Katrina Ee makes car racing debut in Ginetta Junior Championship

"I’m glad that I improved in several areas and I’ll make sure to keep progressing and work towards my strengths and weaknesses" - Katrina Ee made her car racing debut at Donington Park, showing steady progress across the Ginetta Junior Championship season opener, consistently battling for the top-20 throughout the three races.

Photo credits: CBR Media

Katrina Ee made her car racing debut with an encouraging weekend at Donington Park, where she secured a personal best of P21 in the 2025 season opener of the highly competitive Ginetta Junior Championship, contending for the top-20 in all three contests.

The 14-year-old, who is part of the More Than Equal Driver Development programme, is stepping up from karting to race cars this year and will use the season to develop her racecraft in one of the UK’s premier junior championships—one that has traditionally launched the careers of top talents in both single-seaters and sportscars.

Ee has already made headlines in Asian karting with a steady progression, competing internationally over the last year. Now ready to tackle another major challenge, the young driver embarks on a steep learning curve as she lays the foundation for her future in motorsport.

Following test sessions in the Ginetta G40s—a developmental car designed for drivers aged 14 to 17—Katrina entered the first race weekend of her career at the iconic Donington Park circuit. Racing with Tim Gray Motorsport, her focus was on finding rhythm, gaining experience, and learning as much as possible.

Already on Thursday, Ee showed clear development through the practice sessions. She set a 1:59.455 in session 2, then significantly improved in session 3 with a 1:58.037, finding over a second and closing the gap to the field.

Further track time on Friday helped her prepare for her first-ever qualifying session on Saturday morning. After a red flag interruption, Ee clocked a 1:58.7 to secure P25 on the grid in her car racing debut.

Later that afternoon, Katrina lined up for her first-ever race. Starting from P25, she lost a few positions at the start but navigated the opening lap cleanly, settling in behind Joshua Henry and focusing on learning in a packed field. By lap 3, she was already lapping quicker than a few cars ahead.

She gained positions as Josh Watts went off but rejoined, and then again when Revie Lake spun, triggering the first Safety Car of the season. Ee was back in P25.

On the restart, she trailed Henry but came under pressure from a recovering Watts, who passed both on lap 5. Katrina then retook the position from Henry and gained another spot when Ethan Carney pitted with issues. By lap 7, she was running P24, consistently in the 1:59s and gaining on the cars ahead.

With Watts later retiring, Ee climbed to P23 on lap 9 and finished there. After two disqualifications ahead, she was classified P21—a solid result for her first-ever race in cars.

Photo: Katrina Ee

On Sunday morning, Katrina lined up P26 for race 2 under sunny skies. A clean start saw her drop to P27, but she avoided trouble and quickly found her rhythm in clean air. On lap 3, she passed Jarrett Clark and clocked a 1:57.7—her fastest lap of the weekend up to that point.

A lap later, a collision between Watts and Cameron brought out the Safety Car. Ee gained another spot on Lake and ran P23 during the neutralisation. The restart came on lap 6 with five minutes to go. At the front, Scott Lindblom and Alfie Slater collided at the Melbourne Hairpin, but both rejoined. Katrina lost places to Lake and Clark in the shuffle, but took advantage of further chaos ahead—when Chiwara, Proudford, Nalder, and Livesey all ran into trouble. Ee seized the opportunity, gained three positions, and moved up to P22.

She held off Matthew Chiwara on the final lap to secure P22 in race 2—nearly matching her race 1 result in another solid, mistake-free drive that showed more pace improvement.

Later in the afternoon, the third and final race of the weekend took place under clear skies. Starting from P22, the field faced a delayed start due to an incident on the formation lap.

The race began with multiple incidents: Mabunda, Lake, and Carney went off, while Cameron and Zunzarren also ran into problems. Ee kept it clean, moved up to P19, and battled with determination for a top-20 finish.

Cameron and Henry fought back through the order, and Katrina dropped to P22 but stayed close to Henry in a tight midfield group. Unfortunately, on lap 4, she ended up in the gravel, triggering the Safety Car and retiring from the race—an unfortunate end after another promising run where she was gaining valuable experience in close, wheel-to-wheel battles.

"I really enjoyed my first car racing weekend and getting to experience how it’s like to race at such iconic tracks that are completely different from karting, and with a 27 car grid", she commented. "It has not been the weekend that I wanted it to be, especially as my debut car race weekend, I struggled with overall pace as well as finding the perfect setup for me."

"I’m glad that I improved in several areas and I’ll make sure to keep progressing and work towards my strengths and weaknesses. But just happy to have a car race weekend under my belt."

Katrina Ee will look to build on the positives and take the lessons from her debut weekend into the second round at Silverstone, on the full GP circuit layout, scheduled for 26–27 April.