LEIGH Sinton's Stephen Warburton was crowned Formula Palmer Audi Champion last weekend, at the final meeting at Norfolk's Snetterton circuit following an intense season of competition in one of Britain's foremost motor racing championships.

After a sparkling career in karting, starting at the age of twelve, Stephen won the Formula First Championship in 1992, before moving onto saloon and sportscar racing in which he won many races, missing the British National Saloon Car Championship by just two points. He was a member of the MGF Championship winning Frepau Racing Team last year.

For 2001, he took the opportunity to race in the Formula Palmer Audi Championship, organised by former Formula One driver, Dr Jonathan Palmer, to provide a means of drivers advancing their careers towards Formula One. Each identical car is powered by a 300 BHP turbo-charged Audi engine and has large downforce generating wings and super wide slick tyres to provide extraordinary levels of grip.

He took the championship lead after winning both rounds at Dublin's Mondello Park circuit in July and has held it ever since. Going into the last round he had only to finish twelfth in either race to secure the championship. He was cautious in the first race becoming Champion by finishing fifth.

In the second and final race of 2001, he started third but moved into second place just after the start. For seven laps he hounded the leader, Stephen Young, the gap between them never exceeding six tenths of one second. Warburton then pounced, taking a lead he kept to the flag.

His victory rounded off his most successful season to date.

Jonathan Palmer commented: "Steve has been immensely impressive this year. Apart from obviously being overall the quickest driver in the series, he has also demonstrated both the outstanding consistency and the ability to race intelligently that marks out true champions.

"Ten podiums from 12 starts is a fantastic achievement. No one disputes that he has thoroughly deserved his championship and when your competitors admit that, you can be particularly proud! What is also so nice, is that Steve has been a popular driver whom everyone respects."

Steve is now looking to move into International, long distance, sportscar racing next year.