MIKE AT AN EVERYMAN EXPERIENCE DAY

Mike has been invited to attend a session in early August at Prestwold Hall where he will start his preparation to become an ARDS instructor. The location is one of the venues for Everyman Racing, another being the Mallory Park circuit.

Because the coaching involves race driver training, the minimum requirements for employment is the ARDS Instructors qualification.

With the location just 5 mikes from his home, Mike hopes that this could be the next career move. Mike already has experience of driving a range of performance cars.

ARDS INSTRUCTORS COURSE

Following the great success of last weekend and his long-term wish to make a career in Motor Sport, Mike has decided to work towards the ARDS qualification in order to coach at both Experience days and at MSA race circuits such as Mallory Park. Ross Jones - MD of Driving Experience Direct has already more work for the coming weeks and is also recommending him to Everyman Racing, who run the Mallory Park ARDS school. In order to qualify, Mike must now upgrade his National B to an A grade, which requires completing six MSA approved races.

Three years ago we prepared some Citroen Saxo VTR's for SAXMAX a 750 Motor Club class. Mike passed his ARDS driver test with Jonnie Cocker the MSA GT champion, but he decided that his aim was to win Super 1 before leaving Karting. In 2007 his aim was to complete a win in the Senior class, and for 2008 to gin some coaching experience with Ultimate Racing. Subject to his Sponsors agreement, he will now complete the required races and aim to race for a full season in 2009.

If anyone reading this has any experience of running a Stock Hatch and lives in Leicestershire, we would appreciate any assistance offered. Also those supporters who were waiting to financially assist us once Mike moved into cars, now is the time we need you most. Mike only has one chance to create a good first impression and as he will be racing at Silverstone, Donington and Mallory there is plenty of scope for some local publicity and hospitality. Please refer to our sponsors section and thank you for reading this announcement.

FANTASTIC DAY AT THE PRODRIVE TRACK (NEAR KENILWORTH)

Images will hopefully follow, but Mike spent the day mostly in the Ferrari 360 with 30 clients being coached while completing 4 laps of the track each. A number of the drivers then paid for Mike to drive them round for some HOT LAPS, to show off the pace and agility of the vehicle.

The car had to be collected on Friday, so Mike was able to use it on the road to get 100 miles under his belt. With an early 7am driver briefing, the track day ran from 9am until the fun stopped at 5pm with the car boiling it's brake fluid! In the pre-session warm up, Mike also drove several laps in a Diablo, which he found to be a very stable vehicle but lacked the raw excitement of the Ferrari.

Having passed his initial test, he now looks forward to being a regular instructor at PRODRIVE with Driving Experiences Direct.

BRDC Stars table after the Llandow round

Following the publication today of the Stars table, it's encouraging to see that Ash is still in the top 15 seeded places. For his first year in the sport, this is an excellent record to date, and with the journey to Genk in three weeks time, Mike says he hopes to get Ash back into the top 10 again.

Ultimate Motorsport Confirm Toro Rosso Talks!

According to crash.net British F3, and kart team ‘Ultimate Motorsport’ have confirmed they are in talks with Toro Rosso regarding to purchasing a stake in the team. Barry Walsh, father of KF3 karter Macauley Walsh said this - ““If our plans go the right way, I’d like to think we could be on the grid for 2009. The aim is to have the whole structure, with the academy from karting through Formula 3 and the World Series and Formula 1 at the top.”

Mike is a driving coach for the Ultimate Motorsport Kart Team to Ash Hands, and said " It has been rumoured for months that Barry wants to get involved with F1, particularly now the F3 team is doing so well. It's a natural progression and I would hope that it could provide some good opportunities for me in a supporting role in F3 or even F1 as I passed all my exams and will qualify as a motor mechanic in a few months."

MIKE TO DRIVE A FERRARI 360 AT PRODRIVE

Mike will be at the PRODRIVE test track on Saturday driving a Ferrari 360. Mike said " The track is very close to Kenilworth so is very close to us and very convenient for me to get time in the seat of a GT car". He hopes that following this initial test, more track events will follow. This is ideal practice for his proposed move into racing GT's in 2009/2010.

PRODRIVE RACE INSTRUCTOR TEST DAY

Just had conformation that on his return from Spain, Mike will attend the Instructor session at Prodrive ready for assisting with Driving Experience Direct. They have a range of Super cars which Mike will be driving as follows :-

Aston Martin AMV8 Blast 4-6 laps Special Offer July 12th only!!! £70

Aston Martin DB9 Blast 4-6 laps (7.5miles) £89

Lamborghini Gallardo Blast 4-6 laps (7.5miles) £99

Ferrari 360 Blast 4-6 laps (7.5miles) £105

Porsche Turbo Blast 4-6 laps (7.5miles) £85

Contact : 08700 421142 or info@DrivingExperiencesDirect.co.uk