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

During this test, Sims finished 2nd fastest with a 44.152 whilst Hawana was 9th fastest, 3 tenths slower.

The previous week at Snetterton (07/03/06), Sims finished 5th fastest for Manor Motorsport with a 1:05.123, four tenths of a second off the ultimate pace. Hanawa finished 16th just over half a second off the best Sims could achieve.

It makes me wonder if by normalising their performances, in each series, could you conclude anything about the quality at the front of UK Formula Vee? After all, last weekends top six were all drivers of equivalent youth. What do you think?

Source: http://www.formula3.cc/content/view/14917/259/

Related posts:

1. Spreading the wealth: Who’s getting all these scholarships and awards?
2. Racing Steps Foundation: 2008 season review
3. The Racing Steps Foundation… almost.

1. Isn’t it scary?

Hannibal Lecter or Charles Manson. Killer Bees and Giant Snakes. Those things are scary and surprisingly, are also things that I try to avoid. Motor racing, however, isn’t. It doesn’t scare me, it thrills me. It provides a euphoric rush of adrenaline and challenges my nerves, but it doesn’t scare me. If it did, I probably wouldn’t do it.

2. Have you ever crashed?

Of course I’ve crashed. Do you think Lance Armstrong never fell off his bike? Motor racing is about pushing limits and inevitably you sometimes cross it. When you do, you crash. It’s no different to any other sport.

3. How did you get into it?

I’m not really sure why this irritates me, but it does. I guess it’s because if I played football or tennis, nobody would bother asking. Surely, motor sport isn’t that unusual, is it? I also get the impression that they expect a short answer, something like “it’s in the family” or “I’ve raced since I was young“. I don’t really have a short answer.

4. I went go-karting once!

Excellent, go-karting is fun! However, I hate to be the one to break this to you but racing go-karts is not what I do. It’s sort of like telling Tiger Woods you like to play crazy golf. They’re just not the same.

Note: In no way do I think of myself as motor sport’s Tiger Woods…

5. How fast do you go?

I never know what to say to this. I think what they really mean is how fast do you go in a straight line so I can imagine doing it on a motorway and then relate that to what you do? The truth is, unfortunately, that how fast a racing car goes in a straight line isn’t particularly important and from Formula Renault to Formula Three or Formula Palmer Audi to the World Series By Renault, the variation is actually very small (perhaps 20mph at most circuits). So how do I answer that? I guess that in the end, you tell them what they want to hear… really, really fast!

Related posts:

1. Can I see some ID?
2. Race Report: Donington Park (UK Formula Vee)
3. Dunlop Race Academy: Now with Motorsport News