She’s been riding quad bikes since she was three and took part in her first kart race aged just 10.
Now speed queen Abbie Carruthers, a multiple champion of the Cumbrian Kart Racing Club, is making a bid for the motorsport big time after signing up for this year’s Formula Woman competition.
Abbie, 28, will complete a series of online motorsport courses and televised track day assessments with the aim of becoming one of just six women to win a seat in the 2022 GT Cup series, racing a McLaren 570s GT4.
The finalists will be selected during the winter of 2021/2022 for the final ‘shoot out’ and the six winners of the competition will be trained and coached between February and April 2022 in Formula Woman McLaren GT4 race cars.
“Motorsport is very difficult to get into without the added factor of being a woman,” Abbie said. “So after success as a teenager I went off to university, joined the Kart Team there, picked up a lap record at Teesside Autodrome along the way and graduated with a First Class Hons Degree in design while I was there.”
Since leaving university, Abbie has started her own business, Etch Twenty Eight, a creative laser studio at Lillyhall which creates personalised goods and wedding gifts for customers as far afield as Australia and the USA.
But when the opportunity came to get back behind the wheel, she jumped at it.
“It took me less than five minutes to smile and nod that becoming a Formula Woman competitor was an opportunity I was not going to pass on.
“The itch to go racing never dies and that competitive streak in me was screaming to get back out on the track. The support from everyone since announcing my participation on social media has been incredible.”
