Meet Lauren Tayla

We were delighted to sit down with our newest Kokoro Zenwear ambassador: Lauren Tayla, a Motor Sport racing driver entering the Mini Challenge this year. Lauren is passionate about making racing more sustainable and taking the steps we can to reduce our carbon footprint. As a female driver & mother, we knew Lauren would inspire as we approach International Women’s Day and look to the women around us.

KOKORO: As one of the first women racing drivers in Motor Sport you consider yourself a MOVEMENT not just a racing driver.

LAUREN: I am here to prove that you should never give up on your dreams, support other women in motorsport and provide help for mothers and parents who want to be involved in motorsport. Not only that, but to encourage a greener motorsport for all to enjoy- so that we are able to keep the sport we love for longer.

It is never too late to chase your dreams, regardless of your point in life. whether you have had children or not, whether you have unbelievable talent to flaunt. I want to do this, for all the females, for all the mothers and for the ones who never thought they could achieve what they always wanted. With enough grit and determination, we can prove to so many people that not one size fits all. Motorsport is for everyone.

KOKORO: How and when did you start driving?

LAUREN: I started racing at 9 years old in corporate karts with my dad and very quickly caught the ‘motorsport bug’. I continued into club and regional championships from the age of 11 to 16 gaining great consistent results throughout. For the next 11 years I took the time to concentrate on finding my career path and completing my family unit and, having accomplished this, I am now ready to jump back into a higher grade of motorsport after another year back into karting in 2021 and pick up where I left off.

I entered a competition called Formula Woman which ultimately gains 6 ladies a seat in a McLaren GT4 race car for the 2022 season. This competition has given me the drive and determination to follow my dream and passion.

KOKORO: What’s happening in 2022 for you?

LAUREN: I have chosen to enter the MINI Challenge for 2022 with a well accomplished local team - Mad4Mini Motorsport.

The UK MINI Challenge is a highly televised series with a huge engagement rate, with 3 supporting races for the TOCA British Touring Car Championship and another 3 with the British Truck Championships, it’s pretty big.

There have been few female drivers in the series over the years, the ones that have been have mostly climbed the ladder up to the JCW class and beyond. I am one of two females entering for the 2022 series and I am going to work strenuously to stand out from the crowd and progress and with a great team behind me.

KOKORO: As a part of your mission statement, you cite ‘Let's make motorsport green!’. How are you encouraging other drivers and teams to think about sustainability, values that resonated with us at Kokoro. How do you see Motorsport staying creative & accountable to drive sustainability across the industry?

LAUREN: The British Touring Cars have recently decided to make all of their vehicles hybrid and ban the use of all plastic bottles in the paddock in a work towards a greener motorsport and to at least cancel out our carbon emissions - I want to spread the word and implement this into the MINI Challenge paddock too

I have already partnered with More: Trees in a bid to plant 50 trees for every race that I complete in 2022 which will equal over 350 trees – 105 tonnes of CO2 sequestration.

Another brand I will be working with is the wonderful Kokoro Zenwear who produce bamboo, eco friendly, sustainable and ethical clothing. If the whole paddock can swap out their polyester base layers for bamboo – we can all move towards a far more sustainable sport.

KOKORO: What attracted you to the idea of our Bamboo Clothing for your sport?

LAUREN: It’s lightweight, comfortable, soft, temperatur regulating and basically everything you could want from clothing, unfortunately it isn’t FIA approved as it isn’t fireproof- YET. But as soon as it is, it’s all I will be sporting on and off the track 100% of the time, it’s a beautiful material.

KOKORO: Why is it important to you to encourage and embrace sustainability?

LAUREN: We all need to do our part to help the world and not keep adding to the ozone, if we can do our part now, hopefully the world isn’t beyond repair and our children and future generations will just keep working towards eradicating the global warming crisis.

Especially in motorsport- it’s not good for the environment and carbon emissions are high, if one person commits to taking one step- it’s one step further than we were before and will all add up.

But at the end of the day, all of us drivers and spectators alike are petrolheads and love a proper internal combustion engine, there’s nothing quite like hearing the racecars flying past and feeling it in your stomach as their noise vibrates through the ground, if we can do something, anything to keep that just a little while longer- we should.

KOKORO: Where and how can we follow you in 2022?

LAUREN: I am @laurentaylaracing on Facebook and Instagram, my website www.laurentaylaracing.co.uk will be up and running soon and keep an eye out on ITV4 for the BTCC & MINI challenge races!