BRDC Stars of Tomorrow director Carolynn Hoy has spoken of her delight at the burgeoning popularity of the UK’s premier karting series last year, and why she is convinced we are in for bigger and better things still in 2007.

Stars’ was one of the success stories on the British motor racing scene last season, really taking off in terms of quality and exposure. Now, Hoy maintains, it is very much a case of onwards and upwards…

Q: How pleased were you with the way Stars went in 2006?

Carolynn Hoy: Very happy. I think we had a brilliant year, with great racing, a great atmosphere in the paddock, terrific coverage in the press and a great new website to boot.

Q: What do you think we have to look forward to now in 2007?

CH: Even better I think. To start with the kids were tremendously excited about appearing in Autocourse. That was very important for us. We will be visiting some terrific circuits this year, we have the same classes and we’ve had some fantastic entries. We are going to have full grids in all the classes, so we’re really looking forward to it.

Q: As you mentioned, Stars will be travelling to some new circuits this year. What kind of challenge will that present to the competitors?

CH: Some of the drivers will perhaps not have raced at these circuits, whereas others will. We are going to Kimbolton for the first round. We haven’t visited Kimbolton for several years and I think a lot of the cadets won’t have raced there before, so that will be interesting. From there we are going to Shenington for the third time, and then Larkhall. That’s our Scottish circuit and we always enjoy going there because we are very well looked after and it’s an exciting track; it’s probably one of the shortest circuits for the Super ICCs but they love it. Then we go to Llandow in Wales, Genk in Belgium again and Three Sisters near Wigan for the first time in three years.

Q: The series has certainly been very popular this year in terms of the number of drivers signing up to take part…

CH: Yes, we have a lot of names, and a lot of big teams have signed up too. Martin Hines is running the Zip Young Guns again, and it looks like they have a lot of drivers in both cadets and JICA and also I believe Rotax this year, which will be new for them.

Q: So exciting times lie ahead?

CH: Absolutely. We’re really looking forward to it.