Amanda Lassu may have endured a dispiriting start to the 2007 campaign in Junior Max, but having stepped up a gear quite literally into the DD2 class, her progress has been remarkable.
On the back of an impressive debut season in the category in 2006, the former BRDC Stars of Tomorrow front-runner began the year as a hot tip for Super 1 Junior Max honours, but the early rounds went far from according to plan.
We thought we would be in with a good chance in Junior Max this year, the Barnsley ace explained, but then at the start of the season we got absolutely binned in pretty much every race. You've got to learn to live with that disappointment though, and we just decided to cut our losses and try something new.
That something new was DD2, a Senior Max-style kart with four-wheel braking, two gears and sticky tyres, the first taste of which back in July, Amanda confesses, was quite an eye-opener.
It's been very much a learning curve, she acknowledged. The first time I drove in DD2 it was really hard I thought either the chassis or axle was bent! I was just bouncing around all over the place, and not strong enough to drive the kart. It's far more physical and you have to do a lot more training for it.
It's fast too! It's just so different to Junior Max, with miles more grip and power and it stops so quickly. It's more like driving a car; you can't afford to lock your brakes up, and you have to learn to save your tyres for the final.
If it was a tough baptism, it was also one Amanda has mastered with aplomb, and following a podium finish on her maiden DD2 Super 1 appearance at Wigan dominating one of the heat races along the way she went on to stun the infinitely more experienced opposition by triumphing overall next time out at Buckmore Park. In so doing, not only did the recently-turned 16-year-old cement her status as the youngest-ever driver to compete in DD2, she secured herself the record as the class' youngest-ever winner too.
![BRDC Stars of Tomorrow 'Man on a Mission' winners [L-R] Amanda Lassu, Kenny Andrews, Max Hawkins, Daniel Payne and Jack Goff at the Williams F1 factory in Grove](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/391110.jpg)
