Julia Ashcroft

Julia Ashcroft (born in January 5, 1984) is an American driver currently racing in the Professional Auto Racing Tour for her family team, Ashcroft Family Racing.

Early life and career
Julia was born in Miami, Florida, daughter of one time PART Racing Series champion Tom Ashcroft, niece of four time champion Jack and granddaughter of one of PART's founders, Donald Ashcroft, who was responsible for the series' Driver's Council until 1995.

Julia started racing with bandoleros when she was 13 years old, right after the car type was introduced on short tracks across the south, when she completed 16 years of age, she moved up to Legends cars, however she did not found success in short track racing, failing to do anything meaningful on that car type, to this day Ashcroft is not considered a strong short tracker.

She was one of the original 20 drivers to take part in the inaugural Challenge Series season, at the time called Pro Series. Ashcroft had a much easier time adapting to the high speed old Master Cup cars, which were used in PART constantly. Although she was unable to score any wins, she captured a 9th place in the standings.

2003 was a difficult year for Ashcroft after having to deal with a crash in the opening race at Lakeland. He broke her collarbone after a head-on impact against the turn 4 wall, she would only return in the 7th of 12 rounds of the season, failing to score a top 10 in all races.

2004 was by far her best season in the Challenge Series, where she scored her first PART win in the penultimate round of the season at Rockingham. She would finish 11th in standings.

Racing Series career
Following 2004, Tom Ashcroft retired after a 14 year career in his family owned team. He had decided to run a limited schedule in 2005, placing his daughter Julia in the #09 car, in which she would run 10 of the 18 races in the season.

Julia failed to qualify in her first six attempts. Her seventh attempt was coincidentally the most traditional race of the season, the Independence Special.

Ashcroft was able to make it in after qualifying was rained out and she was high enough to not be bumped out. Luck was still smiling to Ashcroft, as 25 laps into the 200 lap race, a large crash took place, eliminating 22 of the 36 starters. Ashcroft was not one of the involved cars and by using a alternate strategy, Ashcroft was able to win in her debut, a feat only seen before in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

The rest of the 2005 season for Ashcroft was moderately anonymous as she failed to qualify for 7 of her 10 starts and finished inside of the top 10 on her other two starts at Talladega and Darlington.

2006 was a dominant year for the Ashcroft's team, as in a lineup consisting of Ashcroft and Canadian Robert Burton, the team was able to dominate most of the season, winning 10 of the season's 18 races, Burton winning 8 and Ashcroft winning two, at Watkins Glen and Boston. Burton took the title, while Ashcroft finished 6th, bringing home 4 top 5s and 13 top 10s.

2007 was the year where Ashcroft won her fist title, with 23 years of age, becoming the youngest driver to do so until 2013. Her championship campaign was dominant, after winning 6 of the 18 races, finishing in the top 5 for 10 races and only failing to finish in the top 10 twice, as she retired from the first two races of the year.

2008 was one of the worst title defenses recorded in PART history as both Ashcroft Family Racing cars failed to finish 14 races, approximately 78% of all races, Ashcroft was unable to score any top 5s, but finished in the top 10 when she finished, scoring a 20th place in the standings. 2009 was a much easier season, as Ashcroft won 2 races, Daytona and California, but she was from the title hunt, ending 9th of the 20 full-time contenders.

2010 was a mostly anonymous year for Ashcroft, as due to a crash early in the season, Ashcroft missed the first 3 races, what took her out of the fight for the championship, still, Ashcroft was able to win 3 races, however, the battle for the title was between Marcus Stanton and Jack Patterson.

In 2011, Julia Ashcroft would once again show signs of dominance, leading the series in wins, top 5s, top 10s and being able to finish all 22 races of the year. Julia scored 8 top 5s, 14 top 10s and 4 wins, taking home her second title home for 15 points over defending champion Marcus Stanton.

The period between 2012 and 2014 was one of the most difficult in her career, being forced to miss half of the 2012 season due to breaking multiple bones at Daytona, and in her return to the series, late in the season at Columbia, getting a concussion after a collision late in the race.

2013 was not easier, as she suffered first degree burns in her legs after a fiery crash at Watkins Glen that took the race out of the schedule for a year, due to also nearly ending the career of Jack Patterson, who wrecked in the Outer Loop.

Her return in 2014 was extremely hyped as the #999 was reserved to her, after her younger sister Kelly Ashcroft subbed for her while running the Pro Series, being able to win in the #9 once. Ashcroft was en route for a win at Circuit of the Americas but a tire blowout said otherwise, however the season was not a complete train wreck as she won at Road America. Still, Ashcroft was far, far away from the battle for the championship.

In 2015, Ashcroft was once again the title contender after a season full of consistency, scoring an average finish total of 15th (third best of the series) and a win at the Independence Special, her third win in the event. However, the lack of more wins and poor finishes at Daytona and Talladega cost her the championship, finishing 3rd, 75 points behind. 2016 was her final season as a full-time driver, and it was another season with three wins, coming at Quincy, Texas World and Dover, entering the finale amongst the 10 championship contenders, failing to win the title, ending in 4th, fighting until the last segment of the TryHard 500.

Personal Life
Julia is married to Brazilian race car driver Gabriel Macena, they started their relationship in 2006 and were married in 2009. They have one son, Lucas, born in September of 2017.

Ashcroft has been considered one of the greatest NAAC drivers in history, with a total record of 21 wins in 9 years of competition, she currently owns a racing school in Ithaca, New York alongside her husband.