14 y.o. Female Karting Champ is Reshaping the Male-Dominated Sport
Fourteen-year-old karting champion Katrina Ee is often softspoken and demure. Her black-rimmed glasses and long, highlighted hair are very much in vogue among Malaysian teenagers like herself. Yet, those who follow her know that underneath the modest exterior hides an adrenaline junkie with a need for speed.
“I like the speed, the competitiveness, and the adrenaline of karting,” Katrina said.
In 2022, the rising female driver secured her first two karting titles as the IAME Series Asia Champion and Rotax Max Challenge Malaysia Champion. In 2023, she followed it up with three Asian karting titles, becoming the Rotax Trophy Asian Champion, the IAME Series Asian Champion, and Rok Cup Asian Champion.
Though Katrina admits that her family lacks a background in motorsports, their avid support has nurtured her passions into fulfillment. At seven years old, Katrina and her sister would spend the day at Shah Alam International Kart Circuit in Selangor, karting for fun. By nine years old, this weekend hobby had morphed into something more serious. Katrina entered local competitions, learning the skills necessary to compete in a male-dominated sport. Sadly however, skills and talent aren’t the only things necessary when jumping into an aggressive sport that is often riddled with misogyny.
“When I won my Asian Championships in 2022 and 2023, I was the only girl on the track so a lot of the boys tried to push me off [the track] because they didn’t want to lose to a girl,” Katrina revealed. Of course tactics such as these are fairly normal in her sport; Katrina’s only recourse? Learning to strategize and utilize her own aggression. “I’m more of a smooth driver, I’m not super aggressive. But I’ve learned to be when I need to be. When it comes right down to it, I’ve had to train my mindset; I knew I had to be confident. I had to learn to focus on myself and not on the other people around me.”
But while Katrina may be focusing on her own path and journey, her accomplishments reflect the abilities of women all over the world. “I like showing who I am [on the racetrack] and how as a girl, I can still be capable of driving with the best of the best in the world,” she said.
A firm believer in the power of positive thinking, Katrina reveals that optimism also helps while on the track. “If you think you’re gonna do well, you’re gonna do well,” the driver insisted. “But if you think negatively, it could lead to a negative outcome.”
As everyone knows, in the world of racing and karting, a negative outcome isn’t as simple as being too slow on the racetrack. A negative outcome could be as serious as flipping over a vehicle or hitting a wall. Katrina herself has experienced major injuries; in fact, she recently came into an accident, flipping her vehicle over on the track and blacking out for eight minutes. This eventually led to a head concussion.
“I woke up on a hospital bed and knew that my injuries were quite serious so I was off the racetrack for six to eight weeks, resting and doing physiotherapy,” she shared.
For those thinking of dabbling into the glamorous – yet intense – world of competitive racing, the pro stressed that it’s become important to adopt a strength training routine on top of a positive mindset, “You need to have a lot of neck strength because the g-force [gravitational force] while racing is so high. When you turn a corner, you have to make sure your neck and upper body strong enough that they can take in the g-force along with the speed.”
Commitment is another tenet of the sport. Athletes like racers dedicate their whole lives to achieving elite status. Of course, Katrina herself dreams of F1 eligibility, aiming first for F1 Academy.
“One must have full commitment if they want to do something special like motorsports because it’s a high-intensity sport and costly as well. It takes a lot of mental endurance and commitment, but one day I want to get up to F1,” she ended.
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