10 Oct 06
So who's going to enter and why?
The who is everyone who's ever wanted to try their hand at racing cars but has not perhaps had the money or the opportunity. Let's face it, it's not cheap to race competitively, as the £30,000 value of the scholarship suggests. And getting into the game involves breaking a vicious circle: most people can't race without sponsorship; you can't get sponsorship without a track record; and you can't get the experience without sponsorship, etc.
So this scholarship is the ideal opportunity for all those armchair racers who have long harboured ambitions of emulating their racing heroes - such as the 69-year-old gentleman who entered the 2006 competition (2007 is the third year of the scholarship).
Speedworks Motorsport team principal Christian Dick told 4Car: 'The aim of the scholarship is to attract new competitors into motorsport, which is why we have kept it open only to novices. We're looking for a driver with potential, not a finished article.'
The scholarship winner will compete in the AVO Ginetta Championship, a one-make series catering for identical Ginetta G20 race cars that has been running since 1997.
The championship visits all of the UK's leading circuits, including Donington Park, Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Next year's championship will start in front of an expected crowd of 80,000 in support of the A1 Grand Prix 'World Cup of Nations' on April 27-29.
