Amanda Whitaker is Britain's most successful female racing driver!

An unbelievably lucky escape for Amanda Whitaker in the Historic Formula Ford 1600 Championship at Mallory Park. After a lap 1 coming together, not of her making, with championship leader Westie Mitchell, Amanda's nose cone, on her Peter Hampshire designed Elden Mk8, becomes dislodged, obscuring her forward vision.

Westie has gone off badly at the exit of Gerards Bend, and as the leaders complete lap 1, race control throw a red flag to stop the race, only a second or two before the pack arrived at full tilt to start lap 2.

As it was, unsighted, and with miliseconds to react to the red flag, Amanda collides with the car in front, and is launched into a terrifying series of sommersaults and barrel rolls along the start finish straight. That she walks away, shaken and bruised, but thankfully with no broken bones, is a testament to the strength of her car, even with 39 year old design technology.

After initial concern for Westie Mitchell, he too was also not too badly hurt in the race stopping incident, suffering a broken wrist and some vertebrae damage. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Posted by Amanda Whitaker on August 12, 2009 at 2:23 AM

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