Racetrack terror for girl ‘ hijacked’ at Brands Hatch
Friends drove her VW into middle of race
WITH the last of her A-level exams looming, grammar school girl Saskia Fisk was revising hard.
So when two friends asked her to watch a motor race at Brands Hatch with them it seemed the perfect opportunity for some well-earned relaxation.
But a pleasant day out turned into a terrifying nightmare for the 18-year-old after one of her companions, Jack Cottle, drove her car on to the track during the race as she sat in the front passenger seat.
The other friend, 20-year-old Zac Copson, videoed events on his mobile phone from the back seat as Miss Fisk screamed at Mr Cottle to stop. He pulled off the track after 90 seconds, but the race had to be abandoned. The video was posted on social networking sites and Mr Cottle, 21, was arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment, having told a newspaper that ‘Saskia was well up for it’.
Yesterday she rebutted the men’s claim that ‘she was egging us on’.
She had set off in her white VW Polo 1.2 to the track near West Kingsdown, Kent, a 20-minute drive from her family’s £625,000 detached home in Sevenoaks, after asking her parents’ permission. Her frightening experience began 90 minutes into the four-hour endurance race for VW Beetles last Saturday.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘We were sitting in the car watching the race and they got bored and said wouldn’t it be funny if we raced round the track. I was like, “Yeah, it’d be really funny”. But I didn’t think they’d do it. Even when we were in the paddock I was saying stop. I begged him to stop.
‘I’m angry they’re saying I was egging them on. I was panicking and screaming. I was praying he would stop on the pit lane.’
Unbeknown to the men, Miss Fisk suffers from postural tachycardia syndrome which affects blood pressure. She said medics at the track had to calm her down. Miss Fisk, who has 12 GCSEs, now fears her plans to go to university and become a forensic psychologist may have been ruined because the incident left her struggling to concentrate during her sociology Alevel on Monday.
The talented singer who has auditioned for the next series of The X Factor said she has known the men, both labourers, for about three months and dismissed reports that she was dating Mr Cottle. ‘I won’t be seeing either again,’ she added.
Mr Cottle, of Tonbridge, Kent, was arrested on Monday and released on bail until July 24 pending further inquiries.
Jonathan Palmer, of track owner MSV, said the British Racing and Sports Car Club ran the event and controlled circuit access from the pit lane. He added: ‘We will be reviewing security procedures.’