18 year old racer Martin Cao has joined Fortec Motorsport for the 2012 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship.
Cao heads to the UK with extensive experience in both single-seater and touring car racing in his homeland China. Cao won the China Formula Campus Challenge Championship in 2008, as well as competing in the Asian Formula Renault Series Challenge. In 2009, he returned to the Formula Renault series, winning five of the six rounds he competed in, as well as joining the Formula BMW Pacific Championship.
18 year old Cao moved to touring cars in 2010, finishing in fourth place in the 2000cc class of the China Touring Car Championship. In 2011, Cao returned to single-seaters for two rounds of the Formula Renault series, but focused his attentions on securing a drive in Europe.
Formula Renault BARC Team Manager Steve Lynch said: “Martin has a lot of racing experience behind him and he performed well in testing; he has shown a very mature approach and I’m confident that he can do very well this year. We had a very successful year last year and we’re looking to build upon that this season.”
Cao joins Ivan Taranov, Raoul Owens, Henry Chart and Tom Oliphant on the 2012 BARC grid, after the quartet were confirmed by Antel Motorsport recently.