Martin Galpin | Racing Driver | number66.net

The 2009 Dunlop Race Academy gained the support of Motorsport News this week as it officially announced its judges. The scholarship, which will provide a fully funded drive in the Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup for 2010, has also now opened for the registration on the Dunlop Drivers Know website.

The now, Dunlop Motorsport News Race Academy (sort-of, because Dunlop doesn’t call it that), judges are: James Bailey (Dunlop PR chief), former academy winner Simon Shaw, BTCC racer Paul O’Neil (and half-brother to Sporty Spice) and Motorsport News journalist Matt James.

Dunlop Race Academy – How it works

Last week, Dunlop made registrations available on its website, as well as publishing further details of the academy will work. The key points can be summarised as follows:

• Registration is available up until the end of March. Applicants must submit a “video audition” to the Dunlop website informing them of their “racing form”.
• Dunlop will shortlist 36 drivers (six drivers from six regions of the country) on or around 10th April 2009.
• The Dunlop Race Academy judges will monitor the performance of the 36 short-listed drivers between 1st April and 25th May.
• On 26th May, each Dunlop Race Academy judge will vote for the best driver in each region whilst at the same time, the public can also vote for their favourite driver on the Dunlop Drivers Know website.
• Both judges and public votes will count, the judges contributing 75% of the vote (that was probably intended for three judges and not four) and the public 25%. The public is therefore effectively worth 1.3 judges.
• The top six drivers from each region will be assessed on circuit by the Race Academy judges and shortly after, the three finalists will be announced.
• Each finalist will receive a drive in one of the final three rounds of the 2009 Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup and both their on-track and off-track performance assessed by the Dunlop Race Academy judges.
• And finally – the top performing driver will receive a fully funded drive in 2010.

Dunlop appears to have the most transparent and accessible racing driver scholarship in British motor sport. That is a pretty bold statement considering it is in the context of an MSA initiative (MSA British Race Elite) and two from the BRDC.

During the 1st April to 25th May period I will potentially be racing four weekends (three National rounds and one Midland South). I plan to submit my application in due course and I will be hoping that a positive start to the year in National Formula Ford will compliment my past achievements.

Related posts:

1. 2009 Dunlop Race Academy – Good News for British Motorsport
2. London 2012: How much funding should Olympic sports receive?
3. MSA British Race Elite: My Application
4. Vote for me in the Grand Prix Shootout!
5. The Racing Steps Foundation… almost.