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The indie precursor to F1's talent development craze

For 10 years an independent talent development scheme set a generation of underfunded young British racers on the path to professional motorsport careers. The Racing Steps Foundation didn't quite get a driver on the F1 grid, but it has plenty to be proud of. This is its inside story

He's probably the least recognisable of the most significant figures in British motorsport of the past decade. The philanthropy of Graham Sharp, a wiry, bespectacled 58-year-old Lancastrian, has taken seven talented-but-underfunded young Britons to professional racing careers (six on four wheels, one on two), and has aided countless more.

He's always stayed in the background, rarely attending races - except to watch his stepson, reigning Blancpain GT Sprint champion Stuart Leonard - yet without him the UK racing landscape would look vastly different.

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