AUGUST 11, 2008

Soccer cars aim to generate interest

Tottenham Hotspur has become the first English Premiership football club to join the Superleague Formula series, which is due to start later this month at the Donington Park. Tottenham will be the 15th club to decide to run a car in the new series. The aim of the series is to link two of the most popular sports in the world with soccer-branded cars. Eight of the cars were tested last week at Vallelunga with the little-known Alessandro Pier Guidi leading the times, representing Galatasaray in a car run by Scuderia Playteam. The second fastest was Davide Rigon representing Borussia Dortmund (in a car run by Zakspeed) and third was Enrico Toccacelo, in a Fisichella Motorsport car in AS Roma colours. The best known name in the field is Robert Doornbos, driving for AC Milan (Scuderia Playteam).

Six events are planned this year between August 31 and November 23.

The aim of the orgnaisers was to have 20 cars taking part. The chassis have been built by Panoz's Elan Motorsport Technologies and are powered by a V12 engine designed and built by Menard Competition Technologies at Leafield.