Jo Polley: From grid girl to BTCC driver

I was lucky enough to be born into a motorsport family. My father George Polley was my hero when I was growing up. He was double Hot Rod world champion and is still regarded today as one of the all-time great oval racers.

In the early '90s at the age of 15 I followed my brother into the junior ministox formula and quickly found my feet.

My first ever race meeting was a freezing cold Boxing Day at Aldershot Stadium and by the following May I had my first win at my old home track Arlington. Over two seasons I achieved more than 30 podiums in ministox including 12 wins and I finished fifth in the British Championship.

Looking back now, had I carried on my racing career from there who knows how far it could have gone? But back then there was no internet, and no network of support or help for young drivers. As both of my brothers also raced our parents couldn't afford to fund all of our racing careers after ministox so it was the same for all three of us, if we wanted to carry on racing in an adult formula, we had to find our own funding or sponsorship.

I firmly believe that if you are determined to do something with hard work and a positive attitude you can do it, whatever your age, background or gender.

I was only 17, had nobody to guide me and no funds so I decided to put my racing on hold and concentrate on other things. Although I was still very much involved in motorsport through my family and various jobs in the motorsport industry, my own racing career lay dormant for years.

By 2007 I was finally in a position to get back in a race car so I did my ARDS (Association of Racing Drivers Schools) test to obtain a circuit racing licence, raised enough sponsorship to buy myself a classic mini and entered the Mighty Mini Championship.

After just one test day I qualified fourth on the grid for my first ever circuit race - a real baptism of fire -and I eventually finished in a very respectable eighth place. I still had very little help so I towed my car to meetings by myself with a van and trailer, I couldn't afford to race the whole season so had to miss a couple of rounds but I was back competing and thoroughly enjoying it.

In 2008 I got my first pole position in Mighty Minis at Mallory Park which I didn't convert as I ended up crashing into the Armco barriers at Gerrard's which led to another sitting out period while I raised funds to repair my damaged car. In 2009 I achieved my first circuit racing podium in Mighty Minis and finished eighth overall in the Championship out of 36 drivers. Unfortunately with the purse strings tight at the end of the 2009 season, I had to sell my Mighty Mini and retire my racing career again.

It was during this period that I began to closely follow the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), watching it on TV and going to as many rounds as I could. In my view, it was the best racing series in the world and I set my goal to get involved with it in some way.

By 2014 after several failed attempts at raising the sponsorship money to go racing, I was busy building my profile on social media and interacting with some of the teams and drivers who raced in MINI Challenge (a one-make series using the BMW Mini) and the BTCC - and it was this that changed everything.

In desperation, I tweeted a plea asking for sponsors to help me get out in a car at the first MINI Challenge round. This tweet was seen by the MD of PowerMaxed a new automotive brand that was looking to use motorsport sponsorship to grow their brand awareness - and they were willing to help me! Somehow managing to beg, steal and borrow from my parents the rest of the budget that I needed, the next week I made my debut in MINI Challenge, racing under the 'Girl PowerMaxed Racing' banner.

Coinciding with this, my new sponsors also ran a team in BTCC and I was asked if I wanted to be their grid girl for a round at Donington. I was a bit apprehensive about wearing a lycra promo outfit but I was so keen to finally get involved with BTCC that I jumped at the chance and I enjoyed it so much that I did it for the whole season with PowerMaxed, as well as just about scraping enough funds together to race in MINI Challenge for the year.

Despite writing off a car in a big crash at Brands Hatch, I managed to complete the season and achieved many top-10 finishes and 'Driver of the Day Award' at Castle Combe in a championship that cost more to run in than I earned in a year. Being a grid girl and a racing driver around the BTCC paddock massively boosted my social media followers and profile and more and more people started to follow my racing with interest.

For 2015 I had to try and find new sponsors to carry on racing and a new team to grid for to stay working within BTCC. With determination and perseverance, I made both happen, holding down two jobs and sending out hundreds of sponsorship proposals.

I managed to secure myself some new sponsors and through the contacts I had made the previous year in BTCC I landed myself the job of grid girl with Eurotech Racing. This really opened up doors for me and by the end of the year I had landed my dream job with Eurotech as PR, Marketing and Sponsorship Manager, and the following year after a successful test I was racing a Eurotech 2-litre turbo-charged JCW (John Cooper Works) in the top Mini Challenge class.

Two years later I am still working for Eurotech in BTCC and still racing with the support of some great sponsors and people. I am incredibly grateful to the many people who have helped me along the way. I still have goals to achieve but I firmly believe that if you are determined to do something with hard work and a positive attitude you can do it, whatever your age, background or gender.