A student who began go-karting as a hobby is one step away from realising her dream of competing in a top women's racing championship.
Michelle Hayward, 25, from Wrexham, is hoping to step up a gear by taking part in the Formula Woman competition.
The post-graduate student has beat off thousands of hopefuls to reach the last 100, and is now hoping to secure one of 16 places in the final line-up.
She said the competition would show women drivers were just as good as men.
The motorsport engineering and business student discovered her passion for racing working at a go-karting track.
She began racing when she was an under-graduate at Warwick University studying maths and physics. She is now a motorsport engineering and management student at Cranfield University, where a year and a half ago bought her own kart.
"Men and women alike are interested to watch to see how we get on, and hopefully not to see or hope we fall on our faces, but we're not going to"
She now hopes to turn her passion for go-karting into a full-time racing career, and has begun racing Caterham 7 cars, which can reach speeds of up to 130 mph on a good track.
She landed a double first in a competition at Pembrey in Carmarthenshire, held by the organisers of the Formula Woman competition.
"She's done brilliantly well this weekend," said Vicky Lloyd, of Formula Woman. "Michelle has really proved herself to be one of the best drivers."
Since the launch of the Formula Woman competition in January 2003, the organisers say thousands of women across the UK have got behind the wheel at race tracks around the country.
They say the race has created an opportunity for women to enter a largely male dominated sport.
Ms Hayward won her place in the last 100 hopefuls for this year's event by undergoing a series of driving assessments, interviews, and fitness tests.
She will now go through to the "gruelling" elimination camp, which will narrow them down to the final 16.
She said: "It was amazing just getting through the first stage.
"There were thousands of entrants, women wanting to be racing drivers, and we went to Dunsford Park, which is where [BBC 2's] Top Gear is filmed.
"As soon as you're in the car, you push it away. I have no fear, I'm not scared of getting hurt. The only thing that goes through my mind is wining the race."
She said it was now easier for women to get involved in the sport.
"I think there's a lot of support for us," she said.
"Men and women alike are interested to watch to see how we get on, and hopefully not to see or hope we fall on our faces, but we're not going to.
"We're going to show them we're just as capable, and as good drivers."
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