A 12-year-old aspiring racing driver from Nottingham has made an impact in his first championship kart race of the year, as part of a newly formed racing team.
Jacob Jukes, who is currently in year 7 at Toothill School in Bingham, signed for Team X-Kart in November.
On Sunday 25th April, he competed in the Whilton Mill Championship – as the youngest driver on the grid.
In heat 1, he made up an incredible 12 places, moving from a starting position of P31 to P19. He repeated this in heat 2, moving from P32 to P19 and in heat 3 he moved up 15 places from P30 to P15. In the final, Jacob began in P21 before finishing in the top 10 with a P8 finish, and the highest place novice racer.
Jacob, who lives and breathes karting, started competing in 2018 in the Stretton Sprint Series. Despite having no official coaching, he went on to take his first podium in his first race of 2019 and won two rounds in the club championships. He finished third overall in the Stretton Sprint Series of 2019 in only his second year, and took numerous podiums in the 2020 national Cadet Cart Championships, finishing as runner-up overall.
Jacob said: “I knew we had good pace around Whilton Mill from testing and I felt ready for the step up to Motorsport UK racing. From practice the kart felt balanced and I was able to make good progress through the field. Starting from the back every time was difficult but great fun and gave me plenty of wheel to wheel action. I’ve loved every minute of my first MSUK weekend, the racing is fierce and the people I’m up against are incredibly talented but I’m loving the challenge.”
Jacob competes again at Lydd in Kent on 5th June.