Christine GZ: Why I Refused to Give Up on Racing

Selema Masekela straps in for a wild ride with Italian-Spanish off-road racer Christine GZ, a self-made driver who built her first rally car from scrap metal at 17 and hustled her way from small island life to the Dakar Rally. Christine reveals how jumping in front of a stranger’s rally car set her life on a completely different course, the grind of building a race car with no money and no team, what it’s like to race 1,000 miles through Baja’s narco territory, and the career-threatening Extreme E crash that forced her to rebuild from the inside out. Check out Team Ignition on Social for exclusive behind-the-scenes content, highlights, and more: Website: https://www.teamignition.net TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@teamignitionofficial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teamignitionofficial/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeamIgnitionOfficial X/Twitter: https://x.com/TeamIGNOfficial 00:00 Intro 01:23 Meet Christine GZ 03:12 Rally vs Off-Road Racing 04:40 Falling in Love With a 1989 Corolla 12:31 Building a Race Car From Scratch 15:25 First Sponsors 17:50 Faking It as a Tow Truck Driver 21:13 Going to University 29:56 Creating the First All-Female Rally Team 34:52 40 Cold Emails a Day 38:57 Surviving the Baja 1000 43:10 Extreme E Crash & Losing Her Team 52:11 Mayhem at Dakar 59:09 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices