Matty Tipping competed in two Super 1 Championships, one of which was Junior Rotax and the other JICA. In the first season he raced for Ian Hawkins, who owned Team Maranello UK at the time. He had only been on the track for eighteen months at this point.

Ian set out a financial agreement within Matty's dad's budget and they set out to do what they could. The first season was tough for Matty after only racing in a number of club races. But he did very well for a first timer in the championship and got noticed dramatically by the fourth round at PFI.

In his second season he raced for BRM UK in JICA. Rob Dodds who was the owner at the time also secured a financial agreement for them within their budget. In the first round they did very well, keeping inside the top ten in the final. As the season went on Matty's passion for winning increased, along with his talent. He travelled to Brescia to the BRM factory, also testing at Lonato, Lake Garda.

Rob was happy with Matty's progression and asked his dad if he would like to race at the European qualifiers in Portugal. Matty found Portugal hard work as he was still only in JICA and he was scraping 6ft tall. As the rubber built up over the weekend they struggled massively but as a sportsman he took it as an experience. After two DNFs he finished 33rd overall in the final.

He also raced at Genk in Belgium for Stars Of Tomorrow. Here he did very well, being one of the fastest on the first test day but still struggling with set up over the weekend. He qualified third in one session but was beaten by a blown motor in the next. After a bad round 5 at Clay Pigeon he finished 14th overall in the Super 1 Championship.

Matty is looking to race in a saloon championship (ie Clio or Seat Cupra) and to test in single seaters.

  •  "Matty has a bundle of potential" - Phil Charles, Renault F1 engineer

  •  "Matty can pull off moves even Ben Hanley (GP2 driver) wouldn't even think of" - Ian Hawkins, previously Team Maranello UK

  •  "He has learnt in one session what usually takes six ... he has a very, very highly developed spatial awareness ... in all my time in coaching I have seen maybe two or three drivers that have given me goosebumps and Matty definitely is one of them" - Terrence Dove of Karting1.co.uk and Evenflow Driver Coaching

  •  "There is something uncanny about his track positioning when he's in traffic" - Steve Holmes, Data Analyser and Mechanic.

Contact: Danielle Neate

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