Woman Crush Wednesday Series: Abbie Eaton

Who is Abbie Eaton, and why does she deserve a spot in our Women Crush Wednesday Series? Abbie is a successful racer and so much more.

If you’ve ever watched The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime Video, you’ve heard the trio of bumbling Brits talk about their test driver Abbie, they are referring to this woman who has been their test driver for the past two years, but there’s much more to her than just testing cars for this show.

A Little History

Abbie is a British racing driver, go figure, and she was born in Yorkshire, England. She has been driving for a long time, even though she is not yet thirty years old. She’s currently a qualified racing instructor and performance driving coach, but until the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, she was the test driver for The Grand Tour, setting the lap times at the chosen course for the show.

Driving For a Long Time

When we say that Abbie Eaton has been driving for a long time, that’s not an exaggeration. Much like many of her male counterparts, she was driving early in life, beginning her competitive racing career at the age of ten. At this age, she competed in Karting in the Comer Cadet class and won many races for the three years she was part of this series.

After starting in Karting, Eaton competed in SAXMAX, where she reached the highest position of fourth during 2007 and 2008. When the 2009 calendar year arrived, Abbie found herself in her first Production Touring Car Championship series in a Vauxhall Corsa SRi-R. She won the Class B championship with 15 wins in 18 races. From this series, she moved to Mazda MX-5 Cup racing and later Supercup racing, in which she won five races.

Next came a brief stint in the GT Cup series where Abbie Eaton won one race, finished on the podium eight times, and had three fastest lap times. From here, she raced in the British GT series and placed fourth overall with her team. This was followed by time in the Blancpain GT series in a Ferrari 488 GT3, which she raced to victory as the first female to ever win a class in this series.

A Little Racing After The Grand Tour

The show may have hit a stall with the pandemic, but that hasn’t slowed Abbie down at all. Earlier this year, she competed in her first open-wheel race with the W Series, and during this race, she competed against her girlfriend, Jess, for the first time. While she waits for The Grand Tour to resume airing and testing, she is keeping herself busy breaking down barriers and taking on racing challenges.

Abbie Followed “The American” on The Grand Tour

While Abbie Eaton continues to enjoy her time driving the W Series open-wheel racing season, whether or not she will return to The Grand Tour is unknown. As the show began its fourth season, most of the shows were focused on specials rather than cars and racing. This might not leave room for Abbie to return to the show.

Abbie followed “The American” on the show. The American is Mike Skinner, who is famous as a NASCAR driver and brought a gruff, southern persona to the show that was probably not appreciated by the British audience. While the first season of the show certainly had a bit of American humor injected into it, having Abbie behind the wheel without many lines was a better choice as the goal of her driving was to create the best lap times.

Abbie Continues to Break Down Walls

It would be nearly impossible not to love Abbie Eaton and the accomplishments she’s achieving in racing. She is not the first openly gay woman in motorsports, but she might be the first to race against her girlfriend. She wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth; her father was a racer but in a blue-collar way.

Now that her career has taken her to the W Series, where she is racing open-wheel cars, it’s only a matter of time before she dominates this part of the sport and moves on to take on bigger challenges. Whether or not we will see Abbie Eaton on television again is yet to be seen, but she has certainly become a huge star with a big following on social media. If you’re looking for a woman to crush on and admire this Wednesday, you can toss your hat in the ring for Abbie.