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DAMC And Formula Gulf 1000 Announce Young Driver Award
In what is a major boost for the UAE karting scene, the Formula Gulf 1000 Young Driver Award has been announced by GulfSport Racing whereby the top two points scorers in the 2012-2013 DAMC Rotax Karting Championship will win a drive in a Formula Gulf 1000 single seater racing car at the end of this season in an effort to help introduce young drivers in the UAE, including Emirati talent, to single seater racing.
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The award will go to the top two points scoring drivers - between the age of 16 and 20 - currently contesting the Rotax Max Senior Class, in the DAMC Rotax Max Karting Championship at Dubai Kartdrome, which runs in conjunction with the UAE Rotax Max Challenge
The Kartdrome hosts four rounds of the, Al Ain Raceway organised, 13 round UAE Rotax Max Challenge which also count towards the DAMC Rotax Max Karting Championship. From these four rounds the top scorers will be contenders for the Formula Gulf 1000 Young Driver Test Award.
With three rounds run and the final round set to take place this weekend (Friday, 1 March) at the Kartdrome, it is all to play for in the hotly contested category which features the country's top young karters battling for top honours.
Now the Formula Gulf 1000 Young Driver Award provides an added incentive to young drivers on the local scene, who to qualify for the award must be either UAE residents or UAE nationals.
Currently the top three drivers who fit the criteria are: Alexandre Silanine with 254 points, Piers Pakenham-Walsh with 247 points and Philippe Valenza with 228 points.
Kartdrome manager Ryan Trutch said, "This is a great award for young drivers and hopefully will be an incentive not only to attract new young drivers to the sport, but also give the current crop of talented youngsters something to aim for when racing here at the Kartdrome."
"The ATCUAE is making a concerted effort to develop karting at grassroots level, a campaign which we fully support and believe that with the advent of the Formula Gulf 1000 Young Driver Award we are promoting the well laid out aims and goals of the sport's governing body in the UAE."
When asked what the Formula Gulf 1000 Young Driver Award entailed, GulfSport principal Barry Hope said, “The DAMC Karting Championship and GulfSport’s Formula Gulf 1000 series offer a cost effective training ground for ambitious youngsters whose ambition is to race competitively at an International level. As everybody knows just about all of the world’s most successful racers, whether in single seaters, GT cars or Le Mans prototypes, learnt their skills in two-stroke karting and junior level single seaters."
"So we are happy to support the DAMC’s initiative to award two of their karters the opportunity to drive a real single seater racing car. They will be working with very experienced people who, for example, ran Nick Wilson to his 2004 Formula Renault Championship title and who ran a Formula One car – Martin Brundle’s Tyrrell Ford 012/6 – in the Historic Formula One Championship in Europe," added Hope.
Talented karters typically look forward to the day they get to take their hard won racing skills and experience into a pure racing car – the single seater. Two individuals from the DAMC Karting Championship will have earned and will get the opportunity when they spend the day with GulfSport Racing at the Dubai Autodrome.
Their day will start with a seat fitting that ensures that the drivers can operate the controls easily. This will be followed by a technical briefing that explains the differences between driving a two-stroke racing kart and a single seater 'Formula' racing car.
The objective here is not to teach a karter how to race – that experience is assumed - but to focus on the correct use of the 6-speed sequential gearbox and powerful brakes.
After sessions aimed at perfecting simultaneous left foot braking and gear changing, the drivers will be observed whilst using their new skills through a short sequence of corners. These intense training sessions enable the drivers to then safely navigate the full circuit using the correct technique at every turn.
At 150bhp and weighing only 400kgs, but with an additional 400ks of aero downforce at top speed, a Formula Gulf 1000 racing car in the right hands will post similar lap times to a Porsche GT3 Cup car or a Radical SR8.
Formula Gulf 1000 is a UAE based driver development series that provides world-class coaching and high quality racing experience for ambitious young drivers at two of the best and safest circuits in the world. The last round of the 2013 series will be held at the Dubai Autodrome on 29th March.
PaddockTalk Perspective
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