Sergeant Brad Cross has already been named one of the UK’s two best drivers aged 18 to 26 after winning a competition at the Thruxton race track in Hampshire.

The competition was organised by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) RoadSmart, the UK’s leading road safety charity and advocate.

“To be one of the two best young drivers is amazing,” Brad said.”It was really challenging. The tasks were designed to really test your driving skills, so to go through was fantastic.”

IAM RoadSmart is a member of the FIA, the governing body for world motor sport and the federation of the world’s leading motoring organisations. The FIA is organising this weekend's competition.

Sergeant Brad Cross is heading to Austria this weekend.

The best young drivers from across Europe and parts of Africa will come together in Teesdorf near Vienna looking to compete for the title of FIA Best Young Driver. There are also Formula One tickets and paddock passes up for grabs.

Brad said: “I absolutely love F1, so to win would be amazing.

“I’m really looking forward to it, if a little bit nervous.

“The Austrians and Germans take their driving very seriously. They’re such good drivers. They’re the competition to beat.”

The FIA Best Young Driver is an annual initiative to raise awareness of road safety among young drivers and put forward the message that young drivers can drive skilfully, responsibly, safely and in an environmentally conscious way.

“There’s many elements to the competition,” explained Brad.

“There will be off-road aspects where you’ll be tested on how you handle the vehicle in a quick time.

“There’s also a skid pan, which is a polished concrete surface with water sprayed over the top of it. You’ll be in a car with no ABS, the stability programme turned off, and you’re going to hit that body of water on that surface at just over 30mph and you’ve got to do it while not losing traction, which sounds impossible, because everything that stops you from doing that isn’t there.

“There’ll be some precision driving, going through tight spaces.

"It’s a wide range of driving tasks designed to test you in all sorts of ways.

“I’m really looking forward to the track stuff at the end.”

Sergeant Brad Cross (right) after being named one of the UK’s two
best drivers aged 18 to 26 after winning a competition at the Thruxton.

An officer with Hertfordshire for almost five years, Brad was inspired to join the police by a neighbourhood officer when he was growing up.

“I’ve wanted to be a police officer since I can remember,” he said.

“We had a community police officer round where I lived who used to park his car at the community centre and would walk around the estate.

There would be a gaggle of kids who wanted to look at the car and he paid a lot of attention to the community.

“I remember how much I looked up to him and how cool he was, so I thought I want to be just like that.”

He started on intervention in Watford and has been a sergeant for two-and-a half years.

He took his response course to drive on blue lights, which opened up the opportunity to compete for the FIA Best Young Driver.

He said: “By virtue of passing the police response course, you’re eligible to join the Institute of Advanced Motorists, which is how I found out about the competition.

“It’s a driving geeks club and I’ve always been a driving geek - a petrol head!

“They’re a road safety charity. I want to promote road safety among people in my age group. I think it’s really important that we send that message that young drivers can drive skilfully and responsibly.”

READ MORE: Fed members praise force's commitment to HeForShe campaign.