Young Palmerston North driver Bramwell King is already challenging five-times Formula First champion Michael Shepherd.
King blazed through in his green machine to win two of three races at Manfeild last weekend and was second in the other. That has left him only 14 points adrift of the master, whose brother Rowan won the title in the same car last summer.
“He [Michael] has come back strong and straight on the podium,” King said.
They clash again in round six at Manfeild tomorrow and Sunday and King isn’t getting carried away just yet.
“It is definitely going to be challenging,” he said. “With the pace we’ve been showing, it’s possible. One small mishap can ruin a season.”
At 19, King is almost a veteran of car racing. He gave karting away as a 14-year-old.
He had started in cars aged 12 with Dennis Martin’s Sabre Motorsport team in Palmerston North. At 13, King was in the now-deceased Suzuki Swift Sport Cup series and found himself racing in the Hamilton 400 streets meeting. He also ran 2013 in Star cars, the ones with GSXR1100 motorbike engines, and won the series.
This season he started in the Formula First winter series, showed pace and won it.
“The first round at Taupo was the deciding factor whether we did the season.”
Two thirds and a win decided that.
He and father Steve bought their current car from Wanganui’s Matt Gibson three seasons ago, blew the engine it came with and have been developing the car since. At last it has borne fruit, only twice off the podium this season.
“Usually there are four or five up front dicing,” King said.
At Manfeild last weekend he felt up to 10 could have won.
“Overall the field is insanely competitive. I have never seen a battle like it.”
In one race, King qualified fifth and came though to win and, in his last from seventh, he was ecstatic to win. Shepherd though got tangled up in a crash which happened right in front of King.
With two older brothers born on the 11th, that is now his car’s number.
“This is the first season I could run that number. It’s a lucky number for our family.”
King is in his second year of an applied economics degree at Massey University.
They are looking at selling the car at the end of the season in favour of other forms of motorsport, perhaps in Brisbane where his brothers live.
