'I'm pushing to get an Irish driver into our seats' - Keith Donegan aiming to be the 'next Jordan' in the FRECA class

One way or another, motorsport was always going to find Keith Donegan.

Coming from a family steeped in racing and having been a regular at trackside from the age of three, the Navan native had big ambitions. Like many youngsters, Formula One was the ultimate dream.

And he quickly set about trying to make that a reality, karting from the age of nine, working his way through the Irish Championship for a couple of years and then across to the UK to further his development.

"I wanted to measure myself against where the competition was, so we went to the UK. We were very much under-funded compared to a lot of the other guys," the 25-year-old tells RTÉ Sport as he reflects on a journey that began with driving ambitions and is now centered on being the team owner of RPM in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA).

Among the competition on the karting scene that Donegan recalls racing wheel to wheel against at that stage were current Formula One drivers like George Russell and Alex Albon.

"I suppose the level they were at and the funding that they had meant they were in the seat all the time, so I moved onto cars pretty quickly at the age of 14 and then I did two years racing cars in the Ginetta Junior Championship," he says.

Donegan raced against W Series star Jamie Chadwick in the junior categories

Donegan made a strong impression, finishing second in the 2013 standings in a season that featured the soon-to-be three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, her brother Ollie and also Will Palmer.

"Lando Norris (current McLaren F1 driver) did it the year after and he was third. The year I did it, Will Palmer was third. His father actually owned three of the circuits so he would fly in by helicopter after school