Welcome back to How I Made It, Metro.co.uk’s weekly career journey series.
This week we’re chatting with Jessica Hawkins, a 28-year-old race driver and stunt driver, living in Milton Keynes.
She races with Formula 1 and has driven in Fast and the Furious Live and the James Bond film No Time to Die – and she has a Guinness World Record. Impressive!
Jessica has been fascinated by motorsports since her first go on a kart as a child – and now she’s made a hugely successful career out of it.
Here’s how she made it.
Hey Jessica. How did you get into racing?
I first started when I was eight, I was always a really sporty child, always running around doing things, just playing sports.
I was playing golf with my dad one day, and in the distance I saw a go kart circuit, and just begged him to let me have a go. It wasn’t ever supposed to be a career but I’m just very lucky that it never stopped and here I am 20 years later, making a career from it.
Hopefully I will spend another 20 years doing just that.
Where did the interest in cars come from?
I think it was just that go kart circuit when I was eight years old. I wasn’t massively into cars at the time I don’t think, and it all stemmed from that.
And then obviously, very, very quickly after that first time having a go, I ate, slept and breathed motorsport and I genuinely don’t know what I would do without it now.
How did you go to make this your profession, from fun on the kart track to being paid?
It just never stopped. I kept progressing as a young child, and then moved up to the bigger, better category, the more difficult category, then the next year it would be even more difficult, and then it was just the journey because my parents and I had no idea what we were doing really.
We were just going to the next step and the next step and taking that normal progression. Natural progression, I guess.
Were there any challenges or obstacles along the way?
There’s been many challenges and obstacles. My biggest obstacle, which is the same for many drivers, is that motorsport is a very, very expensive sport and you need a lot of backing behind you to succeed and get to the top of motorsport.
I always struggled for funding. I don’t come from a wealthy family or anything like that.
I’ve always been relying on outside sponsorship and things and partners and that’s very, very difficult to do.
I’ve probably missed a lot of development in my years, but I’m very proud of where I’ve come from. I’m not finished yet.
I’ve heard you hold a Guinness World Record – how did that come about?
Alright, this is so random – I hold the Guinness World Record for driving the fastest lawnmower nought to 100 miles an hour and, unofficially, the fastest lawnmower in the world.
It’s quite niche, isn’t it? But of course, a Guinness World Record is great to have on the CV and it’s not as if we’ve just done it from nothing.
There’s quite a competition, people get really into fast lawnmowers.
It was probably one of the scariest things I’ve ever driven.
You also work as a stunt driver – what made you want to get into that?
It’s quite funny, actually, when I was a really little girl, I remember saying to my mom, ‘Mom, I want to be a stunt woman’, and she said, ‘you need to be good at maths to be a stunt woman so make sure you work hard in school’.
I was thinking, why do you have to be good at maths to be a stunt woman, but I think that was just her way of in encouraging me to concentrate on my academics as well as my sports.
I’d say that stunt driving has the same set of skills used in racing, just used in a completely different way.
How did you get that first stunt driving job?
It was off of a recommendation. A production was looking for a female driver. I had to go for an audition.
I was literally the only person in the audition, but I think they wanted to double check that I was capable like they’d been told.
They rolled down the window and they just said ‘welcome to the team’ and that was that was my first ever experience.
Do you ever worry about safety and have you ever had any injuries from racing or stunt driving?
Touch wood, I’ve not had any injuries from stunt driving but I have had two big karting crashes.
There’s still a part of my leg that I can’t feel and when I touch it, it’s painful to put any pressure on.
It’s only a very small part of my leg, but I had a crash and had a massive hematoma on my leg that caused nerve damage.
But you don’t worry about that when you get in the car?
Absolutely not, that doesn’t even enter my brain to be honest. I think if you were to worry about that you wouldn’t race properly. You know?
An average day in the working life of Jessica Hawkins
‘On a normal day at the track, I’d get up, have breakfast, I would travel into the circuit, either on foot or by car, depends on which circuit we’re at. I’d maybe have a zoom interview or a television interview.
‘I’d then go on to an appearance at Paddock Club, talking to lots of guests and sponsors and I’d then potentially have hot laps. So, I get people sat in the car next to me and I go as fast as I can and scare them as much as I can.
‘I’d then probably have another experience and then listen to a briefing or a debrief about the session ahead of us or the session that’s just happened.
‘That’s pretty much the day. I’d obviously be paying a lot of attention to the practice sessions or the races that’s happening and that’s my job.’
What do you love most about your job?
Obviously, the driving cars is the best bit. I also quite enjoy the hot laps, taking people for experiences and scaring them.
The stunt driving is great. Basically, I love driving! Anything driving is fantastic and you get to do some cool things off the back of it as well.
Anything you dislike?
There’s a lot of disappointment in motorsport. I feel Formula One is often quite dominant by one particular team, whoever that may be one year, and that leaves a lot of other teams disappointed.
But in the lower down categories it is a little bit more even and different people win more regularly, with one winner this week and another the next.
You know, we all want to finish first and often that’s not always possible, so there’s a lot of disappointment in it and it’s a rollercoaster of emotion.
Sometimes [it] can be difficult, but as long as you can give yourself some time to dust yourself down, you’ll always come back up at the end.
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