She has set a new standard for aspiring professional motorsport competitors, she has established herself as a winning woman racer, and now Emily Duggan has received a call-up to represent Australia on the world stage.
Duggan will race in the Philippine Endurance Challenge – “8 Oras ng Pilipinas” – at Clark International Speedway on 2-3 December, sharing the SmartFuels2Race Honda Civic with Toyota 86 Racing Series Champion-elect Jimmy Vernon in an all-Australian combination.
The Philippine Endurance Challenge is an 8-hour endurance race open to production-based vehicles. The 2017 event has attracted a provisional field of 31 cars and Duggan and Vernon will compete in the RP (outright) class – their Civic is equipped with a number of modifications including racing suspension, a modified engine and GT Radial tyres.
The overseas racing opportunity for Duggan completes another highly successful season in which she has scored two pole positions and five race victories in the competitive Series X3 NSW category, and was nominated as a finalist for the Cosmopolitan Magazine Women of the Year Awards in the Sportswoman category.
While Duggan’s career to date has been mostly focused around shorter sprint races, she has achieved success in longer-distance events as well. She won the Series X3 NSW one-hour race in 2016, and finished fourth outright in last year’s 24 Hours of Lemons enduro.
“I can’t wait to head over to the Philippines, it will be the perfect way to finish off another amazing year,” Duggan said.
“When Bob Reischl from SmartFuels2Race rang and asked me to drive, I couldn’t stop smiling.
“I’m ready for the challenge of competing in a multi-class endurance race, and dealing with factors like long stints and traffic management.
“A few of the races I’ve done here in Australia will serve me well – in last year’s Series X3 NSW endurance race I had to string together a sequence of fast, mistake-free laps while under pressure, and the 24 Hours of Lemons gave me a lot of practice driving in traffic and efficiently negotiating slower cars.
“There’s the possibility I will have to do stints of more than two hours in the hot Philippines weather conditions, so I’ve been training hard to condition myself for the physical demands of the race as well.”
Practice and qualifying for the Philippine Endurance Challenge will be held on Saturday, 2 December with the race taking place on Sunday, 3 December.
