HOME TOWN: Maidstone, UK
HEIGHT: 165 cm
WEIGHT: 55 Kg
LOVES: Giraffes
FAVOURITE DRIVER: Sebastien Loeb
ACHIEVEMENTS:
FIA WRC Production car Cup for drivers of 2WD Champion 2012
8th place in the Production World Rally Championship 2012
2nd place in the Fiesta Sport Trophy UK 2011
British Rally Championship Ladies Champion 2011
BRCC RC4 Champion 2010
BRCC Ladies Champion 2010
Louise Cook made history in 2012 becoming the FIA Production car Cup for Drivers of 2WD Champion and importantly becoming the first female to lift a FIA Rally Championship Title not specifically made for women. Louise got her first taste of driving when her late father, Robert Cook, bought her a battery powered car on her 6th birthday. Louise and her pet rabbit would drive around for hours until the battery went flat. Louise wrote off the conservatory window twice, 2 garden fences and took the front axle clean off!
Louise’s first taste of rally driving was at 19 whilst studying Car Design at Coventry University. Louise saw a competition advertised to encourage more women into Rallying. Louise entered and found herself at the final from 1000 women, with no previous motorsport experience. This gave Louise the confidence to gain her rally licence and enter her first ever rally thanks to her student loan.
Louise, encouraged to finance a way of starting a career in rallying, came up with an idea. Louise sold small spaces on her rally car with raffle prizes for larger spaces for each rally. Daily walking around local industrial estates door knocking, Louise managed to get 300 companies to sponsor her £50, enough to get her first season and career under way in 2010. Large sacrifices had to be made; Louise had to sell her much loved Ford StreetKa road car to get to the first round, she gave up her security of a full time job to commit fully and sold her trophies on ebay all to further fund her career.
