Karting Rivals To Join Forces For New Year

Two young karting aces have put their on-track rivalries aside to join forces in 2008 as they continue to follow their dreams of becoming professional racing drivers.

Harrogate’s Adam Parsley and Knaresborough’s Myles Collins have battled each other tooth and mail at racks all over the UK this year, the pair competing in the Northern Karting Federation (NKF) championship.

Collins eventually came out on top, finishing fourth overall, while mechanical problems denied Parsley the chance to compete on equal terms at the last two rounds, finishing the series in sixth.

But, despite the fierce on-track competition, a healthy respect developed between the two young drivers.

And it looks like the pair will be racing out of the same stable, with both in talks with seasoned racing outfit S8 Racing of Sheffield.

“At least we’d have no worry about these two ending up like Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in F1,” said Parsley’s father, Steve.

“They fight hard on the track were there’s no quarter asked or given, but once they’re back in the paddock, they’re back to being mates again. “

Collins’ father Chris added: “It helps that they have similar temperaments; when one has a hard race the other commiserates as they know how it feels. But it would be great to see them driving each other on at the front with an experienced team like S8.”

Both Parsley, 13 and Collins, aged 12, plan to move up a category to the 70 mph Junior Rotax class, after spending 2007 in Minimax.

S8 hopes to enter drivers in both national and regional championships, although which series Collins and Parsley will race in has not yet been decided.

“Thanks to sponsorship from Yorkshire Water and York’s indoor circuit F1 Racing, Adam also did the ten round televised Motors TV Karting Challenge this year and finished 11^th overall. It was good experience and we learned a lot about racing at national level – but it’s too early to say where we’ll be in 2008,” said Steve.

Chris added: “We’ll have to see how we get on in winter testing; we have to remember neither Myles nor Adam have raced a Junior Rotax yet so we don’t want to commit ourselves to anything too soon.

“Our two sponsors – The Trading Floor and thecomparisons.com – have committed to work with us again in 2008 which is a great vindication of the work Myles has done to get back to being competitive after a big accident early last year.”

(Harrogate Advertiser - 16th November 2007)