Finnish-British starlet Flame Airikkala will drive for the championship-leading Hillspeed squad for the remainder of the GB4 Championship season, starting at Brands Hatch this weekend (23/24 August).
Flame, the granddaughter of rallying legend Pentti Airikkala, has already completed six GB4 races this season, having made her series debut at Snetterton in July. Despite joining the category midway through the year, she’s already shown great promise with a best result of 15th during her debut weekend at Snetterton, and has scored points in four of the six contests she’s participated in.
Prior to joining GB4, she also had experience in the Fiesta Junior Championship, and Formula Nordic in Sweden. She’s also raced in the Kyojo Cup for F4 machinery in Japan, and was a top-10 contender last weekend at former Grand Prix venue Fuji Speedway.
Joining Richard Ollerenshaw’s Hillspeed squad means that the 18-year-old can take full advantage of the championship-challenging team’s knowledge and data banks. Hillspeed currently leads the GB4 drivers’ standings with Dan Guinchard, a double race winner this year with five three further podiums to his name.
His teammate Leandro Juncos meanwhile has also enjoyed a hugely impressive debut season with three podium finishes of his own, to sit seventh in the standings with six races remaining, including three this weekend on the famous Grand Prix circuit layout at Brands Hatch.
Team Principal Richard Ollerenshaw said: “We’re really pleased to add Flame to our GB4 team for the rest of the year as we expand to a full three-car line-up. Flame clearly has a lot of potential and I’ve no doubt that we can help her extract that over the course of the next few weeks. While she has only limited single-seater racing experience, we have all the tools required to aid her development and move her further up the grid. We’re all looking forward to seeing what we can do together.”
Flame Airikkala said: “I’m very much looking forward to joining Hillspeed for the rest of this year’s GB4 Championship. The team has achieved great results all year, and I’m hoping that I can make the next step in my career with them. Dan and Leandro are going to be excellent teammates for me to work with, and I look forward to learning a lot from them.”
