The DIY drifter

A self-taught drifter and mechanic now stunt doubling opposite Tom Cruise. Just another day at the office for Tessa Whittock

- OLLIE KEW

“Yeah, there’s been some hostility and some comments, but as long as you can take the banter but also give it back, I kind of stop it in its tracks.” Tessa Whittock revels in being a female in what’s seen as a man’s world. Drifting. Tuning. Wrenching. Stunt driving for billion dollar Hollywood blockbusters. “Sure, there’s that element of, ‘oh, because you’re a girl, you’re getting special treatment’,” she laughs, “or ‘you’ve qualified better than I have because you’re a woman’. No. It’s just how I drive. I’m better at it than you are.”

Tessa has crammed a heck of a lot into her 33 years. She’s an ex-investment banker who taught herself to drift on dirt using an old Suzuki Vitara with the four-wheel drive disengaged. “I’ve always been mad for cars and tractors because of my farm upbringing. I love a tractor! When I was 14, my dad had a friend who had an RX-7 which we took to Santa Pod. And there was this drift taxi. I got in – an R32 Skyline – and literally from that day forward I was like, ‘oh my God, how can I do this?’”