Cheltenham can lay claim to another world champion.

Mette Bjerknes, a top-level powerboater who was F2 world endurance champion back in 2014, has recently moved to the town, a town that has always had very strong links with the sport.

Mette, who is from Norway, is maintaining that tradition and this weekend will be in Lithuania as she attempts to add the F2 world sprint championship to the endurance title she won almost a decade ago.

The 34-year-old, who set up her own team JRM Racing during lockdown, is the only woman to have won the F2 world endurance title and would love to complete what obviously would be a very impressive double.

And she’s surely in the right place because a quick look at the record books tells you that Cheltenham has a history of producing powerboat world champions.

John Hill was the trailblazer back in the day. A wonderful man, he won the F1 world sprint title in 1990, while his son Steve won the F3 world sprint title a number of years later.

Jamey Stallard also won the F3 world sprint title, and Stallard is the reason Mette has moved to this part of the world because they have been a couple for the best part of six years.

Stallard, who retired in the early noughties, runs Mette’s team and, like Mette, has been involved with the sport for many years.

“Both my parents raced,” said Mette. “My dad is from Norway and my mum is Danish, they met at a race in Denmark. My dad raced in F1 – he competed against John Hill – and my mum raced in junior classes.”

Dad is Morten Bjerknes and mum is Lene, but while Mette grew up around powerboats, she didn’t take up the sport until she was 18.

“I did competition target shooting when I was growing up,” said Mette, who lived just south of Oslo. “I was regional champion seven times.”

So what was it that got Mette into powerboating?

“My dad and I started helping a Norwegian driver,” she said. “I just loved it but I couldn’t take just watching, I wanted to get behind the wheel.”

And there is no doubting what she likes most about the sport.

“Speed,” she said without a moment’s hesitation. “I love the speed, definitely the speed for me, the boats can go 125mph. I had a year in F4 but have been competing in F2 since 2010, that was a big jump. I want to progress.”

Mette is still relatively young for a powerboater – John Hill won his F1 title when he was in his mid-50s – and she may well step up to F1 at some stage.

More immediately her focus is on winning the F2 world sprint title. The first round in Lithuania is followed by a race in Italy and then two in Portugal, with the championship all done and dusted in the next couple of months.

That’s quite a quick turnaround, but Mette hasn’t been putting her feet up for the rest of the year, far from it, because when she spoke to The Local Answer she had just raced at Carr Mill in St Helens, Lancashire.

“It was just a local club race, but part of the national series,” she said. “I use these rounds for testing prior to the F2 world championships.”

It’s a full-on sport and, as with its motor racing equivalent, there can be plenty of thrills and spills which is part of the attraction, of course.

But does Mette ever get frightened when she’s competing?

“No, I don’t,” she said. “The only time was when I was competing in Nottingham in a world championship event in 2013. I was involved in a three-boat crash and one of the boats ended up on top of mine. I wasn’t frightened at the time but looking back that was the scariest.”

Happily, Mette escaped without a scratch. “I think one of the other drivers may have had a broken leg but we’re very safe in these boats, I’ve travelled the whole world with my racing,“ she said.

And while she’s still travelling to all parts of the globe, she’s also very happy in Cheltenham.

“I love it,” she said. “I’ve been here a few weeks, it’s such a nice place.”

It helps that her partner Jamey, who works in the construction business, is from the town, of course, and it obviously helps that he knows plenty about powerboating.

The 64-year-old, whose brother Dean was also a powerboater, is Mette’s radio man on race days, while Jamey’s son Richard, a keen motorcyclist, is her mechanic.

The ‘J’, ‘R’ and ‘M’ of JRM Racing stand for Jamey, Richard and Mette, but they are far more than a three-strong team, with Mette keen to namecheck two other mechanics, ‘Bond’ and ‘Fly’.

“They are David Borton and Paul Underwood,” explained Mette. “They helped Jamey when he used to race.”

And there are two others she wants to mention, too.

“Mike Gorman manages the team with Jamey and myself,” said Mette. “He also drives our race truck around Europe.

"Also my mother who takes care of the hospitality side of things at the races but is not afraid to get her hands dirty.”

JRM Racing is clearly a close-knit team. Mette, who is looking for a job – she speaks excellent English – has no plans to stop racing any time soon, but it is an expensive sport and her team are looking for sponsorship.

Anyone interested should email m.bjerknes@icloud.com. Mette can also be followed on Facebook and Instagram.