British female Rally Driver Louise Cook from Maidstone is revving up for her most ambitious leap yet.

The Kent lady who has only just completed her second full season in the sport has enjoyed great success and is now looking to attack the 2WD Production World Rally Championship.

Louise became the British Female Rally Champion for 2011 whilst also becoming Vice-Champion in the UK’s most competitive one-make rally series, the Fiesta Sport Trophy UK.

Cook achieved this despite being against outclassed by the modern machinery of 11 from 13 of her competitors. Louise’s debut full season in 2010 saw her collect the BRC feeder series BRCC RC5 Class title and the BRCC Ladies Award.

Louise has never held back on voicing her target to become the first ever female to be World Rally Champion and she is determined to push to the World level without hesitation in 2012.

“The World Rally Championship has been my aim since the start. The sooner I am on those stages learning and gaining experience, the better” said Louise.

“The scariest thing is the non appearance fine, if I do not make it to any one of the rounds, I face a fine from the FIA of over £20,000 and the loss of my rally license until it is paid, I would literally be bust!”

To achieve her aspirations to become the first female to become World Rally Champion, Louise will eventually have to find a budget of £5 million for a season in the sharp end in a modern WRC machine.  That is a budget over 100 times that of her 2011 British Rally Championship campaign.

In the mean time Louise needs to find £100,000 of support to find her feet on the first rung of the WRC ladder for 2012, no mean fete indeed.

“It is a huge amount to find, I might have to replace my race boots with roller skates to get around a lot more industrial estates and try to get businesses support. There are a lot of nice people in Britain and any amount of support soon adds up. In the WRC we can offer a lot more opportunities for partners being in the world’s top flight, all be it the bottom rung of the ladder for now.”

Louise successfully funded a large part of her 2010 and 2011 seasons through her promotion 50 campaign. Louise managed to raise the support of 300 companies, each contributing £50, and the relative cost of a couple of boxes of A4 paper. 2011 saw 66 of them winning large placements on her Fiesta rally car on the British Rally Championship rounds.

For 2012, and with triple the budget to find, Louise hopes others will join her 300 supporters and have their own chance to get their brand out to millions of rally spectators and fans. Louise urges all business’s to take a look at www.cutecookie.co.uk and get in touch.

Louise’s first round is the World Rally Championship opener, the famous Rallye Monte Carlo. The Monte organisers have warned WRC crews to be braced for an early shock to the system. The 2012 event compared to 2011 will feature an additional 100 competitive kilometres and an extra 240 kilometres of liaison, making it the longest Rallye Monte Carlo since 1995.

The asphalt event, which returns to the WRC calendar following a three-year absence, will get underway in the Champ de Mars in Valence, the capital of the Drome region of France, on Tuesday 17 January 2012. Wednesday will feature the classic stages in the south of the Ardeche, Thursday’s route takes in northern parts of the Ardeche and Haute Loire and on Friday crews will head south to Monaco.

The Saturday action will resume for the final loop of stages based in the hills above Monte Carlo, including two runs over the infamous Col de Turini. The event will then conclude on the morning of Sunday 22 January with the Power Stage held between Sainte Agnes and Col de la Madone followed by the traditional prize giving, held on Sunday afternoon at the Place du Palais the official residence of the Prince of Monaco.

Automobile Club de Monaco said “With a total of 17 stages, including 433 kilometres timed and 1246 kilometres connecting roads, this Monte Carlo Rally is certain to uphold the long tradition of a highly challenging course, requiring great endurance on the part of drivers and vehicles alike.”

Here is how you can help Louise:

Rally Team GB’s 3rd Driver Search

Rally Team GB has launched a campaign to encourage more people into rallying in the UK. The unique 3rd driver search is being carried out through the teams Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/RallyTeamGB

The competition is generating a high level of interest from the general public and is bringing fresh faces into the sport. Support from £50

I am running a £50 campaign called Promotion50 once again for 2012. The £50+VAT campaign provides you with a guaranteed small sticker on the back of my rally car, logo and website link from www.cutecookie.co.uk (great for search engine rankings) and you will also be entered into my amazing raffle! lol. The top prize,  a large bonnet advertising space and a side advertising position will be given to a winner for each and every championship round. Also, we have 10 runners up positions for each and every round too. This means there is a 1 in 7 chance of being a winner, all for £50 for the whole season.

I am also running a Promotion 50+ package, which includes all the benefits of Promotion50, but with a little extra. The cost for Promotion50+ is £100+VAT but gives back some exciting benefits over the Promotion50 package. All Promotion50+ supporters will have their logo, with website link, rotating in a banner on the cutecookie.co.uk website front page in a row with all the other Promotion50+ supporting businesses.

In addition to this, I am producing a promotional booklet to include all the commercial sponsors and all the Promotion50+ supporters. There will be a small section dedicated to every Promotion50+ company to provide a description of the goods/services you can offer and full contact details.

This will hopefully provide opportunities to do business with each other and everyone can benefit. The promotional booklet will be sent out to all of the Rally Team GB sponsors, which are around 500 companies. All this for £100 for the whole season.

Then, for the companies who would like a visible permanent spot on the car, this is where Promotion500 comes in. The cost is £500+VAT for the season; you will receive a position on the sill of the rally car which you can see in this picture:

http://rallyteamgb.com/LouiseCookCar.jpg

You will obviously receive all the benefits of Promotion50, but, in addition, all Promotion500 supporters will be entered into their own raffle. The prize will be an opportunity to have the rally car and myself at 1 day of a trade show of your choice anywhere in the UK, completely free of charge. There is a 14 to 1 chance of winning the trade show and you will obviously still have the 7 to 1 chance of winning other positions on the rally car.