Leyland teenager living the dream

12:48pm Thursday 3rd July 2008

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DRVING a souped-up Citroen Saxo is the ambition of many a teenager.

But Chris Warburton is living the dream of racing one - and he’s only 15.

And the Leyland youngster is a force to be reckoned with in the SaxMax Championship, where he’s currently lying fourth overall.

SaxMax is designed for 14-17 year olds, racing self-prepared Citroen Saxo VTRs on major British circuits such as Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Donington Park.

And a string of top ten results has put Chris, who started his motorsport career racing karts at the age of eight, within striking distance of the championship leaders, His latest outing was at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, where he just missed out on a podium place, through no fault of his own.

“Chris had a good start, but got boxed in and found himself down in eighth place on the first lap, “ explained his dad, Jon.

“He then pulled off some nice overtaking manouevres to get up to third when he was hit by another driver who was trying to get back onto the track.

“The impact fired him into the tyre wall and gravel trap at Druids, forcing the organisers to bring out the red flags.

“Chris dropped to 16th place for the re-run, but got a flyer off the line and worked at picking off the drivers in front to get back to seventh place at the finish.

“It was a case of so near, yet so far.

“Through no fault of his own he was robbed of his first podium, but that’s racing.”

His next outing is at Donington Park on July 19.

njohnson@lancashire.newsquest.co.uk