Julia Nosova

Yuliya Sergeevnya Nosova (billed as Julia Nosova prior to 2010) is a Russian race car driver. Nosova began her career in formula open wheel cars in Europe. After several successful seasons, she joined the TM Lights Series making her debut at the finale Round of Decatur. Nosova impressed many in her first career TM Lights race, and in 2006 she was signed by JC Racing for a full-time schedule in the TM Lights. Nosova became the first Russian female ever in the TM Master Cup Series and the first Russian driver to attempt a TM Master Cup race in North America. Nosova is known to be very good friends with fellow driver Alexis Rainsford, and the two worked well together during their time together at JC Racing. She is one of four drivers to win the Karjala Grand Prix while running for TM Master Cup Series Rookie of the Year, the others being Leonid Roderick, Arto Kekkonen, and Mathias Taube. She is also the second woman to win a TM Master Cup series race and until 2011 was the only woman to win the Karjala Grand Prix.

Nosova is known for her off-track marketability in Europe, in particular in Russia, and reportedly motivated Ivan Katzev to bring his team back to TM Master Cup Series racing after spending many years as a Karjala-only effort.

Formula A
Nosova began her Formula A career as the reserve driver for Dansa in 2003, making a one-off start for the Hungarian Grand Prix (the closest thing she had to a home race). In her debut, she qualified next to last and retired with a gearbox problem midway through the event. Nosova made history as the second Russian driver in Formula A and the fourth woman to start a Formula A race. She was also the first woman to start a Formula A race in 17 years.

Nosova was selected as the teammate to Luigi Benedetti at Dansa for the 2004 season. Nosova did not have the greatest resume before entering Formula A, and her selection seemed to be more of a novelty choice in hopes of attracting more sponsorship. Nosova reportedly brought one of the largest sponsorship packages the sport had ever seen when she signed for Dansa. Nosova gained a reputation for crashing fairly often early in her career, but was seldom more than a few tenths slower than her teammate during the races.

Nosova scored two fourth place finishes in her rookie campaign, in Australia (in torrential conditions) and Belgium. Aside from those results, Nosova did not score any more points in 2004 and was left with 8 points. Luigi Benedetti ended the year with 42 points.

2005, however, was much different. Nosova's reputation as only being there because of gender and money was eroded slightly after outqualifying Benedetti in the first five races, however, she failed to score points until Spain, when she came home in a respectable 6th place.

Nosova came home third at the French Grand Prix after teammate Benedetti won the race. Benedetti would later say that Nosova could have gotten second place with a better strategy. Nosova said she could have if she and Benedetti had the same car, implying that Benedetti was getting better cars than she was.

TM Master Cup Series Transition: 2007-2009
Nosova found the transition to the TM Master Cup series to be fairly smooth, despite a steep learning curve. She found the media to be more difficult to deal with than her teammate Alexis Rainsford, which some interpreted as a shy or unfriendly personality. However, one of her engineers, Phil Stoyanovich, indicated that Nosova was not confident in her ability to speak English well enough to deal with the English-speaking press until midway through 2009.

Even though she won Karjala in 2007 and was a factor in the championship battle, her inconsistency on the intermediate and short ovals cost her dearly in the points. 2008 ran similarly for Nosova, and her confidence was dented a little after Rainsford won the championship and three races in the same season.

Katzev Engineering: 2010-Present
Nosova took a career risk by joining Katzev Engineering, where she gave the sluggish Katzev some strong runs, including a win in her home race. She had no impact on the championship in 2010. She made an even smaller impact in 2011, largely due to Katzev's decision to use their own engine instead of the Calton-Morel engines they used in 2010. Nosova continued to perform well, notching a handful of solid points finishes regardless. For the 2011 Karjala Grand Prix, Katzev was able to use the Calton-Morel engines, and Nosova managed to run in second before the engine gave up late in the race. Katzev was able to use the Calton-Morel engines for the last few races of the season, where Nosova was a regular contender for points.

For 2012, Nosova and Katzev were expected to struggle, but it became clear that changes made over the winter turned Katzev from a backmarker team to a solid contender for top tens on a regular basis. Nosova's new teammate, Jose Luis Martinez, was not believed to be a threat to Nosova based on preseason testing times. Martinez regularly trailed Nosova early in the season, but remained determined to match her on points if he could.

Nosova and Martinez both took risky pit strategies during the 2012 Round of France, which led to a thrilling duel at the end of the race. Martinez had been saving fuel and stretching it far longer than anyone else had been able to, whereas Nosova was charging up to the Mexican, slowly but surely eliminating Martinez's massive lead that his strategy had given him. The race ended with Nosova passing Martinez on the last stretch of the last lap, marking Katzev's second ever win, and their second 1-2 finish. An exuberant Nosova was nearly brought to tears during the playing of the Russian national anthem on the podium, a clear sign that the work she and the team had done to improve was paying off.

France was not a fluke result by any means, as Nosova and Martinez both showed the same speed and tenacity. Nosova showed that she was willing to take risks on strategy in her home race in Russia, but she ran out of fuel with less than a third to lap to go after dominating the race. Nosova refused to speak about that race for some time, feeling that she had let a win slip away needlessly, taking the blame for the lost win.

Despite other flashes of brilliance in the 2012 season, the Katzev car was still unreliable, and mechanical failures plagued both Nosova and Martinez on numerous occasions. Both of the Katzev drivers are solidly in the top 20 in the championship, a significant improvement on the team's nightmare 2011 season.

Random Notes
- Was the first Russian driver to start a TM Master Cup series race since 1998, and the first Russian driver to start a TM Master Cup series race in North America.

- 2nd Russian driver in Formula A, after pay-driver Grigor Grishenko had an unsuccessful run in 1999 and 2000.

- During her Formula A career, was accused of being a pay driver whose only reason for being on the grid was due to her gender, after being comprehensively beaten by teammate Luigi Benedetti in both seasons. Nosova insisted that she was not getting the same car as Benedetti. Was dropped after 2005 after strife with internal management.

- Her connections to John Calton led her to Calton-Morel in the States.

- No desire to return to Formula A after Katzev Engineering entered the TM Master Cup series.

- Prefers the races in Europe to the races in America, since it allows her to be closer to family.

- Started her racing career at age 18 doing rallying, but switched to asphalt after garnering a reputation for crashing.