A motorsport engineering student is already making a name for herself on the racing circuit after working in a racing team which features on ITV.
Elise Lewis can be seen working on her team's car in British Touring Car Championship, which follows ten teams in the race to the win the title.
The 19-year-old is studying at the University of Bolton’s National Centre for Motorsport Engineering.
The university is renowned for its motorsport, with the late Bob Fernley even calling it the North’s ‘best kept secret’.
Elise dreams of working in motorsport and is a number three mechanic on TV’s British Touring Cars Championships for Power Maxed Racing.
This means Elise can help get the car ready for the race, help out with pitstops and is in charge of fuelling.
She said: “BTCC is a fairly big deal, it’s one of the UK’s biggest championships and has been moved from ITV4, all the way up to ITV1.
“It’s one of the championships that British racing drivers aim to race in.
“It’s insane to me because my dad used to take me to touring car races and I never thought I would be in the pit lane or in the garages.
“And especially I’ve had my dad come to visit me at some of the rounds and it’s so crazy being on the other side of It having grown up watching it.”
The talented teenager aims to work in motorsport engineering and into the data side of race engineering, learning everything about a race car at the university.
She said: “Since coming to the university, I have had a few different thoughts on what my career might be, and they have been helpful in showing me different aspects of motorsport engineering and helping me figure out where I best sit and belong.”
The university has been working on the Formula Student project for a number of years and this year the team is finally ready to race at Silverstone, a prestigious racetrack in England, where the British Grand Prix is held.
There are 40 students working on the car in different roles, with Elise helping with the build of the car, running the social media, and preparing to race the car herself.
Elise said: “It’s actually our first year competing with the car, we’ve been in concept class for the last few years but this year we have made huge strides in actually building a physical car that we are taking racing in Silverstone in about a week’s time.
“I’m optimistic but it is our first year so we have got a lot to learn from it and I think we are going into the competition knowing there are teams that have been doing it for 15-20 years so we will not be able to compete with them.”
Elise is part of an initiative called Girls On Track, a charity organisation helping girls into motorsport careers with events in racing, including at races, learning opportunities and projects to support the girls.
Elise said: “Historically, it’s a male dominated sport, so over the last few years they have been working massively to change that.
“I have been lucky to go to the Mercedes F1 HQ, Formula E races and Team Sport karting both as a participant and now as an ambassador helping them see a woman in engineering that they can look up to.”
Elise’s journey into motorsport began at 16 and is not stopping any time soon, as she is away almost every other weekend at races up and down the country.
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