10 Oct 06
The scholarship competition will be held next February and March at the Llandow circuit in south Wales, a few miles form the M4. The 0.9-mile circuit is not currently used for circuit racing, but it is a popular testing venue, as well as holding high-level sprint events and used for filming TV programmes.
'We were very impressed and to be honest surprised at the quality of the circuit when we first visited,' says Christian Dick. 'The track surface is extremely good, and the combination of corners makes it the ideal circuit for assessing our drivers on the scholarship. Plus, it's a safe circuit, which is extremely important to us because we are putting novices into racing cars.'
The combination of the Ginetta G20 and the Llandow circuit is a good one for novice drivers - something I can testify to, having driven the car around the circuit recently.
Now, I am most definitely a novice: apart from a couple of track days on car launches, I've never raced a car around a circuit - and certainly never a purpose-built, rear-drive fibreglass rocket like the Ginetta. The seat is a non-adjustable hard plastic bucket, there's no windscreen to speak of and you can feel every bump on the track. Frankly, I can't remember the last time I had so much fun.
Driving the Ginetta is an absolute blast. You're low to the ground, the wind and rain hits you full-on in the face, but the 1800cc Ford Zetec engine is more than enough to propel the lightweight racer down the straights at a fair old lick. And, unsurprisingly for a car built specifically to race around a track, the combination of the rear-wheel drive and the steering make hooning around the track a hugely rewarding experience.
So having been bitten by the racing bug, I'll be signing up to try and nab that scholarship. And I look forward to competing against some 4Car readers in Wales next February.
