STARTER'S
ORDERS:(L to R) Britcar founder James Tucker, race driver Rob Hedley and IFR
founder Ignacio Fernández, pictured with IFR Aspid at the Autosport
International racing car show.
The new IFR
Aspid sports car created by a Welsh educated engineer has received approval to
compete in the Britcar endurance racing car series.
The £69,500 ex-works high performance road car,
which already meets FIA security specifications, was sanctioned for the
championship at a meeting between IFR founder Ignacio Fernández, who studied at
Swansea Metropolitan University, and Britcar founder James Tucker held at the
Autosport International racing car show.
"I'm delighted that teams will now have the
opportunity to race the Aspid in this championship series," says
Fernández. "The car was designed from the outset to meet FIA as well as
EU regulations, so is unique in being a genuine ready-to-race high performance
road car. No additional preparation is required to go racing, so teams
will find it extremely affordable."
Tucker added, "We welcome this all new player to the grid. We created our
endurance race car championship in 2002 with a new set of rules to attract a
wide diversity of entries and the Aspid brings an exciting new addition to the
series that will add to the racing and overtaking spectacle."
He confirmed that teams can enter the 270bhp naturally aspirated Aspid sport
model in keeping with the series' power-to-weight ratio regulation. Due
to the car's extreme lightweight design, the 400bhp supercharged supersport
model was considered at this stage to give too much of a performance advantage
for Britcar racing, but will be considered for a possible new class of higher
power-to-weight ratio race cars in the future. Racing car driver, Rob Hedley, has already
expressed an interest in putting together the first team to race the new car
and is lining up potential sponsors.
"I knew I wanted to race it when I first heard
about the car," said Hedley. "The Aspid is a brilliant piece of
automotive engineering, developed from first principles, and should prove
highly competitive. It's also immensely strong and offers a robust,
reliable and cost-effective racing opportunity."
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