SPEED EuroSeries News - All News

The Autosport International Show at the NEC in Birmingham habitually ushers in the new motorsport season and SPEED EuroSeries will once again have a presence with a Wolf chassis on display as part of the Sunoco exhibition.

The stand will be #6565 and will be located in Hall 6. SPEED EuroSeries organisers will be on site on Thursday 10th and Friday 11th of the event. Series fuel supplier, Sunoco, has kindly invited all SPEED teams, drivers and associates to visit the stand and use their facilities as a meeting point for the event.

We look forward to seeing as many of SPEED’s associates and fans as possible over the two days.

Sunoco Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge winner and SPEED EuroSeries champion, Ivan Bellarosa, is to make his Daytona Prototype debut on the 6th and 7th of November at an open GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series test at Virginia International Raceway. Bellarosa will follow in the footsteps of last years winner, Felipe Nasr, and test the #58 Action Express Racing DP.

Italian Bellarosa was the winner of the 2013 Sunoco Daytona Challenge, after scoring the highest average point score out of racers in the SPEED EuroSeries and Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship – Ivan’s score of 124.38 is the highest average point score achieved in the Sunoco Daytona Challenge. Bellarosa’s prize is a fully funded drive in the top GRAND-AM Daytona Prototype class at the 2013 Rolex 24 At Daytona. The prize is arguably the biggest in UK motorsport and valued at $250,000.

Last year, 2012 Sunoco Daytona Challenge winner Felipe Nasr also tested the #58 Action Express DP. Nasr exceeded expectations at the test session when he unofficially topped the time sheets, going quicker than all regular DP drivers. Nasr continued to impress, setting the bar high for future Challenge winners when he finished third overall in the 2012 Rolex 24 with Mike Shank Racing.

Action Express Racing burst into the sports car scene in 2010 when Brumos Racing consolidated to one Daytona prototype car for the 2010 season. The leased Riley chassis was paired with a Porsche V-8 Cayenne by Lozano Brothers Porting and driven by Joao Barbosa, Terry Borcheller, Ryan Dalziel and Mike Rockenfeller. The new team shocked the racing world with the biggest upset of 2010 when they took the Rolex 24 At Daytona win, over heavy favourite Chip Ganassi Racing.

Commenting on the prospect of getting behind the wheel of a DP for the first time, Bellarosa said: “I am honoured to be able to carry out the first test with a great team such as Action Express. I am very curious to drive the car as I’m used to much lighter and less powerful cars – but I’m feeling confident! I plan to work hard with the team and Max Papis to ensure that we get both the best out of me and the car.”

Coaching and mentoring Ivan will be Italian Max Papis – Rolex 24 competitor and former Formula 1 driver. In 1996, fresh out of Formula 1 where he drove with Team Arrows, Papis moved to America where he made an immediate impact in racing in the Rolex 24 At Daytona with a Ferrari Prototype.

Papis then moved on to the CART series, taking various victories and receiving the Italian ‘Golden Helmet’ award. In 2002 the Italian won his first Rolex 24 with a Doran-Lista Team Ferrari Prototype and since then has gone on to have a successful career in various series such as NASCAR and GRAND-AM as well as more success in the Rolex 24 At Daytona over the years. In 2012 Papis raced for Action Express Racing in their #9 Corvette Daytona Prototype at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

The test session is due to take place at Virginia International Speedway on the 6th and 7th of November, followed by a second test session at Daytona International Speedway on the 13th and 14th of November.

The 2012 SPEED EuroSeries registration forms for drivers and manufacturers and the race entry form are now available to download and return to SPEED organisers to indicate participation in this year’s championship. Drivers wishing to take part are asked to return the registration forms and payment by 10th February.

For the 2012 season, drivers/entrants must pay a registration fee to compete in the series. The fee covers FIA event inscription costs for the 12 races this year. Details of inscription fees are available from SPEED organisers.

For all details, please visit the DOWNLOADS page on the SPEED EuroSeries website.

The new season trailer is available on our SPEED YouTube channel to whet the appetite for the year ahead.

As well as being an entertaining few minutes of footage, it should also prove a useful tool for drivers, teams et al in promoting the series to potential sponsors. A download file can be obtained by request to organisation@speedeuroseries.com

The well-respected Italian manufacturer, Tatuus, will shortly launch the Company’s new CN chassis with the aim to feature the cars in the SPEED EuroSeries in 2012, it has been reported (Autosport, September 15, 2011 – Tatuus Report).

Tatuus, managed by Gianfranco De Bellis and Artico Sandonà, has been in the race car business since 1980 designing, producing and selling in various categories around the world.

In 1999, Renault Sport entrusted Tatuus with the carrying out of Formula Renault 2000 single-seater with a carbon fibre chassis. And the Company went on to create the Renault Sport, the Formula Renault 1.6 and the Formula Renault V6 as well as creating formula cars for Toyota, Honda & Nissan. More recently, Tatuus built the Formula Abarth cars for CSAI.

“To have a major player like Tatuus involved in CN chassis design and development is yet more evidence that our formulae has great growth potential as a well-priced, highly competitive, technical platform to develop and demonstrate engineering and driver talent at the highest levels in sportscar racing,” says Oli McCrudden, SPEED EuroSeries Organiser. “Already this year we have seen the emergence of a new generation of CN chassis from established manufacturers such as Norma to new marques like WFR and we’re talking with other major manufacturers about bringing their concepts onto the track in 2012.”

2010 SPEED UK Champions and winners of the opening round of the SPEED EuroSeries at Le Castellet, Jody Firth and Warren Hughes will race together in the Xero Competition prepared WFR03 at Donington this weekend.

Nigel Moore had been pencilled in to drive alongside Hughes but a clashing arrangement for Nigel meant he was unable to take up the seat and, despite impending fatherhood looming, Jody was able to get involved.

It will  be the debut for the Xero Competition team in the SPEED EuroSeries which will have a second car on the grid driven by Ben Clucas and Tom Bradshaw.

Former grand prix star, Alex Caffi, speaks about the SPEED EuroSeries in which he is competing in 2011 driving the Wolf GB08.

With just the two final bends of ‘the bus step’ chicane to go and the finishing line in sight, the Spa-Francorchamps 90-minute SPEED EuroSeries race was up for grabs. Damien Toulemand in the LD Autosport Norma had been relentlessly closing in on Franck Lamana’s similar car. Franck kept his line as the more experienced Damien tried to go for the inside. His nerve held and Damien lost the momentum to take him past. “It was very hot for me,” said Franck whose tyres had by now gone off. The two Frenchmen were separated by a mere 0.364 seconds at the flag.

Franck’s co-driver, former Spanish Formula Three and European Hillclimb champion Ander Vilarino had taken pole in qualifying but lost out at the start of the rolling start to Team TFT team mate Nick Padmore.  The pair quickly pulled away from a chasing pack of five cars who were sometimes two and even three abreast. By lap five, former Formula One driver, Alex Caffi  in his factory Wolf has established himself at the front of this group and seemed to be setting off in pursuit of the leaders. Two laps later he spun at the bus stop chicane and dropped back to seventh.

Meanwhile the leaders continued to pull away with Ander taking Nick on lap eight at Stavelot. From then on the Spaniard extended his lead while Julian Schell (Ligier) and Darren Burke (Juno) seemed to be closing in on Nick. On lap 22 the inevitable happened as Julian moved into second place. Pit stops now shuffled up the pack with Belgian racer, Jean Lou Rihon taking over from historic Formula One, sports and saloon car driver Padmore. Sadly for both, Rihon spun off and into the barriers shortly after the stop, his race now over and, with a bruised leg Rihon would be forced to miss the second race the following day.

Ander was the last to stop, handing over a 38 second lead to Franck. Julian’s co-driver David Caussanel was now at the wheel of the second place Pegasus Ligier ahead of Damien Toulemand, who had taken over from Philippe Haezebrouck and Sarah Reader who had replaced Darren Burke. Sarah was to report that repairs to their Juno’s diffuser after the previous day’s practice had made a considerable difference to the car.

The race now seemed to be settling down with David and Damien both catching the leader. However, on lap 27 the former was handed a controversial stop and go penalty for overtaking on the yellow flags and it was left to Damien to provide the drama. By lap 28 the gap was down to just over 25 seconds. On lap 31 it was 21.3 seconds coming down a full six seconds on the next lap. It was now game on although three tours later it was still only 11.3 seconds. The next lap saw further six seconds come off the gap, which was reduced to 2.2 seconds with just one circuit to go before the 90 minutes were over. Damien was taking chunks of time out of Franck’s lead in each sector but victory was not to be his and for the third race in succession, a SPEED EuroSeries counter ended in a close finish. The result meant that the title battle is also tight with the Team WFR men Warren Hughes, Jody Firth, Joey Foster and Nigel Moore still topping the table despite having withdrawn following Joey’s testing crash on Wednesday. Just one point behind them comes Dean Stirling who finished sixth in one of the IF Motorsport Ligiers, having shared the car on this occasion with Matthew Draper. With the WFR again missing from Saturday’s 60-minute race, the series lead is sure to change before the cars go to Donington Park in June.

To view the results, lap analysis and all the details from the SPEED EuroSeries races at Spa Francorchamps – CLICK HERE

Portuguese-based LMP2 team, ASM Team, is working to join the Speed EuroSeries in 2012 with a 2 car team.

The team has been a reference point in the car racing in Portugal and Spain since 1997 and has met with success as LMP2 Champions in 2009 as well as picking up numerous national titles including the Spanish Super GT crown the same year.

An ASM spokesperson said: “ASM sees the SPEED EuroSeries as a very interesting and growing championship combining exciting driving on fantastic tracks and top class events with realistic costs.”

The ASM announcement comes as Portuguese interest in the series flourishes. At the next round in Spa Francorchamps, the Pegasus racing team will field racing brothers Pedro and Manuel Breyner. The experienced racers will be competing in at least six of the SPEED rounds in 2011.