When it comes to successful women in motorsport, there are many who have enjoyed plenty of success in their respective categories within grassroots, state and national level.
 
One woman to have had the joy of being a state champion in Tasmania is Honni Pitt – a fierce competitor who has made a name for herself in the state’s Sports GT category.
 
Pitt’s history in the sport is much like the average motorsport diehard. As a child, she would watch her father compete and help whenever she could in the hopes of one day following in his footsteps.
 
She got her first taste when her dad bought another car to compete in the state’s biggest drawcard – TARGA Tasmania. 
 
This time around, instead of sitting in the stands or in the garage, she was sitting alongside her father as they took part in the premier tarmac rally during the mid to late 2000s. 
 
Together as father and daughter, they ran in multiple events before Pitt forged a reputation of being a decent co-driver and began navigating for others.
 
Although she wanted to be the driver after a while, so she took it upon herself to make the change, purchased a car, a 1971 Porsche 914-6, and practiced as much as she could.
 
Success didn’t take long to arrive and soon Pitt found herself enjoying class victories in a range of Supersprints. After watching Supercars live at Symmons Plains, she decided that it was time to race cars on a track.

Armed with a good budget behind her, Pitt purchased a Lotus from Brad Schumacher and in 2019 entered the Sports GT Championship– B class.
 
This time, the roles with her father were reversed, the man who inspired her journey was the one attending events and throwing his support behind the Lotus driver.
 
And just like her foray into Supersprints, she turned out to be very quick and was finishing lots of races on the podium – eventually she claimed the class championship on her first attempt after a thrilling final round where she won six of the seven races.


Following on from a year of no racing in 2022, Pitt went extremely close to adding another title to her name in 2021, but just lost out in the tight battle coming in second. An impressive result considering she was involved in a big crash at the start of the year and was forced to switch to an Evo 7 RS for the rest of the championship.
 
In just three years, Pitt has achieved quite a lot, but 2019 title remained the big one, as she made history and joined one other woman the record books.
 
“The 2019 Sports GT – B win was amazing and made me only the second woman in Tasmania to win a circuit racing championship, but the first to do it in a tin top,” Pitt said.
 
“Michelle Fish was the first to win a Tassie Championship in Formula Vee. It was lovely to meet her in 2020 - she was a great supporter of motorsport. 
 
“Going back, it was my dad who helped me find a passion for motorsport because I was always hanging out at the track with him and in the shed where the passion just grew.
 
“I was that keen that it was a natural progression to end up in TARGA as his navigator and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
 
“I always loved motorsport and I knew that I would always compete but just had to have the finances to do it myself, which I was lucky enough to eventually achieve.
 
“Being in Tasmania where we have two fantastic tracks and Targa Tasmania, which is just so popular with a great camaraderie of people, it was only a matter of time before I competed myself.”
 
Not only is Pitt a big fan of racing but it’s that family and community atmosphere in the sport that appeals to Pitt so much and keeps not only her actively involved in the sport, but her husband, stepson and stepdaughter too. 

Although she is one of the only women competing in a category outside of regularity in Tasmania, she is confident the numbers of women participants will continue to grow due to that family support. 
 
“From my perspective. Over the past few years, there has been some growth in the participation of junior drivers and and I am seeing a couple of young girls coming through, who just like I was, are the daughters of other competitors – my stepdaughter included,” Pitt explained. 
 
“For me, there aren’t many opportunities where men and women get to compete against each other on equal footing because when I put the helmet on, there is no difference and I love it. 
 
“Sometimes it’s overwhelming for a young woman coming through but it’s very helpful to have a network of people to call on - I think about my stepdaughter and she has a number of people she can rely on – just like I did with my dad growing up. 
 
“That helps with building confidence which makes it a lot easier to turn up the track and do what you have to do. 
 
“There are lots of families involved, particularly at grassroots levels, which I think is one of the driving factors to getting more women out there and competing.” 
This feature is part of a series of stories celebrating International Women's Day, which took place on Tuesday 8 March.