the grand tour professional driver

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]

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Abbie Eaton

• Articles with information from The Grand Tour

Abbie Eaton.

Abbie Eaton is a British racing driver. She has worked for The Grand Tour since 2017, as the show's professional racing driver for sending high performance cars around The Eboladrome , though she has played a role in other segments of the show.

Appearances [ ]

Eaton first appeared on Series 2 of The Grand Tour, replacing The American , the previous test driver role as portrayed by NASCAR driver Mike Skinner. She has since set many laps in a selection of cars ranging from a McLaren Senna to a Volkswagen Up! GTI. She also featured in many of the shows films:

• In An Itchy Urus , she piloted a Porsche 911 Turbo S while being chased by Clarkson in a Lamborghini Urus in Sweden.
• In Sea to Unsalty Sea , she took part in a challenge set by May where she raced a Renault 9 GTL against the presenters in a selection of GT cars in Azerbaijan.
• In Legends and Luggage , she raced on Clarkson's Suitcase against another racer on Hammond's suitcase at Stansted Airport.
• In Lochdown , she set a benchmark time in a Hillman Avenger which the presenters failed to beat in their large American Cars.
• In Carnage A Trois , she drives a Citroen Saxo VTS and takes part in a French Hot Hatch race against the presenters and two other drivers.

See Also [ ]

• The American , Abbie's predecessor
• 2 Cheap Car Challenges
• 3 Hammond's Rimac Crash (TGT)

• The Inventory
• Beyond Cars

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.

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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.

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

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There’s no run-off area – just an abundance of trees to catch you if you mess up Abbie Eaton

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Racing in Australian Supercars would push you to the absolute limit Abbie Eaton

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One of the biggest mysteries surrounding The Grand Tour’s second season was the identity of the show’s new tame race car driver. We didn’t get an answer in the first episode of the new season, but the reveal finally came in the second episode. In a surprising move, the show’s new test driver is actually a she, and her name is Abbie Eaton.

For a show that prides itself on unsuspecting revelations, The Grand Tour didn’t give Eaton’s debut the pomp and circumstance that we were expecting. In fact, there were no vignettes, no teasers, and no Stig-like breeding farms involved in the arrival of the new driver. What we got was the boys talking about The American’s departure before Clarkson pivots to say that they’ve found a replacement, followed by a simple, “and here she is.”

I suppose that phrase itself was the hook, partly because we weren’t expecting him to say “she.” The segment then cuts to a shot from inside the Mercedes-AMG GT R where we finally get to see Eaton in full racing gear.

I understand the confused reactions when it was revealed in the end credits that the driver’s name was Abbie Eaton. I didn’t know anything about her until I looked her up on the Internet to see what kind of racing credentials she had. Turns out, she’s not only good at racing, but at just 25 years old, she already has a decorated career that includes the 2014 championship in the Mazda MX5 Supercup, a handful of podium finishes in the 2015 British GT Cup, and most recently, another run to the podium in the 2017 Blancpain Endurance Series where she drove a Ferrari 488 GTE. In other words, Abbie Eaton is the real deal.

Now, it’s unclear if she’s going to be the permanent test driver of the show moving forward. It would make sense for here to have the seat all to herself because having “guest” test drivers would be ridiculous. Lap times would lose their comparison value because there’d be too many variables to consider.

I don’t mind that Eaton’s introduction didn’t come with more drama. I actually think it was better that she got the introduction she did because it was completely unexpected in an understated kind of way. And for what it’s worth, she produced a hell of a run on board the Mercedes-AMG GT R. That’s what she’ll be known for in the series and she’s already shown that she’s up to the task at her new job description.

Welcome aboard, Abbie Eaton!

Read our full review on the 2018 Mercedes-AMG GT R.

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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".

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4 tour stars switched drivers — and something special happened

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TaylorMade's Qi10 driver has made some of the best pros in the world even better this season.

Jonathan Wall/GOLF

It all started with a story on Scottie Scheffler’s driver . That’s how things usually go these days. Highlight the equipment used by the best player in the world and you’re bound to find an interesting gear angle or two.

In this case, I happened to find four while sifting through Scheffler’s stats. Four players, to be exact.

Scheffler’s driver change has been well documented on GOLF.com , but it’s always important to revisit the numbers during a potentially historic season to see where the real improvements lie. At the midway point of the year, I decided to go back and take a closer look at Scheffler’s driving stats to pinpoint the areas of growth.

Considering Scheffler led the Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-the-tee during the 2022-23 campaign, I figured there wouldn’t be much in the way of noticeable improvements. It’s difficult to go beyond the apex when you’re already leading the way in a statistical category. That was until I happened upon Scheffler’s driving accuracy percentage.

In a sport where the “bomb and gouge” playbook is encouraged to gain an edge, finding the short grass with regularity has become a lost art. Getting the ball closer to the green is the priority. Finding the fairway is for those who can’t mash it into oblivion.

What makes Scheffler such a rare breed is his ability to do both. Last season, Scheffler averaged 310.3 yards and hit the fairway at a 62 percent clip. Outside of Ludvig Åberg, who boasted similar driving distance (317.1 yards) and accuracy (65 percent) numbers to Scheffler, few came close to replicating the rare combination of prodigious distance and pinpoint accuracy.

TaylorMade Qi10 Custom Driver

“He had probably the best driver he’s ever had in his life [last season], which is saying something considering how well he’s driven it in recent years,” TaylorMade Tour rep Adrian Rietveld told GOLF.com. “You’ve got a player who’s leading accuracy stats and in the top 5 percent in distance. And you’ve got to play against that combination each week. It’s terrifying the energy you’d need to keep up with Scottie [off the tee].”

Adding to the list of things that make Scheffler terrifying to his peers is the realization that he became even more accurate in the last six months. While perusing the 28-year-old’s stats, I realized Scheffler had gone from hitting 62.09 percent of his fairways to 71.99 percent. Improving nearly 10 percent in any category is going to make you stand up and take notice.

Scheffler’s driving distance took a slight dip (303 yards), but he’s turned out to be even more lethal when he spends more time in the fairway. What a revelation! Tightening overall dispersion — combined with his ability to make more putts — has turned him into a glorified Iron Byron. (The swing robot , not the Texas legend.)

Curious if other TaylorMade staffers had seen similar improvements in accuracy since switching to the Qi10 driver line, I dug into the numbers for Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Collin Morikawa to see how they stacked up. If one player is a potential aberration, four is the beginning of a Tour trend.

Not only did the three pros mentioned above see improvements in accuracy since switching to Qi10, but they all improved by 10 percent or more in the accuracy department. McIlroy has been 15 percent better this season (53 percent in 2023 versus 68 percent in 2024) and Fleetwood has improved by 14 percent during the same period. All four currently find themselves inside the top 25 in driving accuracy. (It’s also worth pointing out that Morikawa and Fleetwood use Qi10 LS, while Scheffler and McIlroy use Qi10, so this isn’t one particular model overshadowing the others.)

Even more impressive? Morikawa leads in accuracy while McIlroy still tops the charts in driving distance. Similar to Scheffler, there hasn’t been a drop-off in other areas with a tighter dispersion.

As far as the “why” behind the improved dispersion, look no further than GOLF’s data insights from Qi10 robotic testing. The 9-point test revealed Qi10 was noticeably better than Stealth 2 in several areas, most notably when minimizing toe misses.

After seeing high-toe misses lose an average of 3.4 yards (across all three models at 10.5 degrees) with Stealth, the number doubled last year to 6.8 yards with Stealth 2. Losing almost 7 yards on a high-toe strike isn’t reason for concern, but no manufacturer wants to go backward.

Not only did TaylorMade engineers fix the recent high-toe slide, they also produced a Qi10 driver lineup that negates one of the most common misses. Looking strictly at 10.5-degree Qi10 heads — 2024 represents the first year GOLF has tested all lofts — high-toe misses gained  distance, to the tune of 2.2 yards.

It’s a staggering number that highlights the significant improvements made to the carbon twist face construction.

Along with providing impressive ball speed protection on high-toe misses, the 12-degree Qi10, Qi10 Max and 10.5-degree Qi10 saw distance decrease by 6 yards or less across all 9 points on the face at 95 mph. Pros are swinging it significantly faster than the average swing speed used for our testing, but it’s safe to assume they’re seeing improved ball speed numbers across the entire face, leading to distances more closely resembling what they might see on a center strike.

It’s a lethal driver combination that’s making some of the best players in the world even better.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2023? Find a  fitting location near  you at True Spec Golf.

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Jonathan Wall is GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com’s Managing Editor for Equipment. Prior to joining the staff at the end of 2018, he spent 6 years covering equipment for the PGA Tour. He can be reached at [email protected].

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The Grand Tour: The American Mike Skinner Explains Exactly Why He Left

Mike Skinner has had quite an exciting career, from being teammates with Dale Earnhardt in the Cup Series to dominating the Truck Series, he has done everything in  NASCAR . However, fans of The Grand Tour know him as The American .

Mike took us back to where it all began in a recent interview with Grand Tour Nation, he said:

“I got a call from Andy [Wilman], and he wanted to come up and sit down and talk to Angie and I. So Andy flew in and drove up here, and we sat right here and met, and we had a conversation, and he said we’re interested in doing a screen test with you if you’d be interested.

And he explained to me what we were gonna do and what the character was, and basically, my character was to be a grumpy old NASCAR driver, retired NASCAR driver, that hated everything British or European; I just loved American muscle, and that was it.

Skinner was then told that he would become more prevalent in the episodes and have more screen time alongside Jeremy Clarkson , Richard Hammond, and James May .

“Hard to interest me in anything else, and I’m like, okay, I’ll play along with that. And I said, where is it going to go? And he said we’re going to develop your character, and eventually we’re going to have you intermingling more with the guys, and what are your hobbies?

“And I said, well I play the guitar, I’m not very good at it, and he goes, play me something. So we’re going to have you sitting around every once in a while doing stuff like that and just developing your character, and I’m like, okay, I’ll do that.”

With promises of developing his character, Skinner began shooting with The Grand Tour .

He said the following: “So we went over there, and we had some really good shoots. We had some funny stuff. I mean, some of the stuff was my own material; a lot of it was scripted.

“And it seemed like they didn’t have time to do our segments the way I felt that they should be done and we kind of rushed things. I went all the way over there for a one day shoot one time. And that too far to travel to do one day’s work, and we tried to cram two or three shows into one day.”

He continued:

“I went, you know, they are more focused on dropping people out of the sky and the hokey pokey stuff than what I thought the show should be about, what it is, and I’m not the one that tells them how to do their show.

“And so we all mutually decided that I wasn’t going to come back for the next year, and I decided that there was something better for me to do.”

After one season, The American left the show for good. Mike Skinner has now returned to doing his radio show, Skinner Round-Up that he hosts with his wife, Angie. NASCAR fans can tune in on SiriusXM NASCAR radio to get the latest updates on the sport and enjoy segments like Skinners Garage and Celebrity Drive-By . 

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