Glad that last season is behind him, young Norfolk racer Daniel Laddiman is looking forward to the forthcoming campaign with renewed enthusiasm after attracting a new sponsor in Clarks Direct Delivery Specialists.

Glad that last season is behind him, young Norfolk racer Daniel Laddiman is looking forward to the forthcoming campaign with renewed enthusiasm after attracting a new sponsor in Clarks Direct Delivery Specialists.

Daniel, from Horstead near Coltishall, was the pre-season favourite to clinch last year's T-Cars Championship after a tremendous end to the previous season, but his high hopes were dashed.

The Aylsham schoolboy burst on the racing scene at the tail end of 2004 with a string of top three places in the training series for 14 to 17-year-old racers.

He recorded a brilliant victory at Brands Hatch and followed it up with a win at Donington Park.

Daniel started the year by taking victory in the first five races, plus a close second place in race two at Mondello Park in Ireland, to put him firmly in control of the championship chase.

The following races in Wales saw him end the opening event parked against the crash barriers, with a broken steering rack, after a clash with Norwich rival James Williams.

Things didn't improve in race two. Daniel was unable to hang on to the leading runners in his hastily repaired car and finished seventh.

It didn't get any better at the next pair of races at Silverstone, when he was excluded from the second event, which effectively ended his title ambitions.

He was battling away for a podium place with Ryan Borthwick when the pair clashed, sending them into a spin.

Daniel recovered to cross the finishing line in sixth place, only for the officials of the meeting to deem his passing move unwise and exclude him from the results of the race.

This effectively ruled him out of the title chase.

“You can drop your two worst scores at the end of the season,” explained Daniel's father, Phil.

“But you must include any zero scores from exclusions in your final points tally, and regaining the lost points was always going to be very difficult.”

The punishment also affected Daniel's morale.

“His head dropped, as you would expect from a 14-year-old, and it affected his performances for the rest of the season,” said Phil, who prepares his son's race car.

“We felt the exclusion was harsh then, and still do, but that's motor racing and we are determined to bounce back.”

Daniel added: “This is the first year the reigning champion will be defending the title, as in previous seasons the winner has always been old enough to move on up the racing ladder.

“I'm determined to repay the faith that Paul Clark of Clarks Direct has shown in me, and his support has really fired me up.

“I'm determined to go out and challenge Adrian in every race and take the title away from him.”