FIRST SOUTH AMERICAN FOOTBALL CLUB JOINS SUPERLEAGUE FORMULA
Superleague Formula has signed its first non-European football
club: the legendary Brazilian football team Flamengo joining
the championship.
Flamengo joins AC Milan, FC Porto, PSV Eindhoven, Olympiacos,
Borussia Dortmund and Anderlecht in the new series that will
feature 750 horsepower V-12 powered single seaters displaying
the colours of the world's leading football clubs.
Founded in 1895, Flamengo is one of the world's most popular
football clubs with an estimated 33 million supporters. Based
in Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo actually began its life as a rowing
club – hence the official name of Clube de Regatas do
Flamengo.
The team is one of the four clubs never to be relegated from
the Brazilian First division. Its championship successes include
29 Rio de Janeiro State Championships and five Brazilian national
titles. 1981 was a special highlight in Flamengo’s history
for winning both the South American Championship and the World
Club Championship – beating Liverpool in Tokyo.
Along with football, motorsport will join rowing, artistic
gymnastics, athletics, basketball, judo, swimming, volleyball
and water polo as the official sports of the club. In fact,
Flamengo has also won South American championships in volleyball
and basketball and actually scored the women's basketball
World Championship in 1966.
"We are very proud to be part of this wonderful venture
and to have the opportunity of taking our brand and our excellence
in various sports to a new competitive category – motorsports
- where we will surely follow our tradition to fight for the
title," said club President, Márcio Braga
For Superleague Formula's debut season, six championship
rounds will be staged with each race weekend featuring two
races – one with a complete reverse grid.
The championship's cars are being built by Panoz/Elan Motorsports
in the US. The 750-horsepower V-12 engines are being developed
by MCT in the UK.
Launched in April this year, the Superleague Formula will
feature more than 20 of the world football's leading rivals
doing battle on top class race tracks through Europe. The
addition of the Brazilian club follows from the recent signing
of Germany club Borussia Dortmund and Belgium's RSC Anderlecht.
"We want to see the world's finest football clubs doing
battle in Superleague Formula and the addition of Flamengo
is a great step in cementing our championship as a major international
competition," said Superleague Formula President and
CEO, Alex Andreu.
"The club has an enormous fan base throughout South
America and although the championship will only be staged
in Europe during our debut year, I am sure the club's fans
are going to be very keen to see their car in action on television.
"Flamengo's fans are very passionate about their team
and we're really looking forward to unveiling their car at
their home ground, the Estádio do Maracanã some
time in the future.
"Once we have some more cars available, we'll definitely
be taking Flamengo's colours to the people – we saw
from the reaction at Borussia Dortmund's fan day that football
supporters are really looking forward to Superleague Formula."
Flamengo's list of Brazilian football legends include Leônidas,
Zizinho, Zagallo, Júnior, Adílio, Zico and Romário.
Superleague Formula Operations Director Robin Webb believes
the passion of Brazilian fans will ensure the Flamengo car
to be a favourite.
"We know the European fans are crazy about their football,
but the South American fans take that to a higher level,"
said Operations Director, Robin Webb.
"When you look at the sporting history of Brazil in
both football and motor racing, it is no surprise that the
addition of a major club like Flamengo is a major milestone
for our championship."
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