Abbie Eaton has spent more than two decades trying to get through doors that were often closed before she had even reached the grid.
The Yorkshire-born racing driver started karting at 10, moved into cars at 15, and went on to win championships in a sport where talent alone rarely pays the bills. Her career has taken in Production Touring Cars, Mazda MX-5s, British GT, the Blancpain GT Endurance Series and W Series. She also became known to a wider audience as a test driver and The Stig on Amazon’s The Grand Tour.
But Eaton does not talk about motorsport as a polished success story. She talks about hand-me-down tyres, older cars, doors being shut, funding battles and the reality of having to work twice as hard, sometimes three times as hard, to earn the same respect as male drivers.
Now a female inspirational speaker, Eaton uses her racing career to speak about pressure, confidence, resilience and backing yourself when the odds are not even. Her message is blunt: motorsport rewards speed, but it also tests how badly you want to stay in the fight.
In this exclusive interview with the Female Motivational Speakers Agency for Total-Motorsport.com, Abbie Eaton discusses what it takes to survive in male-dominated motorsport, why moving from Yorkshire to Northamptonshire at 18 changed her career, and how nerves, pressure and self-belief can become weapons rather than weaknesses.
Question 1. Motorsport is still a brutal place for women trying to break through. What has it taken for you to survive 23 years in a sport where the odds are rarely even?
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Abbie Eaton: “The main three things that spring to mind are determination, tenacity and perseverance.
“It is not an easy sport, especially with it being male-dominated and the challenges that come with that.
“Through my career, I have done it for 23 years now, and there have been more times than not where I have knocked on doors and tried to get opportunities in certain areas, and either had no response or the doors have been shut.
“I am Northern. I am a Yorkshire lass, and I am a very determined person. Coming into motorsport and having to face those things has made me even more determined.
“You face the female stereotypes that are given to female drivers, and it means you have to work twice as hard, probably three times as hard, to get the same opportunities that some of the guys have.
“For example, you may pop onto the grid in a car, but the car might be two years older than the other cars that some of the male counterparts are racing. Or you might get hand-me-down tyres or brakes from other drivers in your team because they are given the best equipment.
“It means you have to work twice as hard, and it goes the same for earning respect from the fans, engineers and potentially the drivers as well.
“But once you break through that and have some good results, the respect is usually tenfold.”
Question 2. At 18, you walked away from the safer route and moved from Yorkshire to Northamptonshire to chase racing properly. Was that the decision that changed everything?
Abbie Eaton: “The boldest decision that I made probably came quite early on.
“I started karting when I was 10 years old, and when you get to the age where you are deciding whether to go to university, what A-levels to pick and what the next step is, I had always been fully focused on motorsport and making a career in motorsport.
“The sensible side of things, and what my parents were saying, was that ultimately there was no guarantee I was going to succeed in motorsport.
“They said, “Why don’t you go to uni and just make sure you have something to fall back on?” which absolutely made all the sense in the world, and probably would have been a better option.
“But I decided, I think I was 18 at the time, to relocate from Yorkshire down to Northamptonshire because that is the hub of motorsport in the UK, and go full-time into instructing.
“That meant working at race circuits and working with up-and-coming drivers.
“My thought process was that if I did something like that, I could be more flexible with when I was committing to work. I could fine-tune that to allow myself the time to chase and secure funding for motorsport, and also chase the drives and opportunities that were available.
“I moved out fairly young and relocated down here, and I have been here since 2011.
“That is probably the boldest decision I have made in my career so far.”
Question 3. Motorsport is expensive, political and unforgiving. What kept you going when talent alone was never enough to get a seat?
Abbie Eaton: “There is an innate drive and love for the sport, and I think it has definitely come from my dad.
“I used to watch my dad race ever since I was young. I grew up around circuits in the UK, watching my dad have the highs and lows of motorsport.
“I have always had a real affinity with cars.
“I remember there is a photo of me in my dad’s 250 National Gearbox. Absolutely ridiculous in terms of speed, these things. They are just bonkers.
“There is a picture of me stood in the race seat. I think I was maybe two or three years old, and I have my hands on the steering wheel. You can just see how happy I am to be in there.
“It was always probably going to happen at some point.
“It was never forced upon me, and I did not have any pressure from my parents. They probably wanted me to go and do something a bit more sensible.
“But I have always had that love and desire to be competitive and to be fast.
“The self-belief needed to tackle the obstacles in motorsport is something I have always had as well.
“We always keep pushing on to the next challenge. Motorsport is no secret. It is a very expensive sport to compete in, and just because you might be a really good driver does not guarantee you those drives or those seats.
“Us racing drivers are never satisfied. We are always looking for that next obstacle to tackle and the next challenge to complete.”
Question 4. When you speak to audiences away from the circuit, what lessons from racing do you want them to take into their own high-pressure lives?
Abbie Eaton: “There are various things.
“Motorsport is such a varied industry to be in. I have been lucky enough to do it for so long that I have had some amazing highs, some incredibly bad lows, and everything in between.
“Some of the main subjects I hope people take away are coping mechanisms when they are under stress or in a job where they are dealing with high pressure all the time.
“It is about how to reframe your outlook on things, and reframe how you look at nerves and pressure, and use those as a positive.
“If you are not particularly nervous for things, I think you should be looking at why. It is the same kind of feeling you get from being excited, so use that, reframe it and view things as a positive.
“Having confidence and backing yourself should not be something to shy away from, because I think it is a superpower if you can back yourself.
“You also need the mindset of looking externally, being honest about where you might lack performance or experience, and utilising the team around you.
“It is really good to be a leader. It is really good to back yourself and be confident in yourself, but it is also really good to utilise the good people you have around you.”
This exclusive interview with Abbie Eaton was conducted by Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency.
