Search Is On For Nz's Next Motor Racing Star
The search is on for New Zealand's next motor racing star courtesy Taupo-based Formula Challenge Racing.
Last year Formula Challenge Racing successfully launched a televised arrive-and-drive single-seater motor racing series
and this year the company has created the country's first dedicated motor racing 'Academy.'
Officially launched today and set to induct its first students at the end of the month, the Academy will offer expert
tuition in all aspects of modern motor racing - from how to get a competition licence to how to dice wheel to wheel at
more than 200 km/h.
Students will also learn how to deal with the business side of the sport - from preparing and pitching sponsorship
proposals to working through budgets and talking to the press - and one will win an all-expenses-paid drive in this
year's Formula Challenge Racing series valued at over $25,000!
The Academy is the brainchild of Formula Challenge Racing partners Charles Dawson and Craig Greenwood and it has been
set up do two things.
The first is the most ambitious and Dawson makes no apology for the fact.
"We want to find the next Scott Dixon," he says. "He's out there. We know it. We just have to find him!"
The second is to help 'seed' the Formula Challenge Racing series.
And how do you win the all-expenses-paid drive in this year's televised series?
Under the three-tier programme Dawson and Greenwood have come up with you pay just $595 for a day-long introductory
session at the Taupo motor racing track. Impress the tutors with your driving skill and business/media acumen and you
will be invited to attend a two-day advanced course valued at $1,990.
Two drivers from each advanced session will then be short-listed for two free drives (each valued at $3,000) in a
Formula Challenge Racing car at the annual national race meeting at Taupo over the Easter weekend.
After that meeting the tutors will decide which one deserves to win the all-expenses-paid drive in the 2003 Formula
Challenge Racing series.
This year's series will again be contested at Taupo's Centennial Park motor racing circuit and all rounds will be
filmed and shown on TV1's top-rating Shell Helix Motorsport programme.
There has been considerable interest in the series - not just from within New Zealand either. The Challenge team has
already tested several drivers from overseas, including one from the United States and three from Australia.
Future plans for the Academy include developing reciprocal arrangements with similar operators in Australia and the US
with - perhaps - the opportunity for the winner of the New Zealand series to test a Formula 3 car in Australia and/or a
Formula Atlantic one in the United States.
To find out more go to http://www.formulachallenge.co.nz or contact Craig Greenwood at e-mail mailto:info@fcr.co.nz or by telephone on 0-7-377 0338.