Eastwood is shortlisted for Young Driver of Year award

CHARLIE Eastwood has been included in a shortlist of three finalists for Motorsport Ireland’s Young Racing Driver of the Year award and a €50,000 prize.

Belfast man Eastwood won the GB Porsche Carrera Cup series in a dramatic final round at Brands Hatch last month and joins two southern Formula Ford drivers, Jordan Dempsey and James Roe, from an original list of six candidates selected during the season.

The winner, who also collects the historic Sexton Trophy, will be announced at the Beta Irish Motorsport awards lunch in Dublin on December 5.

Jordan Dempsey, just 17, spent the initial part of the race season concentrating on his Leaving Cert.

On his return to racing, Dempsey showed impressive form, with several pole positions, lap records and victory in his first British championship race at Castle Combe.

James Roe was one of the standout FF1600 drivers in Ireland and the UK, securing several notable finishes during the season, including setting a new lap record at Knockhill in Fife, Scotland, that had previously stood for ten years.

Eastwood, a former World and European karting champion, won a Porsche scholarship for 2016 and went on to become the rookie champion in his first season in the GB series. This year he became overall Carrera Cup champion after a fierce duel with two-time title winner Dan Cammish.

He was recently named as a finalist from 21 drivers worldwide in the Porsche Supercup Junior scholarship programme after a shoot-out at Lausitzring in Germany. The winner receives a €200,000 support package for the 2018 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup series.

Eastwood will be in London this weekend to receive the GB Carrera Cup when his successor as the 2018/19 scholarship winner will be announced, Charlie Eastwood: Belfast man in the running for €50,000 prize

and among the five finalists is 16-year-old fellow Ulster driver Daniel Harper.

The other Porsche finalists are British F4 champion Jamie Caroline, the 2014 Ginetta GT5 champion George Gamble, GT Cup race winner Esmee Hawkey and karting champion Dean Macdonald.