“A DREAM” will come true for Hannah Chapman when she lines up on the starting grid at Snetterton tomorrow (Sunday).
The former Dunbar Grammar School pupil is expected to be among potentially as many as 30 entrants in the first round of the Mini Challenge JCW Championship.
The racing series will be shown live on ITV4 this weekend as part of the channel’s coverage of the British Touring Car Championships.
Twenty-seven-year-old Chapman, who now lives in Aberdeen, spoke to Courier Sport last Friday and admitted she was counting down to the green light at the Norfolk circuit.
She said: “This has been my dream – to get on the touring car package.
“The whole time I have been racing, I wanted to get into Mini JCW.
“To be here is probably more exciting than anything I have done in my racing life.
“Already, I am annoying everybody at my work.
“I have not been able to concentrate much at work and my mind has been elsewhere thinking about racing.”
Hannah Chapman is counting down to the new racing season getting under way at Snetterton this weekend
The competition marks a step up for Chapman, who has previously competed in different categories of Mini racing.
The LUX Motorsport team driver said: “The Minis I have raced in the past have been Mini Coopers and a lot lower powered and more club level.
“They are based on a road car and the one I am in now is the Mini JCW, which is the most powerful of the Mini range.
“Also, it has never been a road car.
“It was purposely built as a full-blown, thoroughbred race car.
“It has a sequential gearbox, slick tyres and everything is so different about it.”
Chapman, whose mum Caroline still lives in Dunbar, got the racing bug at Raceland, near Macmerry.
Now, she is in her ninth year of racing and works for her main sponsor RAM Tubulars.
The close season has allowed Chapman to get plenty of testing under her belt, which she hoped would serve her well over the coming months.
She said: “It is the most testing I have ever done and I am so thankful to my sponsors for putting that in place.
“My confidence is up, I have worked hard with my team and they have put in so much effort into helping my improve.
“It has just been an amazing opportunity.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here