Birthdate: 31 May
Hometown: Penarth, South Wales, UK

Claire was born in Cardiff, South Wales and currently lives in the small seaside town of Penarth, just outside the capital city. She finished her academic education with a BSc. Hons and Masters Degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice and now has a career as a Senior Associate with the Public Health Division in the local NHS Health Board.

Claire is no stranger to horsepower – starting out with the real thing and riding horses from the age of 4 until her early twenties before moving into cars. This move came as no surprise – she was brought up in a rallying environment, with her father Terry running the Howells Garages Austin Rover Rally Team in the 1970s and 80s. She was voted the ‘Newcomer of the Year’ by her local motor club in 1997 and hasn’t looked back since!

Since starting her motorsport career, Claire has worked up through the ranks taking both the Welsh Ladies Rally and Speed Titles and an outright national rally championship Group N class victory along the way. These highs have been matched by the lows however – a high speed accident on the notorious Belgian tarmac rally stages served as a painful reminder of the dangers of motorsport and, later, a lack of budget resulted in some time away from the driver’s seat. Over the last couple of years, the focus has been on building and developing a Group A Subaru Impreza rallycar – and the garage also has another new occupant in 2010…..a cheap and cheerful Nissan Micra rallycar designed for endurance road rallying.