British Born Chinese wins a fully funded season of racing for 2017

By Crystal Law (including all photography)

Bond To, 28, was born and raised in Kingston, London, and just like most boys, he had an interest in cars from an early age and had always wanted to be a racing driver in his teens.

It was when his father bought a Mitsubishi Evolution 6 that he began to get a feel for speed and consequently began karting and track days in his own car.

The skilled British born Chinese driver entered the 2016 want2race competition after seeing one of their banners at a local kart track. The competition consists of three stages: karts, cars and finals.

The first stage is karting which is a 30 minute race that is assessed by the track manager who reports back to want2race.

Once successful, they move on to stage 2 where competitors get a chance to drive the Ginetta G40 race car with an instructor. This is a chance for the judges to see the competitors being in control of a race car, their racing lines and ability to listen to instructions.

From stage 2, around 100 hopefuls make it through to the pre-finals where they are pushed further in the race cars by the professional instructors.

Only 25 drivers make it to the grand final that consists of a nail biting head-to-head shootout for the best 12 drivers. And to makes things tricky, the layout that drivers were getting used to was changed so it created a level playing field for the grand final.

Despite many other very good drivers and the aforementioned head-to-head shootout in the final, Bond To stood out and was crowned 2016 champion. He now has a fully funded season in the 2017 Ginetta GRDC Championship which includes the ARDS test, suit, helmet, HANS device, fuel, mechanics etc.

Bond will be attending 8 races at various locations in the UK. He aims to do well in 2017 Ginetta GRDC Championship and move on to the next level the following year. He can safely say that this is a life changing experience and prize.