GINA WALKER has some big shoes to fill. Her mother, Louise Aitken-Walker, is a former ladies world rally champion and was one of the inaugural members of the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame. For some, it would be an intimidating prospect to try to emulate this level of success but Walker chose to follow in her mother’s footsteps and the 23 year-old is making an impressive fist of building a reputation in her own right.

2017 has seen Walker from Duns become Scottish Ladies Champion, as well as finishing as the top junior in the Ecosse Challenge and second place overall. “This year has gone well,” Walker said. “The thing that’s been really encouraging is the progression from last year – I felt more confident and everything seemed to work well. And I’m very lucky to have a good team around me so that’s helped me get some good results.”

Walker may have a mother who was amongst the very best rally drivers in the world but Walker reveals that her mum was certainly not pushing her into the sport and it took a fair bit of persuading for her to be able to pursue her own career in motorsport. “If anything, my mum was the complete opposite from encouraging me to get into it – I guess that’s because she had seen ups and downs of the sport,” she said. “It’s not that she was against it but I was the one who had to continually ask if I could have a shot. When I was younger, my brother and I used to always nag my mum about going to the go-karts - we started when we were about eight years old so cars were always a big part of our childhood and it just went from there.”

As soon as Walker was old enough to get her driving licence, she began doing autotests with her local Berwick and District motor club and that’s when she realised that she wanted to take it to the next level and try her hand at stage racing, which she has been doing since 2015.

There is no two ways about it- rally driving is terrifying. For Walker though, that is what attracts her to the sport. “I love the thrill of it,” she said. “Things can go wrong quite quickly and so you really need to be on the ball constantly but that all adds to the thrill. My friends and family would probably say that I’m a bit of a thrill-seeker, although I’m not sure I would completely agree with that.”

With Walker still in the fledgling stages of her rallying career, she is on a constant learning curve and she admits that having her mum there for advice, who has been there and done it at every stage of rallying, is incredibly useful. And while many could feel under significant pressure to live up to the considerable achievements of her mother, it doesn’t faze Walker in the slightest. “It’s fantastic having mum there,” she said. “She keeps me calm and she really knows what she’s talking about. She knows when to tell me to get a move on or when to screw the nut and not do anything stupid.

“I get asked a lot whether I feel like I need to live up to her but I really don’t ever think about that. I’m only doing it for me and I’m just trying to do the best I possibly can – I never think about the pressure.”

Walker’s day job is as a mechanic at her family-run business Aitken-Walker Cars and so that, coupled with rally driving, means that she spends much of her life in male-dominated environments. She has never, though, contrary to what some may assume, encountered an ounce of sexism and in fact, she believes that being a woman in a man’s world is, at times, beneficial. “I am very lucky to be in a garage where there are so many nice people – they’re so supportive,” she said. “And when it comes to the rallying side of things, being a woman can actually be helpful because it can get you some publicity. I’ve really never experienced any sexism and at the end of the day it comes down to results – that’s what counts so it really doesn’t matter if you’re male or female.”

With funding so vital when it comes to rallying, Walker is still in discussion about what exactly her plans for next year are but the first Scottish rally event of the season is in February and she hopes to have everything pinned down by then. Being dependant on others can, she admits, be aggravating, her progress this year suggests that she is on the verge of big things. “I’m still in discussion about next year and until the end of this year, I’m not going to know for certain what I’m up to in 2018,” she said. “I’d certainly like to do the Scottish Championship but nothing is finalised - that uncertainty can be frustrating but you just have to take it in your stride. So it’s a bit of a waiting game but I can’t wait for the new year.”