For 12-year-old Jacob Bellamy, hurtling down a race track at nearly 100 kilometres per hour may have saved his life.
At the age of nine, he was so badly bullied at school that his mind turned to thoughts of self harm.
“I used to play rugby and I was really small so I’d get smashed and it wasn’t really fun, so I had to find something that no-one would bully me about.”
So one day, after Jacob reached his lowest point, his Dad took him out to the Todd Energy Raceway in Waitara to try karting.
From there his love and passion for speeding down the track at up to 100kms an hour, and taking corners like they aren’t even there, took over.
The Taranaki boy has been kart racing for two and a half years and is already ranked in the top five for his age group in the country.
In February, he is set to trial for Team Kiwi Racing, where he will drive at up to 190 kilometres per hour in a Mini.
“I’ve found that I’m quite good at it. I’ve only been racing for two years when people that I’m racing with have done it for five or six,” he said.
Last year he competed in more than 40 events in the North Island, taking up almost every weekend with practises and races, and came second in his race at the Blossom Festival Grand Prix, a two-day event in Hawke’s Bay.
But after breaking his wrist in a nasty crash he was unable to compete for a title.
“This year we’re hoping to go down to Christchurch to compete in the nationals,” he said.
He has been picked up by Tony Kart, an Italian leader in the karting industry, has 18 sponsors, and is supported by big guns in the industry including Matt Podjursky, Scott Mclaughlin and Scott Dixon.
Jacob’s next race is on January 25 at the City of Sails Two-Day Challenge in Auckland, and he has spent the first weeks of the year preparing.
“I’ll try and go for the win or at least come in the top five,” he said.
His dad, Brendon, is proud as punch and although he knows little about racing, he knows his boy has a skill that keeps getting better.
He said he couldn’t believe the dramatic change racing has had on his son’s mental health.
“Within the last six months he’s gone from being someone in the middle of the pack to someone they look out for.”
Brendon said the bullying Jacob endured was so bad it left him fearing for his life after another boy at school told him he would slit his throat, hang him from a tree and skin him like a deer.
“And so he said one day, ‘Don’t bother, I’m going home to do it myself.’
“Just the cold way he said it made me absolutely want to chunder. I just about passed out.
“But if that never happened he never would have got into karting and be on the journey he is now.”
Jacob’s next goal is to move up from a kart to a car but his future dreams in racing look set.
“I would like to get to a V8 Supercar, or maybe a Formula One or a Porsche,” he said.
Written for stuff.co.nz by Brianna McIlraith
