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JAPANESE ACE JOINS TEAM JLR FOR BRANDS HATCH
Japanese race champion Kenji Otaki is set to make his UK Formula Ford Championship debut at Brands Hatch this coming Saturday and Sunday with Team JLR.
Nagoya-based Otaki, who won the Japanese Formula 4 Championship in 2002, will be the fourth man in the West-Yorkshire based squad alongside series frontrunner Joe D'Agostino and his regular team-mates Jonny Baker and Thor-Christian Ebbesvik.
Twenty-eight-year-old Otaki tested for Team JLR earlier this year and impressed team principal Richard Dean: "Kenji was very quick when he tested for us at Castle Combe and Silverstone - not far off Joe's pace. He had hoped to do the second half of the UK season with us but that hasn't worked out for him. The plan is now to run him at Brands Hatch this weekend and also in the Formula Ford Festival at the end of October."
Otaki's arrival in the Ford-backed championship comes at a crucial time for Team JLR and for D'Agostino, who are bidding to reduce the 69-point advantage enjoyed by series leader Charlie Donnelly.
Despite the knock-back he suffered at Castle Combe last month, when he failed to finish both races, Joe is coming out fighting and has not yet given up hopes of defeating his chief rival, Irishman Donnelly, for top spot in the Ford-backed championship.
A day's testing at Brands - amazingly, the first full day of preparation that D'Agostino's budgetary constraints have permitted since the season started - have confirmed to him that he has the pace to run at the front. "If a victory is there to be taken, I will do so... I'd like to thank my personal sponsors, who have all banded together to make a huge effort to help me through to the end of the season."
Eight rounds remain, including the two scheduled for Brands over this weekend of 30 th and 31 st July.
The remaining races for the UK Formula Ford Championship can be found here
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