Youngsters show their driving ambition

A schoolboy from Shropshire has become one of the youngest racing drivers in the country after getting his licence at the tender age of 13.

Oliver Cottam will enter his first saloon car race in May, when he competes at Knockhill race track in Fife.

He recently gained his licence after passing the entry test at Anglesey, having spent years two years honing his skills with go-karts.

Following in his tyre tracks are younger brother Louis, who is 11, and sister Ellie who is just nine.

Ellie, a pupil at Wrockwardine Wood Junior School, will compete in her first race next month at Whilton Mill race track in Daventry.

And the youngsters, of Oak Road, Telford, will not have to look far if they need a bit of advice – their father Edward and grandfather Alan are both motorsport veterans.

Alan, now 86, was a legendary star of the hill-climbing scene between 1955 and 1983, and famously competed in the Chateau Impney Sprint in 1958.

He scooped nine consecutive fastest times of the day at Prescott Hill Climb near Cheltenham, and several more at Shelsley Walsh near Stourport-on-Severn.

He came out of retirement in 2005 in a competition to mark the 100th anniversary of the Shelsley Walsh hill climb, and made the top four.

He also competed in a non-official Grand Prix in Sweden in 1966.

Edward, 52, will be racing Porsches and BMWs later this year at the The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and the Nurburgring in Germany.

To complete the family affair, Edward's wife Junyan has just secured her licence as an autotest driver, where competitors carry out precise manoeuvres against a stopwatch.

Edward said: "Oliver had always wanted to take up karting, it was just a matter of waiting until he was old enough to compete. He's exceptionally talented."

Oliver and Louis are both pupils at Ercall Wood Academy in Telford, where they demonstrate their sporting prowess in other areas – playing for the school football and rugby teams.