MEET Dax Ward, above, who is now in the driving seat of a cable assembly manufacturer in Southampton.

The managing director of St Cross Electronics, which employs 32 people at Mount Pleasant Industrial Park, is also trying to race ahead of the competition in more ways than one.

Dax will be driving a company-sponsored racing car in the British Formula Jedi motor championship at Rockingham next month, and then at Brands Hatch in November.

Formula Jedi is a competition for one-make single-seater cars competing over 12 rounds that are raced all over the UK.

Each car is powered by a 600cc Honda motorbike engine and can reach speeds of 135mph.

Dax has been competing in the championship for just over two years, and the team has this season narrowly missed out on several podium finishes.

St Cross Electronics, whose clients include communications icon BT, intelligence systems company Invensys and technology giant AEA, supplies a range of jumpers, cables, connectors and manufactures cable harness assemblies.

The company, set up in 1983, has seen a number of changes at the top.

Dax took over from founder and former managing director Patrick Kiely, who is now chairman, and Adrian Jukes has been appointed production director.