Newly crowned British Formula Ford Champion Callum MacLeod will get his first taste for F3 power next week when he gets the chance to test for the Ultimate Motorsport team at Pembrey.
The 19-year-old will get behind the wheel of the Mygale Formula 3 car raced by Esteban Guerrieri and Michael Devaney this season, with the test having been offered as a prize to the highest-placed Mygale driver in British Formula Ford a prize MacLeod secured easily thanks to his 14 wins en route to the title.
"This is not just a quick ten-lap try-out," Mygale's UK representative, Alan Cornock said, "but a full day-long session with seat fitting, briefings with the engineers, and if the weather dictates it will roll into a second day. Callum deserves the chance - he has driven brilliantly this year, particularly towards the end of the season when he really had to show racecraft. He has put in a good, professional performance and stamped his authority on the championship."
Ultimate Motorsport boss Barry Walsh, a Formula Ford racer himself in the 1980s, said he was looking forward to the test.
"Esteban and Michael will be there also and it will be interesting to see how Callum compares, he said. He's done a really good job in Formula Ford. But F3 is a different ball game and we'll see what happens next week."
One of MacLeod's prizes for winning the British Formula Ford series is a free entry and registration for British F3 in 2008. The youngster will also test for the Fluid Motorsport F3 team, as will championship runner-up James Nash. One of Fluid's '08 F3 seats has already been filled by a Formula Ford graduate, Jay Bridger.
"It's pleasing that the leading Formula Ford drivers are regarded as being ready to go straight into F3," Sam Roach from series promoter RacingLine said. "Our ties with Formula 3 are becoming ever stronger and Formula Ford is really re-establishing itself as the most credible first step on the single-seater career ladder."
New British F3 champion Marko Asmer is a graduate of Formula Ford.
