Erin Vogel made history in 2021 as the first woman to win a class race in any GT World Challenge championship, and has since channeled that momentum into building a team designed to get more women to the front of the grid.

EARLY YEARS

Vogel grew up on horseback, where competition was woven into the activity from the start [1]. Racing came later — and sideways, as it tends to. Her father and brother discovered high-performance driving first and became thoroughly hooked; her mother followed not long after [2]. For a stretch, the dinner-table conversation about track days and lap times was largely foreign to her [2]. About a year into the family’s new obsession, she decided to find out what all the fuss was about.

In 2009, Erin Vogel did her first track day in her Lexus IS sedan at an Audi Club event, with her mom, dad, and younger brother in tow [3]. She was approximately 30 years old at the time [2]. It turned out the fuss was warranted. Rather than pursue the obvious next step of becoming an instructor, she chose competition, reasoning that instructing might mean “the learning stops” [2]. She started grassroots racing in Subarus and then Porsches, building from the ground up [2].

Her mother looms large as a formative influence. Vogel has described her as independent and capable, someone whose own range of interests made automotive pursuits feel unremarkable rather than exceptional in the family [2]. That framing — that women doing capable things is simply normal — runs through how Vogel has talked about her path into the sport ever since.

OTHER INTERESTS

Outside the car, Vogel has stayed connected to the business world. As of a January 2024 profile, she was helping her brother run the family real-estate business [4]. She also served as President of Shift Up Now, an organization that supports women’s motorsports careers and provides grants to female drivers [4]. She has talked about wanting to design comfortable apparel suited to the heat and demands of race-car environments [2], and has said she may want to write one or more books within the decade following that same 2024 interview [4].

EARLY SUCCESS

After working through Audi Club track days with her father and hunting for structured ways to go faster, Vogel moved into competitive racing and began accumulating results that justified the ambition. In 2018, she was part of an all-female lineup with Flying Lizard Motorsports at the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill, racing an Audi R8 LMS GT4 in the Toyo Tire GT Challenge. The team won their class and finished fourth overall [5].

The following year she took the 2019 Porsche Sprint Challenge Bronze Class Championship [6]. Then in 2020 she pivoted to a completely different kind of challenge: the Rebelle Rally, an off-road navigation rally that rewards precision as much as pace. She was part of the Rookie Team of the Year [6].

Those two seasons of GT4 competition with Flying Lizard provided the platform for what came next. In 2021, Vogel stepped up to GT3 for the first time, joining DXDT Racing alongside co-driver Michael Cooper in the GT World Challenge America Pro-Am category, in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 [7].

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2018: Class win at the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill with Flying Lizard Motorsports (all-female lineup), Toyo Tire GT Challenge; fourth overall [5].
• 2019: Porsche Sprint Challenge Bronze Class Champion [6].
• 2020: Driver on the Rebelle Rally Rookie Team of the Year [6].
• 2021: Pro-Am class victory at VIR on June 5 with DXDT Racing; first woman to win in the Pro-Am category of any GT World Challenge championship globally [7]. Four podiums and one pole position recorded in SRO GT World Challenge that season [8].
• 2022: Two GP1 class wins in the World Racing League, shared with Loni Unser and Sabre Cook [6].

INSPIRATIONS

Her mother has been Vogel’s most consistently cited role model — someone who demonstrated through her own life that women can do anything, and who made the automotive world feel accessible rather than off-limits [4]. Beyond her own family, Vogel has said she admired the Iron Dames’ marketing and the impact they’ve had in European racing, and acknowledged wishing something similar existed in the United States [2].

Her broader perspective on women in motorsports is direct: the racing world still minimizes women’s abilities, she’s said, and she believes that breaking into professional racing in her 30s gave her a platform to make meaningful change [4]. That sense of purpose isn’t abstract for her — it shapes how she’s structured her career since the 2021 milestone.

REPUTATION

The GT World Challenge America’s own profile of Vogel named her the first woman in the series’ history to win a class race, and more broadly the first woman to win in the Pro-Am category of any GT World Challenge championship worldwide [7]. Those are not qualifiers or asterisked footnotes — that’s a clean historical first in one of the premier GT racing platforms on the continent.

In 2023, Vogel co-founded AE Victory Racing alongside Aaron Snair, with an explicit mission to develop and support female drivers [9]. She is identified as team co-founder and leader [9]. The team has competed in the World Racing League, and AE Victory Racing describes its purpose plainly: a racing team for women, led by women [9].

Vogel herself has kept the framing grounded. “I’m just glad to be another voice and face in an ever-growing list of examples that women are equally as capable as men are in a race car,” she said in 2021 [7]. Her advice to women entering the sport is equally unvarnished: “Just be yourself. Don’t let a chip on your shoulder direct your interactions. Be genuine, be present, be dedicated, and always strive for growth — even at the pinnacle.” [7]

FUTURE GOALS/PLANS

AE Victory Racing has plans to expand to a two-car program and enlarge its driver-development operation, with an aim of offering fully funded rides to female drivers [8]. As of her official biography, Vogel continues to compete in the World Racing League through the team [8]. She has also expressed a desire to get women into top-echelon sports-car racing, including events like Daytona, and said she would race at Le Mans if budget were not a constraint [2].

Mentoring emerging racers remains a stated priority. In January 2024, she described uplifting women in motorsports as a longstanding mission and said she wanted to build a competitive team that provides the kind of structured, funded pathway that rarely exists for women at the professional level [4]. She has also said she may want to write one or more books within the following decade [4].

References:

[1] Motorhead Mama — Badass Women of Automotive: Erin Vogel
[2] Motorhead Mama — Badass Women of Automotive: Erin Vogel
[3] GT World Challenge America — Her-story: Erin Vogel
[4] The Midst — Erin Vogel
[5] Flying Lizard Motorsports
[6] Shift Up Now — Athletes
[7] GT World Challenge America — Her-story: Erin Vogel
[8] ErinVogelRacing.com — About
[9] AE Victory Racing — About