Full Throttle

The eagerly-anticipated 2009 ‘Superleague Formula by Sonangol’ race series revved up for this weekend’s opening round at Magny-Cours in France with a dazzling display of power and passion on the city streets of near-by Nevers.

Earlier this evening thousands of fans packed the downtown pavements to watch a dramatic demonstration as three V12-engined Superleague Formula race cars roared up and down the Avenue General de Gaulle.

To the obvious delight of the locals, one of the cars wowing the enthusiastic crowds was the new Olympique Lyonnais entry driven by Nelson Panciatici. The all French rookie team was joined by similar 750bhp race cars representing two of Europe’s other top football clubs: Liverpool FC and PSV Eindhoven driven by Adrian Valles and Dominique Muermans.

The street show was followed by a public autograph session in Place Carnot and then the Drivers’ Draw for qualifying groups at the Palais Ducal.

The draw placed Olympique Lyonnais, Sporting Clube de Portugal, Al-Ain FC, Flamengo, Anderlecht, Atlético de Madrid, Tottenham Hotspurs, Liverpool FC, AS Roma in Group A for tomorrow’s first qualifying session; the remaining eight clubs (AC Milan, Galatasaray , PSV Eindhoven , Olympiacos, Basel , Corinthians, FC Porto, Glasgow Rangers, FC Midtjylland) into Group B.

The fastest four cars from each group will qualify for the final shoot-out for the top eight starting positions on the grid for the opening race of this year’s Superleague Formula by Sanangol on Sunday morning.

SF 2009 Championship entry list

CAR No - RACING TEAM - MANAGED BY - DRIVER
2 Sporting Clube de Portugal Zakspeed Pedro Petiz
3 AC Milan Azerti Giorgio Pantano
4 Galatasaray Ultimate DuncanTappy
5 PSV Azerti Dominick Muermans
6 Al-Ain FC Ultimate Miquel Molina
7 Flamengo Delta / ADR Enrique Bernoldi
8 Anderlecht Zakspeed Yelmer Buurman
9 Olympiacos GU Racing Davide Rigon
10 FC Basel GU Racing Max Wissel
14 Corinthians Alan Docking Racing Antonio Pizzonia
15 Atlético Madrid Alan Docking Racing Ho-Pin Tung
16 FC Porto Hitech Tristan Gommendy
17 Glasgow Rangers Alan Docking Racing John Martin
19 Tottenham Hotspur Alan Docking Racing Craig Dolby
21 Liverpool FC Hitech Adrián Vallés
22 AS Roma Azerti Jonathan Kennard
24 FC Midtylland Hitech Kasper Andersen
69 Olympique Lyonnais Epsilon Nelson Panciatici