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Twelve months ago, James Winslow had an F3 title to his name but wasn't sure what the future held for him. Now, twelve months on, he is poised to break into the American racing scene on the back of another strong season.

The Briton initially made more headlines for saving the life of Asian F3 rival Moreno Soeprapto in Indonesia than he did for claiming the crown, but moved on to Australia to bid for the national F3 title in order to continue his quest for a seat higher up the racing ladder. Reliability problems blighted an otherwise promising season 'down under', as DNFs interrupted Winslow's flow of pole positions and race wins, leaving him fourth in the championship as a parallel Formula Renault V6 Asia campaign gradually took precedence.

"We started the season in F3, but wanted to do something else as well as I'd already won an F3 series and wanted to branch out," he revealed to Crash.net Radio, "I felt that, if I was to come over to Australia and do F3, not really moving my career on as such, I wanted to do another series which could move me up the ladder. We decided to do both series until the last round of the V6 series clashed with the last round of the F3 series, which ultimately stopped me competing in Australia, even though, mathematically, we could still have won the F3 title."

The decision proved to be the right one for the Briton as he claimed enough points in the V6 finale at Zhuhai to clinch the title - despite missing the opening double header at Sepang - opening doors that may previously have remained undiscovered.

Success in the V6 series earned Winslow a test in the World Series by Renault, but the biggest break of the season came when he was invited to try out with Conquest Racing's Champ Car team at Sebring, the result of 2007 sponsor Opes Prime spreading its wings beyond the Australian F3 scene.

"That was fantastic!" Winslow said of the Champ Car run, "That's basically the way we want to go for 2008 and it's what we're working towards right now. I'm planning to test for Conquest again in January and we're hoping that we can get a drive in Champ Car.

"It was also great to get the opportunity to try the World Series car but, to be honest, I tested it on the Tuesday having won the V6 championship in China on the Sunday. I couldn't change the day of the test - it was Tuesday or you couldn't actually take your prize - so I was absolutely jet-lagged when I arrived at Paul Ricard and was so exhausted after a race weekend and winning the championship that I can't actually remember too much of the test! But it was a great experience, I can remember being there and a few things from the day, even if I didn't take out of it as much as I could have done."

With Opes Prime taking a greater stake in Conquest since partnering Eric Bachelart's team in the final two rounds of the CCWS at Surfers Paradise and Mexico City, Winslow is naturally keen to maintain a relationship that first began when he and Bruno Senna were invited over to the Australian GP-supporting F3 events in Melbourne in 2006. All too aware of motorsport's fickle nature, however, he is also making contingency plans.