Dempsey awarded Young Racing Driver of the Year nomination
16 year old Jordan Dempsey from Mullingar in County Westmeath has this week been selected as the sixth and final nominee for the prestigious Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of the Year award.
Awarded annually by Motorsport Ireland with the support of Sport Ireland (formerly The Irish Sports Council), this award carries significant financial support for the following year along with the coveted Sexton Trophy. Many past winners of this prestigious accolade have gone on to represent Ireland on the international stage in the British Touring Car Championship, British Formula 3, A1 Grand Prix and many other high-profile championships.
Since making the move from karts to cars in 2014, Dempsey instantly made a name for himself, becoming the youngest ever car race winner and nominee for the award that year at just 14 years old, thanks to a podium finish in his first event. From there, the Mullingar Community College student went on to win the Ginetta Junior Ireland Championship in 2015, again picking up a highly sought-after nomination along the way and crucially this time making it into the final three for the biggest prize in Irish Motorsport for young up and coming stars.
Taking the brave step into the ultra competitive British Formula Ford 1600 championship for 2016, Dempsey’s success attracted many on-lookers to get behind his campaign, with the likes of SureSkills, Comsys, Novitas, Ergo and Murphy Prototypes all getting behind this star of the future as his results continued to improve with every lap. Jordan’s on track performance gains were also thanks in no small part to his participation in the John Campion supported Team Ireland initiative, run in association with Declan Brennan’s Centre of Excellence for high performance athletes, which has focused on some of the crucial areas of competition including nutrition, physical and psychological improvement.
Dempsey’s highlight events came in the final two weekends of the series at Donington Park and Croft, lapping as one of the fastest drivers on circuit, mere tenths of a second behind the eventual series champion and narrowly missing out on a podium finish. But in 2016, the best was yet to come, as Jordan was called up by Motorsport Ireland and Sport Ireland to drive their Van Diemen LA10 at the world famous blue riband Formula Ford races in Brands Hatch and Silverstone in the coming weeks. In preparation for these events, Dempsey travelled to Kirkistown at the start of October for the Martin Donnelly Trophy to learn his new car and new team. Having sat into the car for the first time three days prior to the event, Dempsey finished a superb second overall behind newly crowned British Champion Niall Murray.
Jordan Dempsey – Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of the Year nominee:
“It’s great to be nominated once again for such a prestigious award. 2016 has been a fantastic year for me and to get nominated for this award is another big boost, not only for my career but also for my confidence as well. I love what I do and I want to keep doing it for as long as I can. It’s great to get recognition for the hard work my family and I put into this, in my training and in my diet. To have the help of Team Ireland has been fantastic and hopefully I might have that support next year aswell! Now I’m looking forward to the rest of this year to hopefully get two more good, strong results and gain some more experience and learn from the two biggest Formula Ford races in the world! Again I have to say a huge thank you to all the people who have supported me this year, it means so much to me and I am very grateful for what they have done for me. My thanks go to TBRM, SureSkills, Ergo, Comsys and Novitas. A massive thanks to my family for being there for me and always supporting me and of course to my team, Team MCP. Also thanks to P1 : Digital for their absolutely fantastic work as usual! Onwards and upwards hopefully from here!”
