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Encke Sport enters junior team in Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup |
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Wednesday, 14 March 2007 |
A new team hoping to enter the 2007 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship has announced that they are to run a junior team in the inaugural BARC/Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup for production cars this season.
Encke Sport, backed by Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper Peter Enckelman is planning to run two cars in Dunlop’s BTCC feeder series.
The Manchester team are to run a Renaultsport Clio 172 for locally based Dunlop Race Academy winner Simon Shaw from the same workshops where they are preparing their BTCC Vauxhall Astra Coupes, and are in talks about running a second Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup car for another rising star.
“In professional football it is common for teams to have junior squads
to develop young talent, and I think it is important we do the same
with our motorsport venture. Our drivers will benefit from coaching as
well as technical support” said Enckleman.
Shaw, 24, was awarded the 2006 AVO Ginetta Rookie of the Year Cup after
an impressive first season of racing and has chosen the Dunlop Sport
Maxx Cup as the next step in his aim to reach the Dunlop MSA British
Touring Car Championship.
In 2005, Shaw from Warrington, won the Dunlop Race Academy, beating
8000 entrants in ‘motorsport’s X-Factor’. In his Ginetta Championship
prize drive at the end of 2005, he qualified an astonishing 6th on the
grid amongst 40 drivers in one of Europe’s biggest championships. In
2006, he has been a regular top-ten runner, with the highlight being
5th place at Donington.
Shaw stated: “The tight regulations of the Cup meaning the budget for
running this car is comparable to the low cost of the Ginetta series.
Running as part of the Encke Sport squad will help me develop my
skills, whilst the TV coverage of the Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup will help
me attract further sponsorship.”
The team has the capacity to run a second car in the series and is
talking to a number of drivers about running a second car, possibly
another Clio, which is expected to be a front runner in Class C of the
series.
“We are thrilled that Encke Sport has taken on this initiative. They
aim to run in both the Dunlop BTCC later this season and in the Dunlop
Sport Maxx Cup all year, and we are confident that other BTCC teams
will see the benefits of doing something similar in the low-cost
BARC/Dunlop Sport Maxx Cup” stated James Bailey of Dunlop.
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