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Kelvin Hassell - Driver Profile
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Kelvin Hassell was born on the 13th September 1978,
son of Rally cross star Alan Hassell. When Alan made the
step into professional saloon car racing in the 1990s, a
young Kelvin looked set to follow in his footsteps. The
purchase of a Sierra Cosworth, and its subsequent success in
the Firestone Production Car Championship, lead Alan to
start his own race team. Alan Hassell Motorsport was born
and himself and his other team drivers carried on Alan’s
success. Kelvin would join the team in 1993 when his own
racing career began in karting.
In that same year, Kelvin won his first race and later his
first championship. After competing enough club races to
compete in the nationals, AHM and Kelvin began an assault on
the Super One Series, the British Karting championship. But
Kelvin already had eyes on racing cars and on his sixteenth
birthday, Kelvin went to the Jim Russell Race School at
Donnington Park to learn to drive single seaters. The
weekend after the course Kelvin set pole position in his
first Vauxhall Junior race. At seventeen Kelvin was looking
for something new. The cost of racing single seaters was
spiraling out of reach and the one make saloon car series
that had replaced Group N and Production car racing of
Alan's day were following close behind. Life-long friend and
rally guru Ray Deacon stepped in with the answer, rallying.
Ray had already made a name for himself in almost all forms
of motorsport including Production car racing and rallycross.
An expert rally driver in his own right, he none the less
gave the wheel to Kelvin, took the navigators seat and
guided Kelvin on to three more championship victories and
even a quick foray into Autotesting. In 1998 the long
circuits called Kelvin back. The AHM garage still had a Ford
customer base and to build on it they need to race in a Ford
championship. Kelvin was to become Mike Webb's team mate on
the AHM team in the Modified Ford Saloon Car Championship.
Consistent good results that year netted Kelvin fourth with
three visits to the podium.
1999 saw the introduction of a Production car class within
the MFSCC. Alan rewarded his son’s efforts in the previous
season with a Group N specification Escort Cosworth for the
new class in the familiar black and yellow of his own racing
Sierra. It was a successful package, setting lap records and
race wins almost everywhere they went. But it all went
horribly wrong at Snetterton as the season was coming to a
close. Kelvin lost control on the exit of the fast
right-hand corner, Coram, and left the track at over 100mph
and hit a marshal’s post on the inside of the circuit.
The next few years saw the cost of Ford racing escalate so
the team started looking around for other championships to
enter. Eventually settling on the 750 Motor Club Stock Hatch
and Hot Hatch Championships. Kelvin was the first out of the
box and took a Fiesta XR2 to Mallory Park for the first
round of the 2003 Stock Hatch Championship. Whilst building
the Fiesta, he had tested a BabyGrand Stockcar at Arena
Essex. Seeing the need for American style racing in the UK
and the potential of this fledgling formula, he quit the
Stock Hatch Championship and started testing BabyGrands for
the 2005 Ian Gosling Ltd. AutoSmart International Baby Grand
Challenge.
2005 saw Kelvin take 2nd overall in his debut season in the
Baby Grand Championship with 2 race wins and several podium
finishes. A test drive in a CAMSO NASCAR in Belgium
followed.
The end of 2006 marks Kelvin's move to the CAMSO V8
Championship. |
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