Justina Williams
Motorsport team owner, EXCELR8
Life in the fast lane, women in motorsport
Justina is no stranger to being the only woman in the room. Her whole life, she has been working in male-dominated fields, starting aged 16 as an apprentice electrician at a nuclear power station, to a qualified financial planner and running a recruitment consultancy, before setting up the motorsport team EXCELR8 in 2010.
The team has been highly successful, winning 41 championship titles in the last 12 years. Justina hopes to pave the way for more young women to get into motorsports and STEM fields by being a Girls on Track Ambassador* and Female STEM** Ambassador to the British Army.
My dad died when I was 14. Filled with grief and sadness, thinking about my future or future career path was the last thing on my mind. My dad was my life.
I didn’t really go to school after that, but I sat my exams anyway and, to my surprise, I did well, all things considered. I decided that working at a desk wasn’t for me, so I thought I’d try my hand at becoming an electrician. At 16, I managed to get an apprenticeship with Balfour Kilpatrick and trained to become an Industrial Electrician at Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station.
It was tricky being the only woman among all the men on site. Some of the team didn’t think I’d be physically strong enough or even intelligent enough to do the job. One day I’d had enough. I went up to my boss and said: this needs to change. I need to be out on site.
A day or two later I was. Over time, I ended up having my own office and a team of electricians working for me. That stereotype – that women can’t do the job – I just blew it out of the water!
I’m now in another male-dominated world – motorsport. After racing remote-controlled cars and then karts with my husband, we founded a motor racing team called EXCELR8. We compete in the MINI CHALLENGE, a race series made up of two classes of cars: the Cooper class, which is entry-level and we have a lot of young drivers, and the JCW (John Cooper Works) class, which is like a mini touring car.
We also run cars in the BTCC (British Touring Car Championships) – the pinnacle of motorsport in the UK bar Formula One, and shown live on ITV4 – and we are also going to be running two cars in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB this year.
As the team owner, I’m managing director, finance director, marketing director, sales director and team mum! It is so varied. A key aspect of my job is finding sponsorship. We sell advertising space on the cars and you have to be very proactive, making the right connections – it doesn’t just come to us.
I have an incredible team of people working with me. In motorsport, there are more women than there have been in the past but there still aren’t enough. As a team, I’m proud to say at EXCELR8, we’ve got quite a few women. There are about 100 members of staff including engineers, managers, team principals, race engineers, data engineers, and tyre engineers.
There are so many career opportunities available to women across motorsport – and there’s a whole load of fun to be had in each one. I encourage women who come up against stereotypes in their careers to use this as fuel to prove people wrong.
At work, we use science every day. Whether it’s the fundamental principles of physics that keep a racing car at the top of a leader board, employing mathematics to analyse the performance of cars and drivers, or the importance of teamwork between all the people that make up our team. I’m not an engineer or scientist in the technical sense, but I have an engineering mind. The nuts and bolts in my brain are constantly working to figure out how things work, and the reasons behind it.
Over the years, I’ve done so many different jobs. I’ve worked in a call centre, been an estate agent, a qualified financial planner, a recruitment consultant, and then went on to set up my own recruitment firm and a financial planning business with my husband, both in London.
I often present to schools and colleges where the children are thinking about future career choices. I was asked: What if I make the wrong decision?
There are so many jobs out there: just do what you enjoy and are good at, and don’t worry about the stereotypes or misconceptions out there. And if you fail, it doesn’t matter, it just means that job isn’t for you! You don’t have to do the same thing forever. Look at what I have done over the years! If you have a passion for science and a need for speed, why not consider motorsport? You won’t ever have a slow day, I can promise you of that.
If you’d like to get your hands on two tickets to a BTCC race weekend of your choice, head over to our giveaway and tell us how you’re #SmashingStereotypes. These tickets have kindly been provided by Justina.
Click here for more scientists who are Smashing Stereotypes.
*Justina is a Girls on Track UK Ambassador. The Girls on Track UK programme aims to inspire girls and women into seeing and believing that there is a rightful and valuable place for them in the motorsports industry. For more information, check out their Community Facebook page, and YouTube channel.
**STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and maths.