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Reigning KF3 European Champion, Jack Harvey,
begins his 2008 season next weekend as he heads to Garda in
Italy for the Winter Cup, where he will
enter his first major event for the Birel Motorsport Team in the senior KF2
category.
The Bassingham in
Lincolnshire based racer had an epic 2007,
taking a staggering four international and national titles. However, the
14-year-old Alpinestars backed youngster is vowing to keep his feet firmly on
the ground as he enters his most important season to date, but is still going
out to Italy with the main aim to cross the line first at the end of the
weekend.
“After such a great year last
year I will be looked at as being one of the guys to beat. But I’m stepping up
into a category that’s new to me and I’m going to approach it in the same way as
I have always done, work hard and drive as fast as I can and aim to win,” said
Jack. “We’ve worked really hard in testing so far and it seems to be paying off
in terms of lap times and speed.”
“Obviously, I’d like to repeat
the success from last year and pre-season testing has been going really well for
me. I’m getting on really well with the guys at Birel and we’ve been trying a
lot of different things in the run up to Garda and we’ve always been at the top
end of the timings every time we’re out on track, so it’s looking good so far.
But, you can never tell until you actually start racing and the Winter Cup will
be a good marker as to how we stack up for the first half of the season,” he
added.
12-months ago, Jack had a
torrid opening event to 2007 at this event, but bounced back immediately at the
Margutti Trophy by taking victory. He knows that he has the speed and talent to
run at the front in the KF2 class and has been faster than some of the
established class runners so far. But he knows that he won’t know exactly where
he stands until about mid-season.
“It will take a while to see
exactly where everyone is in terms of consistent pace and results, probably by
about mid-way through the year to be honest. But I’ll be trying to get the best
result possible at every event in 2008 to keep the momentum going from last
year.”
Despite being up against a
host of new rivals already used to the KF2 machinery, one aspect of which is
hand controlled front brakes which Jack has had to get to grips with over the
winter, as well as a raft of his former KF3 rivals who have also made the move
up, he can’t wait to get back into the thick of racing once
again.
“I’m really, really looking
forward to getting back to racing again too, especially after such a busy time
over the winter, with signing to Birel and then getting to grips with a hectic
testing schedule. I can’t wait for the weekend to get underway, then I’ll know
my 2008 season is properly started and I can get on with doing what I do best,
racing,” he added.
Jack will head out to the
Italian venue early next week for a final test session, before the event gets
underway on Friday, with the all important final taking place on Sunday
afternoon.
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