Collins is set to book up

5:22pm Monday 26th April 2004

Sam Collins, one of only a handful of black motor-racing drivers in Britain, is looking forward to new season with new sponsorship scheme.

The Beckenham-based racer said: "I opened my competition season with the Sevenoaks Motor Club Golden Jubilee Sprint, an event which took place at the Lydden Hill circuit, near Dover.

"I was driving a Suzuki Ignis Sport and having never driven the car before I struggled somewhat, only finishing sixth out of nine cars in my class.

"However, I was treating the event as a warm up to my main season.

"This year, I will competing in the UK Formula Vee championship, a series for Volkswagen-engined racing cars that look like scaled down replicas of Grand Prix machines.

"I'm going to be starting off at Brands Hatch next Monday in the Works Challenger that I raced at the end of last year, and crashed, but will revert to a new, surprise car for the next round at Brands in June.

"Then, during July, I'm planning on entering the Phoenix Park races in Dublin, and perhaps be the first black racing driver ever to compete there.

"Then it's back to the UK for races at Silverstone, Snetterton and Mallory Park."

Collins added: I've come up with a unique way of funding my racing over this and next season, without any sponsorship at all, although some would be nice "I wrote a guide to getting started in Motorsport last year and the royalties from that are going to help me fund the early part of this year's racing.

"The idea is to write a few more books and try to entirely fund my racing with the proceeds from them.

"I've got a contract for two more books from my publishers Veloce, and both will have local interest.

"I will be continuing to lobby for a return of motorsport to Crystal Palace.

"The main project is on Europe's abandoned race circuits, with a chapter dedicated to Crystal Palace.

"The second one is a book solely dedicated to motor-racing at Crystal Palace. A new book on the track is needed, as it turns out that Crystal Palace has the longest history of any motorsport venue in the world opening in 1899 and closing in 2000.

"However, I'm in desperate need of unpublished photographs and tales of racing at the old circuit.

"They don't have to be professional, as I can't really afford to pay much to reproduce them."

If anyone can help Collins with photographs of racing at Crystal Palace, he can be reached on 020 8267 5384.