Yolanda “Girlie” Lukhele wrote it in the caption herself: she was terrified. She had been avoiding the handbrake long enough. Her audience was waiting.

That video, a real-time document of a sim racer confronting a technique she had not yet mastered, became the clearest expression of what Girlie has been building since 2023: a motorsport community grounded in documenting failure as transparently as success.

Today, she is one of the most recognizable motorsport and sim-racing creators in South Africa, with more than 120,000 TikTok followers. In May 2026, her GR Cup debut for Toyota GAZOO Racing South Africa ended with third-place class finishes in both races at Zwartkops Raceway.

“I’m a rally sim racing and motorsport enthusiast and now a rookie rally driver as well,” she says. Before all of that, she was in law.

The Attorney Who Never Stopped Thinking About Wheels

Girlie began her motorsport journey around 2018, even while working toward her law degree and later practicing as a candidate attorney. The two tracks ran in parallel until content creation began pulling ahead.

Growing up, she had always gravitated toward anything with wheels. Rollerblades gave way to bicycles, then quad bikes. “That’s where I really felt alive,” she says. “Four wheels and an engine.” She also grew up gaming on “the OG Xbox.” When she eventually discovered motorsport content, it felt like the natural convergence of two longtime obsessions.

The decision to step back from law was not forced by a single moment. As she began filming in the evenings after work, income from content was still irregular. But as opportunities grew and balancing both became impractical, she made her choice. “I wanted to pursue my passion and what I loved,” she says, “and it just made sense when my content started taking off.”

She does not frame law as something she has left behind permanently. “It’s not something that I’m going to leave forever,” she says. The wheel, for now, takes priority.

A Friend, a YouTube Channel, and a Borrowed Console

In 2023, a friend told Girlie he had watched a woman sim racing on YouTube, a creator named “Cookies and Cars.” His suggestion was simple: buy a sim wheel and start posting. She borrowed an Xbox console and did exactly that, with no expectation that it would go anywhere.

“I had no idea where it was going to go,” she says. “I was just having a good time. I was just posting, having some fun.”

The early TikTok videos were unpolished and honest. She did not know how to heel-toe shift. She did not know how to use the handbrake. She posted anyway. The comment section filled up with experienced sim racers offering guidance, and she listened.

“Most of the time, my audience was also along for the journey,” she says, “and they were helping me learn how to sim race.”

That dynamic, an audience teaching a creator in real time, became the foundation of everything that followed. Her followers did not arrive despite her inexperience. They arrived because of it.

Showing the Footwork

The content pivot that changed Girlie’s trajectory came from a simple audience request: show us your feet.

“When I started putting in my feet, and I started learning how to left foot brake, and I started heel-toe shifting, that completely changed the game for me,” she says. Showing the footwork made the physical craft of sim racing visible in a way that screen footage alone rarely does. It also deepened audience investment. They were not just watching her race; they were watching her learn.

The audience relationship is somewhat particular to motorsport. Sim-racing viewers often arrive with technical knowledge that the creator is still developing, which means the comment section functions as a classroom. Followers pushed her to try F1 titles and Assetto Corsa, games outside her natural rally focus. “Listening to my audience, they like F1,” she says. “So I was able to connect with more people through F1.”

TikTok was where she first found her creative footing; Instagram has since driven brand growth and partnerships. “TikTok really helped me grow as a person and also as a creator,” she says. “Instagram is what helps with my business.” YouTube remains a work in progress.

Content decisions now blend platform analytics, audience requests, and her own desire to document what is actually happening in her racing life. “Sometimes, I just want to be able to share,” she says. “I have a race, I have this going on, and I bring everyone along on that journey.”

The Financial Reality of Motorsport Content

Building a motorsport content business from South Africa has involved costs that rarely appear in a highlight reel. Sim racing equipment is expensive. Real motorsport sponsorships are harder still to secure. Income from content creation is unpredictable by nature.

“I don’t think people understand exactly how expensive gaming and sim racing can get,” Girlie says. Equipment replacement and maintaining a setup capable of producing consistent content add up faster than most audiences realize.

Affiliate programs have provided her with her most consistent income. She has affiliate programs with Next Level Racing and EA Sports, a brand she grew up admiring long before any commercial relationship. “I grew up admiring and playing all the games on EA Sports,” she says. “I was over the moon, really, because I just love them as a brand.”

Promotional work offers larger paydays but less predictability. “It’s not a steady income,” she notes. “You don’t know where your next paycheck may come in.” She also observes a structural gap in her local market. Affiliate programs, widely available to creators in the U.S. and Europe, remain less common in South Africa. “I’d love to see a little bit more affiliate programs here in South Africa,” she says.

What creator income she does generate goes in part directly back into racing, helping to fund her rally car and narrow the distance between the platform and the sport it documents.

From Screen to Podium

When Girlie moved from sim to real-world racing, the transition proved smoother than most observers would expect. Sim racing had already done much of the preparation. Pace notes, braking zones, racing lines: she had practiced all of it before she ever applied it to a physical stage.

“Sim racing was able to teach me all of the techniques, make me comfortable with hearing the pace notes, and get me used to all the lines on the track,” she says. “It was more about perfecting it and applying it in a real car.”

She has since built a real-world racing record across multiple programs in South African motorsport, including competitive entries with Team Suzuki at Simola Hillclimb and SHIELD Racing, in addition to the 2026 Toyota GAZOO Racing South Africa GR Cup Hot Seat program. At Zwartkops Raceway, she qualified fifth in the GR Cup Media Challenge class and finished third in both races.

That credibility has had to be earned under terms most male competitors do not face. “I put a lot more pressure on myself to prove myself not only as a woman, but also as a creator going into the motorsport space,” Girlie says. She grew up always drawn to spaces where boys outnumbered girls, from quad biking to sim racing, and she credits that with building an early fearlessness. “If I want to do something, I’m going to go,” she says.

Gravel Next, and the Journey Still Unfolding

Girlie’s next competitive chapter involves gravel rallying, a surface she is preparing to tackle in the coming months. The progression from screen to tarmac to gravel mirrors the story she has been telling her audience all along: not the finished product, but the ongoing process of becoming one.

Her advice for creators starting without ideal equipment, industry connections, or a clear path forward distills her own experience without softening it. “Just take that first step and just keep on working, showing up, being consistent,” she says. “Even if you don’t feel like it, sometimes you just have to show up,” she adds.

The most fruitful moments in her career are not the podiums or the brand deals. They come from messages from followers who started their own sim racing channels after watching hers.

“That has been the most rewarding thing to me,” she says, “to know that I’ve been able to impact a lot more people’s lives and to be able to encourage people to step out of their comfort zones.”

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