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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 earlier this year and is jointly owned by London banker and sportscar racer Simon Phillips and the Derbyshire family’s Spirit Motor Group.
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 European endurance series.
Internationally renowned Le Mans winning engineer, Alan Mugglestone,
will be a consultant to the team, overseeing the early season
development 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 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,” said team director Adam Derbyshire.
“Our aim is to show, as a team, what we’re capable of in terms of
results and preparation with the two cars we have now. That way anyone
interested will know that we’re serious about what we do,” he added.
The team had originally bought two brand new 2007 Norma chassis to use
for this season. However, technical issues relating to build continuity
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 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 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 inaugral UK events that will be
happening this year, 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 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.”
“We’ve got a very talented team around us to get the job done, though.
Lee Aubert is the team manager and we’ve got Gavin Nightingale as the
number one mechanic on our car with Neil Walker on Simon and Rob’s.”
“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 and the rest of the lads on the case will 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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