Veloqx Prodrive Racing Ferrari teams join forces. 

A new name will soon be seen on the entry lists of international sportscar events in both the US and Europe. 

Veloqx Prodrive Racing is the result of a collaboration between two highly successful names in sportscar racing in order to produce the best team in GTS, using the best car, driven by the strongest driver line-up, and an over-riding will to win by all involved. 

Two Ferrari 550 Maranello GTS cars, owned by Care Racing Development - the sportscar racing division of Frédéric Dor's Care Group - will be campaigned by the team. 

In addition to the design, development and preparation of the cars, Prodrive will manage the operation of the project on behalf of Care Racing Development. Overall technical and strategic control will be the responsibility of George Howard-Chappell, who will assume the role of Team Principal of Veloqx Prodrive Racing. Prodrive's other racing programmes, including the possibility of entry in the remainder of the American Le Mans Series, will continue alongside the new programme. 

The operational contribution of Veloqx Motorsport, headed by lifelong racecar engineering enthusiast and property magnate, Sam Li, will be significant. The company has procured the services for this programme of three leading British drivers and will also be providing a number of highly experienced personnel to the team, including veteran endurance racing engineer, Eddie Hinckley. In addition to this programme, Veloqx Motorsport has announced its operation of the relaunch of Team Maranello Concessionaires which will be entering in this year's FIA GT Championship. 

The driver line-up for Veloqx Prodrive Racing will surely be one of the strongest in the field. Retaining their links with the Prodrive Ferrari 550 from 2002 will be Tomas Enge of the Czech Republic and Netherlander Peter Kox. They will be joined by Formula One's Anthony Davidson, currently BAR's test driver, former British GTO Champions Jamie Davies and Kelvin Burt and former DTM driver, Darren Turner. 

An attack on the two greatest sportscar races - the 12 hours of Sebring in March and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June - is planned by the new alliance. 

George Howard Chappell: "I'm obviously very pleased with the driver line- up we've got - a great mix of youth and experience, and all of them hungry for further success, especially in a Ferrari. The new boys will all have had an opportunity to test the car before Sebring and, once that has taken place, we will decide on who teams up with whom. 

"The link up with Veloqx, as well as the continued support of Frédéric and Care Racing, has given us the ideal opportunity to expand from the one car we had last season to being a two car team this season. Prodrive has been working hard over the winter months to develop the car further, concentrating particularly on durability and reliability, and it's been going really well. Now we can't wait to just get to Sebring and demonstrate the fruits of our labours." 

Sam Li: "This project partnership with Prodrive best signifies Veloqx's first participation and attempt at the two most prestigious sportscar endurance races. As we are a relatively young company in endurance racing, we knew that we shouldn't do this on our own. Among all the Sebring and Le Mans entries, we found that the Prodrive Ferrari 550 GTS project is the ideal platform for our first-time involvement. The car was very competitive at Sebring and Le Mans in 2002, Prodrive has a well-devised, ongoing development plan and a good team of people, which gives me great confidence for the programme. Winning is everything. It is not easy to mount a meaningful and successful campaign to take GTS class wins at Sebring and Le Mans, competing against a strong field of teams to the likes of General Motors, but I think we have the perfect partnership to take on that challenge with the launch of Veloqx Prodrive Racing." 

The 12 Hours race - the biggest endurance event in the USA - takes place on Saturday, 15th March. 

Prodrive Ferrari take to the tracks. 

The Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello GTS challenger this week took to the tracks for the first time in 2003 with Czech driver Tomas Enge at the wheel. 

An intensive testing programme has been organised prior to the first race of the season, the 12 Hours of Sebring, Florida, and it began on Monday, 3rd February with two days at the Lurcy Levis track in France and then two days at Misano in Italy. 

Team Principal George Howard-Chappell summed up what turned out to be a somewhat frustrating and character-building week: "We had a fairly heavy list of things to try including aerodynamic work at Lurcy and tyre testing and driver familiarisation laps at Misano. 

"The weather was against us from the start, being very windy, cold and wet in France. Sometimes you make big gains with aero work and sometimes you don't and this week leaned towards the latter. Having said that, we found a few things which actually made the car worse but that's a positive as it has taught us what to do next time. 

"We moved on to Misano and planned to do Michelin tyre testing yesterday and driver familiarisation today. An electronic gremlin delayed us for a couple of hours in the morning but we resolved that and were full steam into the tyre runs. 

"Unfortunately Tomas had a racing accident during the afternoon which damaged the chassis reasonably severely. With limited resources available to us at the track, we decided it was prudent to cut short the test and return to the factory for repairs. It wouldn't have been fair or sensible to give a driver his first laps without us being 100% sure of the set up of the car. We are going to reschedule the test as soon as possible and continue with our preparations for Sebring." 

Tomas Enge was disappointed and perplexed about the accident which took place on the exit of a slow, 2nd gear corner. "I don't really know how it happened. When we looked at the data afterwards, it showed that I wasn't pushing any harder than I had on any other run, and this was the sixth set of tyres we'd tested. They were brand new and unscrubbed but I don't want to put any blame on the tyres. It was just one of those things which happen sometimes - very disappointing, but part of racing."