Faine Kahia is living life in the fast lane of the racing world. The star motorsport racer recently flew to Malaysia to test drive his new state-of-the-art vehicle that he hopes will take him on the pathway to victory at the Formula 4 South East Asia Championships.
19 year old Kahia is living proof that you'll never be too young to chase your dreams.
Faine spent the week in Malaysia testing the brand new 2016 Renault Powered F4 car. After topping athletes from all over the world in all eight test sessions, the Tūwharetoa descendant says he's keeping a quiet confidence heading into the South East Asia Champs in August.
Kahia says, “I'm not nervous at all, I'm feeling very confident because I was really fast and my pace was really fast and I was on the top and not by a little bit but by a lot and I still know that there's time in there because the cars are new.”
However there's still a long road ahead for the young racer, who still faces many physical and financial obstacles before Asia.
“I gotta loose another bout 6-7 kilos for the race car. To get the ultimate performance out of the car you have to be at a good weight. But our biggest challenge at the moment is sponsorship so we still need to get a lot of the funding together which is always going to be a challenge. The whole season coast €100,00 Euros and believe it or not the F4 is the cheapest category in the world.”
There's no end of support back home. With help from Tūwharetoa Mighty River Power Development, Gilltrap Group and whānau, Faine remains optimistic and is looking forward to preparing for the upcoming championships.