James Thorp’s brilliant 2007 international karting season has been rewarded for 2008… with a factory drive at the team that beat him to the European Championship! 15-year-old James is moving up to senior karting after finishing third in the Junior European Championship this year and on Friday signed a deal to race for Maranello Kart in 2008.

“I’m looking forward to racing with the team, I can learn so much from them and hopefully can win plenty more races. It’s my GCSE year though [at the Kings School, Worcester], so fitting everything in is going to be tough but not impossible,” said James.

Team manager Euan Jeffery is also very happy with his new driver - “We are all very pleased here at Maranello to have James on board, as he is a very fast and promising young driver with a lot of talent! In 2008 and also in the future he will be one of the drivers to beat!”

His first few races in the KF2 category have been a resounding success and his win at the Industrial Trophy at Parma (Italy) in October sealed his reputation as a driver to watch. James will race in the European and Italian Championships as a team-mate to multiple World Champion Davide Fore.