Kavanagh chases funds for FIA seat.

Irish girl Sarah Kavanagh has relaunched her innovative fundraising scheme in an attempt to land one of the FIA F3000 seats she feels will be vacated by late summer.

Confident that the current crop of drivers in the international grand prix support series will not have the funds to see out the season, Kavanagh is determined to take advantage of their misfortune to kickstart her own ambitions of making it into grands prix - or at least landing a test driving role in the next 18 months.

According to the latest reports on her personal website, it was only a series of unforeseen events that prevented Kavanagh herself from taking up a seat in the FIA series for 2002, but that only renewed her desire to take in at least a couple of rounds this season.

"We've taken a bit of a battering in the last while," she wrote, "First, Vodafone bought my Irish sponsor Eircell and that was that. Then, as we recovered from that and had Irish sponsors in place for FIA F3000 this season, NTL dropped Eurosport from their cable package and wiped out those deals at a stroke. No television coverage in Ireland equals no Irish sponsors."

Having attracted attention through her performances in the EuroBOSS series in recent years - driving a Jordan 193 - Kavanagh has been offered a fitness assessment by McLaren and is in negotiation for test seats elsewhere - but feels that team bosses want her to prove herself in a 'known' training arena, such as F3000.

"The F1 door is wide open for me," she insists, "I have three teams who would give me a proper test contract and, merit permitting, like to have me race ASAP.

"The natural next step for me now is to improve my international profile by doing the F3000 championship. Team bosses know I can drive F1s, but are afraid of the media backlash should they put me in without doing the recognised championships. This has scuppered two opportunities already. Teams know how quick the EuroBOSS is, and that I have substantial F3000 and F1 experience, but I'm afraid the media don't, and no team wants to be accused of pulling a publicity stunt. So, as soon as I have a race or two in F3000 behind me, even at the tail end of this season, I can begin F1 testing."

Without funding, however, most F3000 doors remain closed to Kavanagh and it is because of this that she has decided to relaunch her 'Sweethearts' scheme, where the public is encouraged to donate to her racing budget.

"We are re-energising our fundraising efforts now, as we have got to raise $1.2million to get a good F3000 seat," she said, "We are taking help and assistance from wherever we can get it to get on the grid and meet the teams' demands.

"Our 'Sweethearts' programme makes a comeback and [people] can make a donation with PayPal. We have also opened a shopping section on my website as affiliates for Amazon.com and other leading online outlets like the lingerie collection from Bare Necessities and mens' gift ranges from Italian design house Forzieri."

Which F3000 seats will be open to Kavanagh remain unknown at present but, with the likes of Minardi changing hands, the financial climate may not guarantee the current crop of drivers full tenancy of their places.