Lydia Walmsley: First podium finish the 2024 target for Mini racer

Lydia Walmsley hopes to eventually graduate to the British Touring Car Championship

Lydia Walmsley is targeting a first podium finish ahead of the start of the new Mini Challenge JCW Championship next month.

The 21-year-old achieved 14 top-10 finishes in 2023, including a personal best fifth place at Silverstone.

Walmsley's team is run by her family and has one of the smallest budgets in the championship.

"It will be here before we know it. I'm so excited to see what we can do this year," she told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"It seems like the off-season has been really long, but it has flown by at the same time.

"We've had a couple of good test days already, we've still got a couple to go and I really can't wait.

"It's hard to know where you'll place at the moment. We've only got what we did last year to compare to, it's hard to compare without any other Minis on the track at the same time.

"Where everyone else is really doesn't matter until you get to the race weekend."

Walmsley entered the world of motorsport when she took up karting at the age of seven and the new season, which begins at Donington Park on 27-28 April, is her fourth in the Mini Challenge JCW class.

"We finished top five at the tail-end of last year, I want to be on the podium this year, it goes without saying," she said.

"We move forward every year so that's a sensible next step, I think.

"If we can keep in the top five or six most of the time we'll be there or thereabouts to catch onto a podium when something happens ahead. I think we need to be in that front pack now. We're aiming high this year."