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[Sports Cars] Sports Car Challenge 2006 |
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Monday, 08 May 2006 |
SPORTS CAR CHALLENGE 2006
The cancellation of the initially scheduled opening round at Brno in April turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Sports Car Challenge as the competitors were spared the freezing temperatures and torrential downpour that were the Czech circuit racing season opener. Now sunny Italy will provide the backdrop for races 1 and 2 of this year’s series, in Varano de Melegari near Parma on May 13/14. It will be the sportscars’ first visit there since 2002; that year’s double winner, Markus Altenstrasser, has since moved on to truck racing, and the 2006 SCC once again presents itself as a mix of seasoned campaigners and promising new additions to the series.
Division 1 for cars over 2.5l will see the continuation of last year’s battle between Tony Sinclair and Wolfgang Payr. While the Briton again brings the Nissan-powered Jade 2 that carried him to the class title in 2005, Austrian (with French license) Payr now has a new PRC BB05 with a Cosworth V8 powerplant at his disposal. All this power comes at a price, namely that of the higher 900kg minimum weight for over-3500cc cars. Also in this bracket is Gerd Beisel’s ex-Daytona Norma M2000 with 4 liter V8 engine by BMW – not the only Norma on the entry list. Mike Roberts’ new Juno-Nissan has already seen action in the Britsports series this year, the Italian race will be its SCC debut. Swiss lady racer Sabrina Hungerbühler will return to the SCC with an Osella campaigned by Krisam Motorsport, while Czech team Pfeifer Motorsport has an Italian-built Picchio LMP2 ready for Michal Pavlik.
Chassis by Pedrazza Racing Cars (PRC) are still the weapons of choice for most Division 2 competitors, but changes are happening under the engine covers. Pius Truffer/CH and Peter Kormann/GER now rely on the new BMW 2.5l engine that won the Div.2 and overall title last year; also, the new Honda 2l CN units are becoming more popular. Mobi Sport of Germany is hedging its bets, and has Thomas Wolfert’s MRP chassis equiped with a BMW, with stable mate Georg Hallau driving a MRP-Honda. Also with Honda power, the Norma M20 has seen much success since its debut, now the first such car will go head to head with the PRCs in the Sports Car Challenge, driven by Germany’s Gerhard Münch. Switzerland’s Herbert Hunziger has the sole Radical in the field, an SR3 model. Getting ready for a piece of all this action is a new team, Austria’s Hoffmann Racing which has a solid reputation for building frontrunning Formula 3 and touring cars and is making its first foray into sportscar competition.
The 2006 Sports Car Challenge will get underway on May 13/14 at the Autodromo Ricardo Paletti in Varano, Italy.
The Sports Car Challenge is a road racing championship for sports prototype and single seater racecars that takes place on 8 weekends on tracks in Germany, Italy, France, and the Czech Republic. Now in its eleventh season, it features cars with up to 600bhp similar to those seen at Le Mans.
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