Mention Essex to most people these days and the image that immediately springs to mind is fake tans, boob jobs, whinny accents and almost total vacuity. One of the biggest counties in England, Essex not only has some beautiful countryside, some of it just a few miles outside London, but a rich history.

Other than Brentwood, home of the infamous reality programme that we refuse to mention, Romford is another Essex town that has built up an increasingly poor image, much of it undeserved.

Yet, the historic market town, other than being where Pitpass is headquartered, has produced a couple of well-known racers. F1 and Le Mans star Jackie Oliver, who also owned the Arrows F1 team is from Chadwell Heath, while Johnny Herbert grew up in nearby Collier Row.

Now Romford appears to have another race winner on its hands, though his name hardly suggests a link to the ever growing suburb. Indeed, most people, when they hear the name Luciano Bacheta are more likely to think of Rome than Romford.

Even more curious however is the fact that both Luciano's parents have their origins in India, consequently the six foot two inch youngster is more Mumbai than Milan.

With such an intriguing mix, we began by asking Luciano whether he feels he's representing India, Italy or the UK. "Mainly the UK and India," he replies, "but there is of course part of me that feels I am also representing Italy and I like to acknowledge my roots.

"I have an interesting ancestry and I like to embrace all elements of it because somewhere along the line it has made me the driver that I am."

The daughter of a good friend of Pitpass editor Chris Balfe was Luciano's school teacher - she speaks highly of him - and through him we know that the youngster's dad is interested in classic cars and among others owns a beautiful E-Type. Naturally we asked Luciano if he had racing in his blood.

"No, I was the first one in the family," he reveals. "Basically, one summer evening I tried karting at the local car circuit and was inspired beyond control. They had a little academy and I used to win all the races there. The level was not very high but the desire for controlling a vehicle and competing was definitely born from those first few races I took part in."

Unusually, after Karts, rather than single-seaters he opted to race Ginetta GT Juniors and T-Cars, we wondered why.