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Damon
Hill, 1996 Formula 1 Champion, has said.
And now Racing Engineering is very happy to present Steven Kane,
this fast Irish racer, as the third driver of its 2004 Spanish Formula
3 squad. When driving Racing Engineering’s Toyota-powered F3
car during some pre-season tests, Steven Kane proved that his mentor
and supporter Damon Hill was very right with his statement, given
the excellent lap times he could mark.
Steven
was born in Northern Ireland in 1980 and entered the world of motorsports
at the age of fourteen, competing in motocross races. In 1995, 1996
and 1997 Steven won several motocross championships. It was in 1998
that he switched to Karting and during his Karting years Steven
won the “Best Newcomer Award”, the Northern Ireland Championship
and was declared “Northern Ireland Kart driver of the Year”.
In 2000 Steven moved on to single seater racing, where one year
later he was the clear champion of the 2001 Junior Formula Ford
Zetec with eight victories and four second places in twelve rounds.
This outstanding performance resulted in Steven being the McLaren
Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year 2001. In 2002 Steven raced
in the British Formula Renault Championship, in 2003 in the Scholarship
Class of the British Formula 3 and was testing McLaren’s Formula
1 car at Silverstone.
For
the 2004 season Steven Kane has decided to join Racing Engineering
to compete in the Spanish Formula 3 Championship and explains, “The
Spanish Formula 3 is exactly what I am looking for. It’s a
very tough championship with very experienced drivers in their third
and fourth year in F3, which is going to make it very hard to win.
I first heard about the championship when I was racing in England
and it was very highly rated in the way it was run with one make
engine and the controlled testing and tyres. This makes lower budgets
and the racing a more level playing field, which really interests
me and a lot of people in England.”
It
will be Steven’s first time racing on all the Spanish F3 tracks
and he regards it as a challenge to learn so many new tracks as
“they are some of the best and most famous tracks in the world.
It is great that all the rounds of the championship are on Grand
Prix circuits except for one, and Albacete is still an excellent
circuit. I still haven’t been in Barcelona or Valencia, so
I will have to learn these tracks the day before the race, but I
enjoy that. For me it is a great challenge racing on world famous
circuits and having to learn them in such a short period of time.”
But for Steven not only the circuits will be new, but also the car,
the team and most of his competitors and he said, “I don’t
really know any of the drivers, but as I’ve tested, I’ve
seen how quick they are and their experience on the circuits are
showing. It’s going to be a big challenge with the odds against
me but I’ve got lots of positives like the best team I could
possibly have around me and my confidence and ability. The team
has really surprised me as to how professional it is from the engineering
side to the way it presents itself in general. This gives me real
confidence to win.”
“I
saw Steven during several tests now and am really impressed by his
driving style and how quickly he not only adapted to the team but
also tracks he has never been on before,” Alfonso de Orleans,
Racing Engineering’s president, said. “The logical consequence
of this was Steven topping the time sheets at the last test days
in Jerez, where he clearly left last year’s vice champion Dani
Martin and other experienced drivers behind him. Of course, Borja
Garcia was only testing for one day in Jerez, but I am nevertheless
convinced that we will see these two drivers on the podium many
times during the season. Everyone at Racing Engineering is happy
to have Steven in the team and we are sure that with Borja Garcia,
Steven Kane and Maria de Villota we have made the right choice.”
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