Stretton flexes muscles for Chamberlain.

Amanda Stretton endured a baptism of fire in the Le Mans 24 Hours on her out lap in the Chamberlain Synergy Lola.

The female racer had just got behind the wheel of the #19 car when the Lola suddenly snapped out of shape on the run to Tetre Rouge, putting the car into the wall on the inside of the circuit. Although she managed to get the car going, it wasn't for long as the car ground to a halt on the side of the track.

With the team sending mechanics out to see what could be done to try and get the car back to the pits, the plan emerged to wind down a damper on the car and let the air out of a front tyre to keep it off the ground and allow her to return slowly to the pits - which Stretton managed to do to allow the team to take the car into the garage and start repairs, her one lap eventually taking more than 50 minutes.

"Thank god the guys packed a good tool box for me!" she said. "The car was going straight and then all of a sudden it just turned round of me. We think there could be an engine problem which may have played a part in it.

"I had to unscrew one of the front springs on the car and then let the air out of the front left tyre in order to get the car back to the pits. I'm not really a skilled mechanic so the guys coming out on the quad bike to talk me through it really helped. I don't think I've ever used as many muscles as I did then to get that spring down but they do saw that in times of adversity, you find extra strength."

As for whether the incident had affected the relationship with fellow driver, and husband, Bob Berridge...

"I've not spoken to Bob yet," she said, "but hopefully he'll remember that I'm the mother of his children and realise that it would hard to raise them alone!"