Craig Dolby - SuperLeague Formula driver

Whilst walking the 'camps' at the Autosport Show at the NEC in Birmingham on Saturday, I came across former kart racer Craig Dolby, who despite being immersed in conversation with one of the many visitors to the show, caught my eye as I walked past. I was impressed to find that Craig remembered me from an international event, and was even more impressed when he pin-pointed the race to Bombarral in Portugal... in 2002!

Craig has moved onwards since those early karting days in his career, and 2011 marks his third year in the growing ranks of SuperLeague Formula, an impressive formula that is showing popularity amongst football fans, as each team supports an international football club. In Craig's case this is Tottenham Hotspur, and his car, as the photographs show, looked quite superb. And as all good racing drivers must be able to do, Craig can talk the 'talk' and so becomes a sponsor's dream driver.

With 750bhp V12 engines, these machines are not for the faint of heart, with 20 drivers competing for prize money in excess of 5,000,000 Euros, over 12 action-packed weekends across no less than four continents.

The chances of Craig taking the SuperLeague Formula title in 2011 are strong, more so now that he has two years of experience in the formula to draw upon. And perhaps more to the point the rewards are high, with the better drivers able to earn a good living from the races, and especially the champion overall. With 100,000 Euro to the winner of each race, and 1,000,000 to the champion, it is perhaps not too difficult to appreciate the merits of competing in this series.

With races in Italy, Portugal, Holland, Germany, Spain, Belgium, China, and the UK, SuperLeague Formula is truly international, with Craig's British appearance scheduled for Donington Park over the weekend of 6/7 August 2011.

Leonardo Panayiotou

At the 2011 Autosport Show being held at the NEC in Birmingham this weekend, I met one of the most confident young racers in my career.

7-years old Leonardo (Leo) Panayiotou, who is not yet old enough to race, but is already being driver coached by former kart champion and BTCC and sports car racer, Luke Hines, is destined to make his karting debut this year.

Panayiotou Snr is certainly not putting his young son under any pressure to race. Having said that it is difficult not to be impressed by the evident professionalism, if only to make sure that if young Leo's desire remains strong, his preparation for mainstream karting will have been second to none.

With a plan that includes Leo making his Super 1 Championship debut before the 2011 season ends, it is a debut that I for one will be watching very closely.

Watch this space..!

Sad bereavement to OEKC team

Robert Bedwell (far right on the front row), has been in touch to inform me of the passing away of 'Chunky' (Graham), who is second from the left on the front row. This photograph was taken two years ago at the prestigious Wembley 24 hour race, when we raced the Daytona Rotax Max karts just before Xmas 2008.  'Chunky' was a quick guy and his passing will be felt deeply by his team-mates and friends.

As part of the Allstars team, when James and myself were part of the team led by Rick Parfitt (Jnr), we raced against the enduro experienced OEKC outfit, so can speak with first hand knowledge of just how quick they are.  Led by Russell Willcox from Box Technology (blue race suit back row), who both sponsors and organises the OEKC series, Robertn told me that without Russell's generosity and passion, it would be a very different series without his support.

'Chunky' received his final chequered flag on Saturday 9 October 2010, but in his memory, a memorial race is going to be held at Whilton Mill on 6 February 2011, when a copy of the photograph above will be on display. It is an event that will be an open endurance race, mainly for Rotax Max karts, although the Series regularly have Pro-karts and Bilands on the entry list, with each category receiving an 'equaliser' by way of a number of laps credit.  Robert informs me that this makes for a very interesting and exciting end to their endurance racing, as the different fuel strategies and reliability finally play out.

It sounds to me like a fitting way to remember a well-respected team-mate and friend, who will be sadly missed by all the OEKC competitors, and our thoughts are with his family.

Crikey, it was cold this morning, with -10 degC showing on the thermometer, as my shaking, frozen fingers, fiddled with the camera settings for this unique event, over 400 years since the last happening.

All told the results were not too bad, but as expected a long'ish exposure was needed, which tended to burn out the highlights. After using several shutter speeds, and taking a dozen or so pics, I decided to upload the image shown above.

Unless some new wonder drug appears, I do not think I will be around for the next winter solstice lunar eclipse!

What do you mean you want a job doing in 10 minutes..?

With 14 inches of snow between the cars on the drive and our side-road, and then another 100 metres to the main road covered by almost the same amount of snow, a four-wheel drive on snow tyres would have been needed!

Roll on the summer...

Teesside Karting

As races go the one held Teesside Karting at the weekend, by some of the former rivals from the 2009 Warden Law Thunderkart series, was a classic.

Over a 40 minutes race our Hayden-Media and Karting Magazine driver, James Hayden, making a return to the track after a 12-month absence, became involved in a superb fight for the lead between eventual race-winner Daniel Laws, and 3rd placed finisher and Warden Law champion, Craig Brock. James was more than happy with his 2nd place after such a long absence. All three had led at some point during the last 10 minutes, with Daniel just taking the win over James by 1.272s, with James 0.161s ahead of Craig!

With my last race, because of injury, being two years ago now, when I took part in the Wembley 24-hour meeting, it almost made me wish I had been part of it..!

Cracking stuff guys!!!

Tristram and Lynsey

I had the privilege of covering the engagement party of former kart racer Tristram Oman, and his fiancee Lynsey Stoddart at the weekend, in an excellent gathering of friends and family in Stockton-on-Tees.

Back in 2004 I reported from Sharm-el-Sheikh in Eqypt, when I covered the Rotax World Finals, where Tristram had won all his heats and the pre-final, took pole position for the main final, only (as predicted...) for him to be 'taken out of the race' at the first corner. It was the only way he would have been beaten, because in a honest, straight-forward fight, he was unbeatable.

It has to be said that Tristram was the sort of racing driver who had the ability to achieve more success had he not become a team boss instead.