as she joins Murphy Prototypes Young Driver Programme
Former KZ2 and Mazda Motors UK racer Jade Paveley will be one of the few female racers to participate in the Goodwood hillclimb at its prestigious Festival of Speed this weekend.
Mazda Motors UK Ltd has asked 19 years old Jade to drive the Mazda MX-5 GT Concept which features in the ‘1st Glance’ category as part of this year’s Festival of Speed theme ‘Young Guns – Born to Win’.
Jade is forging ahead with a full time racing career as she becomes the first member of the ‘Murphy Prototypes Young Driver Programme’. The Irish based team came third in the ‘6 hours of Spa’ World Endurance Championship (WEC) race last month and has just returned from its impressive inaugural performance at the 24 Heures Du Mans, where it led the LMP2 class for most of the night running, only to retire in the small hours of Sunday morning due to suspension failure.
Having competed for the past four years in multiple categories to gain as much experience as possible, Jade is now focusing on her role with the sports car team, with a goal of entering the ELMS herself in 2014.
“We recognised Jade’s obvious talent during a recent Formula Ford test at Kirkistown and have come to an agreement to take Jade on as a long term investment” commented Murphy Prototypes team owner Greg Murphy.
“Jade will work with Alan McGarrity during the balance of 2012 to maximise her speed in a Formula Ford car before we step her up to a F3 car and develop her racing career further.”
A delighted Jade said, “I have worked really hard over the last four years, but as any young driver knows, having a long term plan and stability to mature and improve is key to a long career. With Murphy Prototypes I now have that opportunity and to be able to work with Alan McGaritty is a real bonus as he was a very successful driver. He has gone on to develop some of the fastest drivers racing today, so it will be superb to drive a well engineered car and focus on the speed rather than trying to figure out why the car is not working.”
Jade has completed her first test session in the Formula Ford with the Murphy Prototypes team and accompanied them to Le Mans to learn more about the workings of a LMP2 squad. After her weekend with Mazda at the Festival of Speed, Jade will return to testing during July 2012.
