George Gamble has confirmed he will make a switch into single-seater racing later this year, with the 15 year old agreeing a move into the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship with Hillspeed.
Gamble joined Hillspeed at the start of the season and began the year in the Ginetta Junior Championship with the team. The Nottingham-based racer recently withdrew from the series though after a big accident at in Round Three ad Donington Park, leaving him to assess other avenues to continue his career within.
Gamble has made the decision to move into single-seater 'slicks and wings' racing, however he is currently too young to compete in the Renault BARC series. This means he will have to wait until after his 16th birthday in mid-July to make his debut, meaning he will only be able to compete in the final three events of the season at Croft, Donington Park and Silverstone.
Gamble, who will become the youngest driver in the series, said: “This really is an exciting new challenge for me, we've always wanted to progress into single-seaters and it's just come a bit sooner than expected. Everything's moved forward so quickly since we took the decision to stop racing in Ginetta. The aim at the start of the year was to win the title there but after everything that happened at Donington we decided to move on.
“As soon as we made the announcement about leaving Ginetta we had a lot of different offers but we always wanted to look at moving to Formula Renault BARC and we definitely wanted to stay with Hillspeed, it was the natural choice. I know there's going to be a lot to learn, and I'll be the youngest driver on the grid, but this is a very exciting time for my career. I can't wait to get started.”
Hillspeed Team Principal Richard Ollerenshaw added: “Throughout the 2011 season Hillspeed watched George develop as a driver and we targeted him as the one we wanted in our squad for this year. This was always on the basis of one year in Ginetta Junior, dovetailing a testing programme in Formula Renault BARC and then going on to make his race debut in the Winter Series – if one took place – and the main 2013 season.
“With George's decision after Donington, it meant we had to look at things again and see how best to get George up to speed ahead of his 16th birthday to prepare him as well as possible for his debut in BARC in July. Looking at this year, how well he's driven on-track, how well he's worked with the team and how hard he works off-track, we know he'll be very competitive in single-seaters.”
