| He has been described by Steve Phelps, Director of Nexa Racing, the team which won last year’s Formula BMW Drivers’ Championship and also came second in the Formula BMW Teams’ Championship, as "a young Jackie Stewart - probably the most natural driver I’ve seen in thirty years’ involvement in motorsport.”
Yet fifteen-year-old kart racer Tom Dunstan, who, when he is not behind a wheel is behind his school desk studying for his GCSE exams, only began kart racing in May 2005. But he finished the season with his first trophy for second place in the Red Lodge Club 2000 Junior Rotax Championship, despite missing the first quarter of the calendar, and a trophy for The Most Improved Driver.
And following a test at Snetterton, Phelps was sufficiently impressed to invite Tom to drive for Nexa Racing in this season’s Formula BMW series.
At the Autosport International show, it was Tom’s turn to be impressed – by BRD’s Pro RaceTrainer.
"Being one of the youngest single-seater racing driver in the UK, it is very hard for me to get real track time. I think something like the BRD racing simulator would be crucial to my training and development.
”I have practiced on a Playstation but that’s a toy by comparison. The Pro RaceTrainer is truly in a different league. The realism and the feel are superb; too much power and the back goes light, too fast into a corner and you can feel the front wash away. The weight and feel of the steering and pedals are incredible. You really feel you are driving a car.
”I think it is the perfect tool for me to become a faster driver. The realism of the circuits would also help me to perfect my lines and my braking points, as well as being able to experiment on radical setups with my engineers, which would help me to understand how changes effect the car without worrying about damage to me or the race car."
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