Red Bull
charges into Australian Karting
BRP-Rotax and Red Bull are proud to announce a partnership
which will see Red Bull embark on a search for talented drivers amongst
Australian karters in 2005.
The aim of the Rotax-Red Bull program is to scout amongst young kart
racers and look for drivers who possess great potential but may not
have the knowledge and contacts needed to embark on a career in motorsport.
To find the best talent in Australia, Red Bull will support two separate
karting classes. The first is for drivers aged 12-15 years which will
see the introduction of a new engine to Australia, the Rotax Junior
Max. The second is for drivers 15 years plus and follows the highly
successful KartStar format of a one-make series with the emphasis on
pure driver talent.
Both will be run using Rotax Max powered racing karts and will run
in conjunction with the Australian CIK series, which is a four race
series, across four states.
The Rotax Max Classes are the fastest growing kart racing classes in the world
and are organised by Rotax’s authorised distributors in 32 countries
on every continent around the world. In Australia the Rotax Max class was introduced
in 1999 and is now one of the most popular amongst karters.
Red Bull will introduce a number of new initiatives, such as providing
a specially designed, hand painted Red Bull Helmet for the leaders
of the series after each round. These helmets are like the “Yellow
Jersey” in the Tour de France and will allow spectators to easily
recognise the series leader.
The BIG prize - A shot at the big time
The winner of both series will be invited to test a Formula BMW in Europe in
late 2005! These test drives will either be with the official Formula BMW
team or may be organised with one of the other race teams Red Bull is associated
with.
There are of course no promises or guarantees but of course if the
drivers are talented enough they have the chance to advance to the
Red Bull Junior team. The Red Bull Junior team’s most famous
success story is Jaguar F1 driver, Christian Klien closely followed
by the record breaking 2004 Formula 3000 champ, Vitantonio Liuzzi.
Check out www.redbull-juniorteam.com for further details of the Red
Bull Junior Team’s current program.
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