A champion racing driver has swapped the race track for garden lawns in a new business venture.

Judy Wilson-Petch, a former Women's Yorkshire Grass Track Champion, has set up a company devoted to caring for lawns.

She and her husband, Jimmy, former managing director of Croft Circuit, have had 100 customers since they started trading as Greensleeves Garden Care Richmond, in February.

The company deals in a special fertiliser, from the US, which is used to keep the grass on golf courses green.

Greensleeves, which covers Teesside, Darlington, North Yorkshire and County Durham, is the first lawn treatment company in the North-East.

The couple decided to set up the business after being made redundant from a racing team last summer.

Mr Wilson-Petch, 57, left Croft Circuit about 18 months ago, and recently had a hip replacement operation.

He said: "I am hobbling a bit now, but working on the lawns is very good therapy for my hip.

"It is a novel idea here to treat your lawn, but in America everybody has it done."

The company, which treats customers' lawns four times a year, is allied to a similar firm in Huddersfield.