HASLINGDEN’S Tom Carne will travel to Brands Hatch today after a crowd-funding initiative raised more than £2,000 to put him on the grid for the latest round of the National Superstock 600 Championship.

The collapse of a sponsorship deal has left the 22-year-old facing a battle to complete the season and he has been forced to ask for financial assistance to race in this week’s round of the championship, a feeder series for the British Superbike Championship.

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Carne’s deal to race for the Motobreakers racing team requires him to pay £2,500 to compete in each round and he has launched an online crowd-funding appeal to raise the money.

“We’ve raised £2,000, we still have to raise £470 but the team owner has been great,” said Carne’s mother Tracey. “He has told us that he can see we’re raising the money so he’s told us to travel down to Brands Hatch.

“We’ve been overwhelmed by people’s generosity. We’ve had 38 donations, the largest was £500 and the smallest was £10.

“Tom has come so far, he’s 12th in the championship and he’s the second best rookie. It’s his first year in this championship and it’s one of the main championships. He wants to keep going all the way to the top.

“It’s his life. It’s all he wants to do.”

But Carne will need to raise a further £2,500 for each race weekend, and the family are also attempting to find a new permanent sponsor.

“It would be great if we could find a sponsor,” said Tracey, who has secured 250 free flyers to hand out at Brands Hatch. “We have to pay the team £2,500 for each race. It’s £300 for the race entry and the rest is for the bike, to pay the mechanics, for the setup in the paddock and hospitality.

“It was £30,000 in total for the ride this year in three £10,000 instalments.

“We had a sponsor who came on board who paid an amount up front and was going to pay the rest as and when. But unfortunately they’re only able to afford £15,000 now.

“It is very difficult to find sponsors, but the people who come for a day out with us to a race have loved it. You get tickets, hospitality and your name on the bike. Because the team has riders in three different series they have said if we got a big sponsor they could have advertising on a Superbike too.”

Anyone able to donate can visit www.gofundme.com/y2tvy2t9h or email drewcarne@fsmail.net.