Fortec Motorsport will field a four driver line-up in next month’s Protyre Formula Renault Championship ‘Autumn Cup’, with McLaren-backed karting ace Ben Barnicoat set to make his car-racing debut at Rockingham.
The 16 year old, who is supported by the McLaren Young Driver Development Programme and the Racing Steps Foundation, will make his debut after a hugely successful career to date, which has included the 2012 CIK-FIA KF2 European crown and the 2010 MSA KF3 Formula Kart Stars title.
Leading the Fortec entry for the event will be series regular Hongwei Cao, who took his maiden category race victory at the Corby-based circuit earlier this season en-route to fourth overall in the championship.
2012 Asian Formula Renault 2.0 champion Yosuke Yamazaki will join them to make his UK racing debut, while 16 year old Croatian Martin Kodric will join Barnicoat in making his car-racing debut.
Fortec will be hoping to continue their recent success at the Corby-based venue, having won the last seven Formula Renault BARC races in a row on the banked circuit.
“The Autumn Cup is a great extra addition to have at the end of such a competitive season, giving the rookies their first races and an opportunity to develop as a driver and, more importantly, develop their racecraft skills,” said Fortec team manager Daniel Mitchell. “Having Cao back once again is great news, not only has he developed into a race winning driver this year but also as a leader.
“Both Ben and Martin Kodric have both shown promising pace in the little testing they have done to date, we’re looking forward to seeing how they improve. Yosuke is an exciting prospect, he is a proven race winner in the Chinese Formula Renault series so we can’t wait to see how he gets on.”
