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Spirit Racing Launched For European VdeV Attack |
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Monday, 12 March 2007 |
Brand new sportscar team Spirit Racing heads to the Spanish circuit of Jarama next weekend (March 16-18) for the opening round of the French run V de V championship.
The team was formed early in the new year and is jointly owned by Philip, Adam and Jamie Derbyshire, under the Spirit Motor Group banner and London banker and sportscar racer, Simon Phillips.
The squad will initially run two cars, both 2006 Norma chassis with
two-litre Honda engines, for the Derbyshire brothers and Phillips and
his driving partner Rob Garofall. However, the plan for the team is to
run more cars as the season progresses for customers who wish to race
competitively in the endurance series.
Highly respected Le Mans winning engineer, Alan Mugglestone, will be a
consultant to the team, overseeing the early season development and
setting up of the team’s cars, outside of his schedule at Team LNT with
the development of the Panoz Le Mans car.
“After talking to Simon and Rob last year, who entered the V de V
series for the full season and then trying a couple of races, we were
keen to have a proper attack on the championship,” said team co-owner
Philip Derbyshire.
“It’s an incredibly well run series, with a huge amount of track time
for the drivers. We saw a gap in the market for drivers who want to
race all over Europe at this level, either with their own cars or on an
‘arrive and drive’ basis. We will be aiming to give potential customers
this option once the team is settled in and running, which we hope will
be by about mid-season,” he added.
The team had originally bought two brand new 2007 Norma chassis to use
for this season. However, complications with the organizers and the
regulations have currently stopped the brand new French car being
eligible to score points. The Norma factory immediately came to the aid
of the new outfit, supplying them with a 2006 car for the Jamie and
Adam Derbyshire to begin the season.
“The 2007 car is able to race, but it won’t score points,” explained
Rob Garofall. “Simon and I still had the car from last year and the
Norbert Santos from Norma has been tremendously helpful to us to get
the second chassis here, allowing Jamie and Adam to start testing,” he
added.
As well as aiming for the European V de V title, Spirit Racing will
also be taking part in the two UK events that will be happening this
year, possibly entering all four of the cars they currently have.
“The series is well supported by its manufacturers,” explained Simon
Phillips. “It’s definitely going to be an exciting and tough year. But
we know that we can do a great job and want to show potential customers
that we’re serious about offering the best package for them to race
competitively and economically at some of the best tracks in Europe,”
he added.
The normal race length in the V de V series is three hours. However,
two six hour races, one at Spa-Francorchamp in Belgium and one at
Estoril in Portugal, as well as the crown jewel of the championship –
12 hour race at Magny-Cours in France - will keep the teams and drivers
busy over the course of the season.
The team has already proved to be quick in pre-season testing, with the
two cars topping the timesheets at Magny-Cours a couple of weeks ago.
But, with the opening round now here the drivers are keen to get down
to the racing and see where they stand.
“We’ve only had one run in the dry in our car,” explained Jamie
Derbyshire and we’ve still got a few things to do to get it exactly
where we want it. We will be treating the first round as another test
initially and maybe stay out in Spain to do some more work after the
event.”
“Another great thing about the championship is that we have so much
track time over the course of the weekend to get the car right and
having Alan with us will also speed up that process when we need it the
most. I think if both cars have a mechanically sound three-hours out in
Jarama we can cause an upset right from the opening round,” he added.
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