Yahoo Autos W Series Cancels the Rest of Its Season Due to Lack of Funding
The W Series’ recent efforts to secure additional backing in order to complete its third season have been unsuccessful. As a result, the open-wheel championship created to advance female drivers through the sport has wound down its year with three races left on the calendar and named points leader Jamie Chadwick as champion.
Having shuttered the season with visits to Circuit of The Americas and Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez now canceled, W Series CEO Catherine Bon Muir expressed her vast disappointment in the unfortunate outcome.
"It's with both great sadness and frustration that we announce that our much-anticipated final three races of the 2022 season in Austin and Mexico City will not go ahead,” she confirmed. “As a start-up in only our third season of racing, we are always working hard to ensure regularity of funding as we continue to grow our business, but due to recent unforeseen circumstances outside of W Series' control, we had not been in receipt of contracted funds due to us. Therefore, we have been forced to make the unfortunate decision not to complete our scheduled calendar this season. We would like to thank both Circuit of The Americas and Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez's Grupo CIE for their support as promoters of our events in Austin and Mexico City respectively, and apologize to both them and our fans that we will not be able to go racing there this year.
"We have worked hard to raise the required funding to enable us to finish the season. Unfortunately, it was not possible to do this in the short time frame required following the failure of contracted funds to arrive and the global economic downturn. However, while we are all incredibly disappointed that this decision has had to be made in the short term, we remain positive about the future of W Series in the long term. It is well-documented that women's sports receive far less funding than its male counterparts, and W Series is no exception. We are incredibly thankful for the help and support we have received in recent weeks following the news of the financial difficulties we've been facing, which has accelerated our fundraising process and given us great optimism as we look to 2023 and beyond.”
For Chadwick, who won her third consecutive W Series title—this time representing Jenner Racing as the organization went to a new team-based system—the future is looking bright. Although unconfirmed, the 24-year-old from England is tipped to join the Andretti Autosport in Indy Lights for 2023 after completing a successful test for the team last month in Florida.
"Firstly I want to thank the W Series for the opportunity they have given me,” she wrote in a social media post. “It’s been life changing and I am so grateful to everyone that has been involved and supported me to this point. We all wanted to finish this season on track but I am very proud to be a 3x Champion.”
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