Despite the pioneering racing of women like Janet Guthrie, the world of motorsports both in America and the UK has remained largely male dominated to this day, both in terms of its competitors and its audience.

Outside of the sporting arena, people have come to acknowledge that women drivers take fewer risks and make fewer car insurance claims; in short, that we are better drivers, and deserve cheaper motor insurance. Female competitors in the likes of NASCAR or Formula 1, however - and you can count their number on the fingers of one hand - still struggle to find sponsorship or the backing of a major team.

Women finally get the chance

So, in 2003, veteran racing coach and team manager Graeme Glew decided to do something every bit as revolutionary as the first car insurance company to offer cheap motor insurance for ladies: he launched a new, female-only motor racing championship called Formula Woman (www.formulawoman.com).

"It all started when women used to come to the racing school and ask why there was never a category for them," said Glew. "Getting more women into the sport was something that had been in my mind for years."

The Championship, now in its fourth season, consists of seven rounds of racing at popular circuits around Britain. All competitors race in identical Mazda RX-8's - the competition being about driver skill rather than pit-crew tinkering.

Only 16 women compete in the championship races, but these lucky few are whittled down from the thousands who apply each year at a series of assessments and elimination camps in the build up to the racing season. In 2003, ITV screened these early heats in a series of Big Brother-style reality TV shows before devoting coverage to the championship rounds themselves.

Formula Women provides a route into motorsport for complete amateurs, in many cases training women up from the level of regular (albeit ambitious) road users to fully-fledged racing drivers.

It’s often noted that FW makes it easier, at least in terms of money, for women to get established in British motorsport. Compared with racing fees of £100,000 for a young driver starting out in Formula Ford, for example, ladies pay just £10,000 for a place in Formula Woman. But then, we wouldn’t feel right paying the same as men for motor insurance; women, after all, deserve cheaper fees on the track as well as on the road.

Winning the inaugural Formula Woman Championship was an excellent career move for Natasha Firman, sister of the F1 driver Ralph Firman. She has since become a paid driver for Mazda’s Britcars Race Series team – a rare achievement for a British driver of either gender.

At the time of writing, the first two rounds of the 2006 FW Championship have already taken place, at Pembrey Race Circuit in Wales. The 16 competitors are getting geared up for four more outings this August: rounds three and four at Mallory Park, in Leicestershire, on the 13th; and rounds five and six, which are to be held at the famous Brands Hatch circuit on the weekend of the 19th.

Jackie Skelton

Natasha Firman was one in ten thousand women when she won the first FW Championship in 2003.

That year Jackie Skelton, an unseasoned hopeful who had never sat in a racing car before the day of her assessment, ranked within the top 200 applicants - not enough to give Natasha cause for concern, but enough for Jackie, already a self-confessed petrolhead, to catch the racing bug.

Jackie is a professional photographer by trade, and a lifelong fascination with cars and motorsports led her to specialise in automotive work. Past assignments have ranged from studio shoots of 1000bhp drag racers to covering the Le Mans 24-Hour endurance race, and her pictures have graced the covers of many top racing and car magazines.

After her encouraging result at the 2003 FW trials, Jackie determined to enter again - but this time with the experience and confidence to give her a real shot at the top 16.

Preparation involved spending many hours driving Honda Civics and Caterhams at club circuits, not to mention getting the maximum value out of her women’s motor insurance. Jackie applied to FW for a second time in January 2005, and by November, when the initial 4,000 entrants had been whittled down to just 100 women, she was still in the running.

That month, Jackie took part in a world record-breaking race at Pembrey with 63 other finalists – the most women ever in one motor racing event. She finished second in her group, and after further success at eliminations camp in July 2006 she made the top 16.

After the first two rounds of the Championship, held again at the Pembrey circuit, Jackie is lying in second place behind Lucy Redding. “The weekend was tremendous overall,” she said, “although it had its fair amount of frustration too.

“It’s great to be lying in second place of the 16 girls, but I won’t be satisfied with that. Roll on rounds three and four!”

"Women love driving fast"

Too many women have got used to the idea that female motorsports are something we have had to sacrifice in order to get cheaper women's motor insurance - as though driving fast on the racing circuit means you can't drive safely on the road.

So thank goodness for women like Jackie Skelton and Natasha Firman, and all the thousands of others who applied for Formula Woman over the past four years. Thanks to them and their successors, the competition will continue to grow and gain momentum.

Graeme Glew is certain of this. "We are here to stay and Formula Woman will grow in popularity both in this country and overseas," he said.

Nowadays, women are more independent and adventurous than they were," he added. "They want to do what men do - and many women love driving fast."