Never say never. It’s a cliche saying, but one that has proven itself to be true in racing on more than one occasion. It’s something that Dutch racer Stéphane Kox found out first hand when, after two years away from the cockpit, the opportunity to race again suddenly presented itself.
Kox makes her return to motorsport for the first since 2019 this weekend, racing with German outfit Ring Racing in the DTM Trophy at Monza. When speaking to MotorsportWeek.com about her comeback, the 27-year-old expressed how delighted she was with her return to active competition.
“Honestly, I couldn’t be happier,” she said. “I didn’t expect to be racing again this soon. I dedicated the last few years to my studies, because I had the feeling that I had to finish it, and I had to get my diploma. And then this opportunity came along.
“As I said, I didn’t expect it but I couldn’t be any happier. I’m really glad to be back in the car, and yeah I’m really looking forward to the season. It’s been too long, and so I can’t wait.”
Since 2019, Kox had mostly left racing behind, instead focusing her attention on law school and being a television presenter for a car show in her native Netherlands. That all changed when Ring Racing phoned her up, which she says came more or less out of the blue.
“Out of nowhere, maybe it’s a bit too much but yes, I hadn’t been in contact with them before. And then they called if I was interested in driving with them.
“I obviously was, and I’m really happy that Ring Racing reached out to me because I think I’m very happy that I can drive for them. So, yes, it was an unexpected unexpected thing actually.”
Kox will be racing a Toyota GR Supra GT4 for the German squad, which is entering its second season in DTM’s support series. Last year, the team contested all but one round of the series, during which Toyota WEC driver Jose Maria Lopez made a pair of guest appearances at the Lausitzring and Hockenheim. For the 2021 season, the team has once again entered a pair of cars. One for Kox, and one for Belgian driver Nico Verdonck.
The surname Kox might ring a bell for those with an interest in sportscar racing. Kox is the daughter of Dutch racer Peter Kox, who took three class podiums and a class win at Le Mans as part of a lengthy GT racing career.
Not unlike her father, Stéphane became active in motorsport and built up significant sportscar racing experience. Previous outings include the GT4 European Series, the Creventic 24H Series, as well as multiple race starts in a Ligier LMP3 car in the Asian Le Mans Series.
Kox’ racing career, however, suffered a significant bump in the road when she failed to make the grid for the inaugural season of the W Series in 2019. It was a setback that caused her to temporarily close the door on her future in motorsport, although she always held out hope that an opportunity would present itself in the future.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to race anymore, obviously, because racing is the thing I prefer to do. It was just that with W Series it didn’t work out, and it was really a pity for me because the timing was not good at that moment. So I thought okay, you know, I just focus on something else. And if then at one point, again, I can come back into racing, that would be great. But I will see it, you know, I will see later on. I just finish this [her studies], and we will see.
“But obviously I always looked out for a spot somewhere, for a seat. And then Ring Racing called me, if I was interested in racing in the DTM Trophy. Obviously, it’s a good championship. I said to myself that if an opportunity came along, which I couldn’t reject, I would grab it, and that was now. So yeah, that’s why I took it.”
The circumstances around Kox’ W Series deception were quite unfortunate, as she was dealing with personal tragedies at the same time she needed to fully focus on the job at hand – making the grid for the championship’s inaugural season. Without going into details, she admits that proved more difficult than she had hoped.
“I couldn’t focus on the job in that time and I thought I would be able to. I said to myself: ‘okay I go into this process, and I can switch it off when I’m in the car’. I really believed it, but in the end, I couldn’t.”
The result was that the Dutch racer missed out on the inaugural season of the W Series. It was a setback that she says caused her to distance herself from motorsport for quite some time.
“For me it was really a setback, because I believe in myself, and I think I had the capabilities to race in that series. And so it was quite disappointing for me. I was disappointed in myself, because I knew I actually was able to do a good job. So yeah, I was most mostly disappointed in myself, and I needed to recover from that.”
“I needed to be okay with that, and it took me a while. I think it took me more than a year. In the first couple of months, I didn’t even look at racing, online, like results, or I didn’t follow it because it was just too painful.
“So really, I shut it down and I focused on something else, and then slowly I picked it up again. Obviously it’s like it was before, but it took me over a year to get over that.”
Now, two years later, Kox is back behind the wheel of a racing car. After such an extended period of time away from the cockpit, she admits she did need some time to get back into the groove of things at the series’ pre-season tests at the Lausitzring.
“I did need some time to adapt, to be honest. It was not that I was in shock about it, I felt like ‘okay I haven’t been in the car for more than two years.’ The last race I did was in 2019. And this was the only race I did in 2019. So I think the last races I did was at the end of 2018.
“So it was really a long time ago and I did need some time to adapt. Because you know, it’s so competitive. There are so many good drivers nowadays, and so it’s so competitive now that it’s not easy to jump in.
“We did the first preseason test at Lausitz. And I kept on improving so I was quite happy with that, I think in the end it wasn’t disappointing. So it was promising.”
A spot on the DTM Trophy grid now presents Kox with a unique opportunity, as she’ll be racing with the eyes of the DTM field watching. As someone who considers GT racing as her preferred discipline, and with the DTM making the step into its new, GT3-based era, there’s enough reason to be optimistic about the future.
Even so, she remains realistic about what the future could bring and has made sure she has a plan B if things do not work out as hoped.
“To be honest, racing is my priority and I would love to make my profession out of it. It has been in my family like this.
“I would really love to make to make a profession out of racing, but on the other hand, I have too much experience in this racing world to be naive about it and to tell yourself ‘this will be my forever job and I will make money out of it’. It’s very difficult, and all these guys and girls nowadays want to make their money out of racing.
“So you have to be realistic, and that’s why I went to school, and that’s why I finished my studies because I thought, if it won’t work out in the end, at least I have something as a backup.”
“If you ask me, from the bottom of my heart if racing has my priority, I would fully say yes, but I know it’s difficult and I know that there are a lot of competitors. So it’s not that I don’t know how this world works, and therefore I have a backup in case it won’t work out the way I hope it will.”
