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RoliProjects helps youngster achieve driving ambition

[ December 13, 2023   //   ]

Canadian freight forwarder Rohde & Liesenfeld is helping a promising young driver follow in the footsteps – or tyretracks – of his father.

The Calgary-based company – known to most of its friends and customers as RoliProjects – is sponsoring 17-year-old Alex Berg. The young driver was one of just two recipients of the 2023 Team Canada Scholarship, aimed at giving people their first break in competitive racing. It allowed Berg to represent his country at the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in England and the Walter Hayes Trophy Race in Silverstone in October.

Formula Ford championships across the world are an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers and a major stepping stone in a driver’s career.

Formula 1 aficionados will know that, Alex’s father, Allen Berg (pictured, right, blow), raced for the Osella F1 team in the mid-1980s and, during his days in Formula 3, raced against the likes of Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle.

Despite never having raced in England before – and, indeed, barely old enough to qualify for a car driving licence in this country – Berg Junior achieved a fastest lap of the day in his heat race on 21 October before reaching the final on 22 October in a very creditable 13th place against drivers who were not only more experienced, but had an intimate knowledge of the tricky Brands Hatch circuit.

Alex had come to England with virtually no experience of driving in the wet, though the British weather duly obliged with heavy downpours at both of his races.

Two weeks later, in the final of the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone on 5 November, Alex Berg fought his way up the field from a grid place of P12 in the final, and quickly made is way up to P7, but on the tail of the top six drivers, again against vastly more experienced opposition.

However, fate intervened in the form of a leaking radiator, effectively bringing a premature end to what could have been an epic performance by the young driver and one of the major upsets of the Formula Ford season.

Alex said: “I had a fantastic time at the Formula Ford Festival and the Walter Hayes Trophy. To represent my country overseas, in the biggest Formula Ford races in the world is like a dream come true. Without my successful run in the F4 US Championship, I would not have been recognized by Team Canada Scholarship to be a recipient of the program. I cannot thank Rohde & Liesenfeld enough for their support throughout the season.

“I definitely learned a lot, as I have never driven in Formula Ford before, so it was a learning curve for me.

“I believe we came away from the two events with a good showing. My plans for 2024 are still in the works – but I will say that I am trying to put together the budget to race in the UK.”

Rohde & Liesenfeld, which trades under the brand name RoliProjects, is a major Canadian-headquartered project forwarder that can trace its history back to 1954 when the company was first incorporated in Hamburg Germany.

In May 2015 Rohde & Liesenfeld Canada Inc. acquired the 50% shareholding of Geodis Wilson and is now a 100% Canadian owned company and is now developing a network of offices worldwide. It currently has locations in Calgary, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston, Madrid and Shanghai, specialising in project and over-dimensional freight as well as worldwide forwarding, warehousing, vessel chartering and other services.

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