NEWS

13 JANUARY 2012: The Motor Sports Association (MSA), governing body for UK motor sport, has confirmed the young drivers that have been selected to form this year’s Team UK national squad. In addition, the MSA has unveiled plans to extend the membership of the MSA Academy to include a selection of the most promising young drivers from various domestic championships.

Officially unveiled today at Autosport International show in Birmingham, the racing drivers selected to join the MSA’s driver development scheme under the guidance of National Race Coach David Brabham, are:

Jack Harvey, age 18 from Bassingham, Lincolnshire

Josh Hill, age 21 from Farnham, Surrey

Alex Lynn, age 18 from Dunmow, Essex

Lewis Williamson, age 22 from Golspie, Sutherland

Josh Webster, age 17 from Stowmarket, Suffolk

Nick Yelloly, age 21 from Solihull, West Midlands

Oliver Rowland, age 19 from Sheffield, South Yorkshire

“We are very excited by the make-up of this year’s squad,” says David Brabham, MSA National Race Coach. “Oliver obviously claimed the McLaren Autosport Young Driver title and we are looking forward to working with him for the first time, while Alex will have learned a lot from that shoot-out experience. Indeed he has already gained a place on the FIA Institute Driver Academy, as has Lewis Williamson who was with us last year, and this will further extend the training programme and development that both drivers receive. We welcome Josh Hill and Nick Yelloly to the squad for the first time, as well as Josh Webster who becomes the first graduate of the MSA’s Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence programme at Loughborough College to take the step up to Team UK.” 

Expanded MSA Academy

A further group of young drivers have been selected to become MSA Academy members in 2012 and will benefit from a number of sessions with MSA Academy coaches throughout the year.

“Thanks to the great work of everyone involved with the MSA Academy, Team UK and the AASE programme, we now have a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience at our disposal,” says Robert Reid, MSA Performance Director. “We now want to spread that knowledge much further and ensure that as many young drivers as possible are developing themselves and their careers in the right way.

“Thanks to the support of our friends at the Racing Steps Foundation, we have been able to develop a suite of materials that can really help young drivers at an early stage of their careers and roll that out more widely. These new Academy members will benefit from a number of development sessions during the year, as well as access to the MSA coaches as they require. We know from the feedback we receive just how valuable this kind of programme can be, so we are delighted to be able to expand our efforts in 2012.”

The drivers selected for the MSA Academy are:

Jody Fannin

Max Goff

Archie Hamilton

Jordan King

Seb Morris

Matt Parry

James Peace

Charlie Robertson

Dan Wells

Dino Zamparelli

Ben Barnicoat

Matt Graham

Jessica Hawkins

Callan O’Keeffe

James Singleton