Series’ with a year-long commitment to find new female driving talent or assist those already in the system.
In a partnership with karting chain Daytona Motorsport, complimentary karting will be available at all three venues for girls aged eight and over on International Women’s Day (8 March).
This will be followed by the launch of Chadwick's eponymous all-female series, which will be held exclusively at Daytona-run venues, with participants mentored by the Williams Racing Driver Academy member.
Chadwick won all three editions of the all-female W Series in 2019, 2021 and 2022 before it ceased due to financial problems.
Explaining the thinking behind the karting initiative, Chadwick told Autosport: “When I look back to how I started in the sport, I just really did fall into it by accident.
“I started at this kind of arrive-and-drive set-up and I never thought that it was ever going to go beyond that. But I enjoyed it and really was lucky enough to have my older brother to follow through.
“I never really knew what possibilities there were in the sport beyond that, and even just going from arrive and drive karting to karting at a higher club level without a racing family, or being from a racing family, we didn’t really know how it worked.
“I like to think that there are a lot of female drivers that have had the possibility to go to these kind of places like Daytona and experience karting for the first time but don’t know what possibilities there are, could potentially have the talent and now have the opportunity to feed through to the next step.”
While other initiatives such as the F1 Academy focus on girls and young women that are already in racing, Chadwick is focused on identifying untapped talent at the earliest stage.
“Currently, only 13% of karters are female and it’s clear that increasing this number substantially is essential to having more female racing drivers climb to the highest levels of the sport,” she said.
“My aim is to not only encourage more girls to try the sport but also to help develop young girls who are already hooked and provide more opportunities for them to turn this into a career.
“My message to girls is that motorsport is a hugely rewarding and exciting sport to be involved in regardless of your gender so come and try karting out for free on International Women’s Day and if you enjoy it, sign up and come and get involved in all the things we’ll be doing this year.”
Chadwick switched to IndyCar support series Indy NXT in 2023, scoring a best finish of sixth at Portland, and will remain for a second season with Andretti Global in 2024.
