Shownotes
It’s me, Mark Stone, and in this episode of the Backseat Driver Podcast, I’m joined by Ashley Gregory, a formidable young talent competing in Mini Stocks and making serious strides as a female racing driver.
Ashley talks me through her journey into motorsport, which began at just ten years old and has been driven by persistence, hard work, and a genuine passion for racing. We discuss the realities of competing in a sport that remains male-dominated, the challenges that come with it, and the resilience required to keep pushing forward.
Looking ahead, Ashley shares her ambitions to progress through the ranks and her long-term goal of reaching the British Touring Car Championship by 2030. This episode not only highlights Ashley’s own story but also reflects the wider shift toward greater female representation in motorsport.
___
Visit our sponsors
Mentioned in this episode:
Visit the Backseat Driver Podcast Sponsors
GAZ Shocks - Home of the 116 Trophy and the 120 Coupe Cup. Find them at www.gazshocks.com | Hodder Tyres - Trusted brands, every season, every condition. Visit www.hoddertyres.co.uk | Tarox Brakes - The Art of Slowing Down, precision-built in Italy. Check out www.tarox.com | SAS Autos - Experts in high-quality servicing and classic car restoration. Discover more at sas-autos.co.uk
Transcripts
I'd like to introduce to the backseat driver a young lady racing driver.
Speaker A:Yes, I'm keeping up the podcast tradition of talking to lady racing drivers.
Speaker A:There's more of them out there than you think.
Speaker A:Although today's guest Ashley Gregory says they're oint.
Speaker A:But whatever you do.
Speaker A:Ashley Gregory Mini Stocks Champion Millie Challenge UK an all round racer welcome to the Backseat driver.
Speaker B:Thank you very much.
Speaker B:Good to be here.
Speaker A:How did you get into this?
Speaker A:Is it a family tradition or did you have you worried your parents endlessly by wanting to race cars around circuits?
Speaker B:It's a pretty crazy story to be honest with you.
Speaker B:There was no sort of background family tradition.
Speaker B:It was just something that I wanted to do when I was 10.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Watching cars go around and then, yeah, we, we bought a calf.
Speaker B:Well, dad bought a car for my 10th birthday and 10 years later he's now spending all of his money on my racing.
Speaker A:What did you start with?
Speaker B:It was a junior mini stocks which is a 998cc mini built on a space frame.
Speaker B:So yeah, pretty cool car.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And is that circuit or are they on Mini Stocks?
Speaker A:Are they on a different thing?
Speaker A:Because Mini Stocks is at times, I've always known it to be a little bit, a lot of contact.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So it's short ovals, nudge and spin.
Speaker B:So obviously there is plenty of contact in that.
Speaker B:Yeah, there's no getting away from it.
Speaker A:What was your reaction to that?
Speaker A:I mean, did you go into it thinking it was not as brutal as it might be?
Speaker B:No, no, I knew that there was contact in it and you know, my third race I put the car on its roof barrel, rolled down the track three times and I got out the car and wanted to go straight away.
Speaker B:You know, I stacked it in the wall probably three, four times.
Speaker B:It probably did five, six front ends.
Speaker B:So yeah, I knew it was going to be brutal and I think, I think, yeah, it still is to this day.
Speaker A:What was your dad's reaction to this?
Speaker A:Because he bought you a nice car and all of a sudden he's spending his entire life and money rebuilding it for you.
Speaker B:Well, he was the one who bought the car and then encouraged me to get back in it once I'd rolled it.
Speaker B:So that's his fault.
Speaker A:So from there, I mean, what was the next step?
Speaker B:Yeah, so I think it's quite, quite a cool story for us.
Speaker B:We, my dad actually had a truck driver that raced in what was the championship called?
Speaker B:It was some single seater series that he did Clubman's, it was actually.
Speaker B:And he knew the Championship coordinator of the Saxos Junior Saloon Car Championship.
Speaker B:And he just suggested that we should go and do the scholarship to take the next step, which we did.
Speaker B:I'd never had any experience of changing gears or, or driving around a circuit.
Speaker B:I didn't even know where it was going.
Speaker B:Literally just drive around in a second.
Speaker B:So it was.
Speaker B:I was thrown quite in the deep end.
Speaker B:We came running up.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Which is fantastic.
Speaker B:So my dad bought me a car and then we went and did the first round.
Speaker B:We did.
Speaker B:She did one test and yeah, Alan Park.
Speaker B:Yeah, was the first round.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:So in many ways you did very well.
Speaker A:That's like an educa.
Speaker A:In many ways an educational thing, isn't it?
Speaker A:Because I mean you've gone from you only use second gear on short ovals to on a circuit which you suddenly got to get in your head.
Speaker A:Driving on a circuit there's.
Speaker A:Don't take this the wrong way all of a sudden.
Speaker A:You'll have to learn your lines and everything else.
Speaker B:Yeah, there's so much to think about.
Speaker B:Like in an oval you're just in second gear and you're just turning right and that's it.
Speaker B:You've got two corners, 10 laps and the race is over within three minutes.
Speaker B:All of a sudden you go into a circuit, you've got, you've got 10 corners plus to learn.
Speaker B:You've got to go up and down a gearbox, you got to get the right lines.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:So there's just so much to consider it like you know, even just flags, you know, circuits, you've got blue, black, the meatball flag, all them kind of flags.
Speaker A:Whereas on a yellows, reds, everything else.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Whereas in oval is literally just basic green, yellow, red and that's it.
Speaker A:Cuz the one you don't want to see is black, isn't it?
Speaker A:Come off.
Speaker B:I might have seen that a few times.
Speaker A:So while you're doing all this, I conclude you're learning and everything else.
Speaker A:I mean at what point did.
Speaker A:Do you start looking towards your next formula?
Speaker A:For want of a better description?
Speaker B:I think we've, to be honest, we've been looking all year at what we can possibly go and do for next season.
Speaker B: lly see me in touring cars by: Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So yeah, whatever the steps we take to get there, that's the ultimate goal.
Speaker B:So I think there's a couple of championships that could possibly assist with that.
Speaker B:We haven't quite decided where we want to go.
Speaker B:But we've been looking at it all year and yeah, we're going to make a decision in the next sort of couple of weeks.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Right, so when you started in the Minis, what attracted you to the Minis?
Speaker B:To be honest with you, I ended up in the Minis because we originally looked at doing Ginetta.
Speaker B:I had an interest in doing rear wheel drive, still do to this day.
Speaker A:And the Ginettas, when I used to, when they were part of the BTCC package, I used to love watching them because they were very competitive, very spectacular and you could see, I mean, they were driven a lot of the time by young racing drivers and you could spot the ones that had a future.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:And that, that was what attracted me to the championship because it was on the touring car package and that was, that was where I aspired to be.
Speaker B:But unfortunately the Janettas then left the touring car package and went on to the British GT package, which wasn't quite where I wanted to race.
Speaker B:So we ended up in Mini Challenge then, which, which had replaced the Janettas.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it was sort of ended up there by mistake, but that was the package that I wanted to race on.
Speaker A:So, I mean, the beauty of the BTCC package is you, you've got great exposure.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:I mean a lot of the, a lot of the races in a series that support the British touring cars still get full television coverage.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:The drivers that do well, first, second and third are interviewed and they get the person themselves get good exposure on tv, which from the driver's point of view is excellent.
Speaker B:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker B:It's fantastic that, you know, they're giving these young, young drivers opportunities to do things like that.
Speaker B:And, you know, we've had probably four or five interviews this year with Louise Goodwin.
Speaker B:You know, she's interviewing all the top touring car drivers.
Speaker B:So it's just fantastic to be on their radar.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And now they can see the drivers coming through.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Now one thing you were saying is, I mean, we were discussing before we went on air, it's the sheer expense of it all.
Speaker A:I mean, to a degree.
Speaker A:How much maintenance do these cars that you race, these Minis require?
Speaker A:I mean, the Mini itself is, it'll be, it'll be a Mini Cooper.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So It's Mini Cooper 1.6, naturally aspirated manual gearbox.
Speaker B:So they are pretty much still a standard road car.
Speaker B:But to, to stay at the sharp end for the full season, the amount of prep that's got to go into the car to make sure it's absolutely Perfect.
Speaker B:You know, from the Geo to making sure everything is tight, to make sure that the setup's on for the, for me and how I want the car set up.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's just, I can't even tell you how many hours we spend in the garage.
Speaker B:It's mad.
Speaker A:And one thing is interesting, you say it's a road car, there is no work supported, there's no factory support on these cars, is there?
Speaker A:So I mean, where do you begin with the car?
Speaker A:Do you start with a rolled car and convert it?
Speaker A:I conclude.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly, that's the one.
Speaker B:So the car that I'm in this year is actually when we built ourselves.
Speaker B:So you're literally just start with the road car, strip it out, make it all nice, put a cage in it.
Speaker B:Obviously all the cars are identical.
Speaker B:So everyone's got the same cage.
Speaker B:Everyone's basically got identical.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Inside.
Speaker B:So yeah, we just built the car from scratch and then tried to make it, make it go in the pointy end by doing a bit of testing.
Speaker A:So all the cars are identical.
Speaker A:I conclude that the engines, I mean the engines will be inspected, won't be, to make sure you haven't done anything to them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So the championship seal them.
Speaker B:Obviously if anything goes wrong with the engine or the gearbox, obviously you've got to just put a technical request in to remove that or change that.
Speaker B:Yeah, but yeah, the, the championship are fantastic in the, in the respect that they check everything and they check something different every time, which is fantastic.
Speaker B:You know, we want, everyone, every driver wants a championship.
Speaker B:That's fair.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And ultimately the best driver wins then.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I know there are certain single mate championships whereby if you, if one driver in one car starts doing well, it gets pulled in at the end of the race and more or less stripped down to discover why.
Speaker A:It's a case of well, he's not a bad driver or she's not a bad driver, but compared these cars aren't that fast.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think you always know, obviously there's bit.
Speaker B:There's always been situations in the past that we've been aware of, but yeah, it's, it's always blatant if there's something wrong, you can tell from, from the offset, you know, you know there's no.
Speaker A:It'S lapping you after three laps.
Speaker B:I mean there's no driver or car in any single make series that should be, should be up the road by 10, 15 seconds, let alone napping you.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So yeah, there's no getting away from it.
Speaker B:You're going to Be caught.
Speaker A:I mean, suspension.
Speaker A:I mean, what suspension do you run on?
Speaker A:Is it as per the road car or else for a racing car, you will need a stiffer setup, won't you?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So it's a.
Speaker B:Again, this is a championship control part.
Speaker B:So we run on AST control dampers.
Speaker B:So everyone's got the same.
Speaker B:And it's just down to you then how you want to.
Speaker B:The car.
Speaker A:You can adjust them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Fully adjustable.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's up to you if you.
Speaker B:How you want to say, you know, you can adjust rate, you can adjust soft, hard, whatever you want it to be.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And the tires, you were saying that they're like a control tire, aren't they?
Speaker A:You actually said the.
Speaker A:The tires are actually far better than the car is.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that we run on Goodyear slicks and wets, which is.
Speaker B:Is a fantastic, fantastic tire.
Speaker B:You know, they work really well, but I do think the cars are slightly overtied for what they are.
Speaker B:Yeah, but, yeah, that Mini Cooper racing on slicks and wet is just pretty crazy.
Speaker A:How many races do you get out of it?
Speaker A:I mean, I know it's how long is a piece of string, but on average, how.
Speaker A:How often do you have to change tyres or can you get a couple of meters out of a set of slicks?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:Well, you've only got 28 tyres for the year, maximum races.
Speaker A:Are there a year 20?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:21.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:All right, so it's a lot of races.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So typically you're probably going to put two new tyres on per qualifying and then it's up to you how you want to use the rest of those tyres.
Speaker B:Some drivers choose to use the maximum allocation and put them on in race one for us, we try and spread them out over the weekend.
Speaker B:So we've got our best tyres at the end of the weekend for the TV race.
Speaker B:So it's entirely up to you what you want to do with the tyres.
Speaker B:And it's entirely up to you how many tyres you put on it, as long as you don't exceed that maximum of 28.
Speaker A:So the tires themselves, like the slicks, I mean, I conclude it's not like soft, medium, hard.
Speaker A:They'll be of a.
Speaker A:Of a compound.
Speaker A:What do they tend to be?
Speaker B:Yeah, so I think it's just a medium compound tire, which.
Speaker B:Which makes sense, really, because they do.
Speaker A:And wets, of course, as we all know, wets don't last.
Speaker A:If you're in a wet race and it suddenly turns, stops raining, I mean, that's when you.
Speaker A:They do Wear out.
Speaker A:You look for puddles to drive through and if you've only certain number a year per season, you'll be looking to come in and change tires.
Speaker A:Do you have time in a race to change change tires?
Speaker B:Typically no.
Speaker B:But there has been occasions where drivers have come in and it's paid off.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:If you're conclude there are still a four stood tire.
Speaker A:Four stood wheel.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Four studs.
Speaker B:So it's, it is probably like a minute to change a tire which when you with the races are only 15 minutes to 25 minutes depending on what event it is.
Speaker B:So a lot.
Speaker B:It's a big, big amount of time.
Speaker B:You know you're probably going to drop a lap.
Speaker B:But if there's a safety car or something like that and the track condition changes, then it could well and truly play into your hands.
Speaker B:So a lot of times it's just that lady look.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Safety cars these days can play quite an important role if you time it right 100%.
Speaker B:And I think it's also difficult for us like the touring cars and British GT boys, they've all got radios both ways so they can talk and the team can communicate to them.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Whereas in for us we've got nothing apart from the, the clerks updating us if there's any sort of yellow flags anywhere.
Speaker B:So it's, it's quite difficult to, to know if there's going to be something.
Speaker A:I mean that was on pit boards.
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean we've got pit boards but it still doesn't help if you know if there's an incident out the back, you don't know to come straight in.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Before the safety car kind of thing.
Speaker B:So it does make it quite difficult.
Speaker A:So is there anything from the pit to your car while you're racing?
Speaker B:No, literally just a pit board.
Speaker B:And that's the only communication that I've got with the team throughout the race.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I mean how long is a race on average?
Speaker B:So it depends what event it's at.
Speaker B:A standard bark meeting will be 15 minutes on Tokyo we've got 20 to 25 minute races.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So yeah, if.
Speaker B:And also if there's a safety car, they've got the option to extend the race.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So you still get up to three.
Speaker A:Is it three laps?
Speaker B:Yeah, an extra three laps maximum that you can get.
Speaker A:So because you'll be then balancing fuel, won't you?
Speaker A:I mean even if you're running at safety car speed, which is slower than race speed, you're still burning petrol and I conclude your team will have Worked out it's such a circuit X number of laps and.
Speaker A:Or time.
Speaker A:And given the fact she's got a leaden right foot, this is how much fuel we will need to put in.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So in testing, we work out how much fuel it uses per lap and then we test that again in FP2 just to make sure that there was no sort of discrepancies, make sure we're 100% right.
Speaker B:And then that gives us the amount that we need to put in.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:As a minimum.
Speaker B:And then obviously we're gonna.
Speaker B:We're gonna go off from that because we don't want to run on the limit.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, conclude it's like for what you might call 5 gallons and a gallon to be outside.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I'm not saying that's the quantities, but that type of thing.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Just so you're on the safe side, you know, I'd rather come in and be five kilos overweight than come in and be one kilo underweight.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because I'm going to be disqualified.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'd rather run heavy.
Speaker A:Now, the team itself, I mean, who are the team?
Speaker B:So my team currently is just a private team which consists of my dad and I.
Speaker B:We maintain the car and do everything ourselves.
Speaker B:My brother, he's an apprentice mechanic, so he's been helping out this year.
Speaker B:And then we've got Chris, also known as Chunky, so he's my tire manager.
Speaker B:Does everything related to tyres and make sure we've got.
Speaker B:Everything's registered, make sure we've got the correct slicks on and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then my mum, she manages the sponsors, so.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So we have it.
Speaker B:It's still the team called, so the team that.
Speaker B:Well, it's my team, which is agra's team.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then we run under Manpower Motorsport for their owning.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And I mean, you've done very well with sponsors.
Speaker A:I mean, I've seen pictures of your car and I mean, a lot of people struggle for sponsors.
Speaker A:Somebody like yourself, who's not done at all badly if it's done right.
Speaker A:You attract sponsors by being good.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, it.
Speaker B:It appears to look like that, but it's not as easy as it looks, I can assure you.
Speaker B:You know, we've been doing well and we've.
Speaker B:We've got better and better each year.
Speaker B:It's not made any easier to get a sponsorship if I'm.
Speaker B:If I'm perfectly honest.
Speaker A:I mean, who have you got?
Speaker A:Rhyme them off.
Speaker B:So this year.
Speaker B:Well, in the whole Mini challenge we've had this year we've had Stafford Van and Car hire, Pecometer Software Ltd. McGowan Transcriptions, Clarius Glass Assist, NeoTools, HMS Haulage, Wilcox Health and Nuthole Solicitors, the Tool Club, Fortvale Engineering, JB Data Engineering, Gymsafe, Grid Shark.
Speaker A:It's not about list, is it?
Speaker B:No, I think and you know we've been approached by, by companies this year that have wanted to get involved.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So it's fantastic that they want to get involved and they see that, that value.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean the one thing with sponsorship is people put money in.
Speaker A:I mean like I said, people approach me about sponsorship, how do I gone about getting it, go out there and do well and I mean you did well from like the word go.
Speaker A:So you're likely to attract more sponsors.
Speaker A:Well, the one thing with sponsors is you will have your work to do for them, won't you?
Speaker A:I mean a lot of sponsors, when I did it, they liked the car to appear at certain things and they certainly liked the driver to appear at certain things.
Speaker A:So when you're not in the car at a circuit, you will still have your work to do for the sponsors.
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean it's one thing getting the sponsor, but then keeping them happy and making sure that they get the return on investment and the brand awareness is ultimately the biggest part of the deal.
Speaker B:So I think a couple of occasions we've done like photo shoots, I've been and done lots of videos with sponsors sort of promoting their products.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, inviting them to networking events.
Speaker B:We've done corporate days, passenger laps.
Speaker B:So it's all about sort of getting sponsors together, getting them networking and ultimately hoping that they see a return on investment.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean passenger lapse, how do they react?
Speaker A:I mean I used to do occasional laps for my sponsors and a lot of them love the glamorous world of motorsport until they're lashed in the passenger seat and it's a whole new take on life.
Speaker B:I mean I only made two people sick so I don't think that's too bad.
Speaker A:They weren't wearing a full face worthy.
Speaker B:Well, they were sick when they got out the car so they're not in.
Speaker A:Here as you said.
Speaker B:Well, I didn't know about it.
Speaker B:I was still laughing around enjoying life.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean you say your mother looks after that.
Speaker A:I mean looking after sponsors is full time job is.
Speaker B:Yeah, literally it's, it's so hard.
Speaker B:I mean I work full time, I'm doing a uni degree and then I'm also trying manage my own race team.
Speaker A:What do you do at uni, if you don't mind me asking someone?
Speaker B:A Chartered Manager degree.
Speaker B:Apprenticeship with the aspiration of managing a race team or an engineering firm or something like that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker A:If it ain't got wheels, you're not.
Speaker B:Interested in it, pretty much.
Speaker B:Or an engine.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:And I conclude, like, at university, you'll be.
Speaker A:You'll be looked upon as, shall we say, a little unusual because you're doing what others might want to do.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think there's a few ways you can look at it.
Speaker B:I think, yes, we're doing something different, but it's also given us plenty of opportunities.
Speaker B:You know, we go to, like, networking events and, and like, the amount of times I've been offered to go on panels and things like that, it's just fantastic.
Speaker B:You know, a young degree student who's presenting what they do in work versus what, what a weekend might look like.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's a completely different way of looking at life.
Speaker B:You know, a normal person goes to work, goes home, chills out.
Speaker B:I'm going to work, I come home, I go to the gym, fill out a full report on how I've done at the gym and then probably go and do 20, 30 sponsorship emails.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then think about going to bed.
Speaker A:And then you're the simulator as well.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:And it just doesn't stop.
Speaker B:Like there's always something to do.
Speaker B:Yeah, there's.
Speaker B:There's never a point where I can just say, I'm just going to chill out.
Speaker B:Like there's, there's just permanently something to do.
Speaker A:I mean, I used to know one, one lady racing driver and she had a sim and she said she's put the old photograph out of it on the sim, in the bedroom wearing her pajamas.
Speaker A:It was like out of bed, straight on this damn thing.
Speaker B:I mean, I don't think I would go that far, but yeah, definitely, definitely do end up on the sim, I think.
Speaker B:You know, recently I did a series that was actually broadcast from America.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I was on the sim.
Speaker B:You can.
Speaker B:Well, the time difference is crazy, isn't it?
Speaker B:So I was doing races at 12am, 1am so, yeah, the sim is, is great.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's a great bit of fun.
Speaker A:I mean, that's the one thing you were saying that you did.
Speaker A:Technically you won one sim championship, but you didn't, because it wasn't home to professional drivers.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that was, that was on me, that one.
Speaker B:I Didn't actually read the criteria, but I mean, it was fantastic to get the opportunity, you know, to race against all these Americans and professional race drivers across Europe.
Speaker B:Well, not professionals, but professional esports drivers.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:They're a whole different breed.
Speaker B:And you know what?
Speaker B:The talent that I saw on it was fantastic.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was no.
Speaker B:Easy, easy job.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And how do you find simulators?
Speaker A:Because, I mean, I know drivers who now use them a lot because it cuts down on the cost of testing.
Speaker A:Testing is.
Speaker A:Testing is nearly as much, if not at times more expensive than actually racing.
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean, you can throw a lot of money at testing.
Speaker B:It's sort of like how long is a string?
Speaker B:You can keep going and going and going.
Speaker B:You can go out every day if you really wanted to.
Speaker B:Yeah, but a lot of people don't have that budget.
Speaker B:Some people do.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But the simulator, for me, I think there's a lot of development work that needs to be done to make it a direct comparison for me, because I find myself adapting to racing a simulator which is no comparison to actually in the car.
Speaker B:So if anything, it's kind of a back step.
Speaker A:Is it a Mini that you technically drive on the simulator?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So a Mini or a Clio?
Speaker B:They're both sort of much for muchness.
Speaker B:I think the Clio's a little bit more set up be to be like the Mini.
Speaker B:But I think the main thing that I use the sim for is literally just to learn circuits.
Speaker B:So when I've gone out to.
Speaker B:To Europe to do some testing.
Speaker B:Yeah, I've just hammered the sim, making sure that I know where I'm going and then once I get there, it's kind of just a case of learning the car rather than sort of the whole.
Speaker A:Because I've been told if you learn a circuit on a simulator, I've only ever had two or three goes at them and at times they don't make sense to me because it doesn't feel like the car, it doesn't react.
Speaker B:Yeah, no, they're never.
Speaker B:They're never going to feel like a car, you know that you can never take away the fact that the car is.
Speaker B:You've got the noise, you've got the whole vibration, you move it, it's crazy.
Speaker A:Vibrations and everything else, but it.
Speaker B:It's just not the same, is it?
Speaker A:No, no.
Speaker A:I mean, the one last one I used on the wraparound screen, so theoretically you, whichever way you looked, you were looking at circuit.
Speaker A:I must confess, the two circuits I drove, Alton park and Monza, they did look exactly like Alton park and Monza.
Speaker A:So you think to yourself, ah, yes, I know where I am now.
Speaker A:And away you go.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think the back end developers have obviously done a fantastic job to, to get all the circuits on there.
Speaker B:There's so much choice.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And every circuit layout, every car you can possibly think of is probably on some platform.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Not on all, you know, even down to the oval stuff that I absolutely love that as much as I don't do it full time anymore.
Speaker B:I can sit on the, on the sim at night and I can drive around all these American speedways drifting around and it's just great fun.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's just fantastic.
Speaker A:Because the other thing is they can't, they can't put weathering, can they?
Speaker B:At the moment they can actually.
Speaker A:Yeah, because I did it.
Speaker A:They said, I said, can you put rain in or anything?
Speaker B:No, no, no, you can, you can set it up to have, you can even change air temperature, track temperature.
Speaker B:You can have anything.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:So, yeah, so it's fantastic in the, in the respect that you can, you can learn a wet line, you can learn a dry line.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But that's probably as far as it goes for me, rather than learning how to drive a car.
Speaker A:And are you always on your own on a sim or else can they put other cars out there with you that the computer will drive?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Again, you can set it up however you like.
Speaker B:I think I'm currently in a fortunate position where I can go in the sim with a couple of professional racing drivers and esports drivers, so we can just test test together and we're all at a similar level.
Speaker B:You know, you can set it up so that AI drives for you.
Speaker B:So you've got 20 other cars driving around at whatever difficulty level you want.
Speaker B:Or you can just set it on like time attack.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And just hammer lapse.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And if it's artificial intelligence, do you tend to find it repeats itself?
Speaker B:No, it's actually crazy.
Speaker B:Like the first time that I actually set it up so that it was driving against me, like they just battered me.
Speaker B:I just thought that it would be easy and these AI things were just so fast and.
Speaker B:Yeah, they just.
Speaker B:It's crazy.
Speaker A:Now the other thing we were talking about is when you're behind the wheel of a racing car on a grid, you appear to do what I used to do.
Speaker A:You sit there nice and peaceful, as peaceful as you can get.
Speaker A:And you look in front and you think, well, I know him and I know what he's going to do in this first corner.
Speaker A:And you look to your left.
Speaker A:And you think, well, the first thing that's going to happen, he's going to drive it right left hand side of me.
Speaker A:I mean, what's your routine and train of thought when you're on a grid?
Speaker A:Because you'll know all your fellow drivers and you'll know the strength, weaknesses and the ones you need to avoid at all costs.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think again, this year is another fortunate position.
Speaker B:We've been at the front end of the grid and you know, the top five boys in that championship are just fantastic.
Speaker B:The, the level of racing and skill that they've got.
Speaker B:You can go wheel to wheel and you know they're not going to take you off the track.
Speaker A:Well, that's the one big thing, knowing.
Speaker A:Yes, you can more or less swap paint a little bit.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:And you know you're gonna get cluttered off.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Whereas.
Speaker B:And if you sort of start midfield, which we proved at the last round, you kind of just, you just know that something's gonna happen.
Speaker B:But yeah, I think the process for me is when I get on the grid is just sort of making sure that I'm in my grid box, lining myself up, making sure that I'm not going to go out of the grid box.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, taking a look around, making sure there's just seeing who's generally around me.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Sort of anticipating what might happen, where might I want to go, what.
Speaker B:What's my plan?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Which is normally full steam ahead, lap one, so.
Speaker B:But no, you just sort of look around and you get a feeling for what people are going to do, what the kind of drivers are like, you know, because there's different drivers.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Some drivers go out there and they just let it all unfold on that one and sit back.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Some drivers, probably more like myself, goes all out that one and tries to get the moves done and go and drive away.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, it's different takes on it now you're.
Speaker A:You won't have a.
Speaker A:Do you have a dashboard as such or is it all digital readout in the car?
Speaker B:So it's original dashboard in the Minis still, apart from the fact that we've got the data loggers so we can still see, we can see the data from, from the car, but there's nothing sort of specific because it's not plugged in like through the OBD socket.
Speaker B:So all you've got is basically delta.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And the time the engine's been running.
Speaker A:Because they're quite intense races.
Speaker A:I mean, as I say though, it's not the Se the miniseries you race in.
Speaker A:When I watch bt, see where the John Cooper works, guys, the four abreast.
Speaker A:Do you ever get chance to glance down and see what your gauges are telling you?
Speaker A:Because that was the one thing I was always taught on the straight.
Speaker A:Keep your foot in, see what's behind you, see what's in front, but do cast an eye over the gauges to make sure your oil pressure's still there, etc.
Speaker A:Etc.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think because I've got the mechanical knowledge and the.
Speaker B:And the qualification in engineering, I've got a good understanding.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Of.
Speaker B:Of what a car should feel like.
Speaker B:And I know that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And what it should sound like and if there's any warning lights that come up, I sort of know what all the warning lights are.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, a prime example was the last round at Donington park on lap 11.
Speaker B:The.
Speaker B:The temperature was running fine the whole race and then the last lap it just went up to the top.
Speaker B:I knew instantly that I'd rather save my engine than carry on, whereas.
Speaker B:And I think a lot of other drivers may have probably just carried on going.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I think unless something doesn't feel quite right, I think I do sort of glance every now and then just to make sure.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But it's always sort of full focus where I'm going, who's around me, and every lap I just envision as a qualifying lap.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, I know it can be something.
Speaker A:I was told once by not saying this, to be both from a friend of mine who won one 24 hour.
Speaker A:He said with the last 10, 15 minutes, he said you suddenly start hearing rattles that you hadn't heard before.
Speaker A:He said, you just think I'm gonna conk at finish line.
Speaker A:I mean, do you ever get that as you're getting towards the end of a race and you're doing well, is it.
Speaker A:Should that be making that noise?
Speaker B:To be honest with you, I haven't actually experienced anything like that.
Speaker B:Now, obviously I've experienced.
Speaker B:Obviously I've experienced different noises.
Speaker B:But like I say, with the, the knowledge that I've got and with me prepping the car myself a lot of the time anyway, I sort of know.
Speaker B:Know what's.
Speaker B:What should be right.
Speaker B:And a lot of the times, yeah, you do get little bits of part failure sometimes.
Speaker B:You know, the Geo gets knocked or, or something.
Speaker B:Something's a little bit loose, you can feel it, but you know that it's going to be okay.
Speaker A:Yeah, it'll get.
Speaker A:It's only three laps to do it'll.
Speaker A:Do it.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:And I don't, I don't think that I've ever been in a position where I've thought, oh, is this, is this going to make it to the finish line?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So which, you know, kudos to the team for that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, you were saying you're a mechanical engineer.
Speaker A:I mean, do you get the Spanish out yourself?
Speaker B:Yes, I do actually.
Speaker B:I used.
Speaker B:So I used to work for a race team straight after I finished school.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I did three years on the Spanners working road cars.
Speaker B:HGV race cars.
Speaker B:Did Nurburgring 24 hours.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:All the NLS rounds doing mechanics for girls only team.
Speaker B:So it's fantastic opportunity.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And like I say, it just gives you that mechanical knowledge.
Speaker B:I know what I'm looking for.
Speaker B:I know what I want out of the car.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And yes, suppose you might be looked upon as strange.
Speaker A:You pull your racing car into your pit lane garage, you get out and get your snap ons out.
Speaker B:I know.
Speaker B:I mean, and there's also plenty of pictures where I've literally got out of a car at an oval, for example, helmet on, everything's still on.
Speaker B:I just dived under the car, altered the shockers and strapped back in and gone again.
Speaker B:It's pretty crazy, isn't it?
Speaker B:But I think, I think the sport needs that.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:I mean, it's like I said, they say you said there's not as many women racing drivers as you think there are.
Speaker A:I think there's more than you think there are, but I think it's one of.
Speaker A:It's motor racing.
Speaker A:One is one of the great levelers in my opinion.
Speaker A:Doesn't matter what you are, if you're behind a wheel in a decent car and you can drive, you'll win.
Speaker B:Ultimately, you're all in equal machinery and I've said this many times before, there shouldn't be any differences.
Speaker B:You've got equal machinery.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:I have to go to the gym a little bit more.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So be it.
Speaker A:I mean, I've been told that by somebody.
Speaker A:I was told this by a lady racing driver.
Speaker A:But one of the reasons there's not a.
Speaker A:There's not many women in F1 is it's down to a strength thing.
Speaker A:Whether it is or not.
Speaker A:I don't know what, what's your opinion on why there are women in F1?
Speaker B:I think there's multiple factors on why.
Speaker B:I think a lot of it's to do with myself.
Speaker B:The commercial side of it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because to my mind, a woman driving F1.
Speaker A:A good F1 driver, a good woman F1 driver should do well and attract more attention to the sport.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:100, I think, I think it would.
Speaker B:And I think they have given girls opportunities, you know, the likes of Jess Hawkins.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Did the test.
Speaker B:It's just a shame we've not actually had.
Speaker B:Had a girl on the grid recently, but I think the sheer strength that you need just to drive is.
Speaker B:Is crazy.
Speaker B:Like, for me in juniors, I never really thought strength was a problem.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so we started looking at, like, data, and we realized that I was dropping off the cliff at like, 10 minutes into our race.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Started going to the gym after this year.
Speaker B:Now I've got a.
Speaker B:A human performance coach with me.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:So he's been really, really helping me to sort of make sure that I'm maximizing everything that, That I can.
Speaker B:Out of the session.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And, you know, I can now do 25 minutes comfortably and I can get out of the car and I could go again.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Whereas in, you know, probably two, three years ago, I couldn't say that because it was always the first 10 minutes.
Speaker B:I would go like mad and then I would just fall off.
Speaker B:Fall off a cliff.
Speaker B:And you don't feel it.
Speaker B:But it's crazy, the difference, you know, it's them.
Speaker B:Them changes.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:That you don't see that make the biggest difference.
Speaker A:I mean, I was used to a Maya Schumacher.
Speaker A:When he'd win a race, he'd drive a staggering race, beat them all by 20 seconds, get out the car, run up onto the podium, leap up and down.
Speaker A:I used to think, how the hell does this guy do it?
Speaker A:Because when I.
Speaker A:When I used to do it, not F1 or anything like that, you get out the car and you, like, crawl into the garage and sit down and you think, how does this man do this?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think as long as you've got a good training program in place.
Speaker B:Yeah, you can always do well and you can always get out of a car and go again, I think.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, with the talent that's coming through now, you have to be at peak performance.
Speaker B:There's no way you can do it without being.
Speaker B:Being there.
Speaker A:So it's exercise.
Speaker A:I conclude there'll be diet and everything else, won't it?
Speaker B:Yeah, it's sort of a whole, whole round aspect thing.
Speaker B:So you got, obviously your physical workouts in the gym, then you've got your mental side of it, you know, just like seeing a psychologist.
Speaker B:Training the brain.
Speaker B:Yeah, just training the brain to.
Speaker B:To see things differently.
Speaker B:You know, putting a positive spin on things.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Which something is something that I basically.
Speaker A:Teach you not to get out the car and throttle the guy who's just knocked you off.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean I've never sort of been in that, in that position where you know, I'm, I'm quite cool headed.
Speaker B:I think it's happened to me that many times.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's one of them.
Speaker B:I know it will get sorted out.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But yeah, no, it's just making sure that you like you've got the full round thing.
Speaker B:The, the diet side of it again.
Speaker B:That's something I've always struggled with.
Speaker B:Always being someone who, who doesn't eat before a race.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then up until sort of, in fact it was only Silverstone this year, which was three weeks ago.
Speaker B:Bear in mind, I've raced for 10 years.
Speaker B:Was the first time that I had breakfast before a race.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Which was crazy.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But it, you know, the performance was there and so yeah, I think you need the full round.
Speaker A:Do you find there's any resentment from your male counterparts, especially when you meet them?
Speaker B:There always is, I think.
Speaker B:But I think I'm also again I'm in that position where a lot of the, the lads know that I've done it for, done that championship for three years.
Speaker B:So I should be quick.
Speaker A:I mean you've been a racing driver for a long time, haven't you?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:For someone so young, you're, you're quite well seasoned now.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, yeah.
Speaker B:Ten years into it and obviously I've got into it.
Speaker B:I've been into a lot of different cars and I've done a lot of coaching.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I think people, people know that I'm not, I'm not just there to make up the numbers.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I'm there to win and to be honest with you, I want to win more than anyone else on that track.
Speaker A:The other thing is, where do you see yourself at the end of this race?
Speaker A:In front of you.
Speaker A:I mean, where do you intend going with all this?
Speaker A:Because I mean Minis, all the, all the formula, all the series you've done are in many ways stepping stones onto bigger and better things.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So the, the long term goal is to make it to British touring cars.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Obviously you need a massive budget to go and do that, which is why we're having to take the stepping stones like we are.
Speaker B: to hopefully get me there by: Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So hopefully next year we'll make the jump up again, go and do JCW and yeah.
Speaker B:See, see how we end up.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:How we end up faring in there.
Speaker A:I mean there's the old ladies team, the iron Dames, who besides having a very quite successful rally team, race Le Mans.
Speaker A:Would that be anything on your radar to actually race in what I consider to be the world's greatest race sports cars In Le Mans?
Speaker A:24?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think the more immediate plan for me is to make it onto the touring car grid and get myself a good drive and get myself known.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think the ultimate goal would be to win the British Touring Car Championship.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I'll be.
Speaker B:Be one of the one.
Speaker B:Well, not first, there is, there has been one in the past, but sort of become a very, very strong and well known touring car driver.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then once I've got myself into a position where, you know, I'm happy with what I've achieved.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Then I'll look to take on an international GT career.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then like a lot of drivers, I conclude become a manager or a team owner.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean that's possibly why I'm doing a chartered manager degree.
Speaker B:Apprenticeship.
Speaker B:You know, the managerial side, I love it and I think it's given me a whole all round perspective on, you know, what you need to be a manager.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Which is, I mean, racing or managing a racing train is probably a lot more difficult than managing a little factory.
Speaker B:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker B:There's so many elements to it.
Speaker B:But yeah, everyone likes a good challenge.
Speaker B:I absolutely love a good challenge.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Bring it on.
Speaker B:So, yeah.
Speaker A:Ashley Gregory, I'd like to wish you all the best in your racing career.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's an incredible sport to be involved with.
Speaker A:It's hard work to get to the top, but it's one of them things, when you do get to the top, you can feel definitely smug about it all.
Speaker A:I definitely will, knowing full well you're better than everybody else.
Speaker A:But I think, Gregory, thanks so much for joining me on the backseat driver.
Speaker A:It's been a pleasure.
Speaker B:No worries.
Speaker B:I'm thankful to you.
