the grand tour season 2 female racing driver

Amazon’s ‘The Grand Tour’ Introduces New Female Racing Driver

It’s been a boys club so far on the Amazon original series The Grand Tour . The show’s three hosts and best friends Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May had the first season all the themselves but now the mates are welcoming a woman in the show’s the second season.

They’ve hired a new British racing driver and her name is Abbie Eaton. (She’s replacing American Mike Skinner).

Clarkson introduced her on the show’s second episode “The Fall Guys”: “We needed a replacement. We needed a new driver. We spent the last nine months auditioning everyone we could think of—former F1 drivers, rally drivers, stunt drivers, test drivers—until we ended up with the fastest. And here she is.”

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The camera switched to Eaton inside a viper-green Mercedes-AMG GTR ready at the starting line on their test track.

Clarkson added at the end of the drive, “That was an impressive lap, but let’s see how fast it was, here we go… yes! 1:18:7. That, that is quick.”

Hammond called Eaton an “incredible driver” and Clarkson added, “Yes, she’s a phenomenal driver, absolutely phenomenal. We are delighted to have her on board.”

So, who is Abbie Eaton? According to her website , she’s a 25-year-old professional race car driver who has driven in the SAXMAX Championship and the Production Touring Car Championship.

She was also the champion at the Mazda MX-5 SuperCup in 2014. And in 2017, she drove in the British GT Championship and the Blancpain Endurance Series, where she was the first woman ever on the podium.

Check out the clip below:

Ladies and gentlemen, our new driver. #TheGrandTour pic.twitter.com/R94SQhvOGz — The Grand Tour (@thegrandtour) December 15, 2017

The Grand Tour , Streaming Now, Amazon Prime Video

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The Grand Tour

ABBIE EATON

BRITISH RACING DRIVER

ABOUT ABBIE

Abbie is a two-time British Champion with over two decades of track experience under her belt. She’s raced in various echelons of motorsport, including go-karts, saloon and touring cars, Rallycross, GT and Formula 3. She’s also known as the test driver for Amazon Prime’s hit TV show, The Grand Tour, working alongside Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, setting lap times on the Eboladrome, and joining them on their exotic challenges.

REBELLEO MOTORSPORT

In 2023 Abbie co-founded Rebelleo Motorsport. 

Rebelleo Motorsport exists to challenge the status quo in motorsport with the mission to break down the barriers that prevent talented drivers from doing what they love.

We want to create opportunities and make racing more accessible to anyone, regardless of background, gender, race, ethnicity or beliefs.

We’re committed to building the platform that inspires and empowers future generations as we work towards achieving short-term success on the track and long-term impact off it.

After a successful debut year in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo, we are bringing Rebelleo values over to the UK, in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.

www.rebelleomotorsport.com

CONTACT ABBIE

Email: [email protected]

Email: [email protected]

• Test Drivers

Abbie Eaton

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Abbie Eaton (born 2nd January, 1992) is a British professional racing driver from East Yorkshire and the current lap setter and test driver for The Grand Tour . Eaton replaced Mike "The American" Skinner in the second episode of the show's second season. Eaton's replacement of Skinner was not announced before the second series premiere and was first revealed when The Fall Guys premiered on the 15th of December, 2017. Eaton is the first, and currently, only, permanent female cast member on The Grand Tour.

Before she was officially confirmed as the show's new driver, May hinted at her identity by saying, "We tested loads of people and she was the fastest and the best and that's how it should be. To employ her for any other reason would be patronising". [1]

Outside of The Grand Tour, Eaton is a successful racing driver, having won the 2009 Thorney Motorsport Touring Car Championship and the 2014 AE Racing Mazda Mx5 SuperCup.

Times Logged [ ]

*=Lap not shown

• 1 Hammond's Rimac Crash
• 2 Mike Skinner
• 3 Enviro-mental

The Grand Tour has a brand new driver – and fans couldn't be happier

Abbie Eaton has joined Clarkson, Hammond and May behind the wheel.

The Grand Tour ' s second season has so far given us more of what we enjoyed in its debut, with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May continuing to provide the car-based thrills.

But there's been one major change this season, as The American has been kicked out of his driving role on the Amazon show.

Thankfully, the show has found a top-notch replacement in the shape of British racing driver and 2014 Mazda MX-5 Supercup Champion Abbie Eaton.

Clarkson introduced her by saying: "We needed a new driver. And we've spent the last nine months auditioning everyone we could think of.

"Former F1 drivers, rally drivers, stunt drivers, test drivers. Until we ended up with the fastest. And here she is."

The clip then cuts to Eaton suited up in a car, saying: "Right, here we go."

Eaton herself is clearly delighted to be in the drivers seat, as she tweeted a snap and wrote: "Hope you're all enjoying the new series of @TheGrandTour. I'm loving the new changes they've made."

Fans were delighted to see the show's new driver in action:

Eaton has been racing since the age of 10 and previously featured on ITV's Drive in 2015, which saw her coach rapper Professor Green in various racing car challenges. The pair went on to win the show.

Here's to seeing much more of Eaton during the rest of the series!

The Grand Tour airs on Amazon Prime, with the third episode of the second series dropping on December 22.

Reporter & Sub-Editor, Digital Spy Susannah is a freelance writer and sub-editor, specialising in the entertainment industry. She graduated in 2014, with a BA in English and American Literature and Creative Writing, and an MA in Creative Producing.  She’s been writing for Digital Spy ever since, after first getting involved through work experience, and has written hundreds of stories for the site on a range of topics, from The Sims to Doctor Who .  Susannah has also written for Reveal Magazine.  Her special interests are soaps (her Mastermind subject would be 2000s Coronation Street ), Marvel and Star Wars . She can also quote far too many lines from Friends and Brooklyn Nine-Nine .  

.css-15yqwdi:before{top:0;width:100%;height:0.25rem;content:'';position:absolute;background-image:linear-gradient(to right,#51B3E0,#51B3E0 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 5rem,#E5E54F 5rem,#E5E54F 7.5rem,black 7.5rem,black);} The Grand Tour

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Abbie strapped in and ready for action

© Natalie Moore

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Abbie Eaton Is The Grand Tour's New Racing Driver But Bizarrely Nobody Is Saying Her Name

The Grand Tour is officially done with Mike Skinner The American, but it needed a new hot shoe for track tests, and the awesome news is that the role’s gone to a woman for season two. She’s racing driver Abbie Eaton, but you wouldn’t know that from actually watching the show.

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We’ve known that the show was searching for a new racing driver after they announced that Skinner wouldn’t be on the show anymore. In a November interview with The Daily Telegraph and reported on by MotoringBox , James May revealed that their new driver was a woman, but kept her name a secret.

Last night, we got to meet Eaton for the first time, during which she thrashed a viper-green Mercedes-AMG GT R around the test track. It was fantastic. I’m very excited to see her on the show.

Yet, her name wasn’t mentioned once during her entire (short) segment, even when Jeremy Clarkson introduced her. In addition to a tweeted clip, you’ll also find the full transcript of the hot lap segment below:

Clarkson: “...But the point is, we needed a replacement. We needed a new driver. We spent the last nine months auditioning everyone we could think of—former F1 drivers, rally drivers, stunt drivers, test drivers—until we ended up with the fastest. And here she is.” Eaton: “Right. Here we go.” Clarkson: “And she’s off. Tidy start, no wheel-spin, full power from the twin-turbo V8 to the first corner. Will she lift? No, it didn’t sound like she did. “Right, second corner. Balancing the car nicely. God, that thing looks planted. “Right, here we go, this is the tricky bit. Let’s have a look at how she’s getting on ‘round here. Oh, that thing looks planted! And quick! And she’s on the raggedy edge on the down-changes. Michelins squealing in pain but that is—let’s have a look—inch perfect. “Now, back onto the Isn’t. She really only has one throttle position here and it is in the carpet. Okay, lifting now and into the Old Lady’s House Complex. Working the low speed grip through there. Yup—and back on the gas for the bumpy run to Substation. Showing no mercy down there. Leaving the braking nice and late, tidy line through the second-to-last corner. “Just Field of Sheep to go. Really on it through there—and across the line! “That was an impressive lap, but let’s see how fast it was, here we go... yes! 1:18:7. That, that is quick.” Richard Hammond: “Yeah, it is, and she’s an incredible driver.” Clarkson: “Yes, she’s a phenomenal driver, absolutely phenomenal. We are delighted to have her on board. But now it is time to move on.”

Weird, right? The omission of her name was actually so glaring that it distracted me from the show. In fact, it was only during the credits did I actually learn who this pilot was.

Eaton is a 25-year-old professional racer driver from England. According to her website , she’s raced in the SAXMAX Championship and the Production Touring Car Championship, where she was the Class B champion. She’s also driven in the Mazda MX-5 SuperCup and was crowned the champion there as well.

After that, she drove in the GT Cup, the British GT Championship and with the Blancpain Endurance Series, where she was the first woman to finish first in her class. And when she’s not doing all of that, she works as a driving coach at Silverstone, according to The Sun .

To make sure this isn’t just a thing that happens on The Grand Tour , I went back and watched the premiere season’s first episode, where Skinner is makes his appearance. Clarkson brings up both his NASCAR background and his name there. What gives?

When tapped for comment, a spokesperson speaking on behalf of Amazon speculated over the phone that because the public reaction to Skinner was so overwhelmingly negative, the producers decided to downplay the role of the driver from a character to merely a driver. They couldn’t use an anonymous driver like the other car show does, so this is what we ended up with.

I don’t believe this is the full reason, because you can totally introduce a new race car driver and also publicly provide her name without making her into some kind of character on the show, like Skinner or the Stig. It seems like the producers told Skinner to put on a personality they wrote for him, which backfired spectacularly and now they’re trying to fix their mistake by minimizing the role of the driver altogether.

Still, it’s good to see some more diverse representation on a show as big and influential as The Grand Tour. I can’t wait to see Eaton drive in future episodes. But let’s hope the show lets everyone know who she is.

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Who is Abbie Eaton? Grand Tour season two racing driver who replaced Mike Skinner on the Amazon Prime show

Introducing 'the driver' - the newest face on Amazon Prime's Grand Tour

• Phoebe Cooke
• Published : 17:22, 8 Feb 2018
• Updated : 14:39, 3 Apr 2019

IT IS rare to see a female racing driver in the public eye - let alone in the male-dominated world of Amazon's The Grand Tour.

So Abbie Eaton - who's taken the role of test driver in the Amazon Prime show's second series - might just be the breath of fresh air the racing world needs...

Who is Abbie Eaton?

Abigail "Abbie" Eaton is a racing driver from the East Riding of Yorkshire in England.

At the age of 25, she is one of the most successful female racing drivers in the UK.

When not racing, she works as a professional racing instructor at Silverstone.

Now she has added another string to her bow as the racing driver for currently test driving cars for The Grand Tour season two, where she replaces US racing driver Mike Skinner.

The next in the popular Amazon Prime series features Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May test driving cars from Central Park in Manhattan to the Niagara Falls.

Abbie lives in Northampton, where she has a dog (Tilly) and cat (Marmie).

According to her website, Abbie loves music, gym, skiing and wakeboarding - and her favourite food is salmon.

What races has she been in?

Abbie started racing at the age of 10 and started adult racing in 2009. Since then she has won 25 races.

In 2014 she was the full season champion for the Mazda MX5 Supercup.

This year she won the Blancpin Endurance Series in a Ferrari 488 GT3 - the first woman to ever get a place on the podium.

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What does a grand tour racing driver do.

When Mike Skinner was in the job, his role was to test drive all the cars for the presenter trio.

Abbie will be expected to do the same, and comment on the car's performance for the camera.

She's yet to have been introduced on the show as anything but "the driver" - whereas Skinner was known as "the American".

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Abbie Eaton: ‘I really enjoyed The Grand Tour but returning to racing was always the goal’

The Briton is swapping her test driver role on The Grand Tour for a place in the W Series and she cannot wait until the championship’s first round in St Petersburg

W ith new hopes and ambitions, 2020 is not only a new year for Abbie Eaton but almost a rebirth. The 28-year-old might be best known as the test driver on recent series of The Grand Tour but racing is her passion. Putting cars through their paces for Clarkson et al was only a welcome stopgap, one now concluded as Eaton anticipates returning to the serious business behind the wheel in the second season of the all-female W Series.

Eaton, from Yorkshire, is engaging, articulate and thoughtful but can also be refreshingly blunt. Having come out as lesbian last year she considers questions about sport and her sexuality and gender with the care she clearly believes they deserve. Yet she refuses to be defined by either, because it is the racing that matters.

“I am quite thick-skinned; I am a northern bird,” she says, smiling. “People will say what they want to say but it just goes in one ear and out the other as long as I am doing what I want to do.”

What she wants to do is race but Eaton’s career ground to a halt through lack of funding four years ago. She had repeatedly proved herself on track yet was left disheartened that success did not translate into backing. The W Series is her way back. The championship had a major impact in its first season and is set to build on its success this year. For Eaton, January cannot be over soon enough and waiting until the first round at St Petersburg in May is going to be trying. When she does finally take to the grid it will be not only a vindication of her determination but, well, like coming home. “I was still in my mummy’s belly when I first went to a race track,” she says. “I was two months old when I first went as a baby to watch Dad karting. I have been at circuits ever since then.”

Her dad, Paul, was a committed tin top racer and mum, Denise, supported him, with Abbie in tow. By the time she was seven their daughter wanted in as well. Watching karting at Knockhill in Fife she asked her parents for a go but they were too busy. Entirely in character, Eaton set about the task herself.

“I made a cardboard box and went around the teams, asking please donate to my fund to go karting,” she recalls, smiling. “I came back and told Mum and Dad I had the money to do it. They were mortified and tried to give the money back but no one would take it.”

Unsurprisingly her parents ultimately gave in. Eaton had her own kart when she was 10, and on her first outing in the cold and sleet of a January morning, all she would say was: “When can I go again?” From there racing was all.

Since then Eaton considers that she has generally enjoyed support from male counterparts but acknowledges that it has sometimes been necessary to get her elbows out. “If guys think a girl will back out they will try and scare you a little bit,” she says. “In karting one guy would always knock me off on one corner. He did it again and at the next corner I just hit him off really hard into the barriers. Afterwards he came up to me and grabbed me round the neck but I looked him in the eye and said: ‘You won’t do it again though, will you?’”

Eaton won her class on her first year in adult touring car racing when she was 17, taking 15 wins from 18 races and 16 podiums. She followed it by competing in the Mazda MX-5 Cup, almost entirely self-funded by her far from well-off family. Her dad built the cars and her mum ran the team. In 2014 she won the SuperCup. In 2016 a season in the British GT championship was also successful, with second in class, but she could go no further.

As with so many drivers, especially women, there was no funding forthcoming. She stuck at it, taking one-off drives wherever she could, including winning her class in a round of the Blancpain GT Series. It exemplified just what feel and natural talent she had. The race was her first time in the series, her first time in a GT3 car and her first time driving at Monza and she became the first woman to win a class in the series. Yet no further backing materialised.

“I thought two or three times I am going to give up,” she says. “After Blancpain, we went out and won it and nothing happened. I asked myself: ‘What more do I have to do?’ But motor sport is all I have ever known and I couldn’t turn my back on it and now have made it to the W Series .”

The W Series, intended to promote and support women in racing with the goal of helping one reach F1, covers all the costs of its competitors and has already been hugely influential in revitalising the careers of genuinely talented drivers who had been stymied through a lack of funding. “That first year got the interest of females in motor sport through the roof,” says Eaton. “The level of competition from the girls was fantastic and there has been no expense spared. I can’t fault it.”

Having never driven single-seaters before, Eaton is boldly taking on a real challenge, compared to which The Grand Tour was a pleasing distraction . “I really enjoyed doing it,” she says. “But returning to racing was always the goal.” Clearly, she cannot wait to continue the real journey that has consumed her since she was a child.

“When you’re young you have all these dreams and think: ‘If I am good and I work hard, I will be able to succeed’. You have all the confidence and determination that it will work,” she says. “As you get older you realise it’s not as easy as you thought but you don’t give up.”

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The Grand Tour’s perfect tame racing driver: Abbie Eaton

Race me and you'll be on thin ice, mr stig.

WE CAN’T call Abbie Eaton the first female Stig for legal reasons (although that’s what she is). The 27-year-old racing driver from Hull is the test driver on The Grand Tour, starring the former Top Gear triumvirate of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, and will return in the role for the third series on Amazon Prime later this month.

Her identity is not shrouded in secrecy like the Stig’s, but she has the same licence to thrash cars round the show’s test track in Wiltshire. In the new series, she also accompanies “the boys”, as she affectionately calls them, on an ice-driving challenge in Sweden.

Eaton, who has previously raced in the British GT Championship and made her television debut alongside Professor Green, the rapper, in the 2015 ITV series Drive, thought it was a “wind-up” when she first received an email from the makers of The Grand Tour inviting her to try out for the series.

A few days later she was on the show’s test track — “the Eboladrome” — at the former RAF Wroughton near Swindon, where she was asked to match lap times that had been set in about half a dozen cars. “I ended up beating most of them,” she grins.

In their Top Gear days, Clarkson, Hammond and May were renowned for their laddish humour, even though they were the first to talent-spot Sabine Schmitz, the German racing driver who set a lap record on the Nürburgring in a Ford Transit (and went on to co-present the new Top Gear after Clarkson’s departure ).

“You get the inevitable online comments about ‘women drivers’, but I’m thick skinned”

So, did Eaton expect to be the butt of jokes from the three presenters? No, she says, and it has “definitely not” been the case.

“I’ve never really come across any sexism, even in my racing.”

Outside her professional life, she gets the “odd throwaway comment”, but says: “I’m quite thick-skinned, so it just spurs me on.

“Jeremy just cracks me up and is like a male version of me. And the boys have been nothing but supportive. I grew up watching Top Gear and I don’t remember ever thinking, ‘This show needs more women.’ There were always women in the audience, but the show was just all about ‘the boys’.”

The car she has most enjoyed driving on the show is a  Lamborghini Huracan Performante : “If I win the lottery, it’s the first car I’ll buy.”

The most challenging aspect of the job appears to be circumnavigating the local wildlife. Filming is frequently halted to avoid deer on the track or to remove a stray pheasant from the front grille, or allow the “old lady” who lives in a house alongside the track to leave her drive.

Eaton is the daughter of Paul Eaton, a former racing driver who competed mainly in saloon cars. As a child she was “a massive tomboy”, made her first trackside visit aged two months and, after much pestering, was given a kart for her 10th birthday, switching to cars at just 15.

“I did my first lap in a car in a Citroën Saxo GTR and never looked back.”

She passed her driving test first time, aged 17, and her first car, a Renault Clio, was a gift from her paternal grandmother, who had put money aside every year to pay for a car for Eaton and her brother. Betty Eaton, a Conservative councillor, died a few years ago, but remains an inspiration to Abbie.

“She loved driving and was really independent. She was in the Land Army during the war and taught herself to drive. She was also known to write letters to Margaret Thatcher [when she was prime minister], telling her to pull her socks up. She didn’t hold back on telling people what she thought.”`

After the Clio, Eaton switched to a diesel Ford Focus, followed by a Mini Cooper and a Volkswagen Golf GTD (until someone drove into the back of it) as she continued to compete in series such as the Production Touring Car Championship, driving a Vauxhall Corsa SRi-R, and winning the class B championship outright, while finishing second overall. Later, she moved to the Mazda MX-5 Supercup and won the championship in 2014.

The Australian V8 Supercars are really raw. It’s proper racing, not technology-driven rubbish

She made her move to the British GT Championship in 2016, driving a Maserati GranTurismo MC GT4 and ending the season fourth overall, with teammate Marcus Hoggarth.

On the road she was driving a sensible BMW 120d M Sport, the second of three. “My little workhorse,” she says. “It costs me nothing to run and it’s got heated seats. I drive so many miles I can’t really justify getting anything that uses a lot of fuel. I hate it when you can see the needle going down.”

When we speak, she is in Australia, trying out with a couple of teams, in the hope of competing in the Super2 Series next season. It is the second-tier series to the Australian Supercars Championship, in which drivers compete in cars based on road-going saloons.

“It’s basically racing the last season’s cars, which are just a second slower,” Eaton explains. “The cars are really raw, with no traction control or ABS. It’s proper racing, not technology-driven rubbish.”

Eaton thinks The Grand Tour team has “picked just the right moment” for a female Stig, er, sorry, test driver, and says feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. She was not naive enough to think comments on social media would be entirely favourable, however.

“You get the inevitable ones about ‘women drivers’,” she says. “And then there are the people who say, ‘The Stig would be faster.’ But I say, ‘If the Stig wants to come and have a go, he’s more than welcome.’”

Series three of The Grand Tour is available on Amazon Prime from midnight tonight.

The Grand Tour Series 3 episode guide

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What You Didn't Know About The Grand Tour's Abbie Eaton

Abbie doesn't just test cars for the show; she's also a pro racing driver with lots of wins under her belt. Here's what you should know about her.

Many car fans know Abbie Eaton best from her time as the test driver for Hammond, May, and Clarkson's The Grand Tour . She personally impressed James May during auditions, who stated that out of all the drivers they considered she was "the fastest and the best." As great as she may have been on the Amazon show, there's a whole lot more to her than just The Grand Tour .

RELATED: 10 Formula 1 Drivers And The Cars They Drive Off The Track

British-born Abbie is also a successful racing driver in her own right, competing in some of the toughest series and earning her fair share of wins too. She's been in the racing game for years, and she's branched out into other aspects of motorsport as well. Let's take a look at her life and career and find out what most car fans don't know about Abbie Eaton.

8 Yorkshire Born

Abbie was born in 1992 in the East Riding of Yorkshire, in the North of England. That means she's just 29 years old at time of writing, which makes her lengthy résumé even more impressive.

Her birth city of Hull is hardly the epicenter of British motorsport, but that didn't stop Abbie. She began karting at the age of ten, competing for three years before moving into cars for the first time.

7 An Early Starter

According to her website , her first competition car was a Citroen Saxo VTR, a racing version of the small Euro-spec hatchback . She competed in the Junior Saloon Car Trophy, finishing fourth at the end of the season. Her second season of car racing was in the Production Touring Car Trophy, which landed her her first championship win.

RELATED: 5 Things We Love About The Mazda MX-5 Miata (5 Reasons We'd Never Buy One)

She then spent several years racing Mazda MX-5 Miatas , which she was unsurprisingly very good at. She became the champion of the Mazda MX-5 Supercup in 2014, adding another title to her name while still in the earliest years of her career.

6 Runs In The Family

Abbie's interest in motorsport and racing was not just something that she randomly fell into. Her father, Paul Eaton, was a racing driver for years and competed in both karting events and car racing.

He was a competitor in the Eurocar series, a championship that gained some popularity during the 1980s as it was broadcast on national British television. With such a petrolhead family, it's no wonder Abbie felt the pull of the track from a young age.

5 Endurance Champ

In 2017, Eaton got a shot at driving a Ferrari 488 GT3 in the Blancpain Endurance Series. The 488 GT3 is a formidable car, with a twin-turbo V8 engine that produces 550 hp. It's also arguably one of the best looking GT3 cars of recent times.

At a retail price of $614,400, the 488 GT3 was also one of the most expensive cars Eaton had competed in. She more than seized the opportunity, winning her category and proving she could compete with the very best.

4 Not A TV Rookie

She might be most famous for The Grand Tour , but the show wasn't Eaton's first TV gig. She's previously starred in a show by British broadcaster ITV, called Drive . It was a short-lived game show where racing drivers and celebrities paired up and competed head-to-head in different racing disciplines.

RELATED: 10 Best Netflix Car Shows All Enthusiasts Should Watch

Abbie was paired with British rapper Professor Green, and they were very successful together. They ended up winning the series, beating out seven other pairs. The show was cancelled after one series, so Eaton and Green ended up being the only ever winners of the show.

3 A Rights Champion

As well as continuing to add as many Championship titles to her name as possible, Eaton is also a champion for equality and LGBT rights. She came out as gay after accusations of homophobia were directed at the hosts of The Grand Tour , due to some controversial comments in their Colombia special.

She's also an ambassador for Racing Pride, a charity that works to promote inclusivity of all genders across motorsport and the surrounding industry. It's a sad reality that many female drivers aren't taken as seriously as their male counterparts in motorsport, which makes the message Eaton champions all the more important.

2 W Series Star

Along with her many other championships, Eaton is also a competitor in the female-only W Series. She was initially critical of the series when it launched, making clear her reservations about segregating women into a separate category. But, she's pleased to be able to say she was wrong, given the generally positive media reaction to the events.

Discussing the series with Autosport , Eaton said the W Series was a great opportunity for female drivers like herself to stay in competition, especially off the back of a disappointing previous season where she was unable to secure a full-time seat in the Australian Supercars series. With the current pandemic making last year's W Series a little different than planned, let's hope with the new season that Eaton can come back in full swing.

1 A Qualified Instructor

When she's not busy racing, Eaton is teaching other drivers how to race. She's a fully-qualified race instructor, registered with the Association of Racing Driver Schools. She's also a performance driving coach for those who prefer to hone their overall driving skills.

Her current school is listed as the Silverstone Experience Centre, which is the in-house driving school for the world-famous Silverstone Circuit . For any car fans who want to improve their performance game, what better way to do it than with an incredible racing driver at a legendary track?

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Who is Abbie Eaton? Grand Tour season two racing driver who replaced Mike Skinner on the Amazon Prime show

• Phoebe Cooke
• Published : 17:22, 8 Feb 2018
• Updated : 14:34, 3 Apr 2019

IT IS rare to see a female racing driver in the public eye - let alone in the male-dominated world of Amazon's The Grand Tour.

So Abbie Eaton - who's taken the role of test driver in the Amazon Prime show 's second series - might just be the breath of fresh air the racing world needs...

Who is Abbie Eaton?

Abigail "Abbie" Eaton is a racing driver from the East Riding of Yorkshire in England.

At the age of 25, she is one of the most successful female racing drivers in the UK.

When not racing, she works as a professional racing instructor at Silverstone.

Now she has added another string to her bow as the racing driver for currently test driving cars for The Grand Tour season two, where she replaces US racing driver Mike Skinner .

The next in the popular Amazon Prime series features Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May test driving cars from Central Park in Manhattan to the Niagara Falls.

Abbie lives in Northampton, where she has a dog (Tilly) and cat (Marmie).

According to her website, Abbie loves music, gym, skiing and wakeboarding - and her favourite food is salmon.

What races has she been in?

Abbie started racing at the age of 10 and started adult racing in 2009. Since then she has won 25 races.

In 2014 she was the full season champion for the Mazda MX5 Supercup.

This year she won the Blancpin Endurance Series in a Ferrari 488 GT3 - the first woman to ever get a place on the podium.

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What does a grand tour racing driver do.

When Mike Skinner was in the job, his role was to test drive all the cars for the presenter trio.

Abbie will be expected to do the same, and comment on the car's performance for the camera.

She's yet to have been introduced on the show as anything but "the driver" - whereas Skinner was known as "the American".

• TV explainers

Who Is The Grand Tour's New Female Racing Driver?

The Grand Tour has replaced The American with a new female racing driver – but they failed to even mention her name.

Mercedes-AMG GT 63 Coupe

After axing The American , one of the biggest mysteries surrounding The Grand Tour season two was who was going to be the show's new racing driver setting lap times around the Eboladrome circuit. A series of tongue in cheek videos showed Clarkson, Hammond and May "auditioning" new drivers like former Formula One racer Mark Webber , a stunt driver , and even a brazen car thief . In episode two, it was revealed that a female racing driver has replaced The American - but it was very anticlimactic. Bizarrely, they didn't even mention her name.

Clarkson simply announced "and here she is!" when introducing her. After audiences complained about The American's incessant one-liners, it's possible that they want to avoid turning the next racing driver into a caricature, but it felt awkward watching Clarkson refer to her as "she" without ever mentioning her name. Instead, we had to wait until the credits rolled to find out her identity. According to Jalopnik , an Amazon spokesperson speculated that audience reactions to Mike Skinner, aka The American, in the first series were so overwhelmingly negative that producers deliberately downplayed Eaton's role as a driver rather than a character.

But that still doesn't explain failing to even mention her name, especially as they can't use an anonymous driver like The Stig. Her name is Abbie Eaton, and she's a professional British racing driver. A quick visit to her official website reveals her long list of impressive racing accomplishments. The 25-year old racing driver won the 2014 championship in the Mazda MX5 Supercup, and won a race and secured several podiums in the 2015 British GT Cup driving a BMW M3 GTR. More recently, she drove a Ferrari 488 GTE in the 2017 Blancpain Endurance Series, where she became the first female to finish on the podium.

She's also a qualified racing instructor, so she has plenty of driving know-how to bring to the show. It's great to see The Grand Tour diversify its line-up in what has traditionally been a male-dominated show. What matters most, though, is her talent on the track, and her first appearance, in which she thrashed a Mercedes GT R around the track, certainly left a lasting impression as she pushed the feisty sports car to its limit. It will be interesting to see whether they develop Eaton's character in future episodes. She's clearly a seriously talented driver, so it would be good to see her appear in films like Sabine sometimes does in Top Gear and interact with Clarkson, Hammond and May.

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This Month in Travel Season 2 Episode 1: My life in travel as a racing driver – with Abbie Eaton

• 22 September 2023

In the first of our new season, I will be interviewing female racing driver Abbie Eaton who started competing at aged just 15. She has won many races such as the Mazda MX5 Supercup and the GT Cup championship. She has competed in the 2021 and 2022 all female W Series alongside formula 1 in Singapore, Texas and Florida as well as European circuits.

Abbie talks about how she travels with all her race gear, adapts to new time zones and also makes sure she arrives fit to race at peak fitness. She also tells me about her time being the test driver for The Grand Tour alongside Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

You can find the new episode on YouTube:

Podcasts will be available on the following platforms:

• Apple Podcasts 
• Amazon Music/Audible 
• Google Podcasts

You can find This Month in Travel Season 2 Episode 1 here:

If you missed our launch episode celebrity special featuring TV presenter Andi Peters, Sky News Reporter Jonathan Samuels and industry expert Paul Charles of the PC agency, you can find it below. They are all very regular travellers who gave me some fascinating insights. I chatted with them about their thoughts on what travel will bring in 2023 and what their personal travel plans are.

You can see the first episode on Youtube here.

You can find the podcast version of Episode 1 here: https://sites.libsyn.com/454770

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• 23 September 2023

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The Grand Tour Season 2 Episode Guide, Recaps & Fun Facts

[column size=one_half position=first ][button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=”www.grandtournation.com/thegrandtour/season1″]← SEASON 1[/button][/column]

[column size=one_half position=last ][button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=www.grandtournation.com/thegrandtour/season3/countdown]SEASON 3 →[/button][/column]

The Grand Tour Season 2 began in on 8 december 2017 and was aired on the streaming service, Amazon Prime Video alongside the original first Season. Unlike Season 1 which consisted of 13 episodes, Season 2 had only 11 plus a special which is coming later in the year (yet to be aired). There was however one semi-special episode set in Mozambique named, ‘Feed the World’.

There were a number of changes made to Season 2 including:

• A now permanent setting for the tent in Great Tew – five minutes away from Jeremy Clarkson’s house
• Celebrity Face Off, where two celebrities (one from the UK and one USA) go head to head to try and get the fastest lap time in a new Jaguar F-Type. This replaced Celebrity Brain Crash
• Abbie Eaton replaces The American as The Grand Tour’s new driver.
• The theme song was also changed from the previous Season

It consisted of 13 episodes, two of which made one long special episode, and while official viewing figures haven’t been released, Episode 1 quickly became the most popular pilot episode of any series on Amazon.

Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May reprised their roles as presenters after the success of the first Season.

Past, Present, or Future

[button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=www.grandtournation.com/thegrandtour/season2/episode1]VIEW EPISODE 1[/button]

Celebrities: david hasselhoff, ricky wilson.

Season 2 launches with the comparison of the naturally aspirated Lamborghini Aventador S, the hybrid Honda NSX, and the all-electric Rimac Concept_One. They take the cars to Switzerland under Hammond’s instructions and are taken to a health spa. After several boring museums and drives, Clarkson and May plan a hillclimb event. The Lamborghini is the fastest, and the episode shows the long-awaited footage of Hammond’s crash in the Rimac. Celebrity Face Off is introduced in this episode.

The Falls Guys

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Celebrities: kevin pietersen, brian wilson.

Hammond, with a fractured knee, joins May in a race to Niagara Falls using only public transport against Clarkson in the new Ford GT. Clarkson wins the race and then reviews the Mercedes AMG GT-R. Abbie Eaton, the new racing driver is introduced but her name is never actually spoken.

Bah Humbug-atti

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Celebrities hugh bonneville, casey anderson.

The presenters show off their car decorated Christmas tree, then May travels to Majorca to review the Kia Stinger GT and races two longboard riders and wins. Both Hammond and May then try to make lunch breaks more exciting by introducing ‘lunchtime office carpark racing’. Clarkson then drives the Bugatti Chiron from Saint-Tropez to L’Alpe De Venosc where he goes skiing. He end the route at  the Piazza Carignano in Turin.

[button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=www.grandtournation.com/thegrandtour/season2/episode4]VIEW EPISODE 4[/button]

Celebrities: michael ball, alfie boe, silvija jurin.

The trio holds an awards ceremony in Conversation Street before Hammond tests the McLaren 720s on the Eboladrome. It turns out he filled the petrol tank with water and killed the car. For the main segment, the presenters go to Croatia in an ‘unscripted’ adventure. Clarkson turns up in an Audi TTRS, Clarkson an Ariel Nomad, and James May a Lada Riva. Clarkson and Hammond compete to find out who’s car is better, and James May turns his car into a firetruck.

Up, Down, and Round the Farm

[button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=www.grandtournation.com/thegrandtour/season2/episode5]VIEW EPISODE 5[/button]

Celebrities: bill bailey, dominic cooper, mark higgins.

Hammond travels to Dubai to test a Sandrail dune buggy and a luxury tank called the Ripsaw. May then reviews the Up! GTI on the Eboladrome and Abbie Eaton puts it to the test. Clarkson then produces a Ken Block ‘Gymkhana’ type video with a Subaru Impreza WRX STI. It turns out to be fake with Clarkson finally writing off the car at the end.

Jaaaaaaaags

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Celebrities: luke evans, kiefer sutherland.

The trio travel to Colorado to prove that British Jaguars are reliable. Clarkson buys an XJR, Hammond a Mark X and May an XK8 convertible. After several tests such as driving on a dirt track, each car has several problems and are eventually replaced. They end the segment by driving down a ski slope.

It’s a Gas, Gas, Gas

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Celebrities: anthony joshua, bill goldberg.

Hammond tests the new Lamborghini Hurucan Performante and beats James’ own Ferrari 458 Speciale. Then Abbie Easton takes it on a timed lap where it becomes the fastest car. May and Hammond then try to find a way of filling up a car’s fuel tank while on the move. Finally, Clarkson talks about the rallying rivalry about the Audi Quattro and Lancie 037. This segment was considered to be the best part of the Season.

Blasts from the Past

[button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=www.grandtournation.com/thegrandtour/season2/episode8]VIEW EPISODE 8[/button]

Celebrities: stewart copeland, nick mason.

Hammond and May go to the Pyrénées to test out new, old cars. Hammond drives the  Jagaur XK SS and Clarkson the Aston Marin DB4 GT. MAy later jin them driving a Honda Civic. They end up at the abandoned Autódromo de Sitges-Terramar and compare how fast they can drive around its banked corner. After recent events however, Hammond doesn’t take part. Towards the end of the episode, Clarkson tests the Ford GT on the Eboladrome.

Breaking, Badly

[button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=www.grandtournation.com/thegrandtour/season2/episode9]VIEW EPISODE 9[/button]

Celebrities: dynamo, penn & teller.

Clarkson sets out to prove that the Jaguar XJ220 and the Bugatti EB 110 Super Sport are still almost as good as modern cars. He fails as they set slow times on the Eboladrome by Abbie Eaton. The trio then set out to break the record for amphibious vehicles in the UK. After several different attempts they produce the ‘Pond Pug’ which is a Bond Bug bonded to a jet ski water jet. They break the record with an average speed of 47.81mph.

[button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=www.grandtournation.com/thegrandtour/season2/episode10]VIEW EPISODE 10[/button]

Celebrities: rory mcilroy, paris hilton.

The trio take an Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, a Range Rover Velar and a Porsche Macan Turbo Performance Pack driven by Clarkson, May and Hammond respectively. They confirm that SUVs are useless but are then asked by Wilman to tow a boat up a mountain. Clarkson swaps his SUV for a Ford F150 Raptor as his Alfa doesn’t have a tow bar and comes first with Hammond coming second and May sinking in a lake. Clarkson then tests the Tesla Model X with a group of lawyers

Feed the World

[button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=www.grandtournation.com/thegrandtour/season2/episode11]VIEW EPISODE 11[/button]

On a mission to to stop famine in the Mozambique village of Bingo, the trio try to establish a transport route to take food from the fish rich coast. MAy uses a Mercedes-Benz Estate and turns it into a moving fish tank, Clarkson a Toyota pick up which he turns into a freezer with a stolen ice machine, and Hammond a TVS Star motorbike which he uses to dry fish. They fail to catch the fish so buy some from the market on the coast. Along the way, Hammond falls countless times. May’s car beaks down several times, too, and Clarkson’s generator fails. He resorts to smoking the fish with exhaust fumes. They arrive at Bingo with no fish then leave in a helicopter.