Sep 15, 2008

Superleague Formula Holds First Race

It has finally happened. After five years in development, Superleague Formula has scored its first major goal, namely kicking off its championship series with a first race at Donington Park in the United Kingdom. If you haven’t heard of Superleague Formula, you can probably be excused, but in Europe the series has been getting a great deal of hype because it combines motor racing with the fan fervor that surrounds 17 major soccer clubs from across the world.

As you might expect, since it draws on soccer -- a team sport -- the racing is based around a team championship counting on the combined results of 750-horsepower open-cockpit racing cars bearing soccer team names. Thus, in the first race, Beijing Guoan soared to the top of the Superleague Formula, winning the event’s first race and placing sixth in the second event. British rivals Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur tied second place in the championship after the first round. The car from Sevilla FC took the victory in the second event on the program, a unique race in which the field was inverted based on the results of the first event.

“The race format for Superleague Formula is quite a radical idea and very different form the norm, but it worked extremely well,” Liverpool FC Racing Team boss David Hayle said. “Qualifying was very exciting for the spectators, and the races were really interesting and great to watch. At the end of the weekend, we had six different guys on the podium, and it was a very exciting weekend.”

Superleague Formula President and CEO Alex Andreu was also pleased with the championship’s kickoff but vowed to continue striving to make improvements to the new sporting spectacle.

“It certainly has taken a lot of work to finally get to our first race, and we are very proud of the event and the product we have created,” Andreu said. “I have to say a big thank you to our football clubs, race teams, investors, our broadcasters and everyone else involved in putting this together. We could all see the passion of football fans clearly showing through with the on-track rivalries between the teams. Corinthians are out for revenge against Flamengo after the first round, and Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool are already in a great fight in joint second place.”

The next round of the Superleague championship will flag off at the Nurburgring on September 20 and continue into the next day.