They call her the Silent Assassin. When she looms in their rear view mirrors, she fills the hearts of Scottish racing drivers with dread.

This isn't because Carol Brown, a sweet slip of a girl, challenges them side by side. She doesn't dodge and weave, attempting to get past. Quite the reverse. She just sits on their tail, icy cool; waiting for the mistake that will enable her to speed past and win.

And win she does, time after time. Brown, 21, is the emerging phenomenon of Scottish motorsport; a driver being talked about as one of the biggest talents to emerge in years from an almost exclusively male arena.

She is the first female champion in Scottish motorsport, and may even be the first in the UK. Her recent win to clinch the Legends race series, run at Knockhill race track in Fife against male drivers, puts her on course for a full-time professional career.

Experts describe her skills as “staggering”. “She is one of the most outstanding drivers I have ever seen, and I've seen hundreds, many of them Scottish champions,” said Ally Hunter, whose cars she raced.

The similarities between Brown and Lewis Hamilton are striking. Both experienced the divorce of their parents at a young age and spent the single- parent weekends karting with a motorsport-mad father. Both had to struggle to make ends meet, and are marked out by their calmness and maturity.

Brown, from Falkirk, was as much a karting champion as Lewis. She started aged eight, won the Scottish karting championships when she was 12 and 15 and was third in the British championships when she was 12.

“When I first started, it was just a hobby,” said Brown. “My mum and dad separated when I was really young and it was something to do at weekends with my Dad .

“My dad was into drag racing when I was a baby, so I was brought up in a motorsport environment. We never really started it as a career - he wasn't a pushy dad. Maybe he wanted a son and I was the closest he got.”

The sport separated her from her peer group. As a teenager, she was away at weekends racing, sometimes travelling to England to compete. Her father, an electrician, acted as her mechanic. “I was never interested in clubbing and things,” she said. “I was bullied when I younger because I had buck teeth and I couldn't stick school. I left when I was 17 to get a job. I always wanted to give racing a go and I can go to university later.”

Brown, tall with a model's figure, is at present a white van woman - delivering motor parts. She is not, she insisted, a typical delivery driver.

“I drive like a gran,” she says. “People automatically think if you are a racer, you must drive like a maniac. But I don't see the point of losing my licences. I take out all my aggression on the track.”

Yet the fascinating thing about Brown seems to be the way she tempers that aggression. The Legend series she has just won is handicapped: those who win must start at the back of the grid every time. So with every success she was put right at the back for the next race.

Mr Hunter said: “She starts something like 24. Then a few laps later she's in tenth. Then she's in fourth, then she wins. But you hardly ever see her making the move. She's fantastic.

“Her judgment of where she wants to be is phenomenal ... her risk assessment is second to none. She works out how many cars she needs to pass to win and then does it. Most drivers need a lap timer - she doesn't. It's instinctive.”

One Saturday morning at Knockhill, Brown's race car, which was required to do corporate work, was damaged by a member of the public. Mr Hunter said: “She had to compete in six races with no third gear ... and third gear is very important. But Carol had her car on the podium each round. I have never seen such a positive mental attitude.”

Mr Hunter added: “Sometimes in motor racing, you hear, ‘Oh, it's just a girl'. But nobody thinks that about Carol. Most of the guys say, ‘Oh God, here comes Carol'.”

Brown says the karting taught her a lot. “When you come round a corner and there's an accident in front of you, a lot of people seem to drive into it. My brain and hands think at the same time.

“Besides, at the back of my mind is, if I crash the car, what will it cost?

“You learn who the hotheads are, and sit behind them because you know they will make a mistake sooner or later.”

Brown's ambition lies not in Formula 1 - “it costs too much money” - but in racing saloons - the British Touring Car series. She is now raising the money necessary to race Renault Clios next season.

Kevin Pick, chairman of the Scottish Motor Racing Club, said: “She is one of the most exciting young talents around.”

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