Meath’s Cian Carey was named as the winner of the Motorsport Ireland/Sport Ireland Young Driver of The Year Award earlier this week at a ceremony in Sport Ireland’s Ballycoolin Campus
The 2016 BOSS Ireland Champion was one of three finalists chosen from the original nominees, the other two being Andy O’Brien and Jordan Dempsey.
Driving his Mooretown Engineering Formula Renault car, Cian won the BOSS (Big Open Single Seater) Championship this year, scoring five wins and starring at the famous Leinster Trophy meeting at Mondello, where he charged to third place, only two F3 cars ahead of his at the chequered flag.
For 2017, Cian will enter the British F3 Cup and his Mooretown Engineering team have already purchased a Dallara Formula 3 car for this purpose. In fact they travelled to Silverstone in November to test the car at the Walter Hayes Trophy meeting, with Cian winning his class and finishing second overall to an Arrows F1 car after a spectacular battle.
Cian Carey, BOSS Ireland Champion & Motorsport Ireland Young Driver of The Year:
“I’m over the moon to win this. We worked hard, had a great season and won the BOSS series. the plan was to graduate to F3 Cup in the UK but to now do so as MI Young Driver is a huge honour. The funding is a big help to my budget but I am also to delighted to receive other forms of support from both Motorsport Ireland and Sport Ireland. I hope to repay their faith in me with more wins, this time in the UK!”
Cian Carey, 22, from Ratoath in County Meath, is the 2016 BOSS Ireland Champion. Despite driving one of the smaller engined “BOSS 2” cars, he scored five overall wins and took both the class and outright titles at the wheel of his Formula Renault machine.
In December 2016, Cian was named as the Motorsport Ireland Young Driver of The Year and for 2017 he will represent Ireland in the UK F3 Cup series. His ambition is to progress into a career in Sportscars, preferably on the world stage.
Cian began motor racing in 2011 at the age of 16, driving a Honda Civic in the Irish Touring Car Championship, going on to finish as class runner up the following year, after scoring four race wins.In 2013, he switched to the Formula Libre class, driving a Tatuus Formula Renault, winning the “Driver of the Year” title in that class.
Cian was supported by Mooretown Engineering and F Brazil Reinforcements in 2016 and will announce his 2017 partners in the new year.
The Young Driver of The Year award is supported by Motorsport Ireland and Sport Ireland. Cian, as the award winner, will be included in the Team Ireland Foundation for the next 2 seasons.
The award itself, the Sexton Trophy, is named after Walter Sexton. He was the honorary secretary of the Royal Irish Automobile Club in the 1920s, as well as having been one of Ireland’s pioneer motorists. Walter was one of the chief organisers of the Irish Grand Prix which first ran in 1929. After Walters death, it was decided that the winner of the Speed Championship, open to all Irish competition licence holders, would be awarded the Sexton Trophy. In recent years, the winner of the Young Racing Driver of The Year has been the recipient of the famous trophy.