A dozen young motor sport stars have been selected from over 120 applications to compete for a free drive in Turkey’s round of the RX Lites Cup at Istanbul (3-4 October) as part of the new RX Talent Search initiative.
In total 122 MSA competition licence holders aged 18 to 30 put their names forward for the opportunity. The 12 finalists include some of the UK’s best young prospects from circuit racing, rallying and junior rallycross.
They will get the opportunity to prove themselves behind the wheel in an evaluation day at Lydden Hill on 21 May. The overall winner will be awarded the fully paid RX Lites drive at World RX of Turkey.
The nominated finalists are:
Dan Cammish (2013 Formula Ford GB Champion; 2015 Porsche Carrera Cup GB)Jack Clarke (FIA Formula Two race winner; 2014 British Touring Car Championship)Sennan Fielding (2013 RSF MSA Young Driver of the Year; 2014 BRDC F4 race winner; 2015 MSA Formula; MSA Academy member)Freddie Hunt (Son of 1976 F1 world champion James Hunt; 2015 Renault UK Clio Cup)Chris Ingram (2015 European Rally Championship; MSA Team UK member)Tom Onslow-Cole (multiple British Touring Car Championship race winner; MSA Performance Manager)Ben Power (multiple winner in British Rallycoss and National Legends Car Championship)Jason Pritchard (British Rally Championship class winner; MSA Rally Elite graduate)Dan Rooke (2015 British Rallycross Championship Supernational class winner)Rupert Svendsen-Cook (British F3 race winner; MSA Performance Manager)Jake Taylor (2015 Swift Sport Rallycross Championship; MSA Academy member)Euan Thorburn (2013 BTRDA Rally Champion; 2014 Scottish Rally Champion).
Olsbergs MSE will provide two RX Lites cars for the evaluation day and the judging panel will include: Robert Reid, MSA Performance Director; Martin Anayi, World RX Managing Director for IMG Motorsport; Andreas Eriksson, Team Principal of World RX team Olsbergs MSE and Andrew Jordan, the 2013 British Touring Car Champion who finished third in last year’s World RX of Great Britain.
Robert Reid said: “The MSA is absolutely delighted that this initiative has received such tremendous interest – it further underlines just how far rallycross has come in the past couple of years. Moreover, it wasn’t just the number of entrants that impressed but also the quality of those applying. It wasn’t easy to pick the 12 finalists and I’m sure it will be even harder to select the overall ‘prize drive’ winner.”
Martin Anayi added: “We have been extremely impressed by the high calibre of drivers that entered our RX Lites Talent Search. With candidates’ experience ranging from rally, circuit racing and several different international motoring series’, the level of competition was very high. Unfortunately we’re not able to accept everyone and we firmly believe that our final shortlist of 12 includes some of the most talented young drivers in Britain today. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who entered our talent search and hope that all of our entrants are able to accept complimentary tickets to our British World RX round at Lydden Hill next month. As for our 12 finalists, I would like to wish them the best of luck for Thursday 21 May and on behalf of IMG, we are looking forward to meeting some future rallycross stars.”
