Up Close With: Ruben Hage Racing

Hucknall Nub News aims to be supportive to every element of the community, from businesses, shops, and people, to charities, clubs, and sports organisations.

We will be profiling some of these local businesses, and groups regularly over the coming weeks in a feature called 'Up Close With'.

The latest in this series is with teenage racing driver Ruben Hage and his Dad Richard, as we delve into what it takes to compete and be successful in motorsport.

Ruben is 16 years old but took his first steps into the sport at the age of six when he started karting at PF International circuit in Grantham.

It was very much love at first sight. "As soon as I got in, I thought, this is it, nothing else," said Ruben speaking exclusively to Hucknall Nub News.

"I thought what have I done here?" quips his father with a big grin on his face.

It's not a cheap hobby with budgets of around £40,000 to £80,000 per year needed in the various junior series in order to be competitive, with this rising substantially for top level sportscar, GT, and touring car series the like of which Ruben aspires to compete in one day.

After a successful karting career which saw him compete in the Bambino and Cadet series he graduated to Autograss becoming a front runner in the UK Championship and being crowned the Nottingham Club Junior Saloon Champion in 2018.

As soon as he turned 14, in 2019, and was eligible to compete in circuit racing, he joined the Junior Saloon Car Championship (JSCC) for a part campaign before a full campaign in 2020 saw him finish fourth in the championship.

This year, he sits third in the series, after five of the scheduled nine meetings. Last time out he claimed his first circuit racing victory at Brands Hatch in mixed weather conditions as reported by Nub News .

When asked about his racing heroes, Ruben doesn't hesitate in giving the answer: "The ultimate one is Ayrton Senna, I never got to watch him race, he just ticks every single box that there is to tick pretty much. Just his attitude, he always wanted to win, wanted to do the best. The best in changing conditions, no matter what car he was in or who his team-mate was he always wanted to outperform them."

He also lists contemporary drivers, Sam Tordoff and James Dorlin, both of whom he knows personally.

Dorlin has worked closely with Ruben as his driver coach since he started in the Junior Saloon Car Championship in 2019. Dorlin is himself a previous champion in the series having claimed the crown in 2014 and has gone on to compete in the Renault UK Clio Cup and Porsche Carrera Cup GB both of which support the highly regarded British Touring Car Championship.

Speaking exclusively to Hucknall Nub News, when asked about working with Ruben, Dorlin said: "He's an intelligent lad, he's very committed to his motorsport and his driving, he's in the early years of his career, he's only been doing it a couple of years but he's already come on a huge amount in such a short space of time. He's in a very competitive championship and already getting multiple podiums and obviously his first win last week. Ru's a pleasure to work with he listens to all the advice whether it comes from me, or the team or his support network around him, he's always looking to improve and analysing his own performance and I think that's why he's had so much success already at such a young age."

Asked about Hage's potential, Dorlin gave him a huge endorsement: "He's got the right attitude, nothing comes easy, commercially there's a lot of efforts that have to go in. I genuinely believe he can go as far as he wants to. Nothing's ever easy but from what I've seen so far he's committed and if you're committed to something you make it happen."

Ruben's passion for motorsport comes from his father, Richard, who himself has been involved with the sport since he was 15. Their close relationship shines through when talking to them.

"I definitely wouldn't be able to do it without him. He literally does everything from the start of the season right to the end every single year," says an appreciative Ruben.

Richard said: "I used to run him and do all the car prep and everything, this year we've gone fully with a team, because my talent's ran out of getting him on the grid, we need more than that now. We can't spend all this time on a driver coach and I forget something on the car or setup.

"The last time we were at Silverstone I didn't torque a wheel up and he lost the wheel in quali and it destroyed his whole weekend. We win as a team, lose as a team, he makes mistakes, I make mistakes but if we work on rectifying those we'll get closer to the front. That made Brands really emotional for me because you go that's what happens we've worked at it and there's your result, hopefully now he can repeat it.

"I'm not a driver so you have to know where your strengths and weaknesses are and when to step away or I'll end up holding him back. I can spend more time on the commercial side trying to piece that together to make sure that we can afford to pay the right knowledge and progress as we are doing. I actually enjoy that side as well, it's time consuming, I actually enjoy that, it's a fun aspect."

Ruben has switched to Westbourne Motorsport for 2021, the most successful team in the history of the championship who before the season had won 30 races, taken 93 podiums, and clinched three championship victories.

This gives Richard a bit more time to watch the races from the pit lane without having to worry about the car setup.

"I'm a good spectator actually. A lot of parents can't watch their children race. I'm really cool about it actually, I thought I'd be a lot more nervy than what I am. I know he'll drive safe, he's not going to make a stupid move and stick himself in the barrier or somebody else but for sure I've got to respect what it is and what could happen as well. I'm the one I suppose ultimately choosing to drop him into a car and I'm not in control of it when he's out there.

"You can't wrap your children up in cotton wool you've got to allow them to express themselves to do whatever hobby it is. If you're playing rugby you probably have far more injuries than what he's ever had racing. The downside to racing is often the injuries you can succumb to them very easily as we saw even at our last race meeting at Snetterton, one of the competitors (not in our category) sadly died, it very rarely happens but it was changing conditions, he had a huge accident and died.

"It's a real stark reminder to go, I'd sooner you come second, third, tenth, if you're not comfortable in the conditions drive to where your comfort zone is, if that means you've got to back out of a scrap do it, just take third. There's not a world championship at stake it's for enjoyment at the end of the day."

Silverstone is the next stop on the JSCC calendar this weekend and Ruben was keen to point out that he didn't have happy memories of the circuit.

"Silverstone's not normally one of my strong tracks, I've not been there since 2019 on that layout so maybe things have changed but we'll have to see."

However, since he spoke Nub News, Ruben has worked with James Dorlin on the track and Dorlin thinks he's in a very different headspace going into the meeting than he was previously.

"Every driver has a bogey circuit, where in the past you've had a bit of bad luck or whatever but I said to Ru just completely forget it you've won a race now it's a different story. Just go into this weekend off the back of a win so there's nothing stopping you from winning again. We spent a good few hous yesterday working on the simulator and working through every training drill possible from qualifying runs to race runs and what not so I think he's come away feeling a lot more confident now for the weekend and I think his mindset has changed.

"I think that's what we find, when Ru and I have spent a few hours analysing stuff from before and moving forward to the next one he does come out of it with that newfound energy to go yeah I do deserve to win I do know how to win whatever circuit it is whatever conditions, his mindset hopefully has changed and he's more focused now on getting another good result."

"I think a lot of the stuff I work on with Ru is the psychological side because he can drive, we've seen that, we know he can drive and all the guys he races against they can all drive but it's at the point where you're just looking for that extra edge at that level you're looking for that extra edge and the majority of it comes from what's happening in your brain and the mindset is key.

"I always say to him you need to go into a circuit truly believing that you will win and having had the result he had last time out it's the best thing in the world for confidence to go into the next race. We work a lot on the psychological side as well as the technical aspects to his performance and hopefully we'll see another good result this weekend."

Ruben spoke of how much he values James' input when it comes to his racing: "He knows a lot more than me so whatever he says is worth taking on board."

"Even when you've won and set the fastest lap from pole there's always little things that could have been done to make your life a little bit easier."

Ruben's main aims at the start of the season were to claim a first win in the series and to improve on his finishing position in the standings last year by finishing in the top three. He has achieved the first one, so he can now very much turn his attention to fulfilling the second one too.

"That was one of the main boxes to tick (winning a race), now that one of them is done it is now just focusing on getting the other one done which is aiming for the top three in the championship."

However, by aiming for the top three Ruben isn't keeping a proverbial lid on his expectations and hasn't given up on winning the overall title at the end of the year.

"There's only 29 points to the leader and it's 25 points for a win so if the leader gets a DNF and I manage to get a podium at least then we're definitely much closer to getting back up there and there's still almost half the season left to try and do that."