Profile Name: Martin Kudzak Born: 10 August 1989 Length: 180 cm Weight: 78 kg Lives: Tyresö outside Stockholm and Waterloo, Belgium Family: Mom, dad and sister Natalie Club: Kungliga Automobil Klubben (The Swedish Royal Automobile Club) Idol: Niki Lauda Hobby: Fast cars Sports: Swimming, tennis taekwando, boxing and fitness training Language: Swedish, English and Polish School: Gymnasium, second year at the Scandinavian School of Brussels, Waterloo, Belgium CV 1999/2002 - Karting (F Micro/ F Mini) - S/Int. 2003 - Karting (ICA Junior) - S/Int. Pole Position(Master) Grand Prix of Gothenburg European Championship (Spa, Belgium) – Advance 22 positions in the final but is being pushed off from a 10 th place. Belgian Championship – 6 th overall 2004 - Karting (ICA Junior) - S/Int. Winter Cup (Lugano, Italy - D.N.F. (mechanical) European Championship - D.Q. (broken front spoiler) Finish off his karting career with a second place in Sweden. 2005 - Formula Ford Zetec - S/GB Participate both in the Swedish and North European Zone Championships. Finish the series in sixth and eight respectively. Wins the last race in Sweden at Kinnekulle Ring 9 top six finishes in Sweden/NEZ Debuts in the British Formula Ford series at the season final, held at Silverstone. He finishes fourth in his debut race and is awarded as the “Guest driver of the race”. Competes in the Formula Ford Festival (unofficial World Cup of Formula Ford) – Finishes in fifth place as best placed Nordic Driver. 2006 - Formula 3 - GB Takes part in the British Formula 3 Championship, driving for Fluid Motorsport. At 16 years old he is the youngest driver in the British 3 championship 2006. My Career 1999 Already at a small age I loved cars and high speeds. This contributed to that I already as a 10 year old started out driving go-karts in the junior category F Micro. 2000-2001 Is entering my first competitions and finished them with mixed results. A few times I am getting up on the podium, but am also failing to finish few races, luckily without any serious incidents. 2002 Over the year I am driving a whole lot when having stepped up to the next category, F Mini. Between the practice sessions I am entering as many races as possible. The best finishes are a second, a third, and a fourth place. For the first time I also get to compete outside Sweden. We go to, among many, the home track of Michael Schumacher in Kerpen, Germany. 2003 I am taking the next challenge and step up to the J ICA (Junior Intercontinental A) class. Again I get some good results, but unfortunately no wins yet. In June I go to Corsica to practice ahead of the European Championship. Apart from driving karts more or less around the clock, I am also doing a lot of fitness training. In kart-testing I consume as much as 24 sets of tires and 4 engines. Later in the summer, in June, I go to the European Championships that this year is held at Spa-Franchorchamps (same as in Formula 1), in Belgium. I start the final from a 32nd place after a less successful qualifying session. In the opening laps I advance a lot of places, but as have got up to tenth place I get pushed-off by another kart, crashes and have to abandon the race. 2004 My second year driving in the JICA category. In the first race of the year, the Winter Cup in Lugano, Italy, the carburetor breaks down in the final witch enables me to finish the race. Everyone in this business has a share of bad luck at times, and some more than others. I am now getting to tall and heavy for the JICA karts and finish-off my karting career with a second place at a race in Sweden. Already at the age of 15 I am granted an exemption to start racing in the single seated Formula Ford cars. That category normally has a 16 year lower age limit. I am also seeking an exemption in England, but my application is refused. 2005 The season is starting out in a brand new car from the Van Diemen factory in England. From have been testing intensively in the pre-season in Belgium, Holland and France I feel well prepared going into the Swedish and the North European Zone(NEZ) Championships. The NEZ series replaced the Nordic Championship to the 2005 season. In my first race weekend, in my first race, I had to abandon the race after having been run into by another car. The next day in the second race I finish in fourth in a rebuilt car. OK for a beginner! In the following races in both the Swedish and NEZ events things could have gone better. I often finish in the midfield. In one race the engine broke down and at another occasion the cooler broke. I also made a mistake myself when I made an early start and was penalized. So in that race a fourth place was turned into a twentieth place. That kind of mistakes you can not afford in the sport. Overall though, I do not really think things went bad, but it could have gone a lot better – you learn from your mistakes. From in the second part of the championships been advancing in the overall standings and finally having get that first win of the season in the final of the Swedish series at Kinnekulle, I finished the Swedish series in sixth overall and third among the Swedish drivers. In the NEZ championship I finished in eight overall and again in third among the Swedes. I think that the 2005 season in the Formula Ford Zetec category has taught me a lot of new things. It is no longer tiny karts with small engines, but real racing cars that demands a completely different way to be driven. Also the way they have to be set-up to different tracks and weather variations have been a new experience. At Jyllandsringen in Denmark there was only twenty minutes qualification before the first race and it was not easy when you never even had seen the track before. That time my mechanic Erik Backström made a terrific job to set-up a car for me that I could finish in third and fourth in respectively in the two races. In the Finnish events though, we had plenty of time to set-up the car before the races. To finish-off the season I also participated in the last round in the British Formula Ford Championship at Silverstone and in the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. It was hard out on the track, the British are hard to face, but the rest of us do not turn down that easy. After a less successful qualification round at Silverstone I had the ninth slot on the grid. But with a good tire strategy on a drying track I came home to finish in fourth in my British debut. The second race went worse. On the first lap I was hit on my right rear tire witch forced me to end my race on the spot with a damaged car. I also got a small trophy from have been awarded as the “best guest driver” the first race, witch was more pleasant than having to abandon the second race out on the track. In the Formula Ford Festival, that also are known as the unofficial World Cup of Formula Ford I was the youngest participating driver. After five days of driving, two test days and three race days trying to get the fastest time and best position, I had probably got my best result to date. From have had one of the better lap times already in practice the qualification went less well and after have had finished the elimination heats in forth and fifth place I was given the eight starting position in the final. The start went good and everybody droved like maniacs in the first laps. I got around the track seven-eight times trying to get ahead. Towards the closing stages of the race I had been able to get up to fifth position when the checkered flag dropped. Ahead of me I then had the winner of the British series and I had finished as the best placed northern European. When the race was over I was both relived and happy to have recorded a fifth place in the hardest competition possible, among drivers that were both older and more experienced than me. In the 2006 season Martin Kudzak from Tyresö outside Stockholm(Sweden) were the youngest driver in the world taking part in a Formula 3 championship. In the British National Championship he recorded several podiums and a victory at Silverstone. Following his debut season in Formula Fords in 2005, in witch he have got up to the world top level in the category, Martin took the most aggressive career step taken by a Swedish driver in a long time for the 2006 season. With his fifth place at the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in October 2005 Martin also showed that he is developing fast as a driver. But still it is a big challenge in taking the step up to the highly competitive British Formula 3 category for 2006. In the 2007 season Martin Kudzak will participate in Carerra Cup Scandinavia in a Porsche 996 GT3 Cup. He has impressed everyone in the series with great speed driving against the faster 997 models, setting new lap records at several tracks for the Porsche 996 GT3 Cup.