A chance to race LMP3 for €5000 is just one of the driver development opportunities you will find in this week’s Driver Development Roundup.
You will also find information on the Fiesta Junior Championship Scholarship, Team BRIT’s exciting Racing in America program for disabled drivers, and how you can benefit from participating in either the Team Canada or Team USA Scholarship programs.
All this and much more in this edition of the Driver Development Roundup on Motorsport Prospects. Its news aspiring race drivers can use.
Mühlner Motorsport are offering holding a 2024 LMP3 Junior Shootout. It will consist of a series of six driver selection days this winter in order to select a driver for the 2024 Prototype Cup Germany aboard their Duqueine D08 for €5000.
- 200km or 2h in our Duqueine D08 for €5000
- Each day’s winner is invited to the final in early March
- The final winner will ride free for the entire PGC season in 2024
The Test Day Sessions are:
- Barcelona (November 21/22)
- Portimao (December 14/15)
- Estoril (January 11/12)
- Portimao (January 18/19)
- Valencia (February 26/27)
- Aragon (February 29/March 1)
For more details go to their Junior Shootout page here: https://www.muehlner-motorsport.com/2023/11/14/junior-shootout-a-season-for-less-than-5-000-euros/
If your dream is to become a top racing driver, here’s why you should choose the Official BRSCC Fiesta Junior Championship Scholarship as the first step in launching your racing career.
The British Racing & Sports Car Club has put together an amazing and comprehensive racing scholarship prize package, and with it being hosted by one of the most respected UK motor racing clubs you can be assured that the program is of the highest quality.
There are still Scholarship places available, so don’t delay in securing yours. Full eligibility details, prize package information and the sign-up link can be found below!
ENTER 2024 FIESTA JUNIOR SCHOLARSHIP – https://brscc.co.uk/…/brscc-fiesta-junior-scholarship…/
In 2024 Team BRIT aim to compete for the first time in America. “We will leave the 2 race cars fitted with our hand controls so more disabled Americans can take up motorsport! We are enormously excited about sharing our knowledge and creating this long-term legacy. If you are interested in supporting this exciting project, drop us an email. Let’s have a chat and explore how we can create a long-term partnership.”
Read the full story here.
The door to a professional racing career will swing open for one Porsche Junior. Twelve talented up-and-coming racing drivers took part in a three-day selection process at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal. All of them hail from the worldwide Porsche one-make cups. Their goal: to become the 30th Junior in the 26-year history of this exemplary development initiative for young drivers. Historically, the program has produced world champions, Le Mans overall winners and DTM champions.
The twelve invited Porsche Junior candidates all have one thing in common: they were no older than 24 at the time of the selection process. In 2023, these talented youngsters turned heads at the wheel of the 911 GT3 Cup contesting one of the sports car manufacturers’ more than 30 one-make cup series. On the 4.653-kilometre Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, they pitted themselves against their rivals in ideal conditions. During the two days, the youngsters turned a total of 820 laps over a total of 3,841 kilometres on the Portuguese Grand Prix circuit. The four Cup racing cars they had at their disposal were powered exclusively by nearly potential CO₂-neutral fuel from the Chilean eFuels pilot plant “Haru Oni”. The plant is the result of a joint initiative between Porsche, the Chilean company HIF Global (Highly Innovative Fuels) and international partners such as Siemens Energy. HIF Global runs the facility.
The Team Canada and Team USA Scholarship programs have proven to be an excellent way to accelerate your career as a race driver. Just by looking at the alumni of both programs demonstrates how effective they are in not just developing racecraft but in media training, adapting to racing in a different country and in building meaningful contacts and relationships.
Here are two articles giving a a bit of detail on how the programs operate and how young drivers can benefit from them.
- Road to Success: The Role of Team Canada Scholarship in Young Drivers’ Progression
- Competing Across Continents: The Role of Team USA Scholarship in Young Drivers’ Success
In Racing Prodigy’s Prodigy Racing League Season 1, part 1, 60,000 racers competed globally for 12 golden tickets across four racing games to earn their all-expense paid opportunity in the Prodigy Racing League’s real-world racing tryouts, Prodigy Week. Many of the drivers set faster laps than pros, and it was proven once again that the skills transfer from screen to track.
They are gearing up for more esports tournaments to kick off part 2 of Season 1, with the goal of a racing-packed 2024:
- Prodigy Week – Part 2
- Prodigy Draft
- Prodigy Racing League (PRL) Real-World Series – Level 1
- Season 2 Esports Tournaments
More details here: https://racingprodigy.com/
After two days of driving, interviews and analyzing data at Carolina Motorsports Park, three drivers walked away with scholarships to get them into next year’s Mazda MX-5 Cup season. The largest check was handed to Westin Workman, who now has a $110,000 leg-up on his 2024 season. Scholarships valued at $75,000 were also awarded to Nathan Nicholson and Sally Mott.
In his first Shootout appearance, Nicholson was selected as a runner-up and recipient of a scholarship valued at $75,000. After leading the regular season points but coming up short in this year’s Spec MX5 National Championship, Nicholson was thrilled just to be selected for the Shootout.
At each Shootout, a $75,000 scholarship is set aside for the best female driver as part of Mazda Motorsport’s Women in Motorsport Initiative. This year’s recipient, Mott, is fresh off of her MX-5 Cup debut in the 2023 season finale at Road Atlanta. The experience was invaluable.
As the popularity of the Shootout grows, so does the level of talent at each one, which makes judging a challenge. This year’s judges were made up of former Mazda pro drivers Jonathan Bomarito and Tom Long, and 2021 MX-5 Cup Shootout winner and 2022 MX-5 Cup Rookie of the Year, Connor Zilisch.
“There was outstanding talent across the board,” said Mazda Motorsports Senior Manager Jonathan Applegate. Every single year we say this, but the talent gets deeper and deeper, better and better. I can find nothing bad to say about any of our candidates. Every single person that came here, to CMP, did their very best on the track, but really the interactions, the connections that we had away from the track and getting to know the person they are as a human being was phenomenal and proves we’re choosing the right people.”
For the first time ever, the Shootout was streamed live on RACER.com and hosted by MX-5 Cup series commentator Shea Adam. That archived coverage can be found here.
Irish racer Brandon McCaughan has been chosen as the winner of GB4’s shootout for teenaged racers from the BRSCC National Formula Ford 1600 championship, earning himself £20,000 to spend on a GB4 seat. He and Nathan Yu took part in the shootout recently at Snetterton in cars run by Fortec Motorsports.
Formula Scout reports that Luka Sammalisto will drive for R-ace GP in the Italian and United Arab Emirates Formula 4 championships next year after winning a seat with the team in a shootout. The 15-year-old Finn was one of six karters selected to participate in the five-day shootout camp, which took place at a French circuit and included simulator running as well as tests in F4 cars.
Robert Wickens is the perfect example of a driver who set his mind to race no matter what the obstacles.
“I don’t know if it’s the nature of an athlete, or maybe it’s just me always trying to seek the next thing,” Wickens told CTV News in Canada recently. “After the race when I was talking to media, between questions I was already thinking: ‘What’s next? How can we be better than this?’ Even when I was laid up in a hospital bed in a full body cast, it was always: ‘How can I get better, get back and constantly work forward?’”
As Grassroots Motorsport says, want to get on track? The first step is just taking that first step. “We hear a lot of questions involving the future. How to become a professional race car driver. How to get more involved in the sport. Or, God forbid, how to become a magazine editor. The short answer: Do it.”
The Repco Supercars Championship will be updating licensing requirements for drivers wishing to join the category for 2024. Full details can be found here.
MotiV8 Training has announced the availability of their annual pre-season program. “This comprehensive package includes motorsport-specific fitness training, personalized workout plans suitable for both home and gym environments, nutritional guidelines, and mindset training.”
Learn more here.
Author: Mark Boudreau
Mark is the publisher of Motorsport Prospects. As a former lawyer, he applies his legal background and research skills to assist race drivers by showcasing the resources they need to make their motorsport careers happen.