Paula Cook (born 2 November 1969) is a British

motor racing An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

driver. She is best known as an independent driver in the

British Touring Car Championship The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), officially known as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by ...

competing for the family-run DC Cook Motorsports. She ran the family-owned DC Cook Direct dealership after her father's death in 2005 until its closure in 2009.

Racing career

Early career

Born in

Rotherham Rotherham ( ) is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the River Rother, South Yorkshire, River Rother, from which the town gets its name, and the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don. It is the largest settlement ...

, Cook began her motor racing career in 1994, when she competed in both the Formula Vauxhall Junior and

Formula Vauxhall Junior Winter Series In science, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, as in a mathematical formula or a ''chemical formula''. The informal use of the term ''formula'' in science refers to the general construct of a relationship betwe ...

championships, finishing second overall in the latter.

British Formula Renault British Formula Renault Championship referred to one of two Formula Renault championships that were held in the United Kingdom. The main series was Renault Sport UK's Formula Renault 2.0 UK championship which was held from 1989 to 2011 and was ge ...

(becoming the first female ever to achieve a pole position in an international race), followed by three years in the

British Formula 3 Championship The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single sea ...

between 1996 and 1998. In 1997, she drove for the works

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

team in the

RAC Tourist Trophy The RAC Tourist Trophy (sometimes called the International Tourist Trophy) is a motor racing award presented by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) to the overall victor of a motor race in the United Kingdom. Established in 1905, it is the world's o ...

BTCC

Towards the end of

1998 British Touring Car Championship season The 1998 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship featured 26 races across 13 rounds, it commenced at Thruxton Circuit, Thruxton on 13 April and ended at Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone on 20 September. The championship was won by Ricka ...

, Cook entered the final four rounds for her father's DC Cook Motorsport Team in a

Honda Accord The , also known as the in Japan and China for certain generations, is a series of automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1976, best known for its four-door sedan variant, which has been one of the best-selling cars in the United States sinc ...

. She entered once more with DC Cook in 1999, planning to compete in the entire season, the first woman to do so. However, despite a reasonable start to the year, the season for Cook was cut short after round 16, after her team pulled out of the series due to financial difficulties. In her 20 BTCC race starts, she scored 3 points and 2 Independents cup race victories.

Later career

After the BTCC she raced in the Lotus Elise Championship and the

SEAT Cupra Championship The SEAT Cupra Championship was a one-make series that ran for six years between 2003 and 2008, the last five of which ran as a support package to the British Touring Car Championship. Originally the prize for winning the championship was a driv ...

. In 2002, she entered a one-off ASCAR race at Rockingham. In 2003, she competed in the

for the first time, before later entering two races for the Morgan Works Race Team in the

FIA GT Championship The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...

, Most recently she has competed in the

British GT Championship The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports G ...

in 2004, driving the

Chevrolet Corvette C5R The Chevrolet Corvette C5-R is a grand touring racing car built by Pratt Miller and Chevrolet for competition in endurance racing. The car is based on the C5 generation of the Chevrolet Corvette sports car, yet is designed purely for motorsports ...

of the

Embassy Racing Embassy Racing was a British auto racing team founded by Jonathan France in 2003. Initially created as a conjunction with Xero Competition in the British GT Championship, the team expanded to become an independent team and began to win races ...

team. following an outing in the

Porsche Supercup The Porsche Supercup (officially known as Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, known as Porsche Michelin Supercup prior to 2007 and often abbreviated as PSC) is an international One-design racing, one-make production stock car racing series supporting the ...

Personal life

Paula was born into a racing family - her father, Derek, was a racing driver in the 1970s. Her brother

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

also competed in motorsports, and was most notable for winning the 1996 British Formula Renault series. In addition to this, her nephew,

Jake Jake may refer to: Name * Jake (given name), including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name * Katrin Jäke (born c. 1975), German swimmer * Jake (gamer), American ''Overwatch'' player and coach * Jake, a member of the band Enhy ...

, entered the 2013 Formula Renault UK series, with Paula employed as his manager. She helped run the family-owned DC Cook Direct dealership franchise, taking over the company following the death of her father in a car crash in 2005, and remaining in charge until the company was liquidated in 2009.

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position - 1 point awarded all races) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) (* Signifies that the driver led the feature race for at least one lap - 1 point awarded)

Complete Porsche Supercup results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † – Did not finish the race, but was classified as she completed over 90% of the race distance. ‡ – Guest driver – Not eligible for points.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Paula 1969 births Living people English racing drivers British Formula Renault 2.0 drivers British Touring Car Championship drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers Porsche Supercup drivers English female racing drivers ASCAR drivers British GT Championship drivers Sportspeople from Rotherham Racing drivers from Yorkshire 20th-century English sportswomen