JANUARY 18, 2004

Toyota bolsters its young driver line-up

The Toyota Driving Academy has been extended to add two new youngsters, who will follow in the footsteps of Australian Ryan Briscoe, who last year won the Formula 3 Euroseries driving for the Prema Powerteam. This year Prema will be running no fewer than three drivers in the Formula 3 Euroseries with Formula Renault 2000 series champion Franck Perara being joined by Brazil's Roberto Streit. Kohei Hirate will remain in Formula Renault 2000 for a second season and will be joined by fellow countryman Kamui Kobayashi and Britain's Ben Clucas.

Kobayashi has been racing since he was nine and won a Toyota scholarship at 14 and started racing cars at 16 with the Formula Toyota Racing School.

Clucas has been karting since he was 11 and was the 2002 Avon Junior Formula Ford champion, moving up to the top class in 2003 before he ran out of money.