Charlotte Birch

Charlotte Birch is a British sportscar racer who skipped karting entirely and jumped straight into saloon car racing at fourteen, carving out a career in tin-tops and Ginettas with an eye on endurance racing and the BTCC.

EARLY YEARS

Charlotte Birch grew up around cars in the UK, the kind of childhood where motorsports wasn’t just background noise—it was the soundtrack. Most racers cut their teeth in karting, spending years perfecting lines on tiny circuits before graduating to cars. Not Birch. At fourteen, in 2017, she went straight to full-sized machinery, entering the Junior Saloon Car Championship without a single kart race on her résumé. It was an unusual move, the kind that raises eyebrows in a sport obsessed with proper progression. But Birch wasn’t interested in doing things the traditional way. She wanted to race cars, so she did.

OTHER INTERESTS

Beyond the track, Birch became an avid HEXican—a supporter and promoter of HEX, which appears to be tied to cryptocurrency or gaming culture. She even sat for a YouTube interview promoting it, proving she’s not the kind of racer who lives and breathes motorsports alone. The rest of her off-track life remains largely private. No public hobbies, no carefully curated social media presence showcasing yoga sessions or exotic travel. She’s kept the focus on racing, and when she’s not racing, she’s instructing—passing on what she’s learned to the next generation coming through.

EARLY SUCCESS

Birch’s first season in the 2017 Junior Saloon Car Championship, piloting a Citroën Saxo VTR 1600, was about learning rather than winning. She finished 14th in the championship with 157 points across sixteen races, notching best finishes of 10th at Rockingham, Knockhill, Croft, and Brands Hatch. No podiums, no poles, but solid mid-pack results for someone who’d never raced anything before. The following year, she improved to 13th in the 2018 JSCC with 191 points over fifteen races, finally breaking through to the podium in wet conditions at Anglesey—a result that showcased her ability to adapt when the track got tricky and others made mistakes. It wasn’t a meteoric rise, but it was steady progress in a competitive junior series.

By 2019, Charlotte had graduated to the senior Ginetta G40 Championship, where she finished 7th overall after contesting all rounds except Zandvoort. She recorded three seventh-place finishes—at Oulton Park and Brands Hatch—solid if unspectacular results that kept her name in the conversation. The Ginetta became her car of choice, a relationship that would define much of her career. In 2021, she drove for Vinna Sport in the Britcar Endurance Championship Trophy Category Class 3, piloting the Ginetta G40, and scored a class victory in a Ligier JS2 R at Donington in October alongside Jamie Vinall-Meyer. That same year, she also took a class win in the Ginetta G55 Supercup, cementing her reputation as a reliable endurance racer with a knack for team dynamics.

Then came 2022 and a step up to GT machinery. Birch joined Topcats Racing alongside Charlotte Gilbert to campaign a Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo in the GT Cup. The season yielded a 14th-place finish individually in the Sprint Challenge and 7th in the Sporting Challenge—respectable if not dominant. But 2023 brought an unexpected pause. Birch spent most of the season on the sidelines, away from competition for reasons not publicly disclosed. It was the kind of gap that can derail a career, especially for a driver without factory backing or deep sponsorship pockets. But she returned late in 2023 with appearances across a variety of series, a signal that she wasn’t done yet.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2017: Began racing cars at age 14 in the Junior Saloon Car Championship, finishing 14th in her debut season without prior karting experience.
• 2018: Scored her first podium finish in wet conditions at Anglesey in the Junior Saloon Car Championship.
• 2019: Finished 7th in the senior Ginetta G40 Championship, contesting all rounds except Zandvoort.
• 2021: Secured class victory in a Ligier JS2 R at Donington in the Britcar Trophy with Jamie Vinall-Meyer, and won her class in the Ginetta G55 Supercup.
• 2022: Raced a Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo in the GT Cup with Topcats Racing, finishing 14th in the Sprint Challenge and 7th in the Sporting Challenge.
• 2024: Finished 3rd in the British Endurance Championship Class G driving a Ginetta G55 for SVG Motorsport, while also competing in the Milltek Sport Civic Cup and Ginetta G55 Supercup.
• Career: Co-founded a prize for the best female driver in the Junior Saloon Car Championship with Vinna, supporting women coming through the junior ranks.

INSPIRATIONS

Charlotte Birch hasn’t publicly discussed who inspired her to race or which drivers she admired growing up. No childhood heroes, no posters on the bedroom wall, no stories about watching a particular race and deciding that’s what she wanted to do. What we know is that she grew up around cars and chose to race them. Sometimes the inspiration is the environment itself—the smell of fuel, the sound of engines, the pull of competition. For Birch, that seems to have been enough.

REPUTATION

Birch is regarded within British motorsports as a sportscar racer most closely associated with Ginettas, having raced the G40 and G55 across multiple series with consistent if not spectacular results. She’s built a reputation as a reliable endurance driver, the kind of racer teams can count on to bring the car home and work well with co-drivers. Her decision to co-found a prize for the best female driver in the JSCC with Vinna shows she’s thinking beyond her own career, using her platform—modest as it may be—to support women coming through the ranks. Media coverage has been positive, with racing blogs noting her unusual entry into motorsports and her ambition to aim for the British Touring Car Championship or endurance racing at a higher level. There are no controversies, no disputes, no drama—just steady work in a sport that demands consistency as much as speed.

FUTURE GOALS/PLANS

Charlotte Birch has stated her ambitions lie in either the British Touring Car Championship or higher-level endurance racing, but as of early 2026, no confirmed plans for the 2025 season or beyond have been made public. After her 2024 campaign with SVG Motorsport in the British Endurance Championship, where she finished 3rd in Class G, and appearances in the Civic Cup and Ginetta Supercup, the next step remains unclear. Whether she secures the budget and backing to make that BTCC dream a reality or continues building her endurance credentials in sportscars will depend on sponsorship, opportunity, and timing—the usual variables that determine whether a talented driver gets the shot or stays in the mid-tier shuffle.

References:

Speed Queens: Charlotte Birch
Racers Behind the Helmet: RAFA Racing Club Holds Female Driver Shootout
DriverDB: Charlotte Birch
YouTube: HEXican Racing Champion Interview
ARDS: Charlotte Birch Instructor CV