Abbie Eaton put in a strong showing on her maiden TitansRX outings at Lydden Hill last weekend, but also had to deal with her fair share of bad luck.
The GT racer gained speed over the weekend as she adapted to the Pantera RX6, and even took a heat win in her final round four qualifying race, but mechanical gremlins and an earlier crash ended any hoped of her making the semi-finals. A day earlier in round three she did advance from the qualifying stage, but retired from semis.
„I think I’ve had a real mixture of good luck, bad luck, different conditions of weather as well so I think I’ve experienced quite a lot over the weekend in the short time I’ve had on the circuit, but I’ve loved every minute of it,“ she said. „I couldn’t quite do enough. Q1 [on Sunday] we had engine issues and if you blow an engine that’s the end so I thought it was better to come in and make sure it’s okay.“
„Then in Q2 those bloomin’ barriers were just in the wrong place after I got turned round. In Q3 I thought that all I’ve got to do is win it and if I try and win it and be quick then it’s up to other people to kind of let me in. I managed to do that and unfortunately everyone else had all the luck to not have problems so it’s just one of those things.“
Despite the heartbreak, Eaton enjoyed her maiden rallycross experience and praised the series‘ Pantera RX6 for making the transition much easier.
„I knew I was going to enjoy it, but I enjoyed it a lot more than what I was expecting to,“ she said. „I got to grips with it earlier and easier than I expected to as well but that’s just a testament to the cars and how fun and how easy they are to get on with.“
„Everyone here in the paddock are all super friendly and helpful,“ Eaton added. „This weekend I’ve been as big a sponge as I could be, just absorbing information from people and picking the parts that I’m going to try and use. Just learning on the job really. I’m still not massively sideways as some of the boys are on some of the corners but actually I’m still competitive time-wise so I think it’s just a different style of driving and on the other tracks I might have to alter my style of driving to be quicker but I won’t know until I get stuck in.“
With the positive experience of Lydden now in the books, Eaton is hoping she can add to her wildcard appearance on home soil and have a few more outings later in the year.
„In the short time I’ve had on the circuit, I’ve loved every minute of it,“ Eaton enthused. „This track is predominantly tarmac so it kind of suits me a little bit more than if I came in on another circuit with more gravel, but if I come in for another couple of rounds then I’m sure I’ll get my teeth stuck into the gravel a bit more. Hopefully I’ll be back in a couple of rounds time maybe.“
