E1 World Championship
Rianna O’Meara-Hunt
A kart that happened to be for sale in Wellington, and a foiling electric powerboat two decades later.
Team Miami · E1 RaceBird
Her story
She got into racing through her dad, who had never set foot in motorsport until a friend asked whether he would like to go halves in a race car. He did, and she grew up watching him and wanting to be involved any way she could.
At eight her parents finally took her to the local karting track in Wellington, New Zealand. There was a go-kart for sale that day. Fate, as she tells it. She had a go, and by the end of the day it was hers. It has never stopped since.
She built the rest herself. She did not come from a motorsport family, and worked out on her own who to talk to, how to market herself and which series to be in. That is a large part of why she wants to make the route easier for the girls behind her.
In her own words
- Driving style
- Smooth, building up through a session, aggressive when she needs to be, without stupid risks
- Favourite track
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for the double win. Also Road America and Highlands in New Zealand
- Race-day habit
- Suit and boots thirty minutes out, notes and visualisation, kit on with five to go, then five deep breaths in the boat
- Role model
- Her parents, for their work ethic and how they get the best out of the people around them
- Biggest dream
- To be the first Kiwi woman to race the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and then the first to win it
Track record
Double win · Indianapolis 2023
SRO GT4 America, with Hannah Grisham: the first female pairing ever to win with the Aston Martin Vantage.
In the media
Back Rianna
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