By Ashley Reyes
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The SEMA Businesswomen’s Network (SBN) named Yvette Kinkade as this week’s #SheIsSEMA Spotlight Member. Kinkade is the co-founder and director of Track Day Club and a leading ambassador for women in motorsport and young driver initiatives. In Kinkade’s Q&A with SEMA, she shares how she became the only woman operator of Track Days in Australia, and gives details on the five-part success program her company has planned for 2021.
You can also watch Kinkade’s interview on the Track Day Club story to learn more about her company’s mission.
SEMA: What is the best advice you have ever received?
Yvette Kinkade: You get what you give. Working hard to give more to everything in life and everyone I encounter has proven that it is returned tenfold.
SEMA: What keeps you involved in the industry?
YK: My passion is what drives me. A passion that comes from years in the motor trade and being a car gal from way back to now—the now being having great success as the only woman operator of Track Days in Australia.
My mission has always been to encourage participation in our motorsport community, particularly for women and ensuring the avoidance of what I experienced 10 years ago at my very first Track Day. It was memorable, unfortunately not in a good way. The landscape then was unwelcoming and particularly intimidating. Lucky for me, it enabled this exciting and purposeful mission that was the start of my fantastic journey. Our all-inclusive approach has shifted industry goalposts and provided an accessible and inviting offering encouraging all levels of experience. I'm really proud of what I have achieved.
With the increase in women's participation at Track Days, I'm super excited to ramp things up in 2021 with the development of a five-part on-track success program. This exciting and unique program will deliver education, mindset, empowerment and participation with a purpose-built framework for success with tools for women to discover a new and exciting sport for themselves. Included is a scholarship program soon to be announced that will offer one recipient the opportunity to participate at no cost.
 Yvette Kinkade |
SEMA: On a Saturday, where can you be found?
YK: On track making sure my clients are experiencing the best Track Day experience possible and having fun. I could also be at a race meeting as race team manager for Team Virag racing—a father-and-daughter race team competing across the eastern seaboard of Australia, or I could be confidence coaching a client on track.
SEMA: How do you prepare for an important meeting?
YK: I'm really big on being prepared. I adore a pen and paper. Ha! While it’s a bit old school, I love to have all the bullet points written down and ensure I know my subject matter before any meeting. Then throughout, I’m the one who is continuously taking notes and jotting down ideas and concepts as they come to light.
SEMA: If you could go to lunch with one industry leader, living or dead, who would it be?
YK: I have two. Mary Barra, the chairman and CEO of General Motors. Ms. Barra understands the brand from the bottom up, the employees and the consumers. I would love to discuss insights about that journey. Jessi Combs is my other industry leader. It would have been amazing to have chatted with her and to have explored at such a young age how to foster such resilience and tenacity.
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