MEDIA INFORMATION

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1st December 2014

A Drive to Drive-HARD

15 year old karting sensation, Damani Marcano, signed to Team HARD

Making his car racing debut in the 2015 VW Racing Cup

Teenage sensation, Damani Marcano

(www.damanimarcano.com), has been signed to

Team HARD’s young driver development

programme for the 2015 season and beyond.

Currently only 15 years old, Damani will pilot a fully

race prepared VW Golf GTI R Cup Car in the

Volkswagen Racing Cup alongside regular proven

and experienced racing drivers.

Tony Gilham of Team-HARD comments “We have been keeping an eye on Damani

for a while now and he continues to exceed all expectations—progressing at a rapid

and impressive rate. It is very important to support our stars of the future. Damani’s

professionalism has already shone through on and off track and in today’s

motorsport world, it is so important to be the complete package. Damani fits these

criteria perfectly”.

Tony Gilham adds “Damani is very comfortable both behind the wheel and in front

of the camera and we are extremely excited to be part of his on-going development

as a racing driver. We are under no illusions that this is a big step but we are behind

him 100 percent and will be working closely with him to make the most of this

opportunity”.

The 2015 VW Cup will be Damani’s first step on a multi-year programme to reach

the British Touring Car Championships (BTCC). Damani hopes to one day add his

name to the list of British Touring Car Champions including Jason Plato, Matt Neal,

Colin Turkington and Fabrizio Giovanardi–many of whom also started their careers

in karting.

Team-HARD Media Information – Damani Marcano

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In 2013, his debut season in club-level karting, Damani went on to finish 3rd in the

Hoddesdon Kart Club (HKC) Championship at Rye House and was awarded the

club’s “Most Improved Driver” award. Hailing from the same kart track as double

Formula 1 World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, Damani’s performance has surprised

many. With less than 2 years in club-level

racing Damani already achieves top-3 race

finishes and fastest-laps against drivers with

as much as 8 years of racing under their belt.

Damani draws a line under his karting career

with his final race meeting at Rye House on 7th

December where he is in-line for yet another

top-3 finish in the club championship.

On his expectations for his first year, Damani said, “This will be a huge learning

experience. I’m racing in cars for the first time and against very experienced adults.

I expect to make several rookie-mistakes through the year but I know I will learn

from them. Having Tony Gilham’s experience and confidence behind me makes me

feel that, over the next few years, anything is possible. I’m going into this year with

no expectations, just mega excitement about racing such an amazing machine!”

Watch “A Drive to Drive” on YouTube: a short film about Damani’s karting journey,

supporting a racing-career crowd-funding campaign: http://bit.ly/DKMKartingStory

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Team-HARD Media Information – Damani Marcano

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Editors Notes:

For further information, contact Tony Gilham, Team HARD, on 01322-869095 or

tony@tonygilham.com.

Team-HARD is a multi-series racing team with drivers in the BTCC & the VW Racing

Cup. It was formed by an elite group of people, fronted by BTCC driver Tony Gilham

who wanted to revitalise and bring something unique to Race/Track car

preparation industry. For information on Team HARD visit Team-HARD.com.

Damani Marcano, from Hertfordshire, will be 16 years old in January 2015 and will

begin his senior racing journey with his ARDS (Car-Racing License) test and soon

after will begin a winter testing programme of familiarisation with his Volkswagen

GTI R Cup Car, a 250+bhp 2.0L Turbo, track-prepared racecar.

For more background on Damani visit www.damanimarcano.com

Follow Damani’s journey on:

Twitter: @DKMRacing

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DKMRacing

YouTube: www.youtube.com/DKMRacingTV