Catie Munnings

Catie Munnings (born 15 November 1997) is a British rally driver. The daughter of former rally driver Chris Munnings, she competes in the European Rally Championship for the Saintéloc Junior Team, and won the FIA European Rally Championship Ladies Trophy in 2016. She also presented Catie's Amazing Machines on the BBC television channel CBeebies.

Catie Munnings
Personal information
Nationality British
Born (1997-11-15) 15 November 1997
World Rally Championship record
Co-driverIda Lidebjer-Granberg
Rallies1
Championships0
Rally wins0
Podiums0
Stage wins0
Total points0
First rally2020 Rally Sweden
Last rally2020 Rally Sweden
European Rally Championship Ladies Trophy
Years active2016–2019
Co-driverAnne Katharina Stein (to 2018)
Veronica Engan (from 2019)[1]
Former teamsSaintéloc Junior Team
Starts7
Championships0
Wins2
Podiums5
Championship titles
2016FIA European Rally Championship Ladies Trophy

Biography

Childhood and personal life

Munnings was born on 15 November 1997.[2] She is the daughter of the rally driver and instructor Chris Munnings and his wife Tracey.[3][4][5] From the age of seven Munnings was educated at the all-girls school Kent College, Pembury,[4] and took three A level examinations.[6] She acted as deputy head girl, an academic, and a performing arts and music scholar. Munnings competed in national athletics tournaments and was talent-spotted as a dancer.[7] She combined her academic studies with her rally career,[4] and declined a place at university.[8] Munnings works with former racing driver Susie Wolff on her Dare to be Different campaign which encourages more girls to take up a career in motor racing,[3] and the IAM RoadSmart charity.[9] She has named the 1982 World Rally Championship runner-up Michèle Mouton as the person she idolises the most.[9] Munnings currently lives with her family at their farm in Headcorn in Kent. When not competing in rally, she works at her parents' corporate events company.[3]

Racing career

Munnings, whose original ambition was to become a vet,[7] had her interests geared towards rallying from a young age by regularly visiting her father's workplace.[8] She was able to execute a perfect handbrake turn by thirteen and provided driving lessons to her friends on a specially constructed circuit built by her father on the family farm.[5] To qualify for an international licence which allowed her to partake in the European Rally Championship (ERC), Munnings entered six club rally events held in Wales and Norfolk. Her father acted as instructor and co-driver.[8] Munnings received media training from Eurosport and was coached by former rally driver Urmo Aava.[9]

Munnings made her ERC début at the Ypres Rally behind the wheel of a Peugeot 208 VTi R2 for Saintéloc Junior Team.[4] It was at this rally that she began her partnership with the lawyer Anne Stein who was her co-driver.[7] Munnings got one of her wheels on sodden grass and barrel rolled her car which damaged an electricity pylon.[7][9] She finished 65th out of 67 drivers overall and was the only woman to complete the rally.[4] Munnings's second (and final) rally of the 2016 season in Liepāja saw her again score points by reaching the end of the event.[8] She had accumulated enough points to win the FIA European Rally Championship Ladies Trophy[5].[10][11] In late 2016, Munnings was one of four athletes shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Sportswoman of the Year.[12] At the awards ceremony on 8 December, she lost the award to swimmer Siobhan-Marie O'Connor.[13]

Named a 2017 Peugeot UK Brand ambassador, Women of the Future, Sean Edwards Foundation Ambassador and IAM Roadsmart car ambassador, Munnings remained with Saintéloc for the 2017 season,[3] but as part of the Peugeot Rally Academy where she was partnered with José Antonio Suárez and Pepe López.[3][9] Munnings said before the new season that she wanted to put into practice the things she had learned from the previous year.[14] Her first competitive run of the year came at the Rallye Açores where she retired on the fifth stage because of an accident.[15] After securing a 68th overall finish in the 2017 Rally Islas Canarias, Munnings retired in the next rally she entered in, 2017 Rajd Rzeszowski, due to an accident.[16]

Her fourth event of the season in the 2017 Barum Rally Zlín saw her take stage class victories in spite of changing a broken wheel earlier on because of understeering on a narrow low-speed corner and hitting a kerb.[17] Munnings's participation in the Rally di Roma Capitale was in doubt because of budget problems, but she confirmed her entry shortly before the event started.[18] She took wins in the city stages and night stages in the Ladies Trophy rankings but the tricky conditions led her to slip off the road and get stuck in the ditch for ten minutes, leaving her in second position in the Ladies Trophy rankings.[16][19] Munnings placed second in the Ladies Trophy championship overall and ranked 14th in the Junior Under 27 standings.[16]

Catie Munnings at the 2018 Rally Poland.

For the 2018 season, she returned to compete for Saintéloc Junior Team in the Junior Under 27 Championship for the second year in a row and also contested for the Ladies Trophy.[20] Munnings began the season by coming second in the Ladies Trophy and fifth in the Under 27 standings at the Rallye Azores.[21] She had a total of four victories in the Ladies' Trophy, which she took in the season's final four rounds to place second in that championship. Her results caused her to finish eighth in the Junior Under 27 Championship with four fifth-place finishes.[2]

In the 2019 championship Munnings continued to compete in the ERC3 category,[2] with her new co-driver Veronica Engan.[1] Munnings received backing from the energy drinks company Red Bull UK for the upcoming season.[22] She was the winner of the ERC Ladies category at Rally Liepāja 2019.[16]

In February 2020 she drove a specially prepared Bentley Continental in the GP Ice Race at Zell am See in Austria which culminated by teaming up with skier Sven Rauber for a demonstration of skijoring, where a skier is towed, at speed, behind a car.[23]

Television career

Munnings was the original host of the CBeebies television programme Catie's Amazing Machines in 2018,[24] in which she controlled large and fast vehicles.[6] She opted not to return for its second series to concentrate on her driving career.[5]

Rally results

WRC results
Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pos. Points
2020 Catie Munnings Ford Fiesta R2 MON SWE
42		 MEX EST TUR GER ITA JPN NC* 0*

* Season still in progress.

J-WRC results
Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 Pos. Points
2020 Catie Munnings Ford Fiesta R2 SWE
14		 ITA FIN GER GBR NC* 0*

* Season still in progress.

gollark: Have a robot with a *directed* microwave beam which automatically plugs into nearby outlets.
gollark: The obvious alternative is wireless charging which follows you around.
gollark: coralßßssßsßßßssmartwatch™?
gollark: Oh.
gollark: You should just plug it into the wall or something so you can integrate it into your wireless network and monitoring system.

References
  1. McCarthy, Ali (19 March 2019). "How Catie Munnings' unconventional upbringing helped her racing career". Red Bull. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  2. "Catie Munnings". FIA European Rally Championship. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  3. Myers, Rebecca (6 November 2016). "Munnings driven to succeed by father's need for speed; Teenager wins European rally title in her first season behind wheel, writes Rebecca Myers". The Sunday Times. p. 13. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017 – via Academic OneFile.
  4. Smith, Alan (13 July 2016). "Headcorn A-level girl is ladies champion at the European Rally event in Belgium". KentOnline. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  5. Edwards, Luke (16 October 2019). "Catie Munnings interview: Why I had to give up CBeebies for rally driving". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  6. Herman, Martyn (15 March 2019). Osmond, Ed (ed.). "Rallying–Via farm field and volcano, Munnings primed for WRC debut". Reuters. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  7. "Spotlight: Catie Munnings". Vanity Fair. 2 June 2017. Archived from the original on 15 July 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  8. Weaver, Paul (22 October 2016). "Catie Munnings is burning up the road as women's rally champion at 18". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  9. Stuart, Greg (8 March 2017). "Meet one of Britain's youngest rally champions". Red Bull. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  10. "Rally star Catie Munnings completes IAM RoadSmart's road safety ambassador line-up for 2017 and beyond". IAM Road Smart. 27 February 2017. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  11. Peñas, Sergio (20 December 2016). "Catie Munnings, campeona de Europa con tan sólo 19 años". Latula Sport (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  12. White, Andrew (6 December 2016). "Olympic gymnast Amy Tinkler in the running for prestigious women in sports award". The Northern Echo. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  13. Ashenden, Mark (24 March 2017). "Sky Scholar and swimmer Siobhan-Marie O'Connor overjoyed at Young SWOTY crown". Sky Sports. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  14. Corghi, Francesco (10 March 2017). "Catie Munnings alle Azzorre, ma il futuro è ancora incerto". motorsport.com (in Italian). Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  15. Sambruna, Alessio (26 April 2017). "Catie Munnings: "La 208 è fantastica, sogno il Mondiale e adoro l'Italia!"". Rallyssimo (in Italian). Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  16. "Catie Munnings". eWRC-Results.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  17. Munnings, Catie (1 September 2017). "My ERC Barum Czech Rally Zlín". Eurosport. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  18. Corghi, Francesco (15 September 2017). "Catie Munnings a Roma per un soffio". motorsport.com (in Italian). Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  19. Lindsay, Alasadir (17 September 2017). "Bouffier Seals Last Gasp Rally di Roma ERC Win". The Checkered Flag. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  20. "Munnings chases Ladies' Trophy". Motorsport News. 28 February 2018. p. 13. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018 – via PressReader.
  21. "Lukyanuk scores emphatic ERC Azores Rallye victory in style" (Press release). Azores Rallye. 24 March 2018. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  22. Benyon, Jack (8 January 2019). "ERC's Munnings first woman in motorsport to get Red Bull UK backing". Autosport. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  23. Murray, Bob (29 January 2020). "Bentley is going ice racing in a Continental GT". Goodwood Road & Racing. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  24. Fry, Andy (4 July 2018). "BBC Children's in-house unveils slate of new and returning shows". Television Publisher International. Archived from the original on 19 October 2018. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
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