Amanda Stretton (née Cohn; born 24 July 1973, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

) is an English

racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

driver, broadcaster and motoring journalist.

Early life and education

The daughter of British automobile collector and historic racer Terry Cohn, she grew up in London and was educated at

New Hall School New Hall School is a Catholic co-educational private boarding and day school in the village of Boreham near Chelmsford, Essex, England. It was founded in 1642 in the Low Countries, now Belgium, by sisters of the Catholic order Canonesses of ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. At age 13, she raced

Motocross Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom. History Motocross first evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials competi ...

bikes A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. B ...

.Woman Motorist �
Amanda Stretton's Tall Racing Mountains
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Career

Motor racing

In 2001 she became the first ever female driver to compete in the ASCAR Mintex Cup where she finished in 6th place. In 2003, she entered the first ever female team in the British GT Championships, and was the first British female to race in the FIA Championships. In September 2004 she became the first British woman to win an international long distance event at

Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), informally referred to as Spa, is a motor-racing circuit located in Francorchamps, Stavelot, Wallonia, Belgium, about southeast of Spa. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, ho ...

, Belgium, beating her husband, a competitor. In 2006, she competed in the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

race.

Media career

Stretton was invited on to a television show to debate the proposal that "Women can't drive or race", and in light of her feisty and intellectual defence of women as drivers and her actual track record, was offered a position with

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

to co-present their motorsports coverage under the title ''"Motorsport on 4"'' which included the British Formula 3, GT, MGF and Rally Championships, as well as the Anglo-American Stock Car Racing series and UK Supercross. She has also presented Channel 4’s Driven. After Channel 4 lost the television rights to the majority of their motorsports events, Stretton presented most of the events for the new rights holders including

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

EuroSport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

, and Silverstone TV; and is one of the radio commentators for the American and European Le Mans Series. She also picked up presentation on non-motorsports events for the Travel Channel and NOW.com. Stretton presented Channel 5's ''Dream Machine'' series, in which classic cars are restored or kit cars which replicate them are built; as well as ''UK Horror Homes''. With

Murray Walker Graeme Murray Walker (10 October 1923 – 13 March 2021) was an English motorsport Sportscaster, commentator and journalist. He provided television commentary of live Formula One coverage for the BBC between 1976 and 1996, and for ITV (TV netw ...

she co-presented

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 ...

's coverage of the

Goodwood Festival of Speed The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual motorsports festival featuring modern and historic motor racing vehicles taking part in a hillclimbing, hillclimb and other events, held in Goodwood House, West Sussex, in late June or early July. Th ...

, the

Goodwood Revival The Goodwood Revival is a three-day festival held each September at Goodwood Circuit since 1998 for the types of road racing, racing cars and motorcycles that would have competed during the circuit's original period—1948–1966. History The ...

and The Goodwood Members Meeting for many years. Away from the track, she has presented ''"Wrecks to Riches"'' for Discovery Home & Leisure, is a freelance

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and writes for a range of newspaper columns and specialist motoring titles. Stretton has been a brand spokesperson and presenter for Mercedes-Benz, Michelin and now the Panasonic

Jaguar Racing Jaguar Racing is the name given to Jaguar Land Rover's racing interests. The Jaguar brand currently competes in Formula E under the name Jaguar TCS Racing for sponsorship reasons. It is the defending Formula E World Teams' Champion, having wo ...

Formula E Team. Stretton is the motoring editor at

Confused.com Confused.com is a UK based financial services comparison platform launched in 2001 and specialising in comparison of insurance and financial services, including car insurance, home insurance, energy, van insurance and life insurance. Confused.com ...

. She is Patron of the Rhodesian Ridgeback Welfare Trust. In March 2024, Stretton became an ambassador for the cancer care charit
Hope for Tomorrow
which operates a fleet of mobile cancer care units across the UK to bring treatment closer to patients. Her role involves raising awareness of the charity's mission to increase access to cancer care services.

Personal life

Stretton has a daughter and a son, Mia and Marcus, and enjoys cooking.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

External links

Personal websiteBio at HistoricRacing.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stretton, Amanda 1973 births Living people Racing drivers from London English Jews English racing drivers Motorsport announcers English television presenters 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers American Le Mans Series drivers European Le Mans Series drivers People educated at New Hall School English female racing drivers British GT Championship drivers Team West-Tec drivers