Callan O’Keeffe has become the first driver to be announced for the BRDC British F3 Autumn Trophy. With just over a week to the event, the South African will have little time to prepare in machinery he is unfamiliar with.
In 2012, O’Keeffe, announced his presence to the single-seater world in the Formula BMW Talent Cup. During the season he won half of the races, though struggles in the grand final cost him a shot of the title.
Since then, he’s raced in ADAC Formel Masters, while being a member of the Red Bull Junior Team. After leaving the program he was also associated with the Lotus F1 Junior Team in 2014, during a successful campaign in Formula Renault.
2016 has been a quiet year for him though. After competing in the second round of Formula Renault 2.0 NEC, he took a break from racing. The now 20-year-old will make his first forays back into racing, since his Silverstone outing, as he joins the Fortec Motorsport team.
O’Keeffe said: “I’m delighted to be returning to a cockpit again! It’s been a difficult year with my only seat time being one race outing in May this year.
“I’m really grateful to Fortec Motorsports for helping me put this deal in place. I know the team well and we have a great package capable of running up at the front of the grid. The championship is great and the cars are really impressive machines so I can’t wait to get the weekend started.”
Fortec Motorsports BRDC British F3 team manager, Russ Dixon also commented, saying: “Callan is a highly rated young driver and it will be great to work with him in BRDC British F3, having ran him in Formula Renault 2.0 previously.
“We are sure he will get up to speed quickly and it will be interesting to see how he progresses over the course of the Autumn Trophy weekend.”
Since then, Ben Hingeley has also added his name to the list of competitors, joining O’Keeffe at Fortec. Hingeley had a strong BRDC F3 campaign, finishing tenth with two podiums to his name.
The Autumn Trophy will take place at Snetterton as a one off event on 29-30 October. While no other drivers have been announced yet, Jamie Caroline has been testing with Douglas Motorsport at Snetterton today suggesting further names may be announced shortly.
