Three years ago the Motor Sports Association, Britain's governing body for all motor sport, reaffirmed its commitment to British racing talent by launching an elite driver training programme to incorporate all UK racing formulae, whether GT, touring car or single-seater.
The MSA British Race Elite offers the most promising British racing drivers the opportunity to join a programme to develop their skills and give them the best possible chance of making the step up to the highest levels. Great examples of the scheme's success so far are Alexander Sims' winning the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award in 2008, and Andrew Jordan's elevation to a seat within a factory-supported team in the British Touring Car Championship.
As well as working on track performance, engineering skills and technical understanding, the drivers develop the vital additional areas such as physical training, mind coaching, career management, sponsorship generation, promotion and media presentation that complete the all-round package of the modern motor racing driver.
In 2009 the drivers who will be on the scheme are Wayne Boyd (British F3 Championship); James Calado (Formula Renault UK Championship) Oli Oakes (British F3 Championship); Andy Meyrick (Le Mans Series); Alexander Sims (Formula 3 Euro Series); Nick Tandy (British F3 Championship).
Newly introduced in 2008 was the MSA British Race Academy which is viewed as a 'feeder' level to the Elite. Four young drivers, all hopeful of gaining a place on the Elite scheme in the future, have been selected for 2009: James Cole and Kieran Vernon (British Formula Ford); Max Chilton (British F3 Championship) and Will Stevens (Formula Renault UK Championship).
