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From lockdown video games to pro racing driver

Rhianna VenablesEssex
Bourne HPP A man in a red and black T-Shirt smiling at the camera holding two trophies in the shape of a race track.Bourne HPP
'It's a massive team effort, the mechanics, engineers, the sponsors and when it all comes together it's a big relief and it's a massive celebration."

A 21-year-old racing driver has spoken of his "unconventional" route into motor-racing - which began with computer games during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Will Redford, a race winner at the GT Challenge de las Américas last month, said it was his dad that got him into the sport in the first place.

He said: "My dad had always been really into racing sims and stuff like that and he bought me a subscription to a programme called iRacing and there was nothing else to do, I got right into it."

After getting to grips with virtual racing he looked to get behind the wheel of a real car - getting his breakthrough in a scholarship competition.

Bourne HPP A red and black Mercedes driving on a wet race track with muddy water spraying out from underneath the car.Bourne HPP
The 600 brake horsepower Peter Lewis construction AMG GT3 reached speeds of around 150mph on the South American circuit

Redford, originally from Warrington, told Ian Puckey on BBC Essex's Sport Extra show that his journey in the sport has been "interesting" but "amazing".

"I took a bit of an unconventional route into motorsport. I started sim racing... so playing computer games and that was during the first COVID lockdown.

"Quite naively quite quickly I wanted to get into a real car not understanding how you've got to raise the money as a driver to be able to go and race."

He said that he did "quite well" in a scholarship drive he won and it "spiralled" from there, joining Bourne HPP in Witham, Essex.

Racing a Mercedes-AMG GT3 in Guyana last month for the team was "the biggest opportunity" in his career.

"Terry Radbourne from Bourne HPP called me and asked me to race in Guyana. We went out we won that event and he hired me," he said.

Radbourne is the company's CEO who began his career in Formula One and started the Witham-based company around six years ago.

Lockdown video games to pro racing driver

Bourne HPP marketing manager Luke Johnson said the opportunity to race in South America came up around three months before they took part.

He said: "That's what you do in motorsport, you just make things work, especially at Bourne, that's always our ethos.

"Just get it done and do the best we can, and that's exactly what we did."

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