Team HARD recently announced the arrival of teenage sensation Damani Marcano to its young driver development programme for 2015.

Marcano will make his track debut in the Volkswagen Racing Cup at just the age of 16 when the season gets underway, showing the faith that team boss Tony Gilham has in up and coming young talent.

Damani is still only 15 years old, and just last week he passed his ARDS racing licence at Brands Hatch, although he can’t apply for his licence until he turns 16 in January.

Speaking about Damani joining the team, Tony Gilham said: “We have been keeping an eye on Damani for a while now and he continues to exceed all expectations, progressing at a rapid and impressive rate.

“It is very important to support our stars of the future. Damani’s professionalism has already shone through on and off track and in today’s motorsport world, it is so important to be the complete package. Damani fits these criteria perfectly.

“Damani is very comfortable both behind the wheel and in front of the camera and we are extremely excited to be part of his on-going development as a racing driver. We are under no illusions that this is a big step but we are behind him 100 percent and will be working closely with him to make the most of this opportunity”.

Damani has limited experience of driving race cars but his talent did shine through in the Ginetta Scholarship, where he made it all the way through to the finals.

In preparation for his ARDS test, he did everything he could to prepare including using the simulator at Ultimate Race Car Experience, to learn Brands Hatch and get further practice using a manual clutch.

Speaking about making the move into racing cars, Damani said “This will be a huge learning experience. I’m racing in cars for the first time and against very experienced adults. I expect to make several rookie-mistakes through the year but I know I will learn from them.

“Having Tony Gilham’s experience and confidence behind me makes me feel that, over the next few years, anything is possible. I’m going into this year with no expectations, just mega excitement about racing such an amazing machine!”

It is hoped that the VW Cup will be the first step onto a glittering career which will see him ultimately racing in the British Touring Car Championship, emulating the likes of Jason Plato, Matt Neal and Colin Turkington.

What is clear, is that not only does Damani have the willingness to learn but he has a lot of talent as well, this was underlined in 2012, at the end of round three of his first arrive and drive karting series, when Damani took first place against drivers with several years of experience.

Surprising everyone, he found himself standing on top of the podium at Rye House, the same track that double Formula 1 World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, began his career.

Encouraged to move into club level karting, where many of today’s professional racing drivers begin, Damani stepped straight into racing 75mph race-tuned Junior Rotax karts. 

In 2013, his debut season in club-level karting, Damani went on to finish third in the Hoddesdon Kart Club (HKC) Championship, also at Rye House, and was awarded the club’s “Most Improved Driver” award.

With less than two years in club-level racing, Damani’s pace has continued to increase with regular top three race finishes and fastest-laps against drivers with as much as eight years of racing under their belt.

It is most certainly going to be an interesting season for Damani in the VW Cup racing with Tony and Kent based Team HARD.

Watch Damani’s karting story, “A Drive to Drive”, on YouTube; a video used to support his racing career crowd-funding campaign:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ8ALt9AyMI

Damani also produced a Video log of his ARDS racing licence which gives a truly unique insight into what it takes to become a racing driver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWqfM7T-MK0

There are several ways you can keep up to date with him during his debut season, you can follow Damani’s journey on twitter (@DKMRacing), or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DKMRacing and on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/DKMRacingTV

VW Cup Car Design courtesy of Tim Holmes Design