Kartstart goes spirit
Scot Craig Lockhart's team, which fielded a Van Diemen RF99 for Ryan Cannon in this year UK series, will transfer to a new base at Snetterton, and has enlisted FF legend Malcolm 'Puddy' Pullen to run the Scot and a second paying driver
"Interest in the cars has been amazing, but it's a great feeling to have sold a couple before the design has even run," said constructor Steve Wills.
Wills's brother Phil - the former boss of Continental Racing who guided Joey Foster to last year's Festival crown - will engineer the Spirits alongside Puddy, whose previous charges have won the blue riband event in Van Diemen, Vector and Mygale chassis.
Lockhart, owner of the Kartstart kart centres in Kircaldy and Aberdeen, has run Cannon since he was seven. "Ryan's a four-time Scottish kart champ and works hard in the business", he says. "Having run him in Formula Ford myself, as a hobby until now, I figured the only way to be sure he gets the best chance was by getting the best car and engineers.In karting we always had a reputation for doing things differently. To get an advantage you have to. And I think I've come up with the right answer this time."
Foster is scheduled to shake down the first Spirit, designed by ex-Argo man Keith Lain, in FF1600 trim, at Mallory Park next week. The Zetec derivative, which features wider track suspension and geometry changes, should hit the track soon afterwards. Its tail section is still currently in production.
Ten production chassis are being laid down at Spirit's Snetterton factory, on the trading estate owned by Van Diemen's founder Ralph Firman. Wills is also in negotiation with a team to take the cars to Norway.
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