Celebrity Race Across the World winning secrets from former show star

Harry Judd has lifted the lid on what it takes to win Celebrity Race Across the World

Celebrity Race Across The World's Kelly Brook looks surprised
Celebrity Race Across the World winning secrets. (BBC)

The Celebrity Race Across the World finale is this week, so what makes the winning pair?

Cousins Kola Bokinni and Mary-Ellen are in the lead but they have the smallest budget left as the four teams race to the finish line in the Andes, Frutillar in Southern Chile. DJ Scott Mills and his now husband Sam Vaughan, married couple Kelly Brook and Jeremy Parisi as well as father and son pairing Jeff and Freddy Brazier are all in with a chance of winning too - given how close the times are.

Harry Judd and his mum Emma may have come second on Celebrity Race Across the World last year but there was only four minutes between them and the winners Alex Beresford with his dad Noel. So the musician definitely knows what it takes to make a winner on the BBC reality series and he shared his thoughts exclusively with Yahoo.

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Judd said the most telling sign of who will make it cross the winning line first is the couple that are willing to "sacrifice home comforts" in a bid to keep pushing on with the race.

Speaking on behalf of Sky Vegas, he told Yahoo: "There are quite a few thought processes I had, like looking at the experiences you were choosing along the way and the jobs that you'd go for and try making them in a relatively direct route, to where the next checkpoint was.

“Just keep going – don't take your foot off the gas at any point. Never take the easy option. We were always like, can we move forward? If we can, let's go. There was one moment in particular where we were both absolutely knackered, and there was an option to stay in this house we were at, which was a really cozy, comfy house.

Celebrity Race Across The World's Harry Judd and his mum Emma.
Celebrity Race Across The World's Harry Judd and his mum Emma. (Studio Lambert)

“This fisherman's house had a bed each, which is quite rare, but there was a late-night train that meant we might be able to get a quicker bus the next day. There was no guarantee, but we resisted the temptation of a good night's sleep and just went for it – so it's things like that. It's kind of sacrificing sleep and comfort and just go, go, go basically."

The McFly drummer said the pressure is on in the final because everyone is feeling knackered. He added: "You saw it on the last episode. They're all pretty knackered – you're tired, you're on camera, and you just want to go home. You're thinking this is so tiring and uncomfortable. It gets quite hard now."

Celebrity Race Across The World's 2024 line-up. (Studio Lambert)
Celebrity Race Across The World's 2024 line-up. (Studio Lambert)

Despite having the experience of the show, Judd said it was "impossible" to predict who was going to win in the final. We know that Brook and her husband are stranded when their bus breaks down, plus Mills and Vaughan face a difficult decision too over the final route.

Judd added: "It's just impossible [to predict]. They're all like an hour within it now – there's been 26 hours between them at one point – so it's anyone's race. It's just impossible for me to guess. Honestly, you just don't know, they're all quite determined.

"You saw a little highlight for episode six. Jeremy and Kelly are on a broken-down bus and it seems like Jeff and Freddy have a bit of an issue as well, so you just don’t know."

Judd admitted that the current leaders and cousins may not make it cross the finish line as they could run out of money. However, the musician did say the pair had "surprised" him during the course of the competition.

Celebrity Race Across The World's Kola Bokinni and Mary-Ellen came first on the penultimate leg
Celebrity Race Across The World's Kola Bokinni and Mary-Ellen came first on the penultimate leg. (Studio Lambert)

He explained: "The budget is looking a bit dodgy! At first, I was like, split the budget into six parts, for the five or six legs, but obviously, not every leg is going to cost the same amount – different countries, different costs.

"Often on the last leg, you need a bit of money for the very last thing to get you to the actual final destination, so it's going to be touch and go as to whether they're going to be able to make it money wise.

"They’ve surprised me, they've been having a lot of fun. They didn't have a good previous leg, and they were talking about wanting to have fun, but they've not [been doing that], they've just raced. If they have enough money, they could possibly be the favourites at this point."

Watch the Celebrity Race Across the World trailer

Celebrity Race Across The World airs on BBC One at 9pm on Wednesday.