Tudor Nechita makes his racing debut in the BRSCC Vinyl Detail ST150 Championship this weekend - after learning his race craft on simulators.

The 16-year-old from Gravesend has never raced on-track before and instead has learned all he knows from the SIM Motorsport Race School based in Gillingham.

Nechita started with the basics - learning clutch control and changing gears - before attempting to land a Ginetta race scholarship. He returned to the Gillingham race school after failing to impress.

He then proved to be a top student at the SIM Motorsport race school after completing their industry-leading program whch is designed to fast-track talented youngsters. Nechita was awarded the prestigious Distinction Award, picked up vital sponsorship and will now be taking to the track for real at Brands Hatch this weekend.

Simon Ricketts, SIM Motorsport CEO, accepts it will be a big learning curve to race for real but believes teen driver Nechita is well prepared.

“He is a winner,” said Ricketts. “The very first race is going to be a baptism of fire, the whole atmosphere, the anxiety and the reality is very different, he will learn a lot, but he is very quick.

“It won’t take him long to adjust and we are there to support him as well. We have got a race centre at Brands Hatch so drivers can do some pre-testing before they go on track.”

Gillingham’s race school specialises in using the highest-spec race car simulators to teach talented youngsters how to be fast on the race track, along with all the other key elements such as nutrition, physical fitness, mental approach, media and sponsorship.

The simulators are the only ones licenced by the FIA - the governing body of motor sport - to allow top race drivers to test.

With active suspension, they allow drivers to feel understeer, oversteer, adhesion of the tyres, the pitch of the race car, rather than just what you would normally get in a basic simulator, which is through your hands.

“You get the full feel of a chassis.” said Mr Ricketts.

“They simulate everything and we have professional race drivers using it for testing because it saves them a fortune rather than being on track.

“They are designed to make race drivers quicker on track and we teach them everything from using a clutch and a gearbox to race craft, it is simulating everything needed to go onto the track and be successful.”

The school, based at Pier Approach Road in Gillingham, welcomes professional race drivers and amateurs.

Freddie Hunt - the son of 1976 World Champion James Hunt - uses the venue to test and last year Daniel Craig’s stuntman attended to learn more about race craft.

Another of their students, Maggie Webster, is also racing this weekend, although she had prior racing experience before starting. She’s another to have picked up a distinction award.

Mr Ricketts said: “Tudor has come from nothing, he has done some SIM racing, that’s it.

“He has gone on from doing the race school and gaining our distinction award because he really stood out, to actually gaining sponsorship from what he’s learned at the race school and he is now with a race team and will be on the grid at the weekend racing against others at the age of 16.

“He doesn’t drive, he has never driven a car in his life, he came to us and we taught him how to use a clutch and a gearbox. By using the race car simulators he has learned how to race a car on a track.”

SIM Motorsport offers “a variety of unique adrenaline fueled driving experiences” and their CEO Mr Ricketts described how his business came about.

He’d been a race car driver himself, an instructor with Palmer Sport and for a while was running the karting events company Daytona Motorsport.

He said: “I could see with the world of simulation due to Covid that drivers were looking at ways to get accurate testing rather than being on track.

“I wrote to a lot of companies that created these things and Cranfield Aerospace turned up with the best simulator - they make the fighter jet simulators - and they were able to simulate actually being on track and we went with them initially an the rest is history.”

Nechita will be driving for TenSport Performance in the Fiesta ST150 Challenge championship which starts at Brands Hatch this weekend before heading to Croft, Anglesey International, Oulton Park, Cadwell Park, Doningon and back to Oulton Park for the season finale in late October.