TODAY’S elite motorsport championships owe a vote of thanks to the grass roots of the sport – karting – and now Renault Sport UK is helping to unearth future stars.
Six karters have been selected by Super One organisers to test Formula Renault Cars at Croft with championship-winning team Manor Motorsport.
“It’s a really big opportunity,” said Tiffany Chittenden (Chiselhurst, Kent), who this year put up a strong challenge for the Formula A Championship before a string of DNFs at the end of the year left the 24-year-old in 9th overall. “Formula Renault is definitely the best series. It’s the one you’ve got to be in. It’s so close between so many good drivers. Other series have one or two that are good but here the top 10 are really close.”
In Formula A Chittenden raced against Chris Brown (Peterborough) who finished 13th, Jason Parrott (Crowland, Peterborough) who finished fourth and Riki Christodoulou (Sutton Coldfield) who was vice champion. All three will join her on the test.
“Formula Renault is the obvious next step,” said Christodoulou, 17. “I’ve just passed my driving test last week so road cars are alright but I’ve never been in a single-seater before. I can’t wait to jump into something with that much power.”
From Formula ICA Stefan Di Resta (Bathgate, West Lothian), who finished 10th and Henry Arundel (Arundel, West Sussex), who came sixth were selected.
“I’m very excited about the opportunity,” said Arundel, 17. “I’ve been to see a Formula Renault race live and I’ve seen a lot on television. It seems a good link between karting and motorsport and I’d love to go up into single-seaters. Manor is a great team – I’ll be learning from the best.”
Three karting stars have also been chosen to test Clio Cup cars with 2004’s entrant champion Boulevard Team Racing at the North Yorks circuit including Formula ICA champion and vice-champion Matthew Bell (Morpeth, Northumberland) and Danny Cruttenden (Wilmington, Kent). Formula A winner Mark Litchfield (Rocester, Staffs) says driving the Clio could open a whole new career for him.
"I've been karting since I was eight," said the 22-year-old who has been twice British champion and also races at international level. "I'm not really interested in single-seaters. I'd rather take the Touring Car route so this is ideal. There's been something in the back of my mind that tells my I need to start moving towards car racing. I just needed something to give me a shove and this may be it."
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