Charlotte Poynting is not your average teenage girl.
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For one thing, she hurtles round racetracks at 230 clicks. For another thing, she does so without fear.
The Warners Bay girl experienced her first season driving a Chevrolet Camaro in the Aussie Racing Cars championship last year.
The 18-year-old’s performance was above and beyond the wildest expectations of herself and the racing community.
She won a race, which few people thought she’d achieve – especially in her first year.
The race was at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park in New Zealand last November,
Charlotte Poynting is not your average teenage girl.
For one thing, she hurtles round racetracks at 230 clicks. For another thing, she does so without fear.
The Warners Bay girl experienced her first season driving a Chevrolet Camaro in the Aussie Racing Cars championship last year.
The 18-year-old’s performance was above and beyond the wildest expectations of herself and the racing community.
She won a race, which few people thought she’d achieve – especially in her first year.
The race was at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park in New Zealand last November, shortly after her 18th birthday. She stole the show, becoming the first female to win an Aussie Racing Cars race in the competition’s 20-year history.
“It came as a total shock,” Poynting says.
“We weren’t expecting to be in the top 10 last year (in any races).
“We were in disbelief for a couple of days.”
IFRAME
In another unexpected performance, she finished third at Queensland Raceway last July in her third ever race.
“That shocked us as well. We weren’t expecting that at all. I actually led that whole race until the last lap,” she says.
When she crossed the line to victory in New Zealand, elation set in.
“Me and dad were on the radio to each other and we were kind of screaming.
“No words were coming out, we were just screaming.”
The victory put Poynting on a massive high. But, like all sports, there are also lows.
Navigating these highs and lows and dealing with the mental side of racing is a major part of the sport, Poynting says.
While a good performance leads to euphoria, a bad race can cause a touch of depression.
“If you have a good weekend, you can be on a high for a week or two,” she says.
“But the crappy weekends – the emotions last a lot longer and you’re thinking about what you could have done better.”
Indulging in her favourite junk food helps with the lows.
She watches her diet, but says: “I like to live a little with my food. I try and be strict, but I like food too much. I still love a triple cheeseburger from McDonald’s.”
She attributes the mental side of racing to at least 50 per cent of performance. For some, the mental aspect is even greater.
Top drivers need to be conditioned physically, have a strategy and stay calm under pressure. They need to believe in themselves and quickly overcome mistakes.
“You have to be in the right head space,” Poynting says.
“I’ve got my routine before a race. I don’t like anyone talking to me, except for Dad and my engineer.
“You’ve got to get in your zone. Mentally, everyone’s different, but my mental state is a massive thing for me whilst I’m racing.”
About 15 to 20 minutes before a race, she gets in the car. Her dad straps her in. She gets ready to race.
“I visualise what I’m going to do, mainly on turn one. I think about where I’m starting. Then I close my eyes. There’s been a few times where I’ve fallen asleep. Dad says ‘if she’s yawning before a race, she’s good to go’.
“Everyone else gets pumped up with music. I just get in the car, shut my eyes and zone out.”
When she’s racing, she doesn’t become tense.
“I’m pretty relaxed,” she says.
“It’s something I had to teach myself. Even in go-karts, if you had a crash and your body was tense, you’ll hurt yourself a lot more than if your body’s relaxed.”
When she’s racing normally, without challenging a racer ahead or defending herself from behind, she drives to about 80 to 90 per cent of her limit.
When she was leading the race last year in New Zealand, she was pushing beyond her limit – at about 120 per cent.
“Stuff like that, I never realise I’ve done it until the end of the race when I sit down and we talk about what I did,” she says.
“You go into your own little world while you’re racing. Everything feels like it’s in slow motion.”
She doesn’t feel fear.
“I know how safe the cars are, even if you have a massive crash,” she says.
“There were so many big crashes last year and no one was hurt because the safety in the cars is amazing.
“You don’t really have time to think about the fear. If you have any fear, you’re not going to push as hard as you need to be quick.”
Poynting’s mindset matches the advice of motor racing coach and neuroscientist Dr Kerry Spackman.
"We didn't evolve to drive racing cars," Dr Spackman said in an article in The Guardian newspaper.
Dr Spackman has compared driving a race car to being chased by a tiger.
"It's a life-threatening, emotionally charged, very exciting, completely unnatural environment. Everything about you goes into overdrive, naturally,” he says.
“But what we're saying is that we want you to be like a chess grandmaster, playing three steps ahead, nice and relaxed, in a state of calm, focused attention.”
Then the right parts of the brain will be doing the right sort of things.
By deliberately slowing the body down, the brain gets the message that it doesn't need to be in a highly anxious state.
Taking slow, deep breaths is one way to do this. This calms down the brain and the nervous system. As a consequence, decision-making is less erratic.
In the Family
Charlotte Poynting’s racing genes come from her dad, Andrew Poynting.
He heads her racing team, but “his most important role is being my dad”.
“We’re so close. We’re best mates. Racing has brought us closer,” she says.
“He raced ski boats [when he was younger], then he had a really bad crash one day. The family was like, nope, you’re not doing it anymore.
“He went and bought a go-kart for himself. Me and my brother were always going to watch him. Then we wanted one. He bought us go-karts for our birthdays. It went from there.”
Her mum, Sally Poynting, loves cars and watching the races, too.
“The whole family is into it. And the whole extended family as well. Everyone in the family is so supportive,” Charlotte Poynting says.
“At Eastern Creek last year, which was the closest round to home, I had something like 30 families come down.”
Setting Goals
One of her ambitions is to race in the V8 Supercars Championship.
“We’ve got our sights on Europe a little bit as well. But mainly Supercars,” she says.
“In Europe it’s GT3, which is mainly endurance races. V8 Supercars is my main goal.”
Poynting had aimed to become the first female to race in the V8 Supercars.
Simona de Silvestro, 28, appears to have beaten her on that front.
De Silvestro, of Switzerland, will become the first full-time Supercars driver in Adelaide’s season opener in a fortnight. She signed a three-year deal with Nissan Motorsport.
Poynting is preparing for the new Aussie Racing Cars season, which also starts in a fortnight. But she needs a major sponsor.
“We have a few little ones on board, but we need a big one to get us through the year. You can’t race if you don’t have it.”
She focuses hard on racing, but also enjoys a typical Aussie lifestyle.
“Because we’re trying so hard to make racing take off, racing is kind of everything.”
But it’s not all work and no play.
“We live close to the beach, so I go to the beach a lot and hang out,” she says.
“I do go out with friends on weekends.”
She works at Newcastle Auto Electrics, which sponsored her last year.
“I did a week’s trial as an auto-electrician. I enjoyed it. I know it sounds bad to say, seeing as I race cars, but I didn’t like getting my hands dirty,” she says, laughing.
As for romance, she’s put that on the backburner and says she’s happily single.
“I haven’t really tried, I guess,” she says.
“I feel like I have no time for it.”
after her 18th birthday. She stole the show, becoming the first female to win an Aussie Racing Cars race in the competition’s 20-year history.
“It came as a total shock,” Poynting says.
“We weren’t expecting to be in the top 10 last year (in any races).
“We were in disbelief for a couple of days.”
In another unexpected performance, she finished third at Queensland Raceway last July in her third ever race.
“That shocked us as well. We weren’t expecting that at all. I actually led that whole race until the last lap,” she says.
When she crossed the line to victory in New Zealand, elation set in.
“Me and dad were on the radio to each other and we were kind of screaming.
“No words were coming out, we were just screaming.”
The victory put Poynting on a massive high. But, like all sports, there are also lows.
Navigating these highs and lows and dealing with the mental side of racing is a major part of the sport, Poynting says.
While a good performance leads to euphoria, a bad race can cause a touch of depression.
“If you have a good weekend, you can be on a high for a week or two,” she says.
“But the crappy weekends – the emotions last a lot longer and you’re thinking about what you could have done better.”
Indulging in her favourite junk food helps with the lows.
She watches her diet, but says: “I like to live a little with my food. I try and be strict, but I like food too much. I still love a triple cheeseburger from McDonald’s.”
She attributes the mental side of racing to at least 50 per cent of performance. For some, the mental aspect is even greater.
Top drivers need to be conditioned physically, have a strategy and stay calm under pressure. They need to believe in themselves and quickly overcome mistakes.
“You have to be in the right head space,” Poynting says.
“I’ve got my routine before a race. I don’t like anyone talking to me, except for Dad and my engineer.
“You’ve got to get in your zone. Mentally, everyone’s different, but my mental state is a massive thing for me whilst I’m racing.”
About 15 to 20 minutes before a race, she gets in the car. Her dad straps her in. She gets ready to race.
“I visualise what I’m going to do, mainly on turn one. I think about where I’m starting. Then I close my eyes. There’s been a few times where I’ve fallen asleep. Dad says ‘if she’s yawning before a race, she’s good to go’.
“Everyone else gets pumped up with music. I just get in the car, shut my eyes and zone out.”
When she’s racing, she doesn’t become tense.
“I’m pretty relaxed,” she says.
“It’s something I had to teach myself. Even in go-karts, if you had a crash and your body was tense, you’ll hurt yourself a lot more than if your body’s relaxed.”
When she’s racing normally, without challenging a racer ahead or defending herself from behind, she drives to about 80 to 90 per cent of her limit.
When she was leading the race last year in New Zealand, she was pushing beyond her limit – at about 120 per cent.
“Stuff like that, I never realise I’ve done it until the end of the race when I sit down and we talk about what I did,” she says.
“You go into your own little world while you’re racing. Everything feels like it’s in slow motion.”
She doesn’t feel fear.
“I know how safe the cars are, even if you have a massive crash,” she says.
“There were so many big crashes last year and no one was hurt because the safety in the cars is amazing.
“You don’t really have time to think about the fear. If you have any fear, you’re not going to push as hard as you need to be quick.”
Poynting’s mindset matches the advice of motor racing coach and neuroscientist Dr Kerry Spackman.
"We didn't evolve to drive racing cars," Dr Spackman said in an article in The Guardian newspaper.
Dr Spackman has compared driving a race car to being chased by a tiger.
"It's a life-threatening, emotionally charged, very exciting, completely unnatural environment. Everything about you goes into overdrive, naturally,” he says.
“But what we're saying is that we want you to be like a chess grandmaster, playing three steps ahead, nice and relaxed, in a state of calm, focused attention.”
Then the right parts of the brain will be doing the right sort of things.
By deliberately slowing the body down, the brain gets the message that it doesn't need to be in a highly anxious state.
Taking slow, deep breaths is one way to do this. This calms down the brain and the nervous system. As a consequence, decision-making is less erratic.
In the Family
Charlotte Poynting’s racing genes come from her dad, Andrew Poynting.
He heads her racing team, but “his most important role is being my dad”.
“We’re so close. We’re best mates. Racing has brought us closer,” she says.
“He raced ski boats [when he was younger], then he had a really bad crash one day. The family was like, nope, you’re not doing it anymore.
“He went and bought a go-kart for himself. Me and my brother were always going to watch him. Then we wanted one. He bought us go-karts for our birthdays. It went from there.”
Her mum, Sally Poynting, loves cars and watching the races, too.
“The whole family is into it. And the whole extended family as well. Everyone in the family is so supportive,” Charlotte Poynting says.
“At Eastern Creek last year, which was the closest round to home, I had something like 30 families come down.”
Setting Goals
One of her ambitions is to race in the V8 Supercars Championship.
“We’ve got our sights on Europe a little bit as well. But mainly Supercars,” she says.
“In Europe it’s GT3, which is mainly endurance races. V8 Supercars is my main goal.”
Poynting had aimed to become the first female to race in the V8 Supercars.
Simona de Silvestro, 28, appears to have beaten her on that front.
De Silvestro, of Switzerland, will become the first full-time Supercars driver in Adelaide’s season opener in a fortnight. She signed a three-year deal with Nissan Motorsport.
Poynting is preparing for the new Aussie Racing Cars season, which also starts in a fortnight. But she needs a major sponsor.
“We have a few little ones on board, but we need a big one to get us through the year. You can’t race if you don’t have it.”
She focuses hard on racing, but also enjoys a typical Aussie lifestyle.
“Because we’re trying so hard to make racing take off, racing is kind of everything.”
But it’s not all work and no play.
“We live close to the beach, so I go to the beach a lot and hang out,” she says.
“I do go out with friends on weekends.”
She works at Newcastle Auto Electrics, which sponsored her last year.
“I did a week’s trial as an auto-electrician. I enjoyed it. I know it sounds bad to say, seeing as I race cars, but I didn’t like getting my hands dirty,” she says, laughing.
As for romance, she’s put that on the backburner and says she’s happily single.
“I haven’t really tried, I guess,” she says.
“I feel like I have no time for it.”
