A DARING gran is set to become the star of a TV documentary as she tears up the track in her bid to become the fastest motor racing pensioner around.

Helmshore's 68-year-old Jean Neville will be one of four women featured in a Channel 4 documentary called Girl Racers'.

The documentary follows Jean, who has made her way into the last 100 from the 4,000 females who entered the Club Formula Woman series.

TV crews have been filming the pensioner who, despite having a double hip replacement, hasn't stopped living life to the full as she reaches speeds of more than 100mph.

The grandma, of Balmoral Road, a once retired teacher who has returned to part- time work at Newfield Special School, Blackburn, to fund her new hobby, will be featured on the show later this year.

She said: "I was asked to take part in the TV show, which I was more than happy to do. I couldn't believe it when they told me it was going to be called Girl Racers' I said I'm not a girl', but the producers said you're an old girl' which I had to laugh at because that's what I am."

Jean first heard about Formula Woman from a relative, who told her about the club set up to give women with a need for speed' a chance to enter what has been a male- dominated sport.

She pays a monthly subscription fee around £145 and is provided with a racing car and takes part in training days and races at tracks all over the country.And now she is ready for a summer boot camp, in Bruntingthorpe, near Leicester, to decide the last 16, who will then battle it out for the championship crown.

Jean has already helped the competition make the Guinness Book of Records for the most number of women 62 competing in a race.

In the last 12 months, Jean has passed her racing driver's licence, completed the learning and intermediate levels and the advanced driving courses, where she got to drive the Caterham race cars solo.

She has already raced on tracks across the UK, including Dunsfold Park, where motoring show Top Gear is filmed.

She added: "I've just bought a Honda Civic Type R and I love it. I feel really proud to have made it into the final 100 because when you get older your reaction times are slower, and I am racing against women less than half my age. I have really had to push myself and overcome the fear factor' of reaching such high speeds while on the track, but I try not to think about it."

As the oldest competitor, Jean accepts the inevitable labels. She said: "It looks as though I'm stuck with this image of grandma on the grid'."

Jean, who has three children and four grandchildren, added: "They thought I was off my rocker to start with, but now they think it's brilliant."

Grandson Michael Pilkington, 11, who attends Haslingden County Primary School, said: "I think it's really cool. My friends didn't believe me when I told them that my gran was a racing driver because their grans don't do anything like that."