AUGUST 6, 2002

A motor racing scholar

One can win scholarships at academic institutions for many different things but it seems that 13-year-old Freddie Martin-Dye has started a new trend by winning a sports scholarship to the $20,000 a year Cranleigh School in Surrey.

One can win scholarships at academic institutions for many different things but it seems that 13-year-old Freddie Martin-Dye has started a new trend by winning a sports scholarship to the $20,000 a year Cranleigh School in Surrey, England. Martin-Dye is one of Europe's rising karting stars and is currently lying third in the European Junior Formula A Championship. The award was made based on academic ability as much as sporting prowess. Martin-Dye was a pupil this year at the Cranleigh Preparatory School.

"Competition was intense," said Cranleigh's headmaster Guy Waller, "but Freddie impressed us with his academic ability and hard work, as well as his achievements on the race track and his commitment to his motor racing. This combined scholarship means we can more easily help Freddie integrate his kart racing program with his schoolwork."

When Martin-Dye was seven his father, a British Airways pilot and one-time racer, placed a $1600 bet that his son would one day win a Formula 1 Grand Prix. The odds were 1000:1.

Martin-Dye looks like he has a promising career ahead of him - although perhaps a little less publicity would keep down expectations.