Teenager swaps racing games for competing on the track
Jude Peters is about to race a car that can do 160mph even though he has never driven on a road.The 16-year-old, from Malmesbury, Wiltshire, was a sim racer, but has gone from racing in his bedroom to a real endurance racing contract in just two years.His contract with Team Virage in the Ligier European Series will see him compete at famous European circuits, including Le Mans and Silverstone."My dream goal was just to be able to do endurance racing, and now I'm doing that at the most iconic tracks in the world," he said.
Jude's rise to professional racing has been rapid.Just two years ago he had never driven a racing car of any kind, nor taken part in competitive karting, which is the usual pathway.He had been racing for years at home with a basic simulator set up in his bedroom - a racing wheel and some pedals that plug into a PC.Knowing how much Jude loved sim racing, his parents booked him onto the simulator experience at the Ginetta Race Cars HQ near Leeds.He was immediately quicker than the factory driver.Ginetta invited Jude to take part in a competition for its Junior Scholarship, which he won, giving him a partly-funded drive in the Ginetta Junior Championship.
The next step, the Ligier European Series, is the first on the endurance racing ladder and Jude's new team, Virage, has won the championship for the last three seasons.He was at the Paul Ricard circuit last week to test his new car."It's a difficult career to get into and there are so many people that want to," said Jude."For the people that make it, it's a small percentage, but it's a goal I have and I'd like to get to the top."Jude's mum, Kirsty, watched nervously through her fingers as her son competed in the Ginetta series."I was terrified the whole time," she said."Jude has put in a lot of time, a lot of dedication and a lot of hard work, and this hasn't come easy to him."We've become his managers, supporting him in making sure he eats the correct food, making sure he's exercising, booking accommodation, doing the PR."It feels like it can be a full time job."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Tottenham draw up five-man shortlist after brutal Ange Postecoglou sack
Tottenham are searching for their fifth permanent manager in six years after sacking Ange Postecoglou, with chairman Daniel Levy looking to the Premier League for a replacement Thomas Frank leads a five-man shortlist Tottenham chiefs have drawn up as they search for a replacement for Ange Postecoglou. Spurs sacked the Australian on Friday, despite him leading them to winning the Europa League. That was the club's first major trophy for 17 years and their first piece of European silverware since 1984. But Postecoglou paid the price for an awful Premier League campaign. Spurs won just 11 top-flight games and ended up 17th in the table, their lowest finish since being relegated in 1977. While the Europa League win ensured the season was not a failure, chairman Daniel Levy opted to make a change. It means that Spurs will be looking for their fifth permanent manager of the last six years. In that time, Ryan Mason has also had two periods as caretaker boss, while Cristian Stellini also had a spell in interim charge. While the first summer transfer window remains open for the next three days, Levy's attention will turn to who he could bring in to replace Postecoglou. It appears that this time, Spurs will look for an appointment from inside the Premier League. According to BBC Sport, Brentford boss Frank is at the top of the shortlist. Frank has emerged as one of the top-flight's best coaches during his time in charge of the Bees, since taking over in 2018. He led them to promotion to the Premier League in 2021 and has since transformed them into a solid top-flight outfit. They finished 10th in the table this season and reached the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup. Also in contention is Bournemouth's Andoni Iraola, who built his reputation with La Liga's Rayo Vallecano. The Spaniard led the Cherries to a record Premier League points haul this season as they finished ninth. The third man on the list is Marco Silva, who has solidified Fulham's place in the Premier League. Silva had the reputation for being somewhat of a mercenary during his first years in English football. He took charge of Hull, Watford and Everton in the space on two years. But since taking over the Cottagers in 2021 he has restored himself, leading them to the Championship title in 2022. Having won the FA Cup with Crystal Palace, Oliver Glasner is also in contention. The Austrian has only been at Selhurst Park for 18 months and suffered a difficult start to this season, but came through it to lead Palace to their first-ever major trophy. Finally, a familiar name to crop up whenever the Spurs job becomes available is once again on the list. Mauricio Pochettino turned Spurs into title-challengers during his five years at the club from 2014 and is now in charge of the United States national team. It is unknown how serious Tottenham's interest in Pochettino is, and given he spent a year with Chelsea it may be an unpopular move. The Argentine may even be likely to turn down an approach as he focuses on leading the USA in a home World Cup next summer.
Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Team GB sprint star admits European hat-trick bid is mission 'to redeem myself'
The sprinter had a disappointing 2024 summer ruined by injury, missing out on defending his 200m crown before failing to make the 100m final at the Olympics, but is now on the comeback trail Zharnel Hughes has a European hat-trick on his mind as he begins his road to redemption. The 29-year-old missed out on defending his 200m continental crown at Rome 2024, when he was forced to withdraw from the competition due to a hamstring injury, and failed to make the 100m final at the Olympics which followed. Hughes then pulled out of the 200m in Paris through injury, with his hamstring again the issue, leaving him determined to put the record straight heading into this summer and beyond. "It was very difficult for me." he said. "The injury happened the week before the European Championships and I was looking forward to going back and regaining that title, it was on my mind. "I really wanted to go and give the fans a performance they would have liked but sadly injuries do happen in this sport. Hopefully next season I can keep myself healthy, go in there and redeem myself. "I want to go back and get those titles. I'm definitely looking at it as a chance for redemption." Hughes already has a glittering European CV to his name, with individual 100m and 4x100m relay golds from Berlin 2018. Four years later, in Munich, the sprinter lost his title as the fastest man in Europe, narrowly pipped to gold by Italy's Marcell Jacobs in the 100m. Hughes bounced back to take the 200m title and add a second 4x100m relay gold to his tally but he now wants to go one-step further and is targeting a golden hat-trick on home soil. "I'm looking forward to getting all three boxes ticked this time, that is my aim,' he said. "My mind is set on it and I'm looking forward to executing it. It would be an amazing accomplishment because I've won all the medals before - but I want to cement the hat-trick." The cherry on top of the cake for the sprinter would be lowering his own 100m and 200m British records in front of a packed Alexander Stadium. "If I can run super fast and break a British record in front of a home crowd, that would be amazing," he added. "I definitely want to lower the record, it's in my plans. In Birmingham 2026, I just want to do a sub-10 performance for the fans and get the win." A quarter of a million tickets for the event will go on sale in September, and prices starting from just £10 for adults. Organisers have ambitions to create one of the most talked about European athletics events in history and Hughes wants to put on a show for those who snap up tickets. "I love the fact that the ticket prices are so flexible because it increases the volume of people in the stadium," he said. "I feel like this is a whole new era to inspire upcoming athletes. The support has always been good in the past but its getting better every time we compete. "I'm looking forward to going out there and doing that again. They're looking up to us and I'm all about leaving that positive impact on the youth."
Glasgow Times
3 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Who's going to step up and replace Scotland's golden generation?
The youthfulness of Steve Clarke's squad for the friendly internationals against Iceland and Liechtenstein this month has, what with Connor Barron, Kieron Bowie, Tommy Conway, Josh Doig, Billy Gilmour, Max Johnston, Lennon Miller, Nathan Patterson and James Wilson all receiving call ups, certainly been heartening. The members of that nonet have an average age of just 21. Every one of them has a huge amount to offer their country at international level for many seasons to come. They have numerous qualifying campaigns left in them and hopefully a few finals too. The same is true of the injured duo Ben Doak, the Liverpool winger, and Aaron Hickey, the Brentford full-back. It was also encouraging to see the SFA roll out their Cooperation System – which will see up to three Scotland-qualified prospects under the age of 21 move freely between Premiership and Championship parent clubs and lower league outfits on loan from the 2025/26 season onwards – this week. Read more: Similar agreements already exist in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia. Hopefully the long overdue scheme will enable our best prospects, who have often been prevented from gaining much-needed competitive game time in the senior ranks simply because their presence is needed to satisfy homegrown player quotas in European competition, to make the difficult transition from the age-group ranks. That initiative was one of the main recommendations contained within the Transition Phase paper which was co-authored by Andy Gould, the SFA's chief football officer, and Chris Docherty, the governing body's head of men's elite strategy and was published last year. That report contained many worrying revelations, damning findings and stark conclusions about how poorly Scotland is doing in comparison with other countries of a similar size across Europe when it comes to producing talented young footballers who are capable of flourishing in the paid ranks. But if anybody needed reminding just how few professionals are emerging, Brown Ferguson, the former Alloa, Hamilton and Partick Thistle midfielder and the current Stenhousemuir assistant manager who is also the assistant regional performance manager at sportscotland and the high performance manager to Scottish Golf, took to X (formerly Twitter) to tell us. He posted a series of alarming statistics about the Premiership last season. Here are a few of the most startling. Just 31.46 per cent of players to start games in the top flight were Scottish. That is down from 45 per cent three years ago. On average, just 3.23 per cent of players kicking off on a Saturday are under 21, just four out of 132. No fewer than 20 team selections failed to contain a single Scot. Aberdeen and Celtic didn't start an under-21 player in the 2024/25 campaign. The SFA have identified these major problems and are endeavouring to address them. The SPFL clubs, who in the past have shown they are more concerned with self-interest than the greater good, have endorsed and embraced their plans. But is it too little too late? Our leading clubs face a raft of challenges running academies and bringing through youngsters who are capable of representing their first teams every year. The issues which Brexit and raids on their age-group squads by their wealthier English rivals have presented in recent years have been well documented in these pages. Far fewer footballers who are good enough are emerging. These are pretty exciting times in Scottish football with Brighton owner Tony Bloom buying a major stake in Hearts and a consortium comprising American billionaire Andrew Cavenagh and the San Francisco 49ers taking over Rangers. With Hibernian a far more formidable force than they were and Aberdeen lifted by their epic Scottish Cup triumph, next season promises to be a belter. Read more: But the focus in recent weeks has very much been on how much money every club will spend and who will be brought in this summer. The new powerbrokers seem unconcerned about doing their bit to help our national game by rearing homegrown heroes. Sure, wanting to promote youth has been mentioned in passing. It appears, though, fairly far down their list of priorities. Such is the money mad modern game. There is, with Barron, Bowie, Conway, Doig, Gilmour, Johnston, Miller, Patterson and Wilson as well as Lewis Ferguson, Jack Hendry, George Hirst, Andy Irving, Scott McKenna, Scott McTominay and John Souttar all in the current Scotland squad, no reason for Tartan Army footsoldiers to panic. (Image: Craig Williamson - SNS Group) Yet, the World Cup qualifying campaign which will get underway with away games against Denmark and Belarus in September may well prove to be the last that Che Adams, Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie, Lyndon Dykes, Craig Gordon, Grant Hanley, John McGinn, Kenny McLean, Andy Robertson, Lawrence Shankland and Kieran Tierney are involved in. Some will retire after it, others will stay on. But we are witnessing the last hurrah of a golden generation. Will those who come after that aforementioned group grace, as many of their predecessors did, the Premier League and the Champions League? The majority of them still have some way to go to scale the same heights as their compatriots. A few will manage it, but many won't. Clarke lamented how few goalkeepers he had to choose from when he announced his squad last month. He, or his successor, may be left bemoaning the lack of centre-backs, full-backs, holding midfielders, playmakers, wingers and strikers going forward. There must be a concerted collective effort from club owners and managers or qualification for the finals of major tournaments will be a thing of the past.
