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Grice wins German Junior Championship
“Better than Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon” was just one of the descriptions of Hockley kart racer Tom Grice after his German Championship title win this weekend at Hahn-Hunsruck, near Frankfurt.
Tom only needed to finish in the top five in the first, ‘sprint’ race to win the championship, so when he found himself in second after the start all he needed to do was sit behind team-mate Mario Farnbacher and the number one plate was his. But the only person to be unaware of this was Tom himself as his team wanted him top off his championship with one last race win.
Starting from second in the main race, Tom dropped back to seventh but at the fast, flow-y track where it was hard to break out of the slipstream, he calmly picked off a competitor every lap until he took the lead. He pressed home his advantage by posting five laps all within a tenth of a second of each other in a display that even left rival teams impressed. Behind him at the flag was second-placed in the championship Riccardo Brutschin.
The main final was what prompted Tom’s mentor Mark Rose to make the Wheldon comment, who was Rose’s most famous protégée back in the early 1990s. “Last year Tom was said to be a little crazy but this year I haven’t seen him crash once and this year he’s won more than he’s ever done,” he said.
The trophy presentation will be in Bonn in November, and will also be attended by the DTM drivers who will be presented with their prizes at the same event. Before then Tom will head up to Sunderland next weekend for the penultimate round of the British championship. After a date clash he is down in 14th in the championship with only a mathematical chance of winning, but with nothing to lose excitement is guaranteed. After that he’ll be off to Italy for the final of the European Junior Championship, where he has already won a qualifying race, and then Tom will go back to school at the Greensward College in Hockley.
August 21st, 2007 at 5:30 pm