Porsche announce UK Motorsport Plans for Porsche Cup and British GT Championship
Porsche Cars Great Britain has announced that it will be returning to competitive motorsport with a full time programme in 2001.
The motorsport programme will be divided into three major areas. The first will be the entry of a GT3 Cup car into the Porsche Pirelli Cup. Details of the driver and team chosen for this project will be confirmed at a later date, but this is still further good news for the championship. Since the introduction of GT3 Supercup cars into the UK series was announced, more than 10 new cars have already been confirmed for the coming season, when the championship will feature as a permanent part of PowerTour.
The second tier of competition provides a focus in the British GT championship. Two Porsche GT3 RS cars will be entered into the GTO category of the championship; one car will have two professional drivers on board, whilst the second will see the commencement of a Porsche Junior GT Programme, the first of its kind in the UK.
The two young drivers that have been selected by Porsche Cars Great Britain for its inaugural programme are Richard Lyons and Marino Franchitti. Lyons (21) was runner up in Formula Palmer Audi last season and made his GT racing debut earlier this season. Franchitti (22) raced in the Slick 50 Formula Ford Championship this season. The drivers will share one of the new GT3 RS models next season.
The third part of the project will herald the creation of a Porsche Centre of Excellence, currently at the planning stage within PCGB, which will see the implementation of a dedicated department to ultimately provide technical support and race spares for all Porsche competitors in the UK. Currently Porsche race customers look to the race centre at Weissach in Germany for their back-up and technical support; such a facility in the UK will provide a service and an immediate response initiative for any Porsche customer involved in race competition.
The whole project is fully supported by Porsche Cars Great Britain's recently appointed Managing Director, Andy Goss, "Having spent the last few years concentrating on our financial fitness it is now timely for us to readjust our position in the sport and build on the strong heritage we hold. We want to give our customers, our dealerships and our fans the chance to become really involved once again, and we believe this programme fulfils that aim".
The motorsport programme is to form an integral part of Porsche Cars Great Britain's ongoing and future PR and marketing activities. PCGB currently hold a number of events and on-track activities during the year for their dealerships and customers; the motorsport programme introduces a further dimension into these activities. As PowerTour moves around the UK, it will provide the perfect opportunity to involve the Porsche dealerships and their customers in the programme. Interaction with the Porsche drivers and experiencing their racing skills from inside the cars will form a small part of PCGB's aims in bringing the excitement of the sport ack into the public domain.
The UK has traditionally lagged behind the USA in the involvement of the general public in racing, with rallying tending to attract a more wide based audience. Sadly, Motorsport has failed to attract the high level coverage offered to sports such as Cricket or Golf. The Powertour and the British Touring Car championship have started changing that over the last ten years, but there is still a long way to go. As well as involving more of the public in Motorsport, Porsche are also fully aligned with the goal of promoting young talented drivers.
Porsche Cars Great Britain's Motorsport Project Co-Ordinator, Lee Newton, believes the programme provides an alternative key to success. "We want to provide a platform here in the UK which gives young up-and-coming drivers the opportunity to realise their driving ambitions," says Newton.
The programme will give young drivers the opportunity to make their way into the top echelons of the sport via GT racing. This is a route that has been steered by the current Formula One World Champion, Michael Schumacher; and which is currently being successfully managed by Allan McNish, Le Mans winner with Porsche in 1998, and recently announced test driver for Toyota who enter Formula One in 2002.
Newton continues "PowerTour is an excellent shop window for us to display our aspirations for the future. Next year will be the beginning of a very important programme for us and we look forward to involving as many of our supporters as possible in some exciting competition. Although we are concentrating on the UK based series, we are aware of the international nature of GT racing and we will be actively pursuing opportunities within this area."
The re-introduction of a full time motorsport campaign for Porsche in the UK can only be seen as a shining endorsement of the Powertour programme and the advances made in the UK Motorsport platform in the last 2 years. Motorsport Online will be following both the British GT Championship and the Pirelli Porsche Cup next year as part of our Championships coverage.