JERSEY racing driver James Walker, winner of the UK Formula Ford Scholarship championship in 2003, has confirmed that he has signed to race for the Hitech Racing team in this year’s British Formula 3 Series.

The traditional training ground for serious Grand Prix, the UK F3 series is the most prestigious in the world.

Previous champions have included Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen, who both went on to become Formula 1 champions.

Both also went straight from F3 to F1, as did current F1 driver Jenson Button, who finished third in his only F3 year.Hitech won races in its first F3 season, in 2003, and is linked to Renault F1′s driver development scheme.Twenty-year-old Walker first tested with Hitech last October at Donington Park, so his decision to sign for them was not unexpected.’The testing went very well, much better than I had expected, and since then we’ve been working to find the budget which will allow me to race, and we agreed everything with them last Sunday.

In the couple of weeks before we signed two other teams came forward with offers, so at least it shows that other people in the industry are becoming aware of me, which is quite nice.’Walker returns to the UK in a week or so to start testing.’Formula 3 has a testing ban all through the winter until 15 February, so all the teams go mad with testing from then on.

Once we’ve got everything sorted out with the car we’ll probably be testing two or three times a week over the next two months.

It’ll be fairly full-time, travelling to the circuits and living in hotels – and testing.’His contract specifies that he must test 45 times over a season and he said that probably half that number will be carried out before racing proper starts in early April.’There’ll be more driving done between now and April than the whole of the rest of the season! There’s a lot of work to do and it will be extremely competitive, but I’m aiming to get podium finishes.’Walker attracted much attention in 2003 when, in only his second season of racing, he dominated the UK Formula Ford Scholarship, winning more than half the races to take the title – and as a result was given Rising Star status by the British Racing Drivers’ Club, designed to identify major stars of the future.’He’s intelligent, he’s calm, he listens and he does what he’s told,’ said Hitech boss David Hayle.

‘With that attitude, as well as his speed, he has a very good chance of succeeding.’Walker, a nominee in the category for the Rising Star award in tomorrow’s 2003 Total Sports Personality of the Year event, will be officially launching his 2004 programme with a special event in Jersey during March.