Abbie Eaton to use Super2 as a launching pad for Supercars career

British racer Abbie Eaton has swapped The Grand Tour for touring cars, with a hot debut launching her career at the Superloop Adelaide 500.

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Supercars’ next main-game female driver may likely be British racer Abbie Eaton, who has her first foray in Australian touring cars in the Dunlop Super2 Series at the Superloop Adelaide 500.

Eaton, 27, started her motor racing career in go-karts at age 10 in Yorkshire, UK, where she went on to win championships and races in such categories as saloon cars, production touring cars, and GTs.

Most recently she was a test driver on Amazon Prime Video’s The Grand Tour.

To develop her motor racing skills, she chose Australia’s touring car competition and wants to work her way into main-game Supercars within five years.

“The racing we have in the UK doesn’t have the atmosphere and passion that you have in Supercars,” she said.

Dunlop Super2 Series driver Abbie Eaton in her Holden Commodore at the Superloop Adelaide 500. Picture: AAP/Brenton Edwards

“With the cars themselves, there isn’t traction control and the stuff that we usually have in GT cars, which I’ve been racing.

“I think it will make me a better driver.

“The cars are extremely fun as well.”

Eaton is racing the 2017 Super2 championship-winning Holden Commodore at Matt Stone Racing, and while the Adelaide event is her first time racing a Holden, it is not her first experience with one.

Her father had restored a 1980s Holden Commodore into Peter Brock-winning style when she was younger.

He was a racer so she has been going to race tracks since she was two months old, and pestered her dad for a couple of years before he would buy her the first go-kart.

Dunlop Super2 Series driver Abbie Eaton is competing at the Superloop Adelaide 500. Picture: Supplied

Eaton, who is now based in Newcastle, said she had “lots to learn” about Australian touring car racing and her immediate goals were not necessarily placings, but time.

“It’s my first time on a street circuit (at the Adelaide 500) and first time in this actual car,” she said.

“I did the two test days (held at the end of 2018, with Matt Stone Racing and Walkinshaw Andretti United) on other styles of circuits.

“(Adelaide) doesn’t have the luxury of run-offs and you have to make sure you keep it off the walls.

“The main aim is each time I go out, see if I can find a chunk more time.”

While Eaton managed to keep the car off the concrete in the two races held so far this weekend, she was not able to escape unscathed in race two on Saturday, when she found the Turn 7 tyre barrier and finished in the pits.

The Superloop Adelaide 500 is the only event of the season she has the budget for but she is hoping to gain the sponsorship she needs to continue at the next Super2 event in Perth in May.

“I have so much to learn technique-wise in the cars,” she said.

“The longer you spend in Super2 learning the cars and the circuits … I need to get used to the heat first before I can do two and a half hours of (main game racing).

“The five year-ish plan is to do two or three years in Super2, and into the main game after that.”