More Than A Race

The 2007 Aerobatic World Champion, Ramon Alonso, is set to thrill SF race fans by performing aerobatic displays three times over each Superleague Formula weekend – once on Saturday and twice on raceday.

Alonso is just a part of the full programme of fan activities (organised around a Central Stage area) on SF race weekends, aimed at providing a large range of family entertainment, including DJs, break-dancers, freestyle football displays, face-painters and prize-giving.

Fans will also be able to take the opportunity to have their photograph taken with team show cars, and to meet the drivers for autograph sessions, too.

Additional entertainment will include a Motorcycle Stunt-Show (featuring World Champion Streetbike Freestylers Chris Pfeiffer), Paramotors (six pilots performing beautifully coordinated flights aboard SF-branded paragliders, using pyrotechnic effects),

There will be a ‘Football Zone’ with giant human football table, penalty shoot-outs, radar shoot outs, XXL table football unit, a Karting Zone (with brand new 200cc karts) and special interactives that help to improve reaction, hand-eye coordination and stamina – just like SF drivers.

“Our plan from the start was to establish Superleague Formula as more than just a motor race – we want to provide an extensive array of entertainment options for the entire family,” says SF boss, Alex Andreu. “We think we have a great line up of entertainment – both on the ground and in the skies above.

“Superleague Formula will bring a host of new fans to the track who have never been to a motorsport event before and our goal is to be able to provide them with an excellent experience.”

Race teams take delivery of Superleague Formula cars

Elan Motorsports Technologies have released the first batch of Superleague Formula chassis to the championship’s race teams with German squad GU Racing the first to collect their new machine.

While the chassis and components are constructed at Elan’s base in Atlanta, Georgia in the USA, the final assembly is taking place at the headquarters of Norfolk headquarters for renowned Formula Ford constructor, Van Diemen – also an Elan owned company.

The first ten chassis are now ready for collection – each team able to collect their first car.

Development of the Superleague Formula prototype chassis has been undertaken by reigning British Formula 3 Champions, Hitech Racing.

With test sessions at Donington Park, Monteblanco, Estoril and Magny-Cours – the definitive spec of the car has now been finalised.

Test driver Bruce Jouanny recently completed several race distance runs witht the final spec, 750 horsepower, V12 Menard Competition Technologies engine at Magny-Cours.

A final three day test will take place at Estoril in Portugal from June 2-4. The ten Superleague Formula race teams will gather together for the first time on July 9-10-11 at Monteblanco.

Each of the ten race teams will run two football clubs each. GU Racing will split their efforts between FC Basel and Olympiacos – the respective championship winners in Switzerland and Greece.

“Our team is very excited to collect our first car – we are really looking forward to running the cars for the first time in July,” GU Racing owner Gunther Unterreitmeier said.

“I am really impressed with the car. The attention to detail and the fit and finish of the Panoz chassis is quite outstanding.

“Having seen the prototype run, I am really excited about getting our cars on track in the colours of FC Basel and Olympiacos – the V12 makes an incredible sound and it will be brilliant to see 20 of these cars on track.”

The complete line up of Superleague Formula race teams will be announced next Friday at the Nurburgring in the lead up the Nurburgring 24 Hour.

The German venue will host round two of the inaugural season of the Superleague Formula championship.

The complete championship calendar will include Donington Park (UK), August 30/31, Nurburgring (GER), September 20/21; Zolder (BEL), October 4/5; Estoril (POR), October 18/19; Vallelunga (ITA), November 1/2; and Jerez (Spain), November 22/23.

Each round of the championship features two, 50-minute races – each with a pit stop.

The unique part of the series is that at half time (after race one), the teams change sides – race two will feature a complete reverse grid.

The football clubs and race teams are not just fighting it out for the prestigious silverware – 1 million euro prize money is up for grabs at every race weekend.

Thirteen football clubs have been announced for the championship with the final seven entrants set to be revealed in the lead up to the July Monteblanco test.

The lineup includes AC Milan (Italy), Olympiacos (Greece), FC Porto (Portugal), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), RSC Anderlecht (Belgium), FC Basel (Switzerland), Flamengo (Brazil), Galatasaray (Turkey), Corinthians (Brazil), Sevilla (Spain), Rangers (Scotland) and Al Ain (United Arab Emirates).

The additional entrants will represent clubs from England, Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Asia.

Home Advantage for Bruce

Superleague Formula test driver Bruce Jouanny completed several race distance runs in testing last week at Magny-Cours, home of the French Grand Prix.

The Hitech Motorsport-run prototype was also equipped with the latest specification Menard V12 engine – now with the full 750 horsepower available.

“We completed three full race distance tests and I can certainly warn the race drivers they will face very physically demanding weekends,” Jouanny said. “The car is now fantastic to drive, but with the horsepower and grip available – it certainly is very physical.

“The excellent thing is the fact that the car is very consistent over a race distance. The balance between starting with full tanks and fresh tyres – through to old tyres and low fuel remains very similar.

“At the end of the run the, the car remains very strong and is probably a little bit faster on low fuel.”

The final round of prototype testing will take place at Estoril in Portugal from June 2-4.

SF Sneak Preview Coming Soon

Race and football fans will get a sneak preview of ‘the beautiful race’ at Donington Park next month when Superleague Formula test driver Bruce Jouanny (above) will complete demonstration laps during round three of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship.

The BTCC round will be staged on Donington’s National circuit on May 3-4, and we will then return to the historic Midlands circuit proper for the opening round of the championship on August 30-31, 2008.

While testing and development of the SF prototype kicked off at Donington Park last month (see below) with Bruce Jouanny behind the wheel of the Hitech Motorsport -prepared car.

“I am really looking forward to getting back to Donington with the Superleague Formula car,” Jouanny said. “When we first ran the engine was only on its initial spec, the Menard guys have really turned things up and now we have 700 horsepower available.

“It is going to seem like a completely different track – the straights are going to go by a lot quicker.

“It will be a great weekend and I am sure the fans are going to love the sound of this car. The BTCC weekends are always brilliant and we hope give their fans a bit of a bonus show. It will also give everybody an idea of what to expect when the series returns in August – 20 of these cars on track at once is going to be incredible.”

Everything You Need to Know…

So, now it’s official. Ranger’s blue, white and red colours will adorn the 750 horsepower, V-12 powered Superleague Formula single seater in the new championship, which kicks off at Donington Park in August.

For those of you who are new to the concept, we unveiled Superleague Formula to the world last April and, nearly 12 months later, we know for sure that there are thousands of fans out there wanting to see a thrilling championship with their club taking part.

We’re always posting news here to keep everyone up-to-date with our progress (such as which clubs have signed up, car / engine development, and so on) and – overall – documenting the birth and growth of this new, exciting sport .

We’re building Superleague Formula with the fans’ support and the plan is to introduce the ‘Gers fans to their newest ‘signing’ when we unveil the car at Ibrox next month.

In the meantime, however, here are some facts about ‘the beautiful race’ that you need to know…

Funding: Participating football clubs pay nothing to take part in Superleague Formula. In fact, clubs will actually receive a share of total revenues (plus approximately half of the car sponsorship), creating several millions of dollars every year in extra revenue.

Nationalities: Race teams and drivers will be from the club’s country, wherever possible, although not all countries have fantastic race teams or drivers available to them. It’s the same with football players, after all – not all of the AC Milan team are Italian, for example.

Drivers: We’ve carried out a lot of research across five countries, with the fans of 10 well-known football clubs. Rather than rely on ‘old names’, there was 100% agreement that we need to have the next generation of young, talented drivers – the new kids on the block and future champions.

Category: Although Superleague Formula will sit somewhere between F1 and GP2, we don’t really want to compete against other motor sports. By getting the support of football fans, we really want to be a standalone event rather than ‘just another single-seater series’.

Circuits: In Year One, we will be racing at six circuits in Europe. The calendar will grow in Year Two to nine races (with probably one or two in Asia or South America), and will continue to build each year as the sport grows…

Why race? Having talked to lots of football clubs along the way, one thing has become very clear: they all genuinely want to give more back to their fans – to offer something new to get excited about and to get involved with – and Superleague Formula gives them an innovative way to do this, without impacting on their football activities.

Most of all, whereas football sees two clubs competing against each other, SF will see 20 of the world’s biggest clubs and rivals battling it out. Nothing like it has ever been seen before…

Corinithians Race Team Announced

Brazilian Superleague Formula football club Corinthians has joined forces with the experienced transatlantic race team Eurointernational. Having unveiled their black and white-liveried Superleague Formula entry in Sao Paulo last month, Corinthians have now finalised a deal with Eurointernational team boss, Antonio Ferrari, who actually had his sights set on a football career when he was a young man.

“I have always been a huge football fan and played at a semi-professional level in the fourth division in Italy when I was 18,” says Ferrari. “Unfortunately, I got badly injured when I got kicked in the head and spent six months in hospital – that was the end of my football career. After that I headed to university to study mechanical engineering and that led to motor racing.

“I have always been a big Juventus fan, but now obviously I am a big Corinthians fan as well. When I was at the launch in Brazil at Corinthians I could feel the fans have the same level of passion as they do in Italy. I feel a great sense of responsibility to the fans because they want to succeed, and of course Ayrton Senna was a big Corinthians fan.”

On a motor racing note, meanwhile, Ferrari is keen to focus on Superleague Formula’s race car: “Looking at the technical specifications of the car and the format for the weekend, this is very much a championship for drivers,” he says.

“You are going to need very professional and capable pilots. It is a very challenging car to drive and having a reverse grid will certainly provide a lot of excitement. It is also important to have very high quality race teams because the Superleague Formula machine is a very serious race car.

“At Eurointernational, we have been building up for this championship since November last year and we are greatly looking forward to it.”

Spice Up Your Life

Two of the Galatasaray’s potential drivers, Italian Alessandro Pier Guidi and local Turkish star Jason Tahinci took the opportunity to meet some of the local fans at the famous Istanbul spice market, at the weekend.

“I’m proud to be part of Superleague Formula and obviously I’m a fan of Galatasaray so it kind of works out for me really well,” said Tahinci. “When these kind of names like the football clubs are in the business it’s difficult to reject, so when I looked at the portfolio, the possibilities and the prospect, it was definitely a ‘yes’ for me.

“These cars are well built and being quick, they will show some great races and I’m sure having good drivers and good cars on the circuit will provide great entertainment. That’s what the crowd want and what you want to see on TV. That’s what will bring a lot of interest to this championship.”

Tahinci competed in GP2 throughout 2007 while Pier Guidi was part of Scuderia Playteam’s assault on the FIA GT championship aboard a Maserati MC-12: “I am really looking forward to the chance to drive the car. Looking at the technical specifications, it is going to be very challenging,” Pier Guidi said.

“The opportunity of competing in Superleague Formula with Scuderia Playteam is exciting for me because these guys are really like family for me.

“I am actually an AC Milan fan, but now I’m wearing the Galatasaray colours, I will be doing my best to beat that car and when the two clubs play each other in European football, I will have to start cheering for Galatasaray.”

Cimbombom

With the sun shining yesterday, Sarah and the team began the day with a great photo session – the Galatasaray Superleague Formula car centre stage, surrounded by a group of fans, chanting, singing and cheering. It was also the first time down on the pitch for many of them, which just added to the excitement.

Before the match, we drove the Galatasaray car around the perimeter of the pitch for the fans to see – which went down well, as you can see. The atmosphere in the stadium was electric and it continued throughout the game, as Galatasaray went on to beat Kayserispor 2-0. A great result all round!!

We also took the opportunity to announce a car design competition for Galatasaray fans to make their unique mark on Superleague Formula. More details can be found on the club’s website www.galatasaray.org (for the Turkish speakers among us!).

All in all, the team had a fantastic time in Istanbul and they’d like to thank everyone at the club for all their hard work which made their Superleague Formula launch such a success.

We’ll be posting some film from the launch over the next few days, but you can see all the photos from our Galatasaray launch here.

Playteam Take Pole for Galatasaray

Galatasaray’s race team, Playteam, is leaving no stone unturned in preparation for a successful first season, having graduated to Superleague Formula from major international and domestic GT championships around the world.

Having hired ex-Minardi and Toro Rosso Formula 1 technical chief Gabriele Tredozi as its new Technical Director, Playteam are looking to challenge for immediate honours. “Playteam are certainly putting in a very significant effort to ensure they can challenge for the front of the pack,” says SF’s Alex Andreu.

Team owner and founder, Giambattista Giannoccaro (above) made his team’s objectives clear at yesterday’s launch: “We are working on producing a high level racing and entertainment package for spectators around the world.

“I’m sure the Galatasaray SK fans will follow the launch of our [Superleague Formula] team closely, and hopefully cheer for us this week during the car’s unveiling at the club’s home ground, and later in the year when the season gets underway.”

Galatasaray’s Newest Signing

The Galatasaray launch this morning also saw the unveiling of the club’s newest signing – Italian race team, Scuderia Playteam SaraFree – who will represent the Turkish club when Superleague Formula kicks off in August.

Playteam (who were announced as Galatasaray’s race team last month) also brought along some potential drivers who recently took part in an evaluation testing session aboard Formula 3000 cars in Italy including former Italian GT championship winner and Playteam regular, Italian, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Turkish local hero, GP2 racer Jason Tahincioglu (above and below).

“We are delighted to have Playteam as part of the Galatasaray family and thrilled at the great selection of racing talent that the team has been testing of late,” says club President Mr. Ozhan Canaydin.

“We welcome the potential drivers to Istanbul and wish them the best of luck – we are looking forward to one of them earning the honour of driving the Galatasaray car in our first race in Superleague Formula.

“We are confident that Galatasaray will be well and truly prepared for this great challenge.”