Noel Baldacchino, the current Malta champion driver, will be in Hamburg next weekend for the prestigious European Championship for drivers organised by the European Trotting Union (UET).

Baldacchino, 41, has 22 years experience in the sport and has won the national drivers’ title no fewer than six times.

His domestic record is impressive: 678 wins and 1,360 podium finishes in almost 4,500 starts.

In 2008, 2009 and 2012, Baldacchino, of Żejtun, also led his charges to victory in the blue riband of Maltese trot racing, It-Tazza l-Kbira.

Baldacchino’s experience goes even beyond our shores as he was also prominent in various racetracks across Europe, such as Vincennes, Cabourg and Cagnes Sur Mer, in France, Solvalla, Mantorp and Eskilstuna, in Sweden, and other venues in Italy, Russia and Slovenia.

He won his last international race, in Russia at the beginning of this month, representing the country at the 2012 Mediterranean Horse Racing Union Championship.

In Hamburg, he will have to contend with the challenge of 12 other top riders.

The list includes world-famous Enrico Bellei, of Italy, Bjorn Goop, of Sweden, Eric Raffi, of France, and Eirik Hoitomt, of Norway, among others. They will be striving to win the championship which will be based on the results of eight races held over the weekend.

“The quality of the competition makes this an extremely tough challenge,” Baldacchino said, “possibly the toughest in my career.

“However, I will be focused and willing to do my very best to achieve a respectable result for the country, further demonstrating the quality of Maltese drivers at the highest continental level.”