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Stuart White embarks on perhaps the most exciting step of his illustrious racing career so far as he prepares to fly off for the first round of the French Formula 4 championship at Nogaro in three weeks time, with a spring in his step straight off a most impressive Investchem South African Formula 1600 debut this past weekend.

Stuart ended up second on the day at Cape Town’s Killarney raceway off two strong second places in the races. “We had a wonderful weekend,” Stuwie admitted. “It started brilliantly — we were fastest out the box in practices 1 and 3 on Friday, but we picked up differential problem and had to change it twice and then adapt to a different ratio.

“I had a a strong qualifying to put it second on the grid, two good clean races and I set the fastest lap of the day. “The starts let me down a little and I fell back to third in each race and had to fight back each time, by when Julian van der Watt had built up a 1.5 second lead and that’s pretty much how it stayed. “Still, I’m very exited by our pace and we just love the look of these new Formula 1600s — I can't wait for the next race at Kyalami in a month.”

But first Stuart has an appointment in Nogaro, France the weekend before and the Bloemfontein teenager is raring to go. “We had a day of Formula 4 testing at Le Mans and then 3 days of training before we went to Nogaro to test at the track where we have first race in 3 weeks,” Stuart pointed out. “The Nogaro test went very well and I ended up second fastest.

“I am over the moon by all the excitement of the French Formula 4 series and I’m very confident, but I also realise that it takes hard work everyday that I need to keep going even when things don’t work out as it so often happens in motorsport. “It’s also going to be a hectic few weeks — I race at Nogaro, Kyalami and Monza — among the greatest tracks in the world, three weeks in a row, which is so cool - I really cannot wait!”