A young karting driver, who overcame a motor accident to excel at his sport, says he wants to be the next Michael Schumacher.

Jordan Montgomery, 12, from Wallingford Road, North Moreton, has been beating drivers much older and more experienced than him in the Junior TKM Series at Shenington, near Banbury.

Now he has vowed to make it all the way to Formula 1 – and says the German champion is his hero.

He said: “I just have to keep getting quicker and quicker, and move through all the race classes. Then I will just wait until a team sees me.”

Parents Wendy Compton, 29, and Stuart Montgomery, 31, attribute the improvement in his racing to an accident at Whilton Hill, Daventry in March, when he was thrown out of his 60mph kart and twisted over his seat.

When the St Birinus School, Didcot pupil came to race the following week, his back was too painful to put on his helmet, and he ended up being taken to hospital by air ambulance.

Medics realised he had whiplash, and he was told not to race for a month. But when he returned, he was faster than ever.

Miss Compton said: “He has done amazing really, and surprised quite a few people. He came back a completely different boy, and only six tenths of a second of the fastest ones out there.”