Richard Ellingworth rules, ok!

Following an incredible development this week, James, the current leader of the BARC Formula Renault Series, will soon be driving for Scorpio Motorsport at the next round of the TOCA Formula Renault UK Championship at Rockingham.



After a visit to see the team last night (Thursday) for a seat fitting and a team familiarisation briefing, James is due to return to Scorpio Motorsport this evening for a photo-shoot with the new car that he will be racing. This will therefore be the final preliminary jaunt before his first test of the car on Friday 20 June 2003, before qualifying for the main race on Saturday 21st June, and then race day at the fabulous Rockingham facility on Sunday 22nd June.

The Rockingham drive is fully sponsored by companies owned by Richard Ellingworth, who has been keeping a close eye on the teenage sensation's pace this year where, in his first year out of karting, James has dominated the BARC Formula Renault Series.

Richard first met James at Donington earlier this year, when James was testing the JA Motorsport Formula Renault, in readiness for his BARC debut. Richard believed then that he was looking at a driver with that special "something", and on the evidence of 2003 thus far, it was a belief that James has done nothing to spoil.

Because of the results that James has achieved so quickly in his single-seater racing career, Scorpio Motorsport have decided that the time is right to give James the opportunity to race at the top level, to see just where his ability currently sits after such a very short period.

The companies involved in this exercise, owned by Richard Ellingham, and who obviously deserve a mention, are:
· Echo Personnel, a recruitment business; and
· Trackdrive, performance and racecar hire business.

"I really am very grateful for this huge opportunity," James said last night. "I intend to make this opportunity count and show just what I can do in a Formula Renault, against the best drivers of that class in this country. I know that Lewis (Hamilton) is also well chuffed that I will be racing against him for the first time. We have been friends a long time and it will be good to see how I compare with him, especially following his win in the Championship last weekend."

Laid back? Worried? Nervous? Not in the slightest. To James, Rockingham will just be another race in which to ply his trade. Just as long as he can get behind the wheel of a racing car, he will be more than happy, although it does of course give him a further opportunity to show the sport exactly what he is capable of.