Meet the 21-year-old female mechanic who owns her own garage – defying bloke who ask her “do you just clean the cars then?”
Marijke Booth said she’s used to working in a ‘man’s world’ – and when she started in the trade she couldn’t even get boots to fit.
But after stuffing out the end of her steel-toe boots with socks she’s got stuck into being a full-time mechanic.
She hassled a local garage into giving her a job as a mechanic, built her own car and scored a place working for a race team, and now owns her very own garage.
Marijke said it’s been far from easy – male customers often defer to her male colleagues and advertising is dominated by male faces.
But she’s glad to be running her own business in the trade and being the role model to other women that she always wanted.
Marijke, from Thirsk, North Yorkshire, said: “I feel very fortunate and I’m very proud.
“I just love cars, and working on engines, and the business is doing really well.
“I found my niche and decided to go for it and it took off: we have lots of happy returning customers.
“I had saved all the money I ever had – I’m not a spender, and I’ve re-invested everything we’ve made back into the business.
“I’m a single-focus person. I knew this is what I wanted and I put 100% of my energy into achieving it.
“If I asked for work and they said ‘no’ I just kept pestering: I’m very persistent.
“I just worked for nothing: I wasn’t payed, I just really wanted to be there.
“Outside my jobs I tinkered on my own car, or I went round other garages and watched them work so I could learn new skills.
“I didn’t read books or magazines. I just got my hands dirty and watched and learned, and created opportunities for myself.
“From a very young age women aren’t encouraged to work with cars: posters are all men fixing cars and women waiting for the work to be done.
“Everyone wants to have someone to look up to: I didn’t have that, but I’m really glad to have become the roll model for others that I always wanted.”
Marijke, who achieved 11 A*s at GCSE and taught herself A-levels while pursuing her career, said: “It’s so important to follow your dream if you find your niche.”
Marijke always enjoyed watching Top Gear with her dad when she was young.
Something clicked into place when she helped her friend James fix his car in 2019.
She went to a local garage and asked them for work experience, but initially they said ‘no’.
Marijke showed up at the forecourt every day to watch the mechanics at work, and kept asking, and eventually she was taken on as an mechanic.
At first her bosses had to order in special kit to fit her small frame.
She’s been laughed at, and called a cleaner, and said even other women tell her she won’t be able to stick at her job.
She said: “There are always comments: it’s not conscious, I don’t think people even realise they’re doing it.
“Mum and I went to buy my work clothes and we were just stared at the whole time – nothing fit me.
“I had to pad out my steel-toe boots with socks because I couldn’t get them in a size six, or even a seven.
“None of the gloves at work fit my hands.
“My bosses and colleagues have always been great, but in previous jobs I’ve had customers say I’m a distraction to my work mates.
“There were so few women working in motor sport, it’s shocking: people used to laugh and make jokes about me cleaning the cars.
“Even if I’ve been the one to fix someone’s car customers still gravitate to my male partner to talk about technical stuff.
“And women always tell me I’ll get tired of being in the workshop and will eventually prefer to be in the office: I just don’t agree.
“I do feel very on my own, and that I don’t belong, but that will change and I’m pleased to be a part of that change.”
She started building her own car – to race in the 116 trophy series – and caught the attention of a race-team organiser.
Offered a place, she went to work fixing and maintaining race cars for BMW motor sport team JC Racing, in 2021, and helping in the pits at weekends.
Soon Marijke found she was constantly responding to people’s enquiries about their cars, so she and partner Daniel Clad, 22, decided to set up shop together.
They hired a unit and started their own BMW specialist garage, Element Performance, in April, and Marijke says the business is going from strength to strength.
The pair work ten-hour days six days a week.
